Szechuan Chef Chinese Cuisine

The flavor and quality of each dish we had was genuinely top notch. Probably the best authentic style Chinese food I've had so far. We had the chef special fried rice, chili oil wantons, Dan Dan noodles, dried red pepper chicken and fish fillet in thickening hot chili oil. I've always wanted to try real Szechuan food so I could experience the Sichuan Peppercorn that numbs your mouth. I have to say, after all the hype, I really didnt like the experience of the overwhelming numbing and somewhat zingy/tangy/citrus flavor of the peppercorn. My wife and cousin didn't like it either. To be clear, I love to eat extremely strange and difficult foods that most people would never even try. The service was attentive and the food came very quickly, though the server spoke almost no English, so you won't be able to ask questions or make adjustments. Which is fine, but you just need to be ready for that. If the food didn't have the Sichuan Peppercorn in it (some dishes don't, like the chef special fried rice, which was amazing), it would be the best Chinese food I've ever had.

Truly authentic Chinese Szechuan food. The menu offers a wide variety of choices. The food is delicious and flavorful. The lady at the reception is quite formal but ensured the takeaway was ready on time. They close promptly at 9:00 PM, and the last dine-in order should be placed by around 8:15 PM. Definitely worth trying if you enjoy Chinese cuisine.

This is an underrated gem, especially when compared to the line waiting outside for the restaurant next door. While this place was full for the entire time we were there, we were seated immediately and there was a constant flow of people. Food was delicious, everyone was flavorful and well made. Our native Mainlander friend approved, so we felt confident in our choice. Don't skip the scallion pancake, eggplant in the clay pot, and chili oil wontons. They try to go high-tech with iPads and QR codes for the menus, but we weren't able to order digitally when we were there and had to call over a human.

I’ve ordered take-out from here twice over the past two weeks, and both times the food has been made-to-order fairly quickly, and everything’s been really tasty! The hot & sour soup is really tasty—it’s not overly corn-starchy and has robust flavor. The eggplant w/ garlic sauce is good, too, as are the xiao long bao. The staff are also pretty inviting and nice. Three people can eat well for about $50. It’s definitely worth a try when you’re looking for good Chinese food.

Sizzling beef is great. Chives XLB are ok. Cucumbers were great. Most things here are very flavorful.

12-25-24 I came here on Christmas Day, 5pm. It was packed but the wait was only 15min, not bad. Ordered: 4/5 -Porky Intestine Lao Gan Ma Chili $19.99– very tasty but the intestine was a bit on the chewy side. -Eggplant w minced pk $14.99– yummy delicious and filled w tasty oil. -Szechsty braised pk $16.99– needed to be more braised, pork was a bit dried. -Rice $2 for each order. Service: 2/5 due to reasons below Liked: yummy food Disliked: -They took orders from customers who came after us of not one table but two other tables before coming to us. That is a big No No. -They forgot our 3rd dish until we asked about it (toward the end of our meal). Overall experience, although I gave 2 stars for service, I still would return for the yummy food. Note: No paper menu

One of best Chinese restaurants in town imo. I love their food even it is on the expansive side. Pork hock is something you just have to try to know how amazingly delicious it can taste. If you like spicy and savory dishes, I would recommend you order away in here.

I’ve never had a bad dish here. Sometimes a little more spicy if I don’t ask for mild, but man, the flavors are just incredible! Today I got risky and tried the pork trotters dish. I may not ever order anything different. It was so tasty and came out very quick. This is like having your best friends Grandma from China come cook for you, it tastes so authentic.

By far our favorite Chinese restaurant in San Diego. We have been coming here for more than 6 years. It's not the restaurant for those in their 20's and 30's but it is very popular with families. My husband was born and raised in China, it's authentic Chinese food. Great value, friendly staff, and nice and clean.

