Phil N.
Yelp
I heard about Szechuan Brothers a few years ago since they are like a sister restaurant to one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in Portland, Duck House. I had gone once after the Covid Stay at Home Orders in 2020, but since they weren't offering in person dining I passed. I largely forgot about them until recently.
During this pandemic, one of the newest dishes I've discovered and have cooked at home a handful of times is called Mala Xiang Guo, or Dry Pot. For those of you who aren't familiar, MXG or dry pot has all the same flavors of the spicy sichuan hot pot...they take all of the same seasonings and stir fry all of the veggies and meats in it without adding the broth you are accustomed to with hot pot. I absolutely love eating this dish and cooking it, but the problem is...it's not just feasible to make at home for a single person or for 2 people. I generally make it for groups of 6-12. I've been searching for this dish throughout Portland for the past few years and have only seen it on one other menu and it wasn't the right dish. I was ecstatic when I looked up SB on Yelp and saw it in the menu and in the photo album.
I was driving south from Vancouver and already made it past PDX when I discovered this, and I immediately found the nearest exit ramp so that I could head back north and go to Szechuan Brothers immediately.
I knew I found the right place when immediately after entering the restaurant, I heard two soft coughs. These weren't the same coughs you get from being ill, or from Covid, but these are the same mild throat clearing coughs that you get from the slight burn from spicy asian food. This was clearly a sign that I made the right decision.
The dry pot came out in a beautiful burning cauldron to my table with all the fixins I expected it to. Along with your protein of choice (I ordered lamb), it came with cauliflower, bean sprouts, bean curd sheets, potatoes, lotus roots, bamboo shoots, and wood ear fungus. As expected I ordered the extra spicy.
All in all, I loved my meal and I loved the friendly and attentive service. The flavors were fantastic, but I wished there was a little more sauce to really emphasize the hot pot flavors. The extra spicy heat could have been more hot, but all in all I'll be a regular as long as they continue having mala xiang guo on the menu.