Chengdu Spicy - Richmond

Had a family dinner at this place. Picked it because it's across from the hotel I was staying at. Restaurant space was not too big. It had simple decorations.Food was authentic Szechuan and could be very spicy. Price was typical for this type of cuisine, not cheap, not expensive.We ordered 8-9 dishes. All were tasty but a bit too salty. Since we don't eat this type of cuisine regularly, a bit salty once in a while is ok for us.

We had five dishes. Only one of them was spicy by American standards, but all of them were good. The flavors were subtle, rich and complex. The ingredients were fresh. The place was clean and the service was bilingual. Nothing was overpowering. No dish suffered from the Canadian or American failing of using so much salt, chili, fish or whatever so that is all you'll be able to taste. Instead, the dishes had depth and were true to what I have eaten overseas. The only reason I do not give this five stars is the soybeans. They cover some dishes in supposedly fried soybeans. However, many of the beans I got were raw and very hard. I knew something was off when the elderly woman across from me kept spitting something out into an empty bowl. I darn near broke a tooth. Still, ask for no beans and enjoy some outstanding cooking.

Everything we ordered today was good, particularly the twice-cooked pork with garlic chives and the spicy fish, so good! The Szechuan restaurants we have in Seattle are not nearly as good.

We ordered a tofu pork dish that was the worst tasting thing ever, it was sour and salty, so salty to a level that you cannot swallow it. we only tasted a bite each, 2 bites in total. the restaurant was very mean to us and refuse to remake or return it. I ended up having diarrhea the whole night, apparently the dish has this funky taste because it turned bad and they will serve it to us

If you want real deal Sichuan look no further. Have the dan Dan noodles, dumplings in chilli sauce and but a bottle of the best chilli oil in the city. Enough said. Go here!