Food was amazing!! It wasn't what we were expecting but such a great find! Highly recommend if you are in Melbourne! read more

Sichuan House - Chicken - Chinese Near Me - Melbourne, VIC

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Spicy Cumin Pork Ribs Spicy Cumin Pork Ribs Spicy Cumin Pork Ribs The secret is out and they *will* make more. These atomic bombs of flavor and heat are my favorite dish on the planet. After the privilege of trying them once, we came home and began a long saga of attempts to duplicate the dish. After all, they don't deliver to the other side of the world... Well, after numerous unsuccessful attempts, we gave up in frustration. But then, years later, we had the opportunity to return and order the same dish. It was incredible and just as we remembered. Spicy, crunchy, tender morsels of atomic goodness. It cannot be duplicated. Just head down the dark alley and up the few steps in to this mecca of Sichuan taste sensation. You won't regret it. Or, better yet, order some "to go" and SHIP THEM TO US NOW. read more

Sichuan House - Zowie taste buds! - Chinese Near Me - Melbourne, VIC

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If you enjoy sweating and getting down and dirty to Szechuan cooking, may I introduce you to my all time favorite Szechuan restaurant in Melbourne, Sichuan House! An unpretentious food place serving the most authentic Szechuan dishes in the city. Located in one narrow, creepy Chinatown's alley, passing the streets you won't missed the aroma, it's tantalizing! My family and I decided to pay a visit on a Saturday night with reservations in hands. Recommended, since this place gets jam packed full of diners even on weekdays. It's easy to see why; the food is legit, which mean all the spices use in every single dishes has little or no adaptation to the local palate, and it doesn't take long for that hot and numbing sensation to hit you. The menu is a couple pages long, with some bountiful of choices along with some of the usual suspects (e.g: Xiao Long Bao, Mapo tofu, spicy eggplants, etc..). In addition, with many Chinese cooking, it's more family oriented kind of portion, so the four of us ordered and shared: * Beef Skewers: This comes highly recommended by our waitress and it was fantastic. The beef was nicely grilled which offer the perfect balance of fat and meat for that juicy, tender and flavorful skewers. I have to say this dish stood out the most that night. * Mapo Tofu: Super soft tofu, that it falls apart upon scooping and taste-wise this was not particularly special. Next. * Spicy Cumin Pork Ribs: Each pork ribs were seriously thick and coated with cumin and chili flakes. I am not a fan of pork meat, but the flavor is so complex and flavorsome, I would gladly have it on my food table any day! * Szechuan Boiled Fish Fillets: I couldn't resist ordering fish drowned in red hot chili soup. At Sichuan House, they do it brilliantly. The fish was extremely chunky, tender and can be quite spicy and numbing which each bite thanks to the liberal use the peppercorn chili - definitely a treat for all the senses! The only setback was the service here wasn't always spot on; our dishes took forever to come out and it was rather challenging to get the staff's attention. Other than that, Sichuan House is definitely one of the most enjoyable Chinese dining experience in the city - price and food are on point - a spot worth many return visits. read more

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I am a lover of dumplings and it is good that I have access to many dumpling restaurants within a couple of blocks from the office. Sichuan House is one of my many favorites here in Melbourne. The Kung pao chicken is always a good bet although you can tell from my picture that I segregated those red demons to the side of the plate as they like to war with me and I would rather not have that losing battle. You have to good down a narrow alley from Lonsdale to get get here and if you have seen too many nightmarish movies involving narrow alleys, you can work through your fears. Enjoy the experience. read more

Sichuan House - Chinese Near Me - Melbourne, VIC

When you think Sichuan cuisine, you think spice. This place brings the spice. If you aren't accustomed to Sichuan cooking, you better be able to handle the heat before trying some of the hot dishes. Bring your iron stomach when you plan on eating here. The menu is expansive with plenty of options. The hot pot style dishes are the ones that we usually go for when visiting. The dishes are big enough to share between two or three. The decor is nothing to write home about but at this place, it's all about the food. Everything is served fresh and quickly. Servers are polite and their English is good enough to answer any of your questions. The place is pretty discrete being on Corrs Lane but it's almost a hidden gem in the Chinatown area. I've been here a couple of times for lunch only so I can't comment on how this place is for dinner. Haven't had to wait for a table yet but I've always gone as either a 1, 2 or a 3. There are a few groups from the Collins/Bourke St offices but it's not that loud even when busy. From looking around at the other tables, it doesn't seem like it would be too hard to get a group in. Dishes are reasonably priced for the amount of food you get. I first heard about this place when it was featured on Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations in the US. Since Yelp! Melbourne hadn't been set up when I first started frequenting this place, it was sort of a leap of faith and I haven't looked back yet. Definitely worth a try for at least one lunch. read more