12-25-24 I came here on Christmas Day, 5pm. It was packed but the wait was only 15min, not bad. Ordered: 4/5 -Porky Intestine Lao Gan Ma Chili $19.99- very tasty but the intestine was a bit on the chewy side. -Eggplant w minced pk $14.99- yummy delicious and filled w tasty oil. -Szechsty braised pk $16.99- needed to be more braised, pork was a bit dried. -Rice $2 for each order. Service: 2/5 due to reasons below Liked: yummy food Disliked: -They took orders from customers who came after us of not one table but two other tables before coming to us. That is a big No No. -They forgot our 3rd dish until we asked about it (toward the end of our meal). Overall experience, although I gave 2 stars for service, I still would return for the yummy food. Note: No paper menu

I have been going here for a few years and it is hands down among the best asian food in san diego most especially if you like spicy food and the magic of Szechuan peppercorns. The diced chicken w red peppers is a dish i must have a few times a month. It's the best fried chicken dish ever. It's tiny pieces of diced up chicken that are coated w a Szechuan pepper batter and fried w lots of dried red peppers. It is amazing and is not something i could ever reproduce myself. You get the tingling sensation Szechuan peppercorns are famous for as well as incredible flavor. And while you may think it won't keep as leftovers the great surprise is that it stays crispy for hours! I eat it the rest of the day. The green beans are also a standout and while you may skip over the orange chicken thinking it will be like fast food trust me then i tell you it's delicious. I ask for a light touch with the sauce and hit it with some of their homemade chili sauce. Yum. The scallion pancake is a standout as are the wonton and hot and sour soups. If you are a lover of Szechuan go for the hot and spicy noodle soup. It will leave your lips tingling! Others in the family have enjoyed pork belly and the dumplings with pork, shrimp and chives. I was just here a few days ago as i could not think of a better place for my birthday dinner

Adding an update review - this time we ordered a pork and vegetable stew, soup, seasoned green peas and an eggplant dish. Service was also prompt and ambiance was also great.

All the food we ordered was obviously cooked long ago and reheated. Even the water tasted bad. One positive is that the restaurant was very clean. No dust anywhere, not even on all the fake plants. If only they put that same effort into the food.

Szechuan Chef is located on busy Convoy Street, the home of many Asian businesses and restaurants. The food here is very good, but the service can be spotty and is lacking any ambiance. We came early on a Thursday, a little after five. We had the pick of several parking spaces. A novelty, given how crowded Conroy can be around seven-thirty. The three of us found a seat inside and started reviewing their absolute massive Menu. It must have been over Forty pages long! I gave up taking photos after twenty-five pages LOL. See separate post. After having a snack at nearby IKEA, we ordered only two entrées and two appetizers. The Oolong tea was fresh and hot. We decided to share our food which came out Asian style. Meaning whatever the Chef decided to make, it came out first. We had, in order of plating... * Shredded Pork $16.99 京酱肉丝 * Chicken Fried Rice $12.99 鸡肉炒饭 * Dried Spicy Chicken $15.99 辣子鸡丁 * 2 White Rice $4.00 米饭 * Scallion pancake $5.99 葱油饼 * Gyoza Pork Potstickers $10.99 The portion sizes were huge and everything was great and very tasty. We had more than enough for leftovers the next day. We will definitely will be back.

Perfectly 3.5 stars- lol- IYKYK. There is no host when you walk in and not all staff speak English so please be patient. I didn't want to risk ordering to-go over the phone so I ordered on site, and pointed at menu photos to make sure I ordered the correct dishes. 1. Fish soup with pickled vegetables: delicious- survived piping hot for more than 20 min. It was carefully packaged separately in 2 separate quart containers with a third container for the delicate rice noodles. You don't want them soaking for too long, so this was very thoughtful of them. As good or better than any I have had. Wonderful slow burn that grows in heat as you eat. The broth is so warming and tangy delicious. I assume the fish was tilapia but don't quote me- very mild flavored and cooked perfectly. 2. Spicy Wood ear mushroom: the most powerful of the 3 dishes for flavor and heat intensity- be careful eating all those chilies! I could not get enough of the spicy garlicky seasoning and the mushrooms were perfectly tender. Must order for any mushroom lover. 3. Pea Sprouts- I know this is supposed to be a balancing dish and milder than the others, but it tasted like it had absolutely zero salt. I felt like I could've made this at home for 1/4 of the price. I was shocked that this dish was $17.99. Yes, there was a large amount of it, with a lot of garlic, but I couldn't really taste it in the sprouts. I ended up mixing the sprouts with the wood ear mushroom sauce which made it much more delicious. I wouldn't order this one again. I can't wait to come back here to try more dishes!

