Szechuan China

Been here twice; a week before a belated grand opening, and during the grand opening.
Apparently, this restaurant is positioning itself a bit more like a fine dining options than other restaurants in this town. However, the quality of service is not following the price and napkins. They simply won’t come to your table. During the grand opening week, we waited for about 50 minutes for them to take order, re-​ask the server to bring the drinks we asked for, and finally get the first dish of food.
On the other hand, I liked their food. But the thing is, that the virtue I found in their plates, was more about its blandness (in a good way). I was expecting an extreme spiciness from the name ‘Szechuan China.‘
However, I really should say that I liked their spicy fish and tofu dish before I finish. I would visit this restaurant again for that single dish.

Szechuan China easily has the best Chinese food I’ve eaten in CU, but they’re lacking in consistency. 3.5 stars if I could.
First, the bad: I’ve been here five times with friends and each time one of the dishes we order comes out looking like garbage, tasting extremely bland, or both. Once it was the spicy string bean (sijidou), which had no flavor at all. Just today, the «fine shred potato with spicy capsicum» (tudousi) I ordered came out gray. I’m just so confused — how do you stir fry potatoes and make them gray? I’ve ordered the same exact dish before, and the potatoes were a beautiful shade of gold.
All of that said, though, the food here is great when the chefs are on-​point. The mapo tofu, ox tongue, eggplant dishes, and twice cooked pork are all authentic and tasty Sichuan staples. It’s on par with the stuff I’ve eaten back in Los Angeles, and approved by my friend from Sichuan. And really, the proof is in this place’s popularity with the Chinese crowd. Even on a random Wednesday night, the place is packed with Chinese families waiting to get a taste of Sichuan.
P. S. I’m Chinese. This means I get tons of advantages over other reviewers: I don’t make the mistake of ordering one dish for myself and not eating family style (i.e. dishes are supposed to balance each other out, not dominate your mouth with one flavor for an hour). I know what I’m getting before it comes to the table, and what it should taste like. I know not to order off the American menu. It’s disappointing to see that things like these fuel bad reviews when its a culture clash rather than a food issue.

Great food. Great ambience. The server we got was hella funny. Huge portions and yummy. Great for groups. Its pricey (though it was a 25% discount for the grand opening so my bill came out to be $ 30 for 2 coronas and 2 good dishes that was more than enough for my friend and me) and I paid $ 4 for corona.
I give them 4 stars because I went thirsty for like 15 minutes and I couldn’t get their attention, I finally asked my friend, a white male, to get their attention. He got it. And though I was paying the bill, they gave him my credit card.
Otherwise, barring the gendered dynamics, pretty decent place to go with a group and hang out and eat.
I will go back and try another couple of dishes.

Quick update– if you want to read all about their food see my review below. Just found out that the owner of Szechuan China is uploading fake reviews and fake photos. If you look at the Unilocal photos of Szechuan China you’ll see a few stock photos of food, that is not actual food from the restaurant. Even worse the same guy «King J.» Is trolling Golden Harbor’s Unilocal with fake 1 star reviews that barely make sense. This combined with their 2 star food is simply unacceptable.

Here we go…
a) My portion was miniscule. I’d say maybe 1 cup of edible food in my whole dish, which I forget the name of; I know it was some sort of dry-​fried beef with sichuan dry hot peppers. The taste wasn’t bad, but the chilis – and RIDICULOUS amount of salt – overpowered any other seasoning that may have been in there.
For 14 bucks, though, throw in some actual pieces of vegetables, or give me a side of vegetables, or just give me more meat than a small hamburger patty contains. I’m not asking for a Hometown Buffet amount of food, just enough that I won’t be hungry when I leave… which I was.
b) My partner’s experience was dreadful. See her review – Nadja R. – for details,
c) THEY HAVE THE AUDACITY TO AUTOMATICALLY CHARGE YOU A FIFTEEN PERCENT TIP WITHOUT TELLING YOU UNTIL YOU PAY THE CHECK. Doesn’t matter how many people you have, or whether you like the service, POW. You spend 40 bucks, you also just tipped them 6, whether they deserved it or not.
Honestly? Really a letdown.
Doesn’t help that the owner is apparently trolling the Unilocal [and maybe FB?] of Golden Harbor to knock their ratings down. VERY poor form, and even though it’s the only Sichuan place in town, I won’t be going back.

This place was amazing! reminde

Had a great meal of Dim Sum and hot tea. The owner helped guide my selection. The food was delicious and the hot tea was the perfect accompaniment. This is a new restaurant and I was anxious to try it.
I will be back!

I’ve been to Szechuan China 4 times now, still amazing and easily the best Chinese in Champaign IMO. Unfortunately, most of the people reviewing Chinese places here non-​Chinese (like 90% white people). There’s a reason that this place’s parking lot is often full of cars; several of my international student friends that have eaten here have all said that they love it. Last time I went with some, one of them said about some of the dishes: «It feels like I’m back in China.» If you would like some help with what to order, I highly recommend the following:
Chongqing fish filet with pickled vegetables
Ox tongue and tripe with chili sauce
hot and sour shredded potato
eggplant with chili sauce
seared cow stomach
san bei chicken
我有去过巴蜀川菜四次，这家还是很好吃，对我来讲是香槟最好吃的中餐之一。难怪停车场里经常有很多车。好多中国留学生朋友也都说巴蜀的菜很不错，我上次去的时候有一个北京来的朋友说我们点的东西让他感觉还在中国。我觉得这些菜都太好吃：
重庆酸菜鱼片
夫妻肺片
酸辣土豆丝
鱼香茄子
爆炒牛百叶
三杯鸡

I went with two of my co workers. I got the generals chicken. It was crispy. Burnt black crispy. My co worker got the hunan beef which was 90% fat and cheap meat. The tea tasted like soap water. They brought the food out one order at time with minutes in between. When we got our check we asked to split it. They responded «no split check» and told us that there was a 20 dollar minimum if you use debit or credit cards. Oh and the lunch didn’t come with a egg roll, and no fortune cookies after the meal. Will never return.