we had the cumin ribs and the Szechuan fish. The cumin ribs receive a lot of acclaim here, not sure anyone mentions the ribs are deep fried. The meat, to this American palate, tasted gamy. The fish was swimming in red oil, which I don't really mind for this dish but the oil was much heavier and less delicate than I'm used to. The food was probably three stars, but after we waved away a couple of fruit flies, I noticed the entire shelf next to us was covered with dead flies. Yuck! read more

The food here is authentically good, which is the reason why my work colleagues like coming here for lunch. Personally, I only ever have two kinds of standard Sichuan dishes here (from lunch menu): gong bao prawn/chicken / and spicy fish . The gong bao dishes come with lots of chillis and crunchy peanuts, fried with a handful of prawns or chicken. They tastes delicious with a moderate level of spiciness (for me). For those cold winter days when moderate is just not hot enough, spicy fish is the dish to go for. The spicy fish here is more liquid, with slightly bigger chunks of fish and less bean-shoots than other places. The most important attribute is the level of spiciness: it starts off nice and tasty then begins numbing the taste-buds with every bite... nice. The soup is more like chilli oil and stubbornly sticks to the mouth so the pain lingers long after the food is gone. Service is as expected from a Chinese restaurant:- place the order then get the food, just what is required for a quick no-fuss lunch. Seating is adequately spaced and they have bigger tables for groups. The biggest issue I have with this place is the lunch menu, in particular the spicy fish on rice dish. Its comes in a giant bowl with way too much soup and too little rice, and priced more like a two-person lunch. Not really an option unless I'm super hungry or sharing with someone else. read more

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Sichuan cuisine is a culinary explosion in your mouth. We waited for 30 minutes in this place for our friends to arrive and the anticipation for the food got beyond overwhelming. The menu was huge and the gigantic pictures of all different kind of meats with tons of chillies were a work of art in itself. Seeing blood red soups full of peppers and massive plates of ribs come to next-door tables had me salivating to the extreme. After catching up with our friends and ordering a number of plates the sensory experience began. A 2 star (out of 3 on the Scoville scale) dish of sliced beef pretty much blew our heads off. Then came their signature dish - the 3 star cumin pork ribs. The ribs packed a punch with so much flavor and were SO GOOD. The level of heat is intense for about 10 to 15 minutes. After the initial disorientating feeling cursing through your veins, there is a breakthrough moment where pain turns into absolute bliss. You have just had your first chilli high and you'll no doubt enjoy the ride from there on in. It's a sensory experience that everyone should try at least once. Don't order too much food as the portions are massive and don't worry too much about the heat - red faces that are normally white are plied with plenty of water from the attentive staff. Enjoy! read more

Sichuan House - Chinese Near Me - Melbourne, VIC

Sichuan cuisine is famous for being spicy with dried red chillies, ground chilli, chilli oil and those tongue numbing peppercorns being trademarks of this cuisine. Craving spicy food, I made my dinner companion choose a spicy place. The norm is to make a booking and it can be hard to get one. We were only able to get one for 8pm on a Saturday night. The restaurant is pretty small and is tucked away down corrs lane. You will pass several Asian restaurants as you walk down this lane. One of these on the corner had a queue that looked like it was a km long. Im glad I wasn't in it. The menu is expansive with dim sims, several vegetarian dishes, crab and prawn stacks for around 26-39 dollars (their signature dishes), and other spicy dishes. They also have a substantial drinks menu with wine, beer (tsing tao if you want Asian beer), Chinese tea, soft drinks, and soy milk (you will need it to combat the chilli in your stomach). We got the sichuan fried pork, sichuan chicken, eggplant dish, and tofu with green beans. My favourite dish was the sichuan pork. It is basically battered fried pork in this delicious covering surrounded by a chilli seeds paste that compliments it beautifully. Its hard to eat with chopsticks as some pieces are large. The sichuan chicken was another fried chicken dish but was annoying to eat. the chicken pieces were tiny and were all on the bone. Unlike the pork, the chicken dish was surrounded by a profuse amount of dried chopped chilli and was spicier than the pork. The Eggplant dish was sticky and too sweet for my liking. The tofu dish was a nice contrast to the other dishes but didn't come with a soup or a sauce so was a pretty bland. Good food. Not cheap. Definitely going back. Disclaimer: eating sichuan food might lead to undesirable behaviour, hallucinations, and inflated egos. Saw this guy doing push ups to show how strong he was (both his taste buds from all the chilli and his arms). read more