We were really craving Chinese food and this place hit the spot. I'd definitely go back to try their other dishes. We ordered the green beans, the honey walnut shrimp, and the chef's special chicken. The honey walnut shrimp was delicious. The shrimp was crispy and sweet and the walnuts were nice and crunchy. I also felt like they gave a lot more shrimp than I'd typically expect for the dish. The chicken was well seasoned. Had to sift through the bones to pick out the meat. But when I did, it was flavor packed. A bit spicy even after we had requested the dish to be less spicy but not so spicy that it hurt my stomach. The green beans were different from the garlic-y din tai fun style green beans I am used to but I enjoyed the spice it was seasoned with. Overall all the dishes felt clean, not too oily. And the portion sizes were large. I really enjoyed their food and would like to go back to try other items off of their huge menu.

Gotta keep these authentic Chinese restaurants at 3.5 stars on Yelp :') I'm a frequent flyer of Spicy City when it comes to Szechuan food in San Diego. This restaurant seems cleaner (maybe newer) but prices are comparable. They have a shared parking lot, but on a weekend night, it legit took 20 minutes to wait for an open spot. Beware! I was here with a party of 6 adults and 2 kids, so they gave us a round table in the back. The menu is so extensive, but so helpful that they have photos! The menu has both English and simplified Chinese. I came here because someone said orange chicken was good ......... It was not :') The chicken with lao gan ma sauce was much better. The "fish in thickening sauce" is like water boiled fish. Instead of bean sprouts, they had small pieces of cabbage. I enjoyed that dish. I'd order the sautéed pea shoots again. It's one of my fave veggie dishes. They charge like $2 per person for rice, but for our large party, they brought it out in a red tub. They take American Express!

Food is authentic and decent. But service can definitely be improved. The servers seem like they don't want to be here. Store owner: please check periodically to make sure that service is up to standards. We noted that business has declined in recent years, likely due to new competing restaurants nearby. Nevertheless, the lack of good service can be part of the story here.

Wonderfully great Szechuan food. I am big fan of spicy food and if you are then you cannot go wrong. I goto Shan Xi Magic Kitchen quite a bit and tried lots of Szechuan food, wanted to try this place and it was very good. I tried their pepper fried chicken cubes with rice, I loved it. Want to take opportunity to more dishes there.

I was recommended this spot by some of my friends and it's straight heat. Don't let the 3.5 stars fool you it's some of the most authentic Szechuan food you can get in Convoy. Service and ambiance is pretty standard of this type of restaurant. They'll take your order and leave you alone unless you wave them down. Interior decorations aren't super fancy. But if you're coming here the main thing you're worried about is the food. I've had a lot of the dishes but with how large the menu is it's hard to try it all. Some of my favorites are the mapo tofu and the spicy noodles in soup. Whenever I'm feeling szechuan this is my go to spot. Give it a try for sure.

Food was great and wasn't oily. There are also some good non-spicy options to choose from. I would recommend the steamed fish with tofu. Portion size is large. We got four dishes from two people and came back with many leftovers. One star minus because of the service. Their servers looked like they were having a bad day and were not friendly or even courteous. (The guy server was good and that is why I still left a decent tip. I read some reviews and low ratings seem to be mainly about poor service. So work on that. No one wanted to go to a restaurant if they don't feel welcomed even the food is good.

Always awesome service and great spicy food! Such nice servers!!! We love going there

I didn't know the name of this restaurant for the longest time because my co-workers always referred to it as Yummy Chicken. We went as a group for lunch and sat at the round table in the corner with the rotating lazy Susan and ordered a large spread for the 9 of us. We ordered two servings of the crispy chicken with chili sauce, cumin lamb, fried fish with sweet sauce, spicy fish in a pot with vegetables, mapo tofu, sautéed pea greens, vegetable fried rice and steamed rice. The chicken is by far my favorite followed by the pea greens and mapo tofu. The chicken is fried crisp, has a lovely breading and is tossed in jalapeños and chilis that are so hot that the lining of your stomach is removed from the heat. But it's like crack and you keep going back for more. The greens were bright and fresh, mapo tofu was tender and spicy. The fried fish was also delicious as was the fried rice. The dish that surprised me the most was the cumin lamb which was very tender and flavorful. I'll definitely continue to visit and refer to it as Yummy Chicjen.

