11005 Burnet Road, Austin, TX. |
Recently, we’ve been watching a lot of food channels on Youtube. Mainly Food Ranger and Migrationology. Watching Trevor James eat Chinese food in the streets of Chengdu had us craving Szechuan food. So when Szechuan House popped up on our search and it’s only 3 miles away, we were excited to try it out.
When we got there, we were not disappointed. The place is simple with no fancy decor but that’s not what we’re there for. The menu is largely separated by category. You can also order online and get it to go or delivered. Check out their menu online.
The food is served family communal style. Each dish is meant to share around the table and served alone along with a large plate of rice. Each person is to fill their plate or bowl with the dishes on the table. I grew up eating with this style, rice is a staple part of every meal including breakfast. During every meal, we have 2-3 different dishes to eat with our plate of rice.
What we didn’t anticipate was the size of each dish. They were all big and since it was our first time to eat here, we each ordered something we wanted to try. So here's the breakdown of our meal.
Spicy Cold Noodles (A9) 6.95
For an appetizer, we ordered spicy cold noodles. It’s cold egg noodles served with a sauce made with sesame paste and hot chili oil. It was delish and just enough heat that makes you want to keep eating it. The plate was a big too, that was a meal by itself.
The Twice Cooked Pork on Sizzling Iron Plate (P9) 10.95
Thinly sliced pork belly stir-fried in soy sauce, bell pepper, hot peppers, and leeks then plated on a sizzling iron plate. It’s a simple dish with lots of flavors. My husband ordered this and he ate a lot of it and we still ended up taking some home.
This number is not for the weak stomach. If you are adventurous in trying out different food, this is a good one to try. Just like the title, it is sliced pork intestine and pork blood cooked in hot fire pot. The broth is filled with dried hot chilis, Szechuan peppercorn or prickly ash peppercorn, oil, and napa cabbage. They included some beef tripe along with the pork intestine and pork blood. This bowl is big and it’s is probably made to serve 3-4 people. We took half of it home.
Sweet and Sour Chicken (C10) 9.95
Our son is still into his picky stage when it comes to food. He does not want sauce in anything he eats unless it's soup. So he ordered his Sweet and Sour chicken with the sauce on the side. He eats anything with rice and took what was left home. This plate is made to serve 2-3 people. He ate 10 pieces and barely put a dent on his plate.
$55.00 later, we left the place overly stuffed with 4 take outs with our leftover food. For what we spent, we could have fed 6-8 people. We will definitely go back again and try other food on the menu. It will take a few trips to try everything on the list but we don’t mind. It’s a great place for family meals or with a group.
The service was great. The food came out fast and our waiter was friendly. We realized later that she used to wait on us at a neighborhood buffet restaurant that we used to frequent but it had since closed. The lady at the front desk was an older lady and had a smile the whole time we were there.
What is this?
Now, this is the type of things you want to see at an Asian restaurant. In Asia, you'll find these type of fans on the wall and on the ceiling. You will not see this very often in America and much less in Texas. In fact, it's the first time I saw it here and I was tickled by our discovery.
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