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What I have heard to be the best Szechuan food in Melbourne and wow was this place impressive. It fills up fast so get it quick, the spicy cumin ribs are an obvious winner on every table but overall a fantastic authentic restaurant. Hidden away off little Bourke an absolutely Szechuan haven for those that love authentic Asian cuisine. Not the cheapest of places but for the 3 of us including beers we were at about 35 each so kind of average pricing around the area. It is BYO as well with a per glass corkage charge. Not the best for kids given it's rather small and very busy with a spicy menu. But get into this place and give those ribs a go!! read more

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I believe that 3 stars is a very fair assessment because (1) My experience, alone, was 2.5 stars, but (2) I imagine my experience with a group would be 4 stars, no problem. So how does that happen? Easy - this place is not made for solo diners. Unfortunately, being on a business trip in a foreign country, that is often how I eat my dinners. Most places, it's fine...here, it's a let down. The menu is not made for solo travelers. Almost every dish is huge and made to be shared. I didn't feel like leaving half of my meal uneaten, despite how hungry I was from skipping lunch, and I also did not feel like spending $25 just to leave $12.50 of it wasted. So, I found a small, cold dish that was more intended to be a starter than a full meal, but I thought it would work out perfectly for me. That dish - beef with sichuan chili's (or some such name...my apologies for not getting it quite right). The food came out almost immediately since it was, obviously, pre-made (as cold dishes are...not a negative, just a fact). It was basically a pile of meat on a plate, exactly as I expected it to be. I dug in, and to be honest, it wasn't terribly hot. Instead, with every bite, I got a mouthful of salt. Salt, salt, salt...and not enjoyable salt. It was a dish of salt mixed with beef and some chili peppers. I ate half and could not get through much more, unfortunately. The problem was, I sat neat the kitchen, and constantly saw the normal dinner dishes coming out, looking fantastic, and going to tables of many people, all while I sat in my corner, sulking over my loneliness and mediocre salt-beef. How sad... The service here was very friendly and efficient, though. That is, aside from the (apparently) matriarch of the clan, who was sitting at a prime table, reading a newspaper as I walked in. The person seating me wanted to put me at a good table, but she yelled at him something along the lines of (and forgive me, my Mandarin is quite poor) - "Sit that pathetic lonely guy in the corner". She seemed like the stereotypical Chinese restaurant owner who would much prefer you just come in, give her money, and never actually order anything. But, aside from her, everyone seemed quite friendly and helpful. read more

Heeded the other warning about the portion sizes here, so my wife and I only ordered two dishes with rice. The Spicy Cumin Pork Ribs is as reported here, a sensational dish. Quite spicy, but lovely cumin flavours and chili to boot. The second dish I can't recall the name, but it was a mix of pumpkin, potato & prawns bites coated in a red/pinkish spice which was very, very salty. A nice little side dish for a large table I think, buy way too much salt as a main to share. Anyway, we enjoyed the meal nonetheless, and had a significant amount leftover to take home with us. I would suggest though that if possible to come in a group of 4 or larger so you can enjoy a larger variety of dishes without having an insane amount of food left over. read more

Hands down the best Szechuan Chinese food I've ever had! After walking down Chinatown to look for a place to eat we stopped into a restaurant which I won't name, but shortly (maybe 15-20 mins) after being seated and looking through the menu we were asked by our waiter to please order soon so their chefs can start cooking! Now I'm not the kind of person to get up and leave a restaurant from bad service but on top of that they wouldn't bring water to out table for some inexplicable reason, which made me and my friends decide to leave. Luckily we did because yelp showed this amazing gem, Sichuan house right around the corner! I'm so glad we picked up and left because as soon as we walked in Szechuan house we saw a framed photo of the head chef with one of the Iron Chefs! French chef Sakai to be exact, having dinner at Szechuan house. My girlfriend and I are pretty avid Iron Chef viewers so this made us pretty excited. Our excitement was not in vein! It was hands down the tastiest chinese food I have ever had and my brother agreed who is a Head chef at a restaurant in the French alps And also a head caterer for the Mercedes Formula 1 team. All up it was roughly $30 per person for 6 people and we all ordered main dishes with rice and some dumplings on the side and we had so much take away that we had to end up throwing some away which is both very sad and very good value for money in my opinion! Definitely 5/5 read more

