Helena D.
Yelp
I always love a good Sichuan place that's walking distance from where I live so I can pretend I'm getting some exercise while going down to retrieve my 5 servings of food for 2 people. This place is legit- bold, deep, complex flavors from a mixture of sauces that define Sichuan cuisine. While it's mainly known for its mala (or numbing spicy) flavor, some places will make their food one-dimensional whew the mala is the only flavor you can taste and there's nothing else of substance. But not here. Here, the flavors are layered and complex. Well most dishes we ordered the first time were, but some dishes from the second time were not hence the 4 star review (first time was 5 stars, second time 3, so it averaged out to a 4).
THE GOOD:
-Their Dan Dan noodles are delicious. Seasoned soy sauce, vinegar, chili oil, sesame sauce provides the base that coats the springy noodles. This was definitely a 10/10 and our favorite dish out of everything we got.
-Eggplant with century egg- amazing. Idk why it's called bell pepper and eggplant when there's clearly no bell pepper but whatever, it tastes good and has century eggs and that's all that matters. Again, a complex and multi-flavored sauce is what makes this dish so addictive.
-kou shui ji, or mouth watering chicken. Delicious again. Looks plain and red AF, but once again the sauce is the star! Lots of sesame paste, with seasoned soy sauce and chili oil. It's umami, "Xiang" or fragrant, sweet, salty, spicy, I can go on. Don't sleep on this and yes it's supposed to be eaten cold.
-Suan ni bai rou: good, but not the best. It's thin pork belly with garlic and seasoned soy sauce and chili oil. They wrap theirs in the slices of shaved cucumber which was fine but portions are small for the price. Still tasted good though. I prefer to just make mine at home for a fraction of the cost.
-Beef pancake rolls: Very good, though not the best I've had. The green onion pancake was nice and crunchy and flaky, and the insides were all fine with hoisin sauce and shredded green onions but the beef was a tad bit drier than I would have liked. Hubby praised it though, probably because he's never had better ones from Boston's Chinatown. No biggie though, I'd buy it from this place again.
-Stewed pork belly chunks in fu lu, or red fermented bean sauce: I mean it's stewed pork belly, what's not to love?
THE MEH:
-Yv xiang qie zi, or garlic eggplant: usually this is a very safe, basic dish with hints of garlicky sweet and spicy in the sauce but it fell short and didn't penetrate the eggplant. I mean it was fine, not bad, but not memorable either. I forgot we got it.
THE BAD:
-Mapo tofu. This breaks my heart bc mapo tofu is one of the most basic and staple dishes of Sichuan cuisine and any good restaurant should make it very well, but it was just BAD here. The sauce was 1D, very overpowered with the mala flavor. Literally all we could taste was numb and spicy, and NOTHING else. Not the meatiness from the front pork, nor the umami from other sauces, nor the layers from the dou ban jiang. I had to remake it and dilute it with more chicken broth and sugar to make it more palatable and even then I got spicy diarrhea. This was probably my least favorite dish, followed closely by:
-Fatty beef with enoki mushrooms: again no other flavors except the mala, and it was 75% broth. Price was slightly higher too for the small percentage of beef in here. We regretted getting these two dishes. I'm just going to stick to what we originally ordered our first time from now on.