| rev:text
| - Food: When you're seated at Sichuan, you're given two menus. We weren't told the difference between them, but after asking, our waiter explained that one is "American Chinese" and the other is "authentic Chinese." This isn't written on either menu, so if you want to know the difference, ask. Both menus are expansive and have similar items, and we ordered exclusively from the "authentic Chinese" menu. There are countless appetizers, soups, common and uncommon varieties of meats and seafood, and vegetarian options. We started with the Spring roll, which was more like a vegetarian egg roll with a fried crispy shell. It wasn't bad, but very average, although it did come with a lot sauce for dipping. We also ordered the Sichuan pickled vegetables, which didn't taste very pickled, but were spicy and tasty. The portion was large, but they were extremely salty leaving us thirsty and needing water (which became a problem, see below). We asked the waiter to recommend specific vegetarian items; we ordered one of his recommendations and experimented with another. His recommendation was the baby bok choy and black mushrooms, which was exactly that with a subtle sauce and rice. I asked for the meal to be made spicy (it wasn't listed as spicy), and the waiter offered mild, medium, or hot. I chose medium, and the dish was somewhat spicy, but the sauce was fairly bland and a plate full of bok choy and mushrooms gets old fast. We also ordered the Chinese eggplant, and requested tofu to be added, which carried an additional $3 charge. The eggplant dish was considerably more tasty than the other, but without the tofu, it may have been similarly boring. Nothing we ordered was bad, but the best dish was only slightly above average. The menu may be better suited to adventurous carnivores due to the plethora of options, or someone craving authentic Chinese food.
Price: The prices are very reasonable, as our bill came to just over $30 for two appetizers and two entrees (even with the $3 tofu tax). Appetizers range from $5-10 with entrees ranging from $8-25 and averaging around $14-15 (vegetarian entrees cheaper, as always). They offer discounts to Pitt and CMU students and a 5% discount to all customers that pay with cash.
Drinks: Sichuan Gourmet does not have a bar, and there was no mention of BYOB. We didn't see anyone drinking alcohol.
Atmosphere: The dining room is large with tables of all sizes and large windows facing Murray Ave. The restaurant was packed while we were there on an early Friday evening, and it gets relatively loud as the tables are close together. They are open relatively late, so if you leave the Squirrel Hill bars or the Manor before too late, you'll be able to get some affordable Chinese food as a nightcap.
Service: We were seated after a brief wait and our waiter provided menus and water immediately. Unfortunately, it was the final time we would receive water the entire dinner. He never replaced the water without prompting, and even after we asked (multiple times), we had empty cups and nothing to quench our thirst after eating salty, spicy food. The waiter answered our menu questions to some extent, but the host, waiter, and another employee had a very difficult time understanding our English, and we had trouble understanding them. We waited 20 minutes, yes, 20 minutes, after finishing our meal before the waiter came back to clear our table and deliver the check. This may be an isolated incident, or a problem due to new staff with the change from China Star, but other tables seemed to be having a similar issue.
(+): authentic Chinese food, fair prices
(-): poor service, average food
Would I go back again? Maybe once they work out the kinks and improve their service, but only if someone could recommend a specific dish to try.
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