Szechuan Gourmet 56

Still as good as my last visit. Decided to try a few different dishes and my fiancé recommended for me to try their Pork with Beijing Plum Sauce and when the lady is right, she’s really right. The dish was made with julienned sliced pork and scallions, all tossed together with a light and almost slightly sweet sauce. I’ve never tried it before and I like it. I could probably have it with a bowl of rice and be satisfied. We also ordered their Lamb with Chili-​Cumin, but be warned that it’s fried lamb and the cumin flavor is really strong. It’s a bit too strong for my taste and the fried, salted and spiced combo made my mouth dry. Unless you’re a fan of fried lamb and cumin, I wouldn’t recommended this dish.

I would say this place 100% exceeded my expectations. Our entire party of 4 thought the food was delicious and we ate nearly everything. Dan Dan noodles are good, beef and tripe was a bit bland, but mapo tofu, eggplant, cumin lamb and especially fish filet were all excellent. Not cheap for Chinese food but look at the location.
Very happy with trying this place — the ambiance was great for catching up with friends too!

The food is good BUT they treat Americans customers differently than Chinese ones. This does not apply to all the waiters but to some of them. I have been here for many times so I’m not making this up.
Once I was having dinner here with my American boyfriend. There were not a lot of customers in the restaurant but the waitress kept rushing us into ordering. When we were ordering food she was very inpatient too. But to other tables where Chinese customers sat, she was super nice and patient.

The staff in this location are extremely racist against Americans. Maybe that’s a plus if you’re Chinese, but I recommend staying away if you’re not.
I was out to dinner with my girlfriend and her family (they are Chinese). The Taiwanese manager started having a discussion with her father for quite awhile in Chinese. Later, my girlfriend told me he was arguing that Chinese should only date other Chinese, and that our relationship was wrong. He also went on and on complaining about America in general.

Extremely rude service! When taking a few seconds to decide on my lunch order, I was told, «You’re wasting time. We are extremely busy.» Well here’s one less customer for you guys to deal with.

This is the worst place I have ever eat. The worst service, the waiter is so rude that I really have no mood to eat.

Ordered spicy stir fried chicken, squash and MU er, and spicy whole fish. Yum. I wished the fish filet was full fish instead but can’t complain. Chicken was great as well… Silk squash was meh… didnt give enough MU er

We were adventurous and just started walking up from Chelsea. Times Square can be such a nightmare and it’s full of chain restaurants where «tourists love to dine»…lol! But in New York City, wandering around can be fun and many times you can stumble upon a great place to eat.
The menu is pretty extensive for lunch. I found it a little hard to choose, but we settled on the beef chow fun and the minced chicken with garlic. I ordered some potstickers too…
He: Would you like them spicy?
Me: Sure, why not.
Who would’ve known that they would come out in chili oil… LOL! I like spicy, but this was a little too much! Shook them off, and just put the excess on the chow fun, so it was all good! The staff was very friendly and the place had a steady flow of customers. Prices are pretty reasonable. 56 was a nice change and we didn’t have to go down to Chinatown.

This review only reflects the quality of delivery.
Food:
The lunch menu is a great deal with all dishes ranging from $ 8.5 — $ 9.5. The portions are generous for the price.
I especially recommend ‘Double Cooked Sliced Pork Belly w. Chili Leeks’ and ‘Braised Ma Paul Tofu w. Chili Minced Pork’.
Service:
I had a bad experience once, but since then, the delivery had been very fast and the food always arrived fresh and hot.

First time trying.
They seem like really nice people, which makes this so hard.
I ordered one thing: Lunch special: Fish Filets w/​Pinenut in Sweet Vinegar Sauce
It comes with about 10 little pieces of fillet fish.
Well, started to eat the fish and it was tasty, but then I realized that «hey, this is catfish». You can tell because the fish texture is circular. I’m no expert but I’m pretty sure. I did eat most of it, though :) It did lose it’s flavor as it cooled because all the flavor came from the sauce, not from the dish (do you know what I mean?)
The lunch special came with wonton soup that I did not eat. That rarely ever happens. Just looking at the soup, it looked like dirty cloudy dishwater. 2 wontons, 2 pieces of scallion, and that was it. Pic attached.
I picked up my order, and they had a nice little dining room. It seems like the kind of place you may have to try a few things to find what works. But this order didn’t.

