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| - I feel very bad writing a negative review about a restaurant that clearly is popular. But I must be honest. A little over a week ago, my wife and I decided to try Szechuan China. When we walked into the place we were encouraged, because we were the only Anglos there. If Asians liked it, it must be good! And for all I know, it is outstanding according to genuine ethnic standards. The hostess was very friendly, as was our waiter, although he did not appear to understand that, when there are a gazillion items on a menu, diners should not be expected to order within three minutes of being seated. When our orders arrived (rather quickly, in fact), both were feasts for the eyes. Everything was great thus far.
But that's where the feast ended. My wife ordered a dish that featured mushrooms and tofu. Although beautiful to look at, it was tasteless. We both decided that they must not have added any flavorings to it--it appeared to be just mushrooms and tofu, nothing else (except for, presumably, the cornstarch that created the lovely thickness of the sauce).
My entree, a Szechuan dish featuring poached fish in a very hot chili sauce, at first impressed me with its zing. But after a minute or so, I began to taste the salt. Wow! I grew up with traditional Texas cuisine, which means that I was pretty much pickled in sodium chloride by the time I was in my teens--so saltiness is not inimical to my taste buds. But this was beyond the pale. I was still tasting the salt half an hour after I got home, even after rinsing my mouth several times with water. (I should also mention that the dish overflowed with oil.)
Because we are impecunious, we never leave food on our plates at a restaurant; we even carry rather substantial containers in our car so that we don't have to ask for unecological Styrofoam containers. Yet this is the first time in our many years of marriage that we have left substantial portions of restaurant dishes on our plates. I was able to eat only about a third of my food before the extreme saltiness forced me to stop eating. My wife ate about a fourth of her entree before its tastelessness led her to stop eating. And we had absolutely no desire to take the leftovers home. I fixed some snacks for us after we got home to satisfy our still-significant hunger.
To their credit, the kind folks at the restaurant offered to give us a discount (which we refused). We left a generous tip. We understand it's possible that we happened to order dishes that were anomalously poor. But we figure that, as rarely as we eat out, we dare not risk another fifty bucks by returning to Szechuan China.
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