Truly phenomenal Szechuan food! Easily one of my favorite restaurants on Convoy. My favorite dishes here are: 1) beef in thickening hot sauce - I crave this dish 2) scallion pancake 3) sizzling chicken 4) red pepper shell-less shrimp Come here with a group and order all of these dishes. Then go next door to Shan Xi and treat yourself to some noodles.

I've had many different dishes from this place and never been let down I highly recommend it I really like the won ton soup one of my favorites

Mongolian beef #21 I asked for only medium spicy. Large portion, comfortable environment although other conversations are heard. Service was fast but not too attentive, ask for water, a fork, extra napkin, soy sauce if needed. Good quality. Menu is large with pictures, honey walnut shrimp.

I enjoy coming here esp when I'm missing Chinese food and sometimes they can be dishes hard to find. The other day, I ordered a sour fish soup and the glass noodles and flavor hit the spot really well. There's a big variety of dishes in their menu which is really nice and keeps me coming for more every once in a while. I want to try their tofu dishes which look yummy. Their portion size is big and leaves leftovers for another meal. I do think it's just slightly pricey, but with few Chinese options, you take what you can get for good quality.

After searching for a restaurant on a Saturday night off of Convoy, we were happy there was not an hour wait and we got to sit down right away! The service was fast, maybe not in the right order of food being brought out, and food was good. Temperature was great and all tasted delicious. Great place for typical Chinese food!

So happy to finally find a spot on Convoy that didn't have the huge lines! This is definitely a hidden gem and the food was superb! Their menu is HUGE, so I may have to come back a few time lol Here's my food recommendations: - Beef roll - Glass noodles with seafood sauce - Crispy chicken with lao gan ma chili sauce - King mushroom stirfry Their king mushroom is so flavorful along with their crispy chicken. Reasonable portions. Overall a good value. The restaurant is clean and the staff is very courteous and prompt with service. This place is great to hang out with friends or big groups. Overall, we enjoyed our food and definitely will be back!

Really good service and a nice, clean restaurant. Authentic food; however, will deduct 2 stars for what I found to be a general skimping on the meat in most dishes we ordered. Eggplant with pork was 45% oil, 50% eggplant and maybe 5% pork. Trumpet mushroom with beef was same- maybe 5% beef in the dish. Ribs with pumpkin was also ~5% meat. Great soup dumplings.

This place is underrated. Everyone is always flocking to the restaurants next door, but I think the food here is much better. It's very authentic Szechuan food, and my picky partner who is from Beijing and loves spicy food also enjoys it. During today's visit, I especially enjoyed the salted egg yolk tofu (咸蛋黄豆腐). We hardly had to wait for our food to arrive. Service was friendly. Prices were reasonable. The menu has a huge selection so we'll be back to try something new.

The best Szechuan for those special occasions where you want to remember good food and a good time. A good time with family and friends.

Came here for Chinese New Year dinner; no reservation. They got us seated in less than 10 min and took good care of us. As soon as we walked in we were greeted with the scent of solid, authentic Chinese food. It pleasantly slaps your tastebuds as well as your nose and the mouth starts watering. The menu is huge and includes pictures in case you don't understand the characters. The prices are reasonable and fair. Portions are generous - more than enough leftovers. Enjoy the jasmine tea! Staff was friendly, patient, and helpful. The decor is nothing special, but there's plenty of tables, the place is clean, and they were on the spot with the check when we were ready to leave. The food tastes really good, filling, and enjoyable. I completely overate and still felt fine the next morning.

We love this restaurant! Authentic Chinese cuisine. Everyone in our group has enjoyed everything that we have tried. (And that is amazing!) The staff is friendly, the service is good, the food is great!

The Szechuan food here is among the best I've had, SF, NY, Beijing. Legit Szechuan food: spicy, numbing, salty, a bit oily, definitely not your standard issue Americanized Chinese food. Szechuan Chef is vegan friendly, with lots of options, from vegetables (green beans, Chinese broccoli, eggplant) tip tofu (mapo is my favorite, but the Sizzling Japanese tofu is also good). If you want authentic Szechuan food, ignore the complaints about the service. In my experience, the better the service, the less authentic the Asian food, be it Chinese, Viet, Korean. Just look and see who's dining in the restaurant: Szechuan Chef has 90% Chinese patrons speaking mandarin. They're not there for the service.

