hotandnumbing

9 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  10     

First of all, I'm a massive Szechuan fanatic so I was really excited to hear that Dainty was replaced by another Szechuan restaurant after they moved to South Yarra.

On a weekday lunch, for $8.50, I had fantastic tea tree mushrooms with pork shreds, and all the flavours were absolutely perfect. My companions had classic Szechuan dishes kung po chicken and dry-fried green beans with minced pork, which were both spot on. I really can't fault the food at this place, and on a taste-per-dollar basis, it's probably my favourite lunch in the city. For those who are worried about spice, there are plenty of dishes here that are mild but still big on flavour, like the tea tree mushrooms I had.

The dinner menu is more substantial and pricey, and it has heaps of excitement on it, as well as many classic Szechuan dishes. It's funny, I ate somewhere else a couple of weeks ago, and despite the great service, I found the food technically competent but unexciting, and wrote off the whole experience as demonstrating very poor value for money. It turns out Sichuan House does Chinese cuisine far more favours, and at 1/10th of the price it's pretty much unsurpassed in Melbourne. Highly recommended.

Jun 22, 2010

9 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  10     

First of all, I'm a massive Szechuan fanatic so I was really excited to hear that Dainty was replaced by another Szechuan restaurant after they moved to South Yarra.

On a weekday lunch, for $8.50, I had fantastic tea tree mushrooms with pork shreds, and all the flavours were absolutely perfect. My companions had classic Szechuan dishes kung po chicken and dry-fried green beans with minced pork, which were both spot on. I really can't fault the food at this place, and on a taste-per-dollar basis, it's probably my favourite lunch in the city. For those who are worried about spice, there are plenty of dishes here that are mild but still big on flavour, like the tea tree mushrooms I had.

The dinner menu is more substantial and pricey, and it has heaps of excitement on it, as well as many classic Szechuan dishes. It's funny, I ate somewhere else a couple of weeks ago, and despite the great service, I found the food technically competent but unexciting, and wrote off the whole experience as demonstrating very poor value for money. It turns out Sichuan House does Chinese cuisine far more favours, and at 1/10th of the price it's pretty much unsurpassed in Melbourne. Highly recommended.

Jun 22, 2010