Ordered on seamless a few days ago and the delivery guy gave me an attitude, which I don’t understand. I gave a tip of well over 20% to make his short trip of two blocks worth while, and I thanked him with a big smile as he handed me the food, only to get a look back from him that says «Whatever. F*** you and all you people who get their food delivered» as he says nothing to me and slowly turned around and walked away. He didn’t look like he was in a hurry to the next delivery. Just that he hates all the people he has to make deliveries to. I was thinking of making this place a regular dinner delivery spot but I don’t think I want to deal that unpleasant attitude again. Food was just ok so I’ll go elsewhere.
Oh by the way, their seamless prices are higher than the actual menu that came with the order.

Worst restaurant I have ever had in NYC.
Food tasted really horrible. Mandatory 18% tips with no service.
Please stay away!

Generally love this place, the fish is very good and seasoned.
Even all lunch specials are also very good. Though, it can get very hectic during lunch time.
Order through their website and they usually have first time online order discount.
Otherwise, might have to wait for a while if you go in and order take out.
There was once in which a group of friends went in for lunch during their busy hours.
We sat upstairs and waited forever, which eventually the server admitted that he forgot about putting in our orders and apologized profusely. Upon waiting for an additional 30 mins, after the initial 30 mins wait, they brought out all orders for all friends except for mine. Apparently, the server forgot about my order. I was pissed and made him cancel it, he apologized some more, we left. But I gave them second chance and sat downstairs, which everything went well. Lesson is do not sit upstairs during lunch time.

I am just going to be blunt, whether you’re Chinese and want hardcore real chinese food or American and want the safe but delicious chinese food THiS PLACE IS AWESOME ! Dumplings great, beef and broccoli great, sesame chicken great, lo mein great. The service was polite and quick and the interior was nice with a good view

The Dan Dan Noodles. Yes, that. Get them. My first and only experience with Dan Dan noodles has been at this place. Maybe I don’t know any better, but I know a good thing when I taste it. And this was definitely a good thing (in my opinion, which is the ONLY opinion I care about).
In addition to my favorite (Dan Dan Noodles), get the steamed and fried dumplings, scallion pancakes, steamed spinach, eggplants, General TSO’s chicken (although a messed up a order is how we ended up with this but still good). Just go back often and get everything. Well not everything. I wouldn’t recommend the Pork Belly menu items. The order I got was too greasy. I know Pork has a lot of fat (that’s why its so delicious), but the greasiness was more than the pork.
This place is good for take-​out, pick-​up and if you want to sit in. Whatever you decide, the service is fast and the food is good and inexpensive (for midtown). Like most places in the area, this gets really crowded during the peak lunch hour (12 – 1:30). With that said, I’ve gone during the peak lunch hour and the wait was not too crazy. I remember when it was super crowded upstairs and downstairs but we did not have to wait more than 10 minutes for our appetizers. This should be a little scary but I won’t dwell too much on that.
Service is what you would expect at a place like is. Not bad but not outstanding and I am 100% okay with that. They take your order, get your food (fast), bring you the check.
As I am writing this review, my co-​workers mentioned they are heading out for Dan Dan Noodles at Szechuan Gourmet. Unfortunately, I opted out. It’s my new year’s resolution to eat healthier. Once I break this resolution (and I know for a fact that I will, it’s just a matter of when), this will be my first stop.

We came in at ⁹¹⁵⁄₃₀ for dinner. They told us we could order, and that they close at 10. So we did– they were shooing us out BEFORE 10p, as we were still chewing. They could have told us that this restaurant needs to be locked up and home before 10p. Terrible, rude service– I’ll sadly not be back.
Ordered braised beef noodle soup– completely watery and lacking in flavor/​depth. Noodles very overdone.
Also, they advertise that they have hot pot and look at you like you’re nuts when you ask. They do NOT have hot pot, despite their online claim.

This was one of the grossest meals I have ever had. Had lunch here on a Friday. It was very crowded which seemed promising. The food was horrible and tasteless. The only positive was how cheap it was $ 10 for lunch. The chicken was rubbery and chewy. My co-​worker got the 10-​ingredient fried rice and had mystery crunches every few bites. I do not recommend going here.

Terrible. Ordered chicken with broccoli in garlic sauce and the food was swimming in orange oil.

