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| - I accidentally wandered into this building in the late summer when it was still under construction. I was excited for a new place to get Szechuan style cuisine--and supposedly, the owner of this restaurant was the head chef at China Star at some point, so I had high expectations. I came on a Tuesday evening with a couple friends and the restaurant had at least six full tables--all but one group being Chinese. A good sign for those of us who are foreigners and looking for an authentic meal!
We came with our friend who is Taiwanese, hoping that she would be able to tell us if the food was spot on or not. When we sat down, we were immediately given a plate of edamame to snack on, which was nice. My friend was delighted to see that they had Snow Pea Leaves on the menu, and though they are not in season right now, the dish was still available! So we got that, the Five Spice Beef, which is cold slices of beef shank, Three Pepper Chicken, and Double Cooked Smoky Pork Belly.
The five spice beef was great--the seasoning is Szechuan pepper, salt, and a few other spices I couldn't quite place. It came on the side and you had to sprinkle it on. It also came with a vinegary sauce that was very tasty. The snow pea leaves were insanely delicious--they were buttery, hearty, and possessed a mild brassica flavor. Probably now my favorite asian veggie dish! The pork belly was very tasty too; it came on a bed of sautéed leeks. However, this is the dish I would probably not order again because the pork belly was chewy and tough. Pork belly should not be chewy. The three pepper chicken was small pieces of fried chicken with bell pepper and some very hot red peppers. It was fantastic, though, there were way too many peppers and not as much chicken as we initially thought.
At the end of our meal they brought out a plate of sliced oranges! So great. Since no one even knows wtf fortune cookies are in China, it is super dumb when you get them at places that claim to be authentic. I also ordered a Taro milk tea at the end and that was also pretty good, but their tapioca pearls were kinda bad, all clumped up together and weird tasting.
Overall, I think that this restaurant has a lot of promise and much more variety than the Szechuan menus at How Lee and Sichuan Gourmet. BTW, this place is currently byob, so don't forget to get some good drinks if that's your thing. I wanted to give them five stars, since we had excellent service and the space is nice, but the food probably needs a little more tweaking until it is perfect! Congratulations on opening Chengdu Gourmet!
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