This place is kind strange and the service isn't great but I keep coming back because it's amazing Chinese food. The portions are giant so I always know it will last me two meals! Also the Szechuan dumplings are to die for. A must order!!! I also love the Kung pow tofu, hand shaven noodles and egg flower soup. The menu is so large I'll keep coming back because everything is great!
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Quite good if you like authentic szechuan cuisine. Ambiance: well, not much really. Kind of worn and scruffy in the largely dead and once vibrant John's Watertower. Szechuan chef has replaced the friendly but boring Shanghai Noble house. I ate at SNH fairly often, this is a very different place and I feel a real step up in that its serving traditional menu, something in short supply in Portland.
Service: friendly, very casual, limited language and serving skills, definitely not high-brow.
Food: Egg flower soup is premade in a big kettle, nothing to write home about. Where this place shines is in the prep of their main dishes.
Hot & Spicy Special Hand Shaven Noodle are thick, white and chewy, clearly hand made and delicious. Spicy, oily just like someone would make at home.
Seafood Fried Rice is FULL of shrimp, fish and squid, not gummy, great quality.
Double Delight mushroom Beef- amazing, juicy mushrooms and lots of beef, you wont be asking "where's the beef" they don't chintz here, this is a rich and flavorful, but not spicy dish.
Cumin Lamb- both lamb and the use of cumin tell you that you aren't at a typical chinese-American restaurant. This is the real deal, you better like cumin if you order this dish, its a rich and heavy preparation.
Again, if you want chop suey, chow mein, egg roll and egg flower soup, you're in the wrong place. If you want a real tase of szechuan, go for it.
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Perhaps I can help here even if it maybe stating the obvious. The critical reviews and half of the user reviews love the place for all the right reasons. And the other half of people who seem very disgusted and genuinely confused at why people like this place, I think I understand where you're coming from. I don't want to pull the whole better than you / authenticity argument. I honestly just think that there are lot of people who, like me many years ago, didn't realize that there are different types of Chinese cuisine from all over the country. This place is Sichuan specifically. I noticed on all of the negative reviews that people try to order American Chinese food and then called it fatty and greasy. Failing to understand that in addition to ordering the wrong dishes (the argument can be made maybe they shouldn't even offer them) that they lack knowledge about Szechuan ingredients and cooking methods which are primarily hot chili oil and cuts of meat not as common to the typical American palate. It would be unthinkable to use low fat pork or chicken to make anything in an authentic Chinese restaurant. What you're looking for is the fattiest possible cut of chicken thigh or pork belly, lamb, intestines, etc. And Sichuan cooking is prepared uniquely in tons and tons of oil. That's actually the proper cooking method. You don't drink the oil, you take the food out of it. It's perhaps ironic but it's actually a healthy way to eat. I have lost 45 pounds without increasing my exercise regiment just from eating Asian food and most of it it Sichuan. specifically at this restaurant which I really love for its authenticity and high quality ingredients. I hope you will go back and give it a try and ask the extremely kind staff to make some recommendations. I can personally recommend the cilantro lamb, whole live fish in hot black bean sauce, vegetables like the dry sauteed green beans, and live crab. If you want something a little more fried go with the xiong king chicken. It is exceptional. And the dry hot pots are not to be missed. I hope this is helpful to it least 1 person. If you prefer American Chinese there's nothing wrong with that, but this is definitely not your place. Try Hunan Pearl in tigard/ Lake Oswego for high quality American Chinese.
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