Szechuan Taste

The quality of Szechuan Taste Restaurant has sadly declined over the years. We’ve ordered takeout from this dingy establishment since I was in fifth grade, and for some reason, we keep on going back. The food is by far not the best, but the prices are very competitive for an Asian restaurant. I still remember getting dropped off as a little boy on the weekend, carrying $ 30 in cash, running straight to the register, and telling the cashier that I’ve ordered something for takeout. We usually call in around 30 minute ahead of time, and they always say the food will be done in 15 – 20 minutes. We always seem to fall for the trap and get there 20 minutes after we call. The cashier then nonchalantly tells me to «wait a bit kid, the food’s still cooking!» Though the cashiers have changed through the years, I still get a bit confused when my food isn’t ready even though they told me to come at this time! Waiting there for 10 minutes, I noticed that the only people that eat here are Chinese construction workers. Conclusion? It’s a really affordable place.
We generally like ordering the fried rice and chow mein dishes. On this occasion, probably our 20^th time? man, time really flies, we ordered the Pan Fried Chicken Chow Mein, Yangchow Fried Rice w/​Shrimp and Pork, and Singapore-​style Rice Vermicelli. These are extremely common Cantonese-​styled dishes that you can find at most typical Chinese restaurants in the U.S. of A.
YANGCHOW FRIED RICE W/​SHRIMP AND PORK ($ 6): The most solid of the three dishes, this yangchow fried rice LACKED FLAVOR and the pieces of char siu (BBQ pork), if there was much at all, were extremely hard and reminded me of bacon bits. I usually find solace in eating this dish, but even after eating 3 cups of this, I still WASN’T SATISFIED.
CHICKEN CHOW MEIN ($ 6): This dish was «MEH». Nothing really to complain about, a generous heaping of bok choy, and chicken strips that could be cut with a sharper knife.
SINGAPORE-​STYLE RICE VERMICELLI ($ 6): the most underwhelming of the three dishes. The chef really needed to add some more curry power or salt or something cause it was BLAND. The SHRIMP WAS CLEAN, which is one of my huge pet peeves, so they get bonus points for that! The char sui was dry and not up to standard.
TASTE: 2 – 3 Stars – Food is «meh».
SERVICE: can’t say cause I came here for takeout!
PRICE: 4 – 5 Stars – you can’t beat the price – seriously!
TOTAL: 3 Stars – I would give it 3.5 for the price, but the food is really of a «meh» quality.
Bottom Line: THIS PLACE IS SUPER CHEAP. If you can find a place in SF where you can eat a good amount for only $ 6 a plate, message me! However, cheap doesn’t mean good. The food here really is «MEH». Would I come again? If I’m hungry and need a quick cheap bite, sure!

It has been here for many years though the owners have changed from a senior lady, to a younger guy, then to current mid-​aged man. The food is getting better and improved, at an economic price tag, suitable for casual, family and close friends dinners. Recently, I found the lobster on noodles is very tasteful, plus a few other veg dishes.

Dined in on this place and ordered salt & pepper pork chop among other dishes. Half way thru our meal, i stumbled into a piece of scrub metal stuck on one of the pork chop. I called the manager and guess what he did when i mentioned to him that there is a piece of metal stuck on the pork chop– he tried to pick it with his hand instead of taking the plate and apologize! I had to tell him to take it away and i will not be paying it! See picture !

