We had a great family dinner at Szechuan Alley in Chicago and really enjoyed the food!…read more We ordered a variety of dishes to share, and everything came out fresh and full of flavor. The fish was especially good -- tender, flavorful, and perfect with rice. The spicy dishes had that classic Sichuan kick, with plenty of chili and numbing spice, but you could still taste the flavors of the ingredients. The cold appetizers were also really flavorful and a great way to start the meal. Portions were generous, so this is definitely a good place to come with family or a group of friends and order several dishes to share. One of our favorite surprises was the fried mantou with condensed milk at the end. Crispy and golden on the outside, warm and fluffy inside, and so good dipped in the sweet condensed milk. Even the kids loved it! If you're in Chicago and craving authentic Sichuan food with bold, spicy flavors, Szechuan Alley is definitely worth trying. We had a really enjoyable meal and would happily come back to try more dishes.

My friends and I ordered take out from here. We ordered many different items such as Yangzhou fried…read morerice, spicy dry chili chicken, black pepper beef, Szechuan wontons, and shrimp in garlic sauce. We also ordered a side of hot & sour soup. Overall, we all were a fan except my friends didn't really like the hot & sour soup too much. I liked it, but I guess it tasted a bit different than they were expecting. The fan favorite was the spicy dry chili chicken. It was excellent. Definitely spicy and one of the better ones I've had in Chicago. The food came out about 5 minutes after the estimated pick up time so it was pretty accurate. Would come back here!

The food here is so good home of absolute excellence I haven't had a single bad dish here and…read moreespecially if you can handle spicy they have some of the best spicy dishes in Chicago. My top favorites are the chongqing chicken and brown sugar rice cakes and one thing I haven't seen around much but they do perfectly here is the green bean slush! The cooks here are extremely talented I've realized yelp doesn't have all of their recipes listed so I recommend looking up their website to see the full menu. The vibe here is great the tea is really good and they have tables for large families the dishes are cute and it's a great experience highly highly recommend this place!

Very good. We had a lot of different food like the fish fillet soup and beef shrimp noodles and…read moreshrimp and mapo tofu, among other things. Very good. Everything was executed very well. Will be coming back. Loved it

MCCB was on my list of places to try while visiting Chicago's Chinatown, and it did not disappoint!…read moreI arrived right when they opened and was seated pretty quickly, but there was already a line forming outside. I tried the spicy chicken, noodles, and dumplings. The portions are generous and everything is definitely shareable, so I'd recommend ordering a few dishes to try. The food had great flavor, and the spicy chicken definitely brings the heat! Overall, a great experience! I'd recommend getting there early and coming hungry because this place gets busy. And don't forget to leave your name and a little message on their wall before you leave!

Modern Chinese Cook Book…read more.. Just in case you're wondering what it stands for and no I had no idea but did notice a cookbook in the restaurant but still didn't put two and two together. This Chinese restaurant is located on the ground floor in Chinatown and from the outside you have no idea what they have to offer even as you enter this cozy spot dishes out some serious bites. Menu takes a moment to figure out as they have dishes but are able to serve it with various sauces/or protein and does have indications of the spiciness level which surely helps in the decision making and be mindful as it all are served family style. My very first meal in Chicago I was ready for anything and the first impression was impressive for me personally as everything came out fast and hot and done right along with lovely presentation a quick pic was all it took as we were hungry. - Sour Pickle and Fish Fillet Soup It had the numbing sauce which I didn't understand and was afraid until I tried it and actually loved it the sour picked paired perfectly and that numbing soup was just that lol but wasn't spicy just left literally an impression on my palate - Chicken Egg Roll was just that very crispy and delicious though the presentation was unique as it came with a bowl of sauce packets - Cheng Du Spicy Wonton was probably one of my favorite simple but full of flavor drenched with sauce as it had a kick but not too spicy - American Broccoli with Flank Steak the classic that was good veggies done just right and tender meat - Eggplant Spicy Garlic Sauce was another favorite though I love eggplant it was tender and saucy that was a tad salty but gave it a good kick - Cold Noodle with Sesame Sauce was the last that we ordered so I was already getting filled up but it was nice and light that did accent and balance out the rest of the meal. Service is very nice and friendly especially with all of our questions since it was our first time and didn't disappoint and can see why there's always a wait and yes it's worth it if you're ever in Chinatown. Thank you!

This is, in my experience, the best Chinese restaurant in the city. The smoked tea duck is…read moreincredible and the crispy eggplant is absolutely delightful. You will be amazed!

Got Chengdu Impression for some quick dinner time takeout. The portions were good but dishes felt…read moreslightly pricey for what we got The pork was on the salty side but did like how thinly they were sliced Green beans were cooked to a soft/borderline mushy and wrinkly texture (not my preference) and lacked the Sichuan spice that i was expecting The salt and pepper shrimp was mediocre as well. Shrimp itself tasted old and not clean. Breading wasn't as crispy as I would've liked (granted yes i acknowledge it was in a takeout box soo) Overall wasnt too satisfied but I feel like i could have a different experience with dining in and trying other dishes

Food: As good as always--flavorful, authentic, and satisfying…read more Service: The staff are friendly, attentive, and quick to help. The only downside is the wait since they moved to 2623 S Halsted St. We waited about 40 minutes for a table and another 20 minutes for our food. Ambiance: Nothing particularly special--just a fairly standard dining atmosphere. But honestly, we come here for the food, so the ambiance isn't really a deciding factor for us. Overall, the long wait can be frustrating, but the food is still worth the trip. We'll definitely be back.

