This Szechuan restaurant opened up down the road from me a little while ago, and I've been meaning to try it. I was hoping to find a menu or something online beforehand, but eventually I just decided to go in blind and hope!
My absolute favourite Szechuan dish is shuizhuyu, which is boiled fish in a delicious, spicy soup. I learned Chinese yonks ago and, not willing to bust out my rusty Mandarin, instead brought the dish up on my phone to ask if they had it. I was assured that yes, they did - with a choice of fish, and fresh or frozen. The man serving us (who may have been the owner or manager), however, was kind enough to let us know there would be bones, and unfortunately that counted me out. I have a thing about bones in fish. So instead we ordered pickled and fried free range chicken with dried chillis and chilli oil, fried rice and pork dumplings.
Be aware, firstly, that it may seem expensive, but the portions are HUGE. We got a giant plate of fried rice, and more than enough chicken for the both of us. Each serve of dumplings comes with 4 dumplings in a spicy oil, so we had plenty of food. There was also complimentary jasmine tea. I was slightly taken aback to discover the chicken had bones in some pieces, but it was worth dealing with that as the chicken was crispy on the outside, juicy in the middle and deliciously flavoured.
The service leans towards Chinese style, i.e. ask for what you want, don't expect them to come to you. read more