WORST CHINESE FOOD I’VE EVER HAD! I placed a delivery order and ended up throwing most of it out. The broccoli in garlic sauce was swimming in orange oil, the sesame noodles were not like any sesame noodles I had ever had and tasted off, the sesame chicken was the worst pieces of meat and I could taste the flour breading, the moo shoo pork was mushy and looked like slop. The only time I write a review is if I absolutely love or hate the food. I hated this food!!!

Worst chinese food I’ve ever had, and I eat a lot of it. We ordered dan dan noodles, sesame chicken, and beef and broccoli. First off, the dan dan noodles were literally noodles, with no sauce on it, and some soy sauce poured on the bottom of the container. The sesame chicken, we asked for white meat. It looks like they took the sweet and sour chicken, threw it in a container, and the sauce was on the side in separate container. It was disgusting. When we called to ask about this, the lady said that since we asked for white meat, they don’t put sauce on it and refused to give me an answer on if this was sweet and sour chicken. She said, this is how I make it white meat. The dan dan, she said the same. If this is how they make their food, no sauce and plain and disgusting, don’t ever order from here. Also, OVERPRICED. It was $ 45 for these three things.
When I asked if we could get something else, she said no, this is what you ordered. I then said I will never order from you again, she rudely said «Ok great, thank you.» Please DON’T ORDER FROM HERE. Rude, gross, waste of money chinese food. See the pictures for the gross, plain looking food.

They re-​issued the lunch menu with a completely changed numbering scheme. This will take some getting used to (and I can only assume the waiters felt the same way initially). No longer is the 33 the 33… it’s now the 15!
The 37 is now the 47!!!
…I’m reeling. Now the new 47 I had today contained a small orange pepper I have experienced in the past, having received it in a 37 and eaten it. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I’ve been holding my friend Harry accountable ever since.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU EVERY CONSUME THE SMALL ORANGE PEPPER.
I spent an entire day suffering with its aftershocks… I believe leading to a permanent albeit slight modification to my taste buds.
If I were to describe the experience as my face being burned off, it’s not really an exaggeration.
I routinely ask the helpful folks here to have the kitchen make a dish spicy and it turns out just fine.
Just beware the tiny orange pepper.

The service here was so bad. I asked for large soup they gave me a small. Then I asked for crispy won ton noodles for my soup then they sassed me
About how they were just called noodles & that they only came with take out orders. But like why would they have them only for take out and why wouldn’t they just give them to me with a smile? Then I found a flies’ leg in my soup. Uh no thanks…

Ordered lunch from here today. They forgot to give us HALF of the food we paid for. I called and the guy answering the phone was so DISGUSTINGLY RUDE. After my friend called back to confirm what we were missing he had the nerve to tell her to stop calling that I called already and they were going to make our missing food! I don’t know if he was the owner or what but how dare he talk to customers like that?! Especially when it was there fault they didn’t send what we paid for!
NEVER ORDERING FROM HERE AGAIN

TL;DR: delicious vegetarian Mapo tofu, extremely speedy delivery.
Food: Ordered seamless Mapo tofu, asked them if they could make it vegetarian without pork. It came 20 minutes later and was great. Extremely spicy, though, so be warned.
Price: ~$ 14 plus tax and additional delivery tip. Portions were huge — I split it with my friend — so worth it.

I’ve had a few different Sichaun restaurants in NYC as well as NJ so this review will be my comparison of those places. This place is pretty solid I would say and has the spice that the region’s food is known for. We had a few different dishes: ma po tofu, beef tendon in chili sauce, fried asparagus, shredded beef with chili, and a few other dishes that slipped my mind.
Everything was spicy to say the least and I left feeling full and satisfied for sure. I think one of the better places I went to was close to 27^th and 3^rd in Kips Bay. I think the flavor was just better but not a bad place in the area.