Fair warning- this dish is NOT for the weak. I got the Szechuan Pepper chicken, one of my favorite…read moredishes that no Chinese restaurant has ever been able to make close to the level I had while in Chengdu- until now. When I tell you I openly wept while eating this dish (both from the spice and from joy), I'm not kidding. My spirits were high, my tongue and lips felt like they were vibrating, and I couldn't ask for more. Fantastic, cannot recommend enough, reasonably quick service and love the collection of restaurants in this food court. Will be returning.

I go here every single time I'm in Chicago. The food and service is always top notch. You can go…read morewrong with any of their dishes. The stand out is the salt and pepper prawns, cashew chicken, egg drop soup, and their must try the Shanghai dumplings.

Great environment super cute restaurant. We had the best server whose name was Tony. The food was…read moregreat.

I ordered from here for family dinner. We had egg drop soup, orange chicken, Singapore noodles,…read moregarlic pepper beef, and the combination fried rice. All of the food was delicious. The egg drop soup also contains corn, which everyone seemed to enjoy. We also ordered their homemade chili oil. It wasn't spicy and it was more oil than chili but had good flavor.

Since there's no three and a half star rating, I had to give this a three star rating. I was really…read morecraving some good Chinese food but did not want to go into downtown first to pick up and then head back home so I looked this place up and had decent reviews and decided to try it out. What really impressed me was they had a specific section of the menu which was titled "Salt and Pepper". Of course I was super excited to try the salt and pepper tofu so here's what we got: - we got the salt and pepper tofu - we got the American garlic broccoli - got the mala lamb. - Got a pair of complimentary vegetarian spring rolls. When I went to pick up the take-out order, I was shocked at how heavy it was. This was clearly a lot of food. I'll start with the lamb. Very well thought out packaging, to be straight. Because the lamb had a lot of oil and liquid in it, they put it in a plastic container, which they knew is going to leak. They put that entire container in a separate tiny plastic bag and wrapped it so that the juices from that would not come all over in the main bag. Really appreciate that. Now the lamb, while cooked okay, the flavor was just, you know, it did not do it for me. Add to that they really kept the lamb as relatively big pieces. They were thinly sliced but they were just large pieces. They could have been smaller for it to be easier to eat. Flavor-wise there was just too much black pepper, which is what I was expecting, but to match that there was no flavor as such. The salt and pepper tofu was a disaster. I got it from other places. The flavor just was not doing it. It was not crispy at all. Yes I have them take out salt and pepper tofu from many other places. It does leave its crunchiness to some extent. This one had zero crunch. In fact it was weird. Every piece that was stuck to the next one had something gooey on it. Just overall the flavor was very underwhelming. The American garlic broccoli was overcooked to the extent it did not have the firmness one would expect and was overcooked to the extent where some of the smaller pieces just disintegrated. The spring roll is wild. The casing was phenomenal. It was perfect for a spring roll even after opening it after one hour. Really appreciate that. The filling, however, there really weren't many vegetables in it at all. That was very disappointing. Overall I don't think I am going to grab food from here again. The reason they get the 3.5 stars, though, is they did a phenomenal job on the packaging of all the food. The quantity was well beyond what I expected. The food, however, I have to say, was a disaster. And maybe this is my taste. It may be it's a bit too Americanized and I have not been used to eating very Americanized Chinese food for the last many years. That might be the problem.

Excellent Sichuan fare ! And it is certainly possible to come here and not burn your mouth out…read more Black Bean Fish fillet was perfect., String beans filled with flavor, cute little pork hunks and just enough heat, and cold noodle salad , refreshing with a nice floral bite. Only disapointment was the scallion pancake, dry and sorta flavorless with no dipping sauce .

Umm... it was different. Very authentic. And I like authentic…read more We ordered the Crystal Shrimp Dumplings. I love dumplings. They were pretty good. Combo Fried Flat Rice Noodle. I would get this again. My family and I talk about this dish. Often. But the Mapo Tofu with Beef just was NOT what I was expecting. It is NOT like what other places serve. And the Meizhou Dry Chili Chicken was just okay. The food overall wasn't terrible. But the service. Omgoodness. Service is EVERYTHING. I love a no nonsense server but you gotta have a little personality. The one guy was kind and friendly and just fine but the other. I mean. He was attentive but with NO emotion. My son actually prefers that. But my son ain't paying so we ain't going back. Chinatown Parking

I'm a vegetarian and I got the Yu Shin Vegetable (ordered extra spicy) and it was SO GOOD. Super…read morespicy, flavorful sauce and crisp veggies. This will be my go-to when I'm craving a vegetarian Chinese dish. 10/10!

No disclosure of this being a ghost kitchen is so immoral honestly. I'm disgusted that I got trickedread more

Absolutely amazing. Food was incredible. Service was excellent…read more Jellyfish was great. The fish soup was hot and numbing. Fried chicken pieces were delicious. 10/10 would recommend over and over again. Best Chinese food in USA? Might be close!

I've only been to Lao Sze Chuan once and didn't have a great experience. The 3 stars is for the…read morefood, which was OK. We had the dry chili chicken (lazi chicken), dry bean curd and peanut in spicy sauce, fatty beef, sliced pork dry bean with chives, and Yangzhou fried rice. First off, it's a to go order, so I knew it won't be as good as if I was to dine in and eat right away when brought to the table. Even so, I find the chili chicken bland (surprising). We asked for extra spicy, but it was pretty mild (again, surprising for a Sichuan restaurant). I love dried bean curd so ordered two dishes. They were also kind of bland. The fatty beef was pretty good, beef was tender. The fried rice was ok as well. But the main concern which will deter me from going back again is that we waited 45 min to get our to go order when it was a 'timed' order for a 2:30 PM pick up on a week day. With so many options in Chicago, not sure if I will repay a visit anytime soon.