What is the hubub over China Chili?!?! Don't understand the high rating this restaurant is getting?!?
I had not been back to this area for 5+ years and wanted to stay near downtown Phoenix where my friend lives. I looked up high-rated Chinese restaurants in downtown Phoenix and China Chili, of course, came out on top. Well folks, you yelpers here are totally fooled!
First of all when you sit down, the menu gives the impression that this restaurant is a Szechaun or Hunan restaurant. It's NOT! The chefs at this restaurant are Cantonese serving Szechaun and Hunan dishes.
For starters, my friend and I ordered Sizzling Rice Soup. As entrees, we ordered Szechaun Shrimp and Braised Tofu with Beef. I had a hint of what was to come by listening to the waitresses... Surprise! They all were speaking in Cantonese!
The Sizzling Rice Soup was very good.
The Szechaun Shrimp turned out to be a Sweet and Sour dish... Shocking! There are almost NO dishes in Szechaun cooking that are Sweet and Sour! It looked nice though, the shrimp was ringed around the plate by thin slices of cucumber. The Braised Tofu with Beef was almost as bad, chemically tenderized beef that probably is used from another dish and dropped in the Braised Tofu. Both dishes were supposed to be HOT... NOT!
The only redeeming thing we got out of this adventure was that our wallets were not affected that much by the experience!
Demographics of Customers @ 6pm - less than 5% Oriental, 40% of capacity.
If you want an authentic Szechaun restaurant, travel down to Tempe to Wong's Place on Baseline Road off of I-60. I will be going there tomorrow night and writing a review which will be more positive than this one!