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| - I visited Sichuan Gourmet with a friend for lunch last Sun. at 1pm. Having heard that the food there is quite authentic, and given that my friend is Chinese, I suggested that we check it out. After a bit of confusion regarding the location (she initially thought I meant the one on Atwood in Oakland, rather than the one on Murray in Squirrel Hill), we met there and were seated.
Having perused previous reviews, I knew that the best dishes here were on the authentic menu, so I decided to order one of them. Although I'd originally planned to order a spicy Sichuan dish despite some trepidation concerning the spice level (I enjoy some heat but not a huge amount), I decided to order the duck noodle soup ($10). In a similar vein, my friend ordered the beef ho fun noodle ($10). The noodle soup consisted of a bowl of duck flavored soup containing pieces of bone-in duck (noted on the menu), cabbage, and udon noodles. Despite its thinness, the soup was quite flavorful, and the duck and cabbage were well-cooked--not under- or overdone. I only encountered a few pieces of bone in the meat, which I was easily able to avoid. Because I'm not a beef eater, I didn't sample my friend's ho fun, but it looked similar to a Singaporean dish known as char kway teow which is usually made with pork. Although she expected it to be spicy (it wasn't), she enjoyed it and finished the entire serving.
Service was rather slow and inattentive. Fortunately, this wasn't an issue for us as we didn't have any pressing time constraints, but keep this in mind if you choose to eat in. The decor was more upscale than that of a typical Chinese restaurant, and the prices reflected this. During our visit, no lunch specials were offered, and most of the prices were somewhat higher than I prefer to pay for lunch (our dishes were among the least expensive on the menu.) Despite these shortcomings, we enjoyed our lunch, and I'd be willing to return--though next time, I'd probably go for dinner instead, as I believe the prices are the same. 3.5 stars.
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