Szechuan Gourmet
Does a restaurant with handwritten signs taped to its walls deserve two stars? Frank Bruni thought so, in his 2008 review of Szechuan Gourmet.
Our server waited for confirmation that we'd be OK with both the coldness of the sesame noodles and spiciness of the pork dumplings before placing our orders for appetizers. But the noodles were a revelation, neither ice cold nor slimy, as we'd feared, but instead a melange of chili oil, sesame paste, soy sauce, and garlic that permeated the very fiber of the room-temperature noodles.
As for the dumplings, they were light but firm pockets of pork, the shell strong enough to hold the filing, yet not so tough that we were chewing for days.
As entrees we sampled ho-hum prawns with garlic sauce and a textury stir-fried shredded smoked duck. Here "smoked" wasn't just an adjective, it was the dish's defining characteristic, lending each bite terrific mouthfeel. (Yep, we actually just wrote the word "mouthfeel.")
We see Bruni's two stars, and we raise him four chopsticks.
Our server waited for confirmation that we'd be OK with both the coldness of the sesame noodles and spiciness of the pork dumplings before placing our orders for appetizers. But the noodles were a revelation, neither ice cold nor slimy, as we'd feared, but instead a melange of chili oil, sesame paste, soy sauce, and garlic that permeated the very fiber of the room-temperature noodles.
As for the dumplings, they were light but firm pockets of pork, the shell strong enough to hold the filing, yet not so tough that we were chewing for days.
As entrees we sampled ho-hum prawns with garlic sauce and a textury stir-fried shredded smoked duck. Here "smoked" wasn't just an adjective, it was the dish's defining characteristic, lending each bite terrific mouthfeel. (Yep, we actually just wrote the word "mouthfeel.")
We see Bruni's two stars, and we raise him four chopsticks.
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