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| - I'd give Szechuan China 2.5 stars if that was an option. The place is decorated well: quiet, neutral colors, with tasteful accents in richer tones. It's clean and grown-up in atmosphere. But, the food was okay -- not that good, not that great. The dishes offer quality ingredients, but the preparation of the entrees is uninspired and the appetizers average, with no real pop in flavor.
We stopped in for lunch, since lunch specials offer a reasonable price at which to try a new restaurant. We were excited by reviews of authentic and spicy food focusing on the Szechuan region.
The lunch special menu was made up of only Chinese American standard dishes, which was a disappointment. I ordered the chicken with garlic sauce and fried rice. My partner ordered General Tso's with steamed rice. We also had meat dumplings and the Shanghai spring rolls. We didn't get the soup, since a single-serving appetizer portion of soup was $5. The pricing overall is uneven.
My entree, the chicken with garlic sauce, came with chicken, mushrooms, broccoli, and other vegetables. It had little to no garlic flavor, but a pleasant late lingering spice. The entree had far, far too much sauce, and of the slightly too sweet, gloppy variety (so much that I was a little disgusted by it). My partner's General Tso's chicken was crispy, but again too sweet and little spice. The fried rice with my dish was fine, but lacked any aromatics and had no meat for flavoring either. We did not receive spoons with any dish to help serve portions onto a smaller plate.
The meat dumplings were in the long wrappers pinched on one side. They seemed like they might contain pork mixed with chicken. They lacked in flavor -- no ginger, garlic, herb -- and were under-seasoned. The spring rolls came with a spring roll wrapper. The server (whose English was not great) said he thought they had meat in them. He agreed to cabbage but seemed less sure. They had cabbage in them, but the meat was hard to see or taste. They had a decent texture, but didn't taste like much on the inside. The dipping sauce for the potstickers was vinegary and salty (soy base) with no scallions, garlic, or other flavoring. The dipping sauce for the spring rolls was standard sweet n sour. We asked for hot mustard and received carryout packets.
The portion size for lunch was generous enough. The value was decent. The hot tea was good, but was not replenished by mid meal.
I complained on the way out that we were automatically charged a 15% tip on the bill for a party of two. The woman at the front counter said they are doing this because in China tipping is not done and many Chinese who eat at restaurants here do not tip. I don't think it's legal for the restaurant to include the tip automatically in the bill, but I'm not sure. There are no signs or notices about it. I told her it would offend American customers. In our case, it also cheated the server, because we usually tip 20%.
We have speculated that the many authentic Chinese menu items might be better prepared and interesting. There are many dishes with traditional ingredients (such as tripe). We can't confirm that they are any better, however.
Given the underwhelming preparation and the weak service with the required gratuity, I doubt that we will be back.
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