Oh man I'm sure people are deceptively rating to keep it at 3.5. I loved this place and the spicy red pepper chicken was on point in flavor and mouth numbing ness. So crispy! Wonderfully authentic. The portion sizes are large and our dish could easily feed three. Would love to come again and try more dishes.

Wow the parking lot was crazy busy for 5:30 pm, but the food was delicious! I was not expecting much as the ambiance lacked a little, but the food was surprisingly good. The menu is super confusing so you kind of have to pick by the pictures. Fun to go with a group so you can order a number of things. The service was prompt. Only complaint was the parking!

I had jalapeno pork here for lunch. Food tasted good, but the amount of oil on the bottom of the food was a bit much for me. And after being to many Szechuan food venues around San Diego, the amount of oil that came with the dish was top 3. And I measure this with how much and how long my stomach was feeling weird as in not digesting. And I ate dinner really late because that's how long it took for me to process the food content in my stomach. This doesn't always happen in other Szechuan food venues so yeah. But like I said the food tasted good so 4 star.

4.5 STARS wow this place is fantastic the menu has lots of pictures so it help selecting your items but chances are it's gonna be great no matter what you order. Clean and delicious. Of you are a fan of or looking for a Szechuan restaurant you might want to start here.

Authentic Chinese home-style restaurant! The atmosphere is nice and food is served quickly. My favorite dishes were the Mapo Tofu, Black bean fish, and King oyster mushroom. The HuiGuo Rou (twice-cooked pork) was the only dish that was mediocre as it did not taste as authentic as I would have liked, but not bad nonetheless. This spot is definitely a classic when my family wants to go out to eat Chinese food, and there is basically no wait unlike some other Chinese restaurants that are more expensive/smaller servings. Definitely recommend!

Hidden gem that has great quality Chinese food. The portions are family style, so it great to be able to share and try different dishes. The food is always on point when I come here. The restaurant is clean and we always get seated right away. They provided your favorite app ordering as well In case you want it delivered. Definitely recommend coming and eating here it is quiet and food is delicious!

This restaurant has a huge menu with lots of variety to choose from. We ordered Xiao lung bao dumplings , spicy deep fried fish cumin, beef kings mushroom, and the stir fried glass noodle in seafood sauce. The portions are generous and the food is full of flavor. My favorite dishes were the beef kings mushroom and the stir fried glass noodle in seafood sauce. The spicy fried fish was good too but it's spicy and the cumin is strong. The Xiao lung bao dumplings were ok as half of them were already popped so no burst of soup when u put them into your mouth for some of them. This is a great place to come with a large party so that you can try a variety of foods. I would definitely return to try more items on their menu in the future.

An underrated spot that has great food. My family loves the sizzling tofu dish. The noise levels are good and food comes out fast. The service is also solid. Definitely one of our favorite Asian food spots in SD.

I gave this place three star it's bc of the food, it taste good. The rest of this review is how bad the services is. Rude waitress, slow and not very welcoming as if you are interrupting their lives. The ambiance of this place is mostly order take out or pick up.

I've only ordered the chili oil beef stomach from here for to go, but it's so good that I usually crave it once every 2 weeks LOL. Their chili oil is very flavorful. When I take it home, I like to add more cilantro, cucumbers, and bean sprouts, and I like it with green onion pancake.

We were looking for Szechuan food. There are not a lot of options so we hoped that we would love this place. It wasn't bad, but we didn't love it. Service was ok. We did appreciate the hot tea that was brought out immediately. The menu had a lot of pictures and a wide variety of dishes. The bao appetizer was very good. Egg rolls were okay. I had a smoked half duck that was served cold. The waitress warned me that it was served cold, and I didn't love it. I took most of it home and thought it tasted better when I heated it up. My dining partner had the Sizzling Beef. It arrived sizzling, and he said it was good. Entrees do not come with rice so you have to order that on the side. We'll put this place in our rotation for dinner, but are also planning to try the place next door. Apparently a lot of people go into the wrong restaurant because these 2 Chinese restaurants are right next to each other and there is no signage on either door. You need to be out in the parking lot to see the signage on top of the building. There is a large parking lot, but it is busy with all the businesses that use the lot. We got there pretty early for dinner (around 5 pm) and got one of the last available parking spots.

Very authentic sichuanese food. We ordered frogs, beans. fish and plum juice. All of them are so good.