Dined here for a work function and happily stuffed myself with more spice than you'd care to poke a chilli at. Almost everything awash with gloriously divine Sichuan heat and generous dishes to share, so pile all your friends onto a round table this winter and warm up from the inside out. Don't forget to order a few chilled beers to wash it all down. read more

Sichuan House - Fantastic work function venue. - Chinese Near Me - Melbourne, VIC

Hello, affordable and gigantic meal! My party of five walked into this place on a quiet weekday night at 8:30. We left feeling absolutely stuffed to our gills, high on the experience of delicious food and spicy chilis, and only ~$25 poorer for the show. As everyone else has already advised: you MUST order the cumin rubbed ribs. They are divine and they come in a massive pile that would make any modest eater blush but makes the gluttons among us beam with joy. We also had the soup dumplings (B+), the beef skewers (B), the little chicken nugget style spicy chicken (A), and eggplant (A++++). Our only mistake was that we only ordered fried things (except the dumplings, they weren't fried), so we didn't get anything that was properly doused in chili oil. We will go back though, and probably to order one of the gorgeous fish dishes. Enjoy your Sichuan experience! read more

Went here after reading all the good reviews. I wish we went with more people so we could try more. The cumin pork ribs and Sichuan chicken were stand out. Will be back next time I'm in Melbourne. read more

Sichuan House - Chinese Near Me - Melbourne, VIC

The food here is good. The turn off from my dinning experience was they charged for take away containers after I had spend over hundred dollar for just the two of us. I have never been charged for take away boxes before eating at Chinese restaurants. Also, they charge for rice and if you use credit card, there is a 3% processing fee, so the merchant fee from credit card company goes to the customers. read more

Really delicious, spicy & extremely hot !!! The food really lives up to its Sichuan reputation. The lunch menu was adequate with a lot to choose from. We were told & could see photos of one of the Iron Chef paying a visit to this restaurant earlier this year. Good authentic Chinese food, really pleasant & comfy atmosphere all at a good price !!! read more

Wow ... such awesome food ! We got take away from Sichuan last night and had ... Cumin pork ribs Crispy duck Stir-fried green beans Xiao long bao Yangzhou style stir-fried rice All I can say is WOW ... spicy, delicious and I could live on the beans alone! So much taste in what sounds like a simple bean dish! Service above and beyond... thank you Peter (and Vivian) we wish we could have dined in but a sick family member meant we had to do take away .... if we had dined in I think perhaps we may never have left! The dumplings were beautiful, the crispy duck divine and the fried rice delicious and the cumin pork ribs hot spicy and just yum! But the beans ...oh the beans!! Yum Yum Yum! Thank you! read more

My kids introduced me to this one, and everything is fine, on par with anywhere else I've eaten. Except for the cold chilli beef. This is amazing, perfect Szechuan style heat, wonderful texture. Embarrassed to admit that I've made special trips there just to have the beef. If you like spicy, go in and have the cold chilli beef. read more

When we think about what makes us who we are the answer is simple: everything. The same is true of a restaurant. Little things like the color of the seats, the placement of a table, and the size of the menu add up to make a place what it is. It is a cliche to say that all happy families are alike and we might be tempted to think that the same is true of good restaurants, but as usual the cliche has things backwards. It is not more the true to say that all good restaurants are alike than it is to say all happy families are alike. Both statements are false, in fact it is closer to the truth to say that all bad restaurants are bad in the same way and for similar reasons. Bad, merely bad, restaurants are boringly predictable. They are paradoxically trying very hard to fool you that they are not bad, while at the same time they are uninterested in expending any effort to be good. I assume they think that they can fool us somehow or that we will cease to have tastebuds or good sense when we walk in the door. This is all prologue to talking about Sichuan House for the reason that they seem to be trying hard and two and only two things. 1) serving amazing, spicy, and intensely flavorful Sichuan and 2) producing huge, absurdly useful menus. The menus are huge not only in the sense that they have many dishes in them, but also in the sense that they are physically very long and wide. My lovely dining companion could hardly hold the menu and if she were to hold it and read it, she would obscure not only her face but herself entirely. On gets the sense, opening the menu, that one is opening up a book of ancient spells or, more prosaically a laminated road atlas. In any case, there are good pictures for virtually every dish. The waitstaff is also quite friendly. Of course the menus are not really important, but I appreciated them more after I tasted the food. The menus are not glossy advertisements for the food, but are instead devices, tools, to help you find exactly what you are looking for. They are maps to tastyville. I have to happily agree with everyone here that the Spicy Pork Ribs are amazing. Maybe the best ribs I have ever had and I used to live in the American south and have visited rib shacks all over the pork belt. The spicy rub is simply amazing. Why doesn't all barbecue use Sichuan peppercorns? We also had one of the several spicy Barramundi dishes. It was amazingly spicy and delicous, but eating that much spicy oil is probably not a good idea. Maybe try the steamed spicy barramundi instead. Some great dumplings as well. Everything I had was amazing and everything other people were eating looked amazing as well. The price was also right, making this one of the most efficient great dinners (Tastyness/dollars) I have had in Melbourne. Do yourself a favor and check out Sichuan House. read more

