Si Chuan Restaurant

Woohoo! As HOT as it gets.

This is REAL sichuan, szechuan, szaaachooOOO-wan! The true fine food from the western end of old China, where peppers meet peppers meet meat. Burn your tongue and numb your lips with fire and ecstasy. This food is the champion rhinovirus-killer and it's here in Acton where it's done with the sort of homely love that would have you think you've been zapped to Chengdu, not lost near the end of the District Line.

The owner lady guided us away from the most ridiculously spicy dishes to finer fantastic dishes that other diners were drooling over, but screw that - we ignored her pleas and went for the super-spicy authentic-as-they-come fish boiled in a claypot soup of hot chillies and szechuan peppers. It's a sight to behold (see photos). The thickest layer of nature's most potent chemical warfare with a wonderfully flavoured succulent fish buried underneath. Don't drink the soup. Not unless you want a sneezing fit like a coke addict and lips so numb they feel like you snogged a mug of liquid nitrogen.

With our chilli-oil immersed dumplings, and spicy salted squid starters we were burning with pleasure and our white tablecloth was left looking like the blood-stained sheets of massacre of people who drink too much Sunny Delight... covered in red/orange drips from spooning the delicious fire into our faces.

Just for the experience of travelling to Acton for a food I've craved so much since my return from China, I'm giving this five stars. It's authentic, it's spicy, the staff are gracious and all the other dishes we spotted being nommed-at were things we'll want to make a return for. Sure, it's in nowhereville, it's a little cold and quiet, many of the best things like their hotpot are only written in Chinese and the owner doesn't stop smiling at you all night long, but if enough of us go there she'll be too busy to creep us out, we'll generate warmth and noise and the buzz will be more than just the Hot Hot Heavenly Heat.

On rolling up to Sichuan Restaurant, there's little indication of its true potential. After all, it looks pretty humdrum and its menu consists mainly of Anglo-Chinese crowd pleasers like sesame prawn toast, crispy aromatic duck, and chicken & cashew nuts. There is page after page of this stuff on the main menu and it's only after 120 or so dishes before we come across the Chef's Specials. There's also a separate menu card with more Sichuan goodies on it, which has been translated into English.


Our party of seven meant that we could give the menu, a good going over. One dish I would never have thought of ordering was corn w/salted egg yolk but my friend insisted this was a must-order. This dish was sensational and who'd have thought corn would be the star dish of the evening? Although fried, it wasn't greasy and the salted egg yolk gave it an addictive quality. I meant to ask the management about the origins of this dish but I got bogged down talking about the dan dan noodles which were also excellent. I loved the way the spicy sauce clung onto these noodles of exceptional quality. The owner proudly told me that the noodles used were hand pulled Shandong la-mian. Don't hold me to it though, as my Mandarin is sub-schoolboy.


Although not described as such, the sweet & sour eggplant dragon can be considered Sichuan Restaurant's signature dish. Technically, there's nothing wrong with this dish but I think it looks better than it tastes. I guess that's because I remain unconvinced that sweet & sour and aubergine go well together.


Given the size of our party, we chose a few dishes that we might not normally go for. Of these, I liked the baby cuttlefish w/spicy sauce, which pretty much did what it said on the tin. I was less impressed with the Dongpo pork leg a 'red cooked' dish originally from East China, as it should have been more tender. Mind you, I'm not totally surprised as slow cooked dishes like these often disappoint in restaurants. The sour & spicy potato thread was well seasoned and had a nice crunch but it got a bit boring after a while.


You didn't think that was it? We also checked out some old favourites such as la zi ji known as chicken with chillies here. The chicken bits were larger than usual and were authentically on the bone. Tossed with generous amounts of dried chillies and Sichuan peppercorns, this had real fire and is one of the better versions, I've had in London. I particularly enjoyed the bits of fried skin! I also liked the si ji dou or stir fried green beans, which were generously laced with minced pork and preserved veg. That said some thought the beans were on the mature side


Less successful was the shui zhu niu rou or spicy beef in a pot w/chillies, which inexplicably lacked heat. It was a bit disappointing compared to the rest of the dinner and better versions can be found elsewhere. Considering we ordered ten different dishes, I could forgive the one duff dish of fried minced pork w/vermicelli or ants climbing up a tree. It was far too salty as too much soy had been added. Although this might be a one-off as my friend didn't remember it being as salty on previous visits.


Service veered from the efficient to the eccentric. When the management were overseeing things, there were no problems but when the waitress was serving us, it was a bit 'Fawlty Towers'. In particular, she seemed over keen to clear the table when there wasn't a real need. The poor girl nearly started a riot when she made a move for the corn as there were still a few kernels left.


The bill came to a scarcely believable £154 which equates to £22/head including rice, tea, three bottles of wine and 10% service. Take out the booze and our dinner would've cost around £15/head amazing value for food of this quality.


I'll be returning to Sichuan Restaurant for its inventive and imaginative cooking. I don't say this lightly but I think it ranks alongside Chilli Cool and Empress of Sichuan in the top flight of Sichuan restaurants in London.


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