Mom: I refuse to eat at another Japanese restaurant in the 60s again. I am putting my foot down. No one should pay $ 50 to eat some brown rice and raw fish and soy sauce. You have terrible taste in sushi. You also need a haircut. Have you been moisturizing? I want food from the motherland. I want to eat in a place where you can leave zero tip* without feeling guilty**, I want–
Me: Jesus, Mom, stop screaming in the middle of the street.
I took my mom here after she took one look at the line coming out of Sarabeth’s and gave a whole-​body shiver. Szechuan Gourmet is a bit off the beaten track, but it’s worth it if you’re looking for flanks of fish drenched in red chili oil and peppercorns, the tenderest forest mushrooms, braised chili tofu, and beef tendon noodle soup. Lots of Chinese families up in here.
A few downsides that should not detract from the awesome food but I’m a Negative Nelly and I will point them out anyway. First, the food is crazy greasy. I will give side-​eye to anyone who insists on blotting their pizza with a napkin first, but every single dish was coated in layers of grease. The leftover baby bok choy was covered in this film after we got done eating. *Second, they add automatic tip to your receipt. They’re nice enough to write «TIP» and our first waiter was good enough to warrant the 20%, but the other waiters who came after were not.
Third, and this is not the restaurant’s fault, but some of the patrons are … well, let’s just say they exhibit some typical Chinese tendencies (I can say that right? Even if I can’t, anyone who’s had to make a 16-​hour flight next to a middle-​aged Chinese man with his entire shirt unbuttoned and his bare feet lightly resting against your shin while he snores and breathes beer-​soaked air all over you can say it). Extremely loud, boisterous, bossing the waiters around, snapping their fingers in the air … if it weren’t for the absence of cigarette smoke clogging the air, I was sitting in a restaurant in Beijing.
But still — my mom was very pleased.
**So instead of feeling guilty, I left feeling slightly annoyed that I had less money leftover for ice cream.

They have great spicy food and fast service. We ordered their Braised Fish Filets W/​Napa and Roasted Chilli and it was very tasty. The dish had authentic mala flavors. They did however dump a lot of red peppercorn flakes on the top, the same ones you would sprinkle on top of pizza and that made it seem less Sichuan and more NY fast foodish. Besides that fault, the food was spot on and delicious. The fish was braised well and the napa cabbage was cut into decent sizes. It went great with rice. In this neighborhood I think it’s a decent find. Only draw back I had was that the Braised Fish was only paired with napa cabbage, whereas other places also include tofu and vermicelli. It’s still good eats all around.
They added automatic tipping and gratuity to the bill. I would prefer if they give me an option to give them more or less, especially since it was a dinner for 2 and not 6 or more. In situations like this, they already expect to be tipped regardless of how well they served their patron. That’s a star down for their review.

One of my to-​go places for Chinese dish.
so close to my apt and can’t avoid going it whenever miss a hot Chinese dish.

Introduced here by one of their most loyal customer who has been eating here for x years.
Flavorful authentic food to get your sinuses breathing again. If it ain’t spicy it ain’t good enough that’s how you walk in.

Stopped in for take out the night before the New York City Marathon to grab some grub on the way back to our hotel.
After a bit of a sticker shock (I know it’s New York and we were in the UWS, blah blah blah) and language barrier with the hostess/​cashier, we placed our order. Now I am from the suburbs so I have had no problem asking for garlic sauce with «no spice». However, at least at this establishment, that translates to brown sauce. I was very confused but I will say that when I got back to our room — yes the sauce was brown but it still had a garlic flavor to it.
The meal itself was decent but the star of the show was the vegetable dumplings that were hand made and stuffed with veggie goodness including asparagus. Yum!
All in all a pretty standard meal (which is what I wanted/​needed) but definitely something I could get in my neck of the woods for a fraction of the cost. It will go down as the most expensive Chinese takeout meal I have ever had to date!

Super disappointed with this place! I used to come here all the time and the food was always so good. Came here the other night expecting some delish Chinese food and it was far from that. We had the scallops with mixed vegetables with black bean sauce. We ordered it off the menu and they charged us $ 25 for the dish. Kinda felt jipped because it was just okay. The scallops were tender and the sauce was okay I guess but I wasn’t blown away.
We also had the crispy duck with garlic chili sauce. Now this dish really disappointed me. The duck seemed to be the reject parts smothered in tempura batter. The batter was at least half an inch thick around the duck. Very fatty and unappetizing. The sauce was alright I guess. It wasn’t on top of the duck but you had to dip the deep fried pieces into the sauce. I don’t know I just wasn’t into it.
I really don’t think I’ll ever come back because of this disappointing meal. You could A LOT better especially because each dish was approx $ 25 each.

Comida gostosa, preços bem razoáveis e serviço gentil. Uma ótima opção numa região em que os restaurantes são em geral muito caros.