Szechuan Taste Restaurant seemed like they have been here forever. I remember coming here as a kid. I used to swim at Wawona Pool located not far from the haunted model airplane where it used to sit in the middle of the park. At night, the residence in the area would hear it howl! I kid you not. It was on the news a lot. Eventually, the plane haunted so many residence that the City took it away.
So as I was saying, I would pay a visit to Szechuan Taste after swimming practice and I took my coins out of my pocket and counted them one by one, and hope that it would add up to so many dollars because I was that starving kid that needed food in his tummy, especially after swimming practice. Funny thing, even today the food remains the same from the last time I visited. Some were good, and some were bland. And if you are looking for suggestions, try their whole crab and half chicken. They were actually pretty good. Their clams with black bean sauce was so so and a bit overcooked. In terms of flavor, I was expecting a bit more spicy and more fragrant which Szechuan is known for. But overall, it’s decent. Oh speaking off Szechuan, if you are not familiar where it is in China, it is located in the Southwest Region of Mainland China, not far from Guangzhou Province (Canton). If you’ve heard of Yangtze River (longest river in Asia about 3,000 miles and third in the world), then you are in the right location and also not far from Guilin (very famous town). By the way, many Americans have retired in Guilin and have become a miniature Berkeley California with a bunch of bohemian hippies, dressed with their Tommy Bahama, wondering around with their flip flops eating with their chopstick. Most of them are actually college professors. So if you’re looking to retire in China, this might be an option for you.
Szechuan Taste haven’t changed a bit. Though they’ve updated and remolded here and there, but overall, this is still a nice hole in the wall where you can get decent food with decent prices (not overpriced). The staff here remains super nice and they have quite a long time follower. They are also very busy up until closing on most days especially weekend. I’d definitely come back here to eat if I am in the area again.
Until then, be kind to one another and Cheers! ~ :p

Chicken chow fun. That’s chicken??? Noodles way too oily. First and last time here, probably.

Probably one of the oldest restaurant in Sunset area. But food was pretty good, home style Chinese cooking. Place is old, but it has their patrons. Pretty crowded even 9pm.
Stir fry beef with bitter melon — I do like bitter melon in general. This dish is pretty good. I like most Chinese cuisine with wok-​hey (wok air).
Clams in black bean sauce — pretty good,
Mixed veggies with Chinese sausage
Half salty Hakka chicken — the chicken is a little too dry. Not recommended.
They asked how many rice we want, we ordered 2 — they serve in a big bowl, very good!
Loved the complimentary Red Bean Sesame Balls
Come here hungry, comfort food!

One word: COMFORT. I often come to this restaurant for a quick bite whenever I feel stressed with work for lunch or just when I need to blow off some steam. This is that restaurant that serves food that’s ready to give you a quick hug with the affordability of their rice plates. I mean $ 5.95 for a quick plate of sweet and sour chicken and an abundance of rice, as well as other options such as Mongolian beef? You can’t beat it that easily. The only con for the latter is that the onion to beef ratio is 2:1 in favor of onions. But when factoring in cheap price and the portion, you can’t go wrong!
Let’s face it. This is your hole-​in-​the-​wall restaurant that knows no garish decors, unlike that one restaurant I reviewed (or roasted) a few blocks down a few months ago. Their food isn’t what you consider Michelin star world class quality. Sometimes the ratios between meat and rice or meat and veggies are not consistent. Sometimes, you wait too long and other days, it’s prompt. If Unilocal could give a more precise rating system, I’d give this a 3.7 but I’ll round it to a 4. So when you’re just fed up with life, walk in, have a seat, and indulge your sadness away on a cheap comfort meal.

This is not is not Szechuan food! The menu had no real Szechuan food in it; just Chinese takeout staples. I’ve cooked a lot of Szechuan food and been to several Szechuan restaurants. The name for the restaurant is misleading-​there is neither «Szechuan» flavor characterized by chili oil and Szechuan peppercorns nor is there any «taste» in their food.
The scallop dish had tiny scallops and no flavor. The heap of broccoli that made up most of the dish was bitter. The potstickers were really doughy. I’m glad we didn’t order any more food. It was mostly bad broccoli and water (soup broth had no flavor).
The restaurant was freezing and the door didn’t close properly, letting in an ice cold breeze. All of this would make a two star restaurant, but the service is what really brings it down to one star. The waitress was clueless about the menu, and it took us forever to get a check even though there were four waiters and only two other parties. I went up and asked for the check. Then, I had remind them ten minutes later.

Great take out!
Fried fish, lobster yee mein, lamb clay pot, double fried sweet sour pork ribs

I just want to write a review about this Chinese restaurant. We have been there numerous times, for lunch as well as for dinner. No matter which day or time of day, we were not disappointed to having a satisfying meal. We didn’t have to drive because just riding the L-​Taraval to 19^th Avenue; it’s just a few steps away from the place. It’s one of the bright spot to eat at this restaurant, very convenience and not having to find a space to park our car. We have nothing negative to say about it, the staff, or anything. There are photos about this place already, so you know about it. Bottom line is you will not be disappointed if you should eat here, no matter if it is for lunch or dinner. We’ll be back, again.