The food was too salty to eat. We had to ask for less salty, but it was still salty.

I’d give Szechuan China 2.5 stars if that was an option. The place is decorated well: quiet, neutral colors, with tasteful accents in richer tones. It’s clean and grown-​up in atmosphere. But, the food was okay — not that good, not that great. The dishes offer quality ingredients, but the preparation of the entrees is uninspired and the appetizers average, with no real pop in flavor.
We stopped in for lunch, since lunch specials offer a reasonable price at which to try a new restaurant. We were excited by reviews of authentic and spicy food focusing on the Szechuan region.
The lunch special menu was made up of only Chinese American standard dishes, which was a disappointment. I ordered the chicken with garlic sauce and fried rice. My partner ordered General Tso’s with steamed rice. We also had meat dumplings and the Shanghai spring rolls. We didn’t get the soup, since a single-​serving appetizer portion of soup was $ 5. The pricing overall is uneven.
My entre, the chicken with garlic sauce, came with chicken, mushrooms, broccoli, and other vegetables. It had little to no garlic flavor, but a pleasant late lingering spice. The entrée had far, far too much sauce, and of the slightly too sweet, gloppy variety (so much that I was a little disgusted by it). My partner’s General Tso’s chicken was crispy, but again too sweet and little spice. The fried rice with my dish was fine, but lacked any aromatics and had no meat for flavoring either. We did not receive spoons with any dish to help serve portions onto a smaller plate.
The meat dumplings were in the long wrappers pinched on one side. They seemed like they might contain pork mixed with chicken. They lacked in flavor — no ginger, garlic, herb — and were underseasoned. The spring rolls came with a spring roll wrapper. The server (whose English was not great) said he thought they had meat in them. He agreed to cabbage but seemed less sure. They had cabbage in them, but the meat was hard to see or taste. They had a decent texture, but didn’t taste like much on the inside. The dipping sauce for the potstickers was vinegary and salty (soy base) with no scallions, garlic, or other flavoring. The dipping sauce for the spring rolls was standard sweet n sour. We asked for hot mustard and received carryout packets.
The portion size for lunch was generous enough. The value was decent. The hot tea was good, but was not replenished by mid meal.
I complained on the way out that we were automatically charged a 15% tip on the bill for a party of two. The woman at the front counter said they are doing this because in China tipping is not done and many Chinese who eat at restaurants here do not tip. I don’t think it’s legal for the restaurant to include the tip automatically in the bill, but I’m not sure. There are no signs or notices about it. I told her it would offend American customers. In our case, it also cheated the server, because we usually tip 20%.
We have speculated that the many authentic Chinese menu items might be better prepared and interesting. There are many dishes with traditional ingredients (such as tripe). We can’t confirm that they are any better, however.
Given the underwhelming preparation and the weak service with the required gratuity, I doubt that we will be back.

I feel very bad writing a negative review about a restaurant that clearly is popular. But I must be honest. A little over a week ago, my wife and I decided to try Szechuan China. When we walked into the place we were encouraged, because we were the only Anglos there. If Asians liked it, it must be good! And for all I know, it is outstanding according to genuine ethnic standards. The hostess was very friendly, as was our waiter, although he did not appear to understand that, when there are a gazillion items on a menu, diners should not be expected to order within three minutes of being seated. When our orders arrived (rather quickly, in fact), both were feasts for the eyes. Everything was great thus far.
But that’s where the feast ended. My wife ordered a dish that featured mushrooms and tofu. Although beautiful to look at, it was tasteless. We both decided that they must not have added any flavorings to it – it appeared to be just mushrooms and tofu, nothing else (except for, presumably, the cornstarch that created the lovely thickness of the sauce).
My entrée, a Szechuan dish featuring poached fish in a very hot chili sauce, at first impressed me with its zing. But after a minute or so, I began to taste the salt. Wow! I grew up with traditional Texas cuisine, which means that I was pretty much pickled in sodium chloride by the time I was in my teens – so saltiness is not inimical to my taste buds. But this was beyond the pale. I was still tasting the salt half an hour after I got home, even after rinsing my mouth several times with water. (I should also mention that the dish overflowed with oil.)
Because we are impecunious, we never leave food on our plates at a restaurant; we even carry rather substantial containers in our car so that we don’t have to ask for unecological Styrofoam containers. Yet this is the first time in our many years of marriage that we have left substantial portions of restaurant dishes on our plates. I was able to eat only about a third of my food before the extreme saltiness forced me to stop eating. My wife ate about a fourth of her entrée before its tastelessness led her to stop eating. And we had absolutely no desire to take the leftovers home. I fixed some snacks for us after we got home to satisfy our still-​significant hunger.
To their credit, the kind folks at the restaurant offered to give us a discount (which we refused). We left a generous tip. We understand it’s possible that we happened to order dishes that were anomalously poor. But we figure that, as rarely as we eat out, we dare not risk another fifty bucks by returning to Szechuan China.

This owner has done a great job of remodeling the restaurant and offers a wide menu choice. So glad to see someone come into that location. Corner of Springfield and 1^st street in Champaign.
Food was awesome… we had it delivered to our office and everyone really enjoyed the food.