great food, sketchy service. having gone to taste of sichuan several times in the months since it opened, i can honestly say that while they have delicious food, their sense of service leaves something to be desired.
the good:
their food is fantastic. noodles, rice, chicken, pork, beef, pork buns, frog, jellyfish, i've had it all and loved it all. i don't know how authentic it is, but it strikes me as closer to the mark than pf changs, panda express, and the like. moreover there seems to be a large following of local chinese residents so i'm inclined to believe their dishes are authentic. so delicious and authentic chinese cuisine = awesome.
the bad:
if you go any time other than lunch, you will likely find yourself waiting, and by waiting i mean waiting a long time at every stage of the encounter. you will sit in line to be seated. you will wait to be approached about your drink order. you will wait to actually order. at this point, you will have waited at least half an hour. sometimes you will have to actually approach the servers yourself and ask if you canplaceyour order.
then your food will come in stages, so that you feel inclined to either sit and wait for your friend's/family's food to arrive, or wait for the rice to come with your meat dish or you end up finishing an entire segment of your meal before the remainder arrives.
then you'll find yourself waiting again while your server is busy doing everything but bringing you your bill, more drinks, or to-go boxes.
and if they mess up your take-out order they won't give you a refund. to their credit, they'll give you a free entre that you did order, but you may ultimately still find yourself out several dollars more than expected. this involves a somewhat dubious system of giving your name and keeping your bill (which doesn't list what you purchased) and so i was inclined to just take the extra food immediately and save it rather than risk not getting it later.
in sum:
i really want to love this place. my first experience here was great. the second was worse. the third established a pattern. lunch is a great time to go, prices are cheap, portions are large, and the food is excellent (if only a limited version of the menu). but dinner and take-out are dubious. i'd hoped that the early service problems were due to new establishment growing pains, but its been a long while now and nothing has improved; if anything its gotten worse. thisplacecould be fantastic with some streamlining of the service systems. as it stands, it is only "ok" and that's merely on the strength of its food.