It has been a while since i went to this restaurant. Its your typical chinese restaurant in the sunset area. I dont know how much it cost since my family and i were invited by the relatives after the funeral and they did family style for each table. But by the board menu that they display on the wall, the prices are cheap. The foods here are pretty decent average chinese food. Some of the food that we had had the right of flavor, some were too sweet, some were a little bland that you need to add extra flavor from the sauce they provided, or salty. But it can fill your tummy if you eat each of the items on the family style menu. Since they have mostly bigger tables, of course this place can cater to family or large group

5÷2÷15 Loved this place, gave us soo much food we had more to take home than we ate at the resturant! Nice friendly staff, clean, and very tasty! I will return!

I’ve been coming here time to time for years, and overall I feel the quality at best is just okay, if not slowly inching downhill. If you desperately need Chinese food in a pinch you could swing on by but there are so many better options available out there, so I overall do not recommend coming here and don’t find myself coming back here anytime soon.
–The sanitation is poor, both the menus and tables are oddly kinda sticky to the touch, which is a huge turn off for my mindset because if your menus let alone tables aren’t clean, can I trust that the plates my food will later be on will be clean as well? Also, turns out the guy heavily smoking in the front of the restaurant that I passed entering the restaurant was going to be my server, so it was fun watching him finish his smoke break and then just walk right in and take my order immediately without washing up his hands or anything else at all, whoopie. The bathrooms gets a low scoring mark as well, although it’s definitely not the dirtiest bathroom I’ve ever seen, it certainly isn’t the cleanest by a long shot. I normally never comment on sanitation for buisnesses but I’ve never been that disgusted in restaurant’s sanitation before, so…
The food itself was a hit and miss.
–Ordered Chow Fun with Beef, overall the noodle strips (?) were decent but seemed kinda greasy despite the fact it wasn’t even that flavorful. The beef was also decent and it came with a couple pieces of broccoli to I guess balance out the greasieness of the dish. Overall it was okay, nothing extraordinary.
–Hong Kong Style Crab was a tad flavorless, and considering how expensive crab already is you would think you’d be paying for a really great quality crab, but despite the size of the crab it’s not seasoned very well. Overall kinda bland and not very flavorful at all.
–The real and probably the only star of the show was probably the salt and pepper pork chops, which was I thought was pretty good, well seasoned, and flavorful compared to the other dishes I tried. The pork was fried nicely, chewy on the inside and crispy on the outside. Probably the only thing I liked about this place, and if I ever come back I would definitely order this. Mmmhmm.
–It also occurred to me that this was the place where I officially stopped my old love of Honey Walnut Prawns because quite frankly I believe this place ruined it for me. I know a lot of people on Unilocal rave about it, but I just can’t agree with that considering my terrible past experience that I had here once before. I used to be a huge fan of Honey Walnut Prawns and I remember the last time I ever had it was here a couple of years ago. I remembered the walnuts were a tad too sweet & sticky and the mayonaise shrimp was maybe coated with too much mayonaise?
Ok, I’ll admit, maybe it wasn’t entirely this places’ fault completely, maybe it was a combination of things from an entire day’s worth of things I had eaten, but I remember eating a lot of this particular dish and within half an hour or so after leaving the restaurant I did not feel too particularly well. What happened next was when I got home I found myself with severe food poisoning and threw up everywhere. Needless to say now everytime I see Honey Walnut Prawns or oddly mayonaise (because the shrimp is coated in a thick layer of it) everywhere else I gag, and I now avoid the dish like the plague. Needless to say I do NOT recommend the Honey Walnut Shrimp.
Just overall not really the best place to go and grab Chinese food, but if you’re in a bind I guess it’ll make do. And judging from the next to empty people sitting inside eating, I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Needless to say I’d skip past here and go somewhere else.