Decent food however service is almost hostile. If you can't stomach chili you'll be left with a choice between bokchoy and pickled cucumber.

I have been here several times and every time to try to order at least one different plate from the menu and I never have been disappointed. The food here it is just delicious and so tasty. Looking forward to go back next week. read more

Everytime we go to Melbourne we go here. Found this little gem purely by accident and now it's a firm favourite. Our favourite dishes are the kung Pao prawns and the green beans with pork mince. Planning another trip there soon! Please open a restaurant in Sydney! read more

Best spicy chicken in a mini Wk the world. Used.a fusion method combining fried chicken in a Sichuan style. The chicken melts in your mouth with a slight kick. Service was great. I went out of my way on my second trip to Australia in eight years to rediscover this place and it was just as good as eight years ago. read more

In Melbourne for a few days staying at Marriott near Chinatown. With all the restaurant options nearby, decided to try Yelp and see what came up. Very happy Sichuan was top of the list and deserved it's favorable rating. Excellent food (not sure official name but a dozen pot stickers) were outstanding. Also had prawns and the spicy garlic pork (which lived up to its name). Other dishes we saw on tables nearby were massive and looked tasty and seemed like everyone in the restaurant was local. If you are wandering Chinatown, this little out of the way place in a side alley (which turns out you can reach from Lonsdale through a narrow passage) is worth the trip. read more

Great cumin ribs, fired green beans are awesome, and the yummy chicken is rad. Large serves to top it off. Great food.

Appalling customer service, and food is far from restaurant quality. These people cannot manage to cook even the simplest of dishes properly, such as white rice. I ordered two bowls of white rice, which were both so over cooked I asked for new rice. They staff couldn't seem to understand the issue, nor even care. Eventually, one waiter brought us one bowl to replace the two unsatisfactory bowls... Twice 'over cooked' pork belly was inedible, felt like I was chewing on cardboard. Will definitely not be eating at this restaurant again. read more

sichuan house was an amazing experience. personally im not a fan of chilli food however sichuan house soon changed my mind. the highlight of the lunch was definitely the cumin pork ribs which were amazing. as soon as they arrive at the table you can immediately smell the chilli that is strewn all over them. the intensity is subtle at first but soon kicks in with the more ribs you have. the chilli peaks at a perfect level; not overwhelming you and ruining the dish, but instead plateauing at a mild yet still comfortable level . service was fast,polite and overall very good too. definitely worth a visit. read more

Excellent food, fast service, reasonable price. I had pepper beef, wife had kung pao prawns. Both were tasty, spicy, complex, and delicious. Highly recommended. read more

Great tucked away Sichuan place in Melbourne. Slight wait, but very worth it. Cumin pork ribs, terrific. Spicy fried eggplant, terrific, with a nice sweetness. Great spicy tofu, with a real kick. Highly recommended. read more

What can I say? After a generally disappointing run of dining on our 2 week visit to Melbourne we hit the jackpot. We followed recommendations to try various popular destinations and while most were OK, none really stood up and delivered on promise. This one we found for ourselves. Could not believe the quantity and the quality of what was presented. Every dish was sensational. And yes, those Cumin ribs are everything the other Yelpers are raving about. Go the prawn and crab tower while you are at it. The wine list also represents value for money. $36 buys a fine bottle of plonk. Service was impeccable. Toilets were clean. Seating comfortable. They tick all the boxes that make for a good night out. So Yelpers, head here for a great dining experience. 9/10. read more