Empress of Sichuan

Had a bitter experience. Four of us went in there for dinner. Apparently, two of us already had dinner, so ordered appetizers only. The other two ordered main courses and after the food was served, the waitress came and told us that we would have to order a min. of £60 or £15 per head. This was not mentioned anywhere on the menu. We were nearly at £50, but protested at being forced to order - at this point the waitress disappeared and did not attend to our table until the end of the meal. We had to get our own bill.

The food was good, but the it was a Very bad experience. BEWARE!
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Rahul sharma - View all reviews by this user
3 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Authentic Sichuan Cusine food in London - spicy and superbly cooked with a great atmosphere. My favourite Chinese restaurant in China. The menu includes hot pot and many items that may not be instantly familiar . The flavours are well balanced, rich and with a wonderful spice. I have business for a number of years, and this place is a complete treat. I've taken many friends and family to eat here and they all say it's the best Chinese food they've eaten.
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Alvin
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Sunday, July 24, 2011

Favoured Chinese.

We enjoyed an outstanding set lunch at Lisle street, one of the better ones at 9 scores by Giles coren. Also excellent value at £8-19.80, with a pre-starter, dim sam platter & 7 cold starter offered, with some dishes from the a la carte menu. Service was good, and informed. A starter of Bang Bang Chicken & Lantern shadow beef was spicy, clean with wonderful pungent flavors, and prettily constructed. Their classic Boiled fish slices in very spicy soup & Lobster with sichuan pepper in red chilli sauce and my flavour Ma po tofu is perfectly cook was refined & precise, that all i have to say is really traditional Sichuan flavoring and seasoning , which is good to see at a Chinese restaurant was stablished in china town, Overall, this is impressive & exciting stuff from an all their done.
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Kelly
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Friday, July 22, 2011

I think the score of 3 out of 5 Fay Machler awarded this restaurant is about right. And I totally agree with the reviewer that the food there isn't nice and not at all authentic. The place is always empty which was why I never ventured in there and today when I finally did, out of curiosity, I discovered the reason.

The decor was dirty and tired, brown leatherette everywhere and the ventilation non-existent.

Empress of Szechuan is simply dismal in every respect. I'm a Szechuan food addict who make weekly visits to Bar shu and Red n hot on charlton st. Those restaurants have their off days, but overall I'm happy with their offering. This restaurant is just bad. Bad cooking, and their staff is dishonest at every turn which makes it very off putting.

For example, I asked the waitress several times whether the diet coke comes in a can before ordering, and when the glass was served, it had NO fizz left, clearly decanted from a bottle that's been opened too long, and luke warm, and was a generic brand. When I asked the waitress about it, she went to check at the counter to show me the can, but couldn't so she decided to invent a story, and had the temerity to lie and said lemon causes the fizz to disappear. The manageress looked on and didn't do anything, She just continued to chat on the phone and write on her pad. It was a very bad start that got worse as the meal progresses.

ma po tofu was the first dish to arrive. The portion was small, and when spread over a large dish got cold very quickly. The meat was very poor quality a little stinky, which affected the taste of the dish, and the tofu wasn't fresh, but the long life kind.

The second tofu dish was a new dish, razon clams with tofu, green beans and red pepper. not very szechuan, but the waitress recommended it. It was just the kind of ordinary dish you find in every cantonese restaurant a few lumps of tofu and slivers of clams swimming in an ocean of gloppy brown sauce that tasted of takeaways.

Then I ordered several szechuan classics to test the restaurant, twice cooked pork and fish fragrant black fungus pork. Twice cooked pork is named thus because the first cooking dries the pork which is then refried with condiments. This was the wettest variety I've ever had but the taste was good.

water cooked bass ( actually bass swimming in chilli oil) was exactly that, no finesse.

the fish fragrant pork ( starred on the menu which signifies chef's speciality) was so poorly done, even the one I make at home is better. It was like those very bad takeaway food of unidentifiable bits glued together by a sweetish sourish sauce. Fushia Dunlop would seriously question where the crispness, the texture of such a dish when properly cooked has gone to.

Because I barely touched the food, waitress asked me how I found them, so I asked her if perhaps the head chef didn't cook them. She immediately insisted that he did. When I pointed out the flaws, she said perhaps he didn't and she would go to check in the kitchen

when she returned, she gave me more elaborate fibs like the fish fragrant pork is swimming in ' hin' ( chinese for thickened gravy) because thats how it should be, and the wet twice cooked pork wasn't at all wet. and she claimed that the head chef personally cooked those dishes.

They were so bad, I googled the head chef to find out where he trained, and lo and below he came to London chinatown from Szechuan via Germany and Cardiff. I think the long stints in those places cooking generic westernised chinese food, gloopy and sweetened has caused significant memory loss of what real Szechuan food, and more importantly what good chinese cooking is. That this restaurant built the chef up to be something special and fresh off the boat from a decent Szechuan restaurant, IS their true house style - just lie, people cannot tell the difference.

finally the bill came, more lies. They gave me an unitemised bill stating service charge hadn't been included. But when I saw the itemised one, I noticed they'd already whacked on ten percent.

The waitress showed me how to put the tips on the card, and this was one of those occassions I did not leave a tip. Nothing would make me return to that place, and in future I will find out what other restaurant this restaurant group manages because I will avoid those as well.

Trust me, there are way better Szechuan restaurants than this one, with way more pleasant services and genuinely nice staff.
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3 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 5
Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Completely different from everything else in China Town, really interesting menu. Also the staff are very accomodating and I love the old school feel of the place - e.g. water fountain, fish pond, leather booths and pictures of Tom Jones on the wall....
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Peter, Fitzrovia - View all reviews by this user
9 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Sunday, January 09, 2011

Tasty and authentic food. A refreshing departure from standard China Town fare. Takes me back to the Sichuan restaurants in Beijing. Service very friendly.
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AP
8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Saturday, May 29, 2010

This restaurant is my new favourite! My girlfriend and I stumbled across it by chance in January (I think soon after it opened) and have since revisited with various friends, all of which have loved the 'new' style of food and have since gone back there with other friends and family. There is also a karaoke room downstairs, which we used after the meal! The atmosphere of the restaurant is good, and the decor is minimal and clean. Super friendly staff. Go there, it really is a gem!
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AC
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Went here few days ago for dinner with friends. Quite enjoyed the sichuan dishes (Mabo tofu, some porks dishes were yummy). Probably less than the original Sichuan food, but I liked it.

My chinese friends recommended Angeles in Kilburn, but I like this place a lot more than Angeles.
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Sunny - View all reviews by this user
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, May 05, 2010

I have been there a couple of times with friends, a great venue with fantastic food!

Dishes are simply authentic and delicious, decor is definitely more tasteful compared to other Chinese restaurants in the area. Very relaxing atmosphere, great for both romantic dining or dinner parties. Veyr helpful staff, always ask for their recommendations!
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10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Sunday, April 25, 2010

Read the media reviews too, and went myself. The restaurant is nicely kitted out in a fairly non-chinese pan-global sort of style, slightly worryingly there were almost no chinese people in there, although the food was good quality and reasonably priced. Maybe I picked badly, but it was pretty bland, where sichuan food should be anything but.
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tom
7 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 6
Thursday, March 11, 2010