Food was pretty good. Ordered Hong Kong style lobster, rice with shrimp and scallops, and Kung pao beef. Lobster was the best dish. Service was a disaster. I’m a white guy and they definitely don’t provide me with the same service they do for everyone else. They have free soup that everyone automatically gets on their table, except us. I tried asking for it and the waiter would recommend other soups saying they are better but we have to pay for it. I told him I wanted the free soup and then he finally said he would bring it. Same for oranges and the end of your meal with the bill. Can’t say I felt comfortable, but the food was decent. Not sure I’ll come back again.

Food was greasy so I had to blot it with napkins. The pork belly with pickled greens was the only thing I liked! My dad likes going here for lunch with his coworkers but I would not choose to come here again. The food is cheap though!

The food was OK.
There was something terribly wrong with one of the dishes though. I believe it was Mapo Tofu. I ate it, and something STANKED.
I thought maybe it was the bamboo since I always felt bamboos had a peculiar sour taste I was not used to. But, no. I tasted each ingredient separately within the dish and pinpointed the stank. The sour and rotten taste was from the tofu. Did we order stinky tofu? Oh hell no.
But, thankfully they refunded the order once we notified them.
FYI, the male waiter seems like he worked there for a while, so he has this ‘whatever’ attitude when taking orders, etc. It seems like all of them have this ‘whatever’ attitude. So, don’t expect to recieve a quality ‘service’ treatment, but they’ll do their job alright!

Definitely very different variety of food from a typical Chinese restaurant but I was not terribly impressed. Our family came on a recommendation so my expectations were a little high and it just did mot meet them. Overall flavors are pretty good, especially all their fried plates but their meat leaned on the chewy or tough side which I am not a fan of. But like I said, they have some unique plates if you’re down to get a little adventurous and they arent supet packed on the weekends.
Their service though is a 5! Waiters are very friendly, give solid reccomendations, and are quick to attend to your table.

I absolutely love this place! Not only is it reasonably affordable, the portion is worth it. My family usually like to come here for special occasions. We had recently come here for my grandma’s birthday. But 2 weeks before that we came for my cosmo license celebration.
My all time favorite food in ANY restaurant that will never grow old till I die, is calamari. But I’m very picky with how I would want it battered and fried. This restaurant definitely does not disappoint, let’s just say that much.
And am I the only one that finds their fried rices addicting? I prefer it so much more than regular rice. I mean who wouldn’t? More for less!
As much as I would love to come here as often as I’d like, I think it’s better to go with a group of people rather than just by yourself. And I believe it’s more fun with more people cus you get to order more food and try different things instead of a few plates. That’s just me. :)

Picked this place at random when hankering for a quick Chinese dinner.
Service was perfectly fine, in the typical curt Chinese restaurant manner (e.g. they brought a water glass, but they weren’t going to refill it without being asked0, bathroom not at all appalling, unlike other reports here.
Kung pao beef was Chinese country style: large chunks of meltingly tender beef and crunchy veggies. My only disappointment was the seasoning. Though quite spicy, this was achieved mostly by loading it with chili sauce which left it with an oddly sweet and sour effect.

I once watched a TV show that studied various parts of a restaurant to determine where one can find the most germs. They looked at things like seating, menus, napkin holders, bathroom doors, sinks, etc. Well… this place fits the bill for such a show. The menus were sticky, our table top felt like it hasn’t been wiped in hours and the bathroom was just a little suspicious. But you know what? The food freaking rocked and although you feel that some 20 health code violations are all simultaneously being broken at the same time you simply don’t care. You just suck it up and deal with it.
We had the following items:
— crab meat with fish mor soup — Nice start to the meal. Very healthy sized chunks of crab meat.
— Mongolian beef — Solid dish here. The meat was tender and I liked the taste of the sauce along with the little spicy kick it had to it.
— spicy salted pork spare ribs — I would say that this was the star of the meal. For pork these pieces were favor tender. So tender I thought I was eating fish.
— deep fried sanddab with soy sauce — I really enjoy fried fish but having it drenched in a plate of soy sauce made the fish fall apart too easily. That’s my only gripe about this dish.
Overall, a good tasting last meal in the beautiful city of San Francisco.