My wife and I stopped at Szechuan Chef based on the recommendation of a colleague...we're glad we did! Here is what we liked: - The food, the food, the food...wow, how good! We got the dry fried string beans, the fish fillet with tofu in garlic sauce, and the bao soup dumplings. All the dishes were excellent! We wanted to try so many other things too, but there were only two of us. - They served beer...yay! - Be ordered the bao first to get it in advance of our meal, but it ended up arriving after all the other food. - Service was ok. Bottom line: Great food, well worth the visit!

-1 star service 2 star price 3.3 star food So MUCH potential with the food, but NO Service -1 out of 5 What happens when you find a piece of metal in the sauce in your tofu dish? The young male server switched it out and apologized, so he's in the clear. The real deal breaker was the middle-aged woman who delivered the tofu dish with a piece of metal. Her reaction to the piece or metal: "So?" Additionally, she said we could have gotten a 10% discount if we paid cash instead if CC after I paid with CC so I asked for the CC charge to be voided because I have cash and the middle-aged female server said NO. Young man was MVP again when he voided the charge, he said it was "easy" to do. Price 2 out of 5 Four dishes came out of $60, which is on the higher end for Asian food on Convoy. Our prawns with vermicelli was $18.99 alone so that's how the bill went up but $13.99 for just tofu that had a piece of metal in the sauce? Onion pancake with beef was $8.99 and with almost no beef and dry. So we paid $8.99 for an onion pancake with the slightest amount of hoisin sauce--nothing else. Food: 3.3 out if 5 This is authentic and had so much potential 1. Prawns w/ vermicelli Salt galore on the vermicelli Prawns are not fresh and hence lacks seafood flavor 2. Beef onion pancake Almost no beef Absolutely no flavor due to lack of hoisin sauce Dry meat if any meat that is 3. Tofu on skillet but transferred on plate First time, we got a piece of metal Second time, they undercooked the tofu This should and could have easily been the MVP dish! It's made with Japanese tofu! 4. Classic veggies The only dish you tell them to go easy on the oil and salt and they drain it in oil and salt

Came here for a date night, looking for "hole-in-the-wall" Szechuan cuisine in the Asian influenced Convoy district. Food did not disappoint...menu had the widest selection of exotic eats you might not find anywhere else in San Diego. Makes me want to come back and try them all. Heavy portions for the price as well so expect to take home some leftovers. If you like spice, there's plenty here for you. Me on the other hand avoids all that so I stuck w/ Szechuan sliced chicken which was well made and sautéed w bell pepper & onions. My wife, who is vegan, had the fried red pepper tofu. Softer tofu inside but had a good crunch, seasoned well, topped w red pepper and green onion. We also split the dry-fried string beans, which might've been both of our favorites. Topped w Chinese five spice, it was a good side dish to share along w white rice. Will be back!

Favorite Chinese place in San Diego as someone that grew up in Taiwan!! Water Boiled Spicy Beef

I'm dumbfounded that this was only 3.5 stars. Incredible food. No dish left something to be desired.

I' ve been coming back to this place regularly and I'm happy t tell that the quality and flavor of the cuisine is still very good. Currently one of my favorite dishes is the spicy jalapeno pork but the noodles, fried rice are really good options too. If you have a sweet tooth go for the orange flavor dishes, yummy.

amazing food - very tasty. tastes more authentic than some other places. our favorite Szechuan restaurant! Love the eggplant and the peanut sauce noodles.

Very tasty and consistent. I often order the same food and it's always as good as the previous time! The service is good as well. They are friendly and are generous. The food is so addicting and one of the best Szechuan restaurants in my book!

Great for lunch if you are into spicy food! I love their mapo tofu, cold cucumber dish and spicy fish filet.

My family's favorite Chinese restaurant in San Diego! I cannot emphasize enough how worth it this place is. It's so fast and the portions are massive (family style) and the food is so so good. I haven't had anything from their large menu (and I've tried almost everything) that isn't good. They can seat large parties and usually aren't too busy. Complementary tea is served. They have the best scallion pancake in the city hands down! Some go-tos: ALL 10/10 taste and portion Fried white fish with sweet n sour sauce Orange chicken Honey walnut shrimp Pancake (scallion or plain) Fried green beans (to die for) Chive and pork Dumplings Xiao long bao