taste of sichuan beaverton

went there for lunch in a group of 8 and ordered from lunch menu. the quantity of food served and taste were ok, nothing spectacular.servicewas good.

not bad but not great. i was hopeful with some positive word-of-mouth endorsements and the proportion of asian guests in the waiting area. i'd get occasional whiffs of a really fishy smell and notice the cluttered spaces, which didn't enhance the experience. theservicewasn't horrible as some reviews indicate but it was far from good. an example is they didn't ask if we wanted to order drinks. the taste of our orders was ok and the portions were fairly generous. the spicy dish, kung pao chicken (sichuan style) even had some heat. i wouldn't go out of my way for this place but it's better than many other places.

great food, why the bad reviews?. i was surprised this restaurant got a mediocre rating. the food here is very good. reading the reviews, most of the complaints are about poor service. i have eaten at this restaurant three times now, and although theservicecan be a bit leisurely, i have never had a significant problem. theserviceis fine, the food is excellent and authentic, and the prices are good. it is very popular (especially with asians), which may explain some of the slow service.

i did see a few reviews complaining about the food. let me explain something. did you ever notice that chinese restaurants used to always say "chinese and american food"? that's because most of what americans think is chinese food is not chinese, it was invented here. that includes chow mein, fried rice, lo mein, egg rolls, mu shu, general tso's chicken, orange chicken, mongolian beef, ginger beef, kung pao chicken, chop suey, egg foo young, wonton soup, and many other dishes.

if you ever visit china (i have) you realize that. as many reviews have stated, this restaurant is authentic. it may not match what you are used to. if so, don't down-vote it just because it is unfamiliar and not what you expect. if you hate surprises, go eat at mcdonalds.

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 ofserviceleaves 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 can place your 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 earlyserviceproblems were due to new establishment growing pains, but its been a long while now and nothing has improved; if anything its gotten worse. this place could be fantastic with some streamlining of theservicesystems. as it stands, it is only "ok" and that's merely on the strength of its food.

authentic ma la flavor - in beaverton?. yes! when my hot-and-sour soup--a prequel to my lunch entree and included in the price--arrived, i was very pleased to detect the distinctive sichuan flavor ma la (literally, "hot-numb" [spicy from crushed red chile peppers, numbing from formerly-illegal sichuan peppercorns]) throughout. delicious, and absolutely szechwan in nature. my entree was chow mein (i chose hand-shaved for my noodles, chicken as the protein) and it was delicious. very subtle, not salty or hot in the least--but intricately seasoned, full of crisp-tender julienned vegetables. the hand-shaved noodles--thick, rough, angular, variable in size--were authentic too; i had missed these since i left seattle.

everything about the visit was spot on. i arrived for a late lunch, just shy of 2:00 pm.servicefor me was excellent; my server spoke english well and absolutely everything about my order--including a carefully-described beverage--was accurate and timely. of course,serviceprobably has more to do with the actual person waiting on you; i heard some peeved yet polite white people in a nearby booth asking their server (a different person) for -their- soup, now that they were well into their entree. the cavernous place was spotlessly clean, and though not terribly full at my odd visiting hour, one can see that it is built to accommodate tremendous crowds. when i visited the men's restroom, i found it spacious, beautifully appointed, and impeccably clean.

about that mild chow mein: my server assured me that next time, i can order it with extra spice, chiles, ma la oil--whatever i want. no one can beat that! this place is wonderful, and well worth the schlep out to the far reaches of beaverton.

food was inedible. the food was so salty it was inedible. the first time we tried this place, the food and theserviceas good. but this last time the food was so salty, we couldn't eat it. we won't be back.

the food is quite good, similar to real chinese food, without the worry of cigarette smoke. my food came out quickly.servicewas good.

it should have been better. i lived in beijing over a year and have been back several times. i had been looking forward to trying a taste of sichuan.

i felt theservicewas quite terrible. it took nearly an hour and a half for the mu shu pork to arrive at our table. what were they doing? chasing down the pig? the mu shu pork should not have been served so late. it was very rude of the waiter to insist we accept it, especially since we had told him to forget it only a few minutes before.

the noodles were too thick, machine cut, and had too thick a sauce, and that was americanized almost beyond recognition - not at all what i had eaten in chengdu.

the pepper beef dish was also too americanized. it was not a recognizable chinese dish.

the fresh pork belly with chiles was ok but nothing special.

the ma po dofu was a potentially outstanding dish, representative of sichuan style - except for the notable absence of any "lip feel" from 麻辣 (málà), which should have been its signature.

the green onion pancakes were good, but the vinegar served with them was taiwanese, not shaanxi. it is just the wrong flavor.

the potstickers were a little too thick-walled for my taste, and the ginger emphasis in the filling disproportionate to the rest of the spices.

i was a bit surprised that they had only a rather ordinary jasmine tea.

all in all, it was a notch above mediocre; decent but not exceptional food ruined by dreadful service.

i am willing to give it another shot, but the next time i want to try much more of the "wild side" dishes. still on my list (all of which i ate during my year in china):
dry cooked frog
chengdu bbq lamb
the other parts of a pig
fire pot - beef brisket, fish morsels and intestine
swimming fire fish

as far as the spice level, i don't think it came even close to that in chengdu. i did not find it overwhelming.

theservicereally was bad. our table was dreadful. it was obvious there were communication issues between the kitchen and the wait staff. it was also clear to me that our waiter understood it was wrong to thrust that very late dish on us, but he did it anyway.

i think if we are going to eat americanized chinese, we have better options elsewhere. i would like to go back to beijing hot pot (out near fubonn) and see how they are faring under their new management.

this is the best place to get chinese food in the portland area. my wife is chinese and after living in china for 3 years we were struggling to find a place which sold real chinese food. however, like other reviews, theserviceis not good, similar in a way to restaurants in china. we still return most weeks as the food is delicious. would award 5 stars for the food alone but,serviceneeds vast improvement.

wow. okay they are busy, they are new, theservicewill improve, but this is the best chinese food i have ever had. the patronage is mostly ethnic chinese, and the place is packed for dinner. i get food to go, it is awesome. this is again, the best chinese food i have ever eaten.

second time in, still awful service. the same blonde server with no answers. none of the staff cares if you get your food and there is a good chance you wont. stay clear if you want lunch or dinner under two hours. welcome to castro de castro.


-----28 oct, 2011-----

worstservicein my life. actuallt never got our food. awful, then they blamed on intel and groupon. dont go!!

don't go for the service. food is good, but theserviceneeds work. i went during busy lunch hour - there seems to be enough people working, but very disorganized.

i ordered mongolian beef - something that is relatively quick to make. while the rest of my party of 4 got their food, mine didn't come out until the check came - an hour after i ordered.

with this failure of service, one would expect them to apologize and take my meal off the bill, but they did neither. they tried to serve me an hour after i ordered, so i had to tell them it was too late to dine in and now needed it to go. i also told them to take the meal off the bill - which they did without apology.

get your food to go. if you like it enough, then try dining in to see what kind ofserviceyou get... or don't get.

pretty good. i was a little hesitant to try taste of sichuan because of a previous review i read. but, food was good,servicewas good, and pricing was good.

i ordered the lunch special and had the garlic pork with a coke. the lunch special came with sweet and sour soup, your choice of rice (fried or steamed), and meat.

the waiters seemed a little inexperienced, but very responsive once you asked for something. the place was very busy when i showed up for lunch, so i thought theservicewas very good based on the workload the waiters were dealing with.