Szechuan House

If this restaurant is in Los Angeles Chinese area, it already closed business ! The only problem is that this area there is no other Chinese restaurant it is mean no competitors, that is why their food is high price and bad service. First, their food is so-​so it is not worth that price, again, if this restaurant at LA no body go, cause people know what is Chinese food. Second, the waiter, the guy who is taller than other waiters, can you change your facial expressions?! I do not know you were crying or smiling, just like customer owe you some money, look at your face I really can not swallow food. Please remember that customers are feeding you guys, if you guys tired to do service to people, just quit find other job. It is easy!

Good food (best and closest to authentic Chinese in Iowa City in my opinion); service is pretty mediocre although it’s gotten better in the last couple years.

The problem here is inconsistency. The second problem is that I bet a dinner for two that they don’t read their reviews. The third problem is inconsistency.
A delivery order yesterday was a disaster. No amount of vinegar, soy sauce or sugar could correct a terrible hot and sour soup. Scallion Pancakes were undercooked. Eggplant and Garlic Sauce — more like Eggplant with a bottle of fish sauce. I ordered mixed vegetables with fried tofu under the Szechuan category. To play it safe, I added a note to make it spicy. Guess what? And the tofu was fried to a crisp as well.
This restaurant, like Food Republic and Uncle Sun, were started to cater to the increasing Chinese student population that seek the food they love from home. That’s wonderful. As a native New Yorker, that’s what I love about Iowa City. But I am not sure if the issue is that they simply are mediocre cooks or if they are providing a less than adequate product to customers that have few options.

Food is just OK. What I am not satisfied is they added the 15% tip into your bill without prior notice. What’s worse, they still displayed the recommended tip on your receipt, which is a kind of misleading to let you pay the tip twice.
If you are looking for some OK Chinese food, they did their job. But you can still find better food somewhere without this kind of stupid trick. Never come back again!

This place does not have a full bar, even though it says it does on the information page. Beer only. The food was just ok, and when we asked for soy sauce, they gave us the little plastic packets instead of a bottle.

Food is good and authentic. but seems like have a really poor management. there is a short hair Chinese girl, when I said to add something which I did before with another server. she reply with a really rude and unfriendly voice. «no» I was shocked by her reaction. She said I was rude to her and wanna to fight with her when I walked into the door, I am really confused about why she think this way. but actually I had a really good day and enjoy my day off from work. then, I asked her if she can ask the server last time, she said no, and she said she is the boss and manager here. She ask me if I wanna eat or no. I also manager in a restaurant, I understand maybe something happened to her. anyway, I think there should have another Chinese restaurant open to be a competitor, otherwise this will never change.

Amazing fried rice! Good price too.

Food is relatively authentic compared to other Chinese restaurants in Iowa City. Very spicy but tasty. However things other than food are disappointing.
The impression Szechuan House gives me: noisy, not super clean, not very organized (all to-​go boxes being packed on the bar table). No service at all… One time they were even out of plates…
Note, they add 15% tips to your bill automatically if the bill is over $ 50. You can argue them to take it off and give the percentage you want. Personally I do not think the service deserves 15%.

The tea refills were very forthcoming, the dishes were perfectly balanced, and I’m glad Iowa City has this! You can ask for the menu with pictures to help you decide on your dishes of the night. That’s how we selected our Beef With Ginger & Scallions.

BEWARE MENU TRANSLATIONS BY THE STAFF! That is if you can find your server… either way the «Spicy delight» was described as «pork, chicken, and seafood» in actuality it’s coagulated blood broth, pig intestines (poorly cleaned), chicken gonads, and some overcooked slimy fish. I would not recommend this dish unless you need to miss work the next day.

Worst dining experience in years. I ordered pad Thai, general taos chicken, and crab rangoon for delivery. It cost 35, which would have been fine had the food been decent. However, that was not the case.
It took more than two hours for the delivery to arrive. The driver said he had lots of orders and the food was guaranteed to be hot. On the one hand I empathize with him, but you should not accept orders if you can’t keep up.
Though warm, the food was definitely not fresh. The pad Thai was seriously the worst I’ve ever had. It was coated in some weird orange sauce and there were random peppers thrown in as though the cook staff scraped in whatever vegetables they had left over. I ate two or three bites and threw it away – I hate wasting food.
I will never order food from this place again.

If you’re looking for authentic Chinese food, this is the place for you. My only complaint is that the things that aren’t from the Sichuan province (what they specialize in) aren’t really all that great. The crab rangoon, which I really like but I know is actually a food that originated in the US, is pretty awful. There is no crab in them and they taste too sweet and almost like a dessert. Most of the noodle dishes (pan-​fried thick rice noodles, lo mein, etc) as well as the fried rice tastes the exact same. However, there are many great authentic dishes here. My favorites are the pan-​seared spinach, kung pao chicken, and hot pot.

Maybe my favorite Iowa City restaurant? I’ll admit that the service isn’t the best, but I don’t think it’s as bad as some of the reviews make it sound. The servers don’t speak perfect English, or hover. Get over it. I’d recommend the cumin lamb, poached slice fish, spicy and crispy chicken, or anything with pork intestine. You really owe it to yourself to try the pork intestines. Portions are huge, so I’d recommend coming as a group and sharing multiple dishes. If you come as a couple or alone you will have leftovers.

I ordered from Szechuan House hoping for a treat. I received an unappetizing disaster. The crab rangoon are so sweet that I thought they were cannoli, and the Hunan dish was a greasy mess. Don’t order from here. I have yet to find a good Chinese restaurant in Iowa City, and this is definitely not on the list.

It’s legit Sichuan food, the best Chinese food in town. But the service is so so, and sometimes I think the material is not fresh enough although still edible. But nothing beats the homy taste of Chinese food, or exotic taste depending on who u r.

This is always the place I choose if I want some authentic, Chinese food. Because it is a Sichuan restaurant, it is always wise to choose dishes that they specialize in. My friends and I usually get the chili eggplant, mapo tofu, and lamb with cumin. You should be aware what you ask for, because they use MSG in some of their dishes to make it more flavorful. So if something tastes too good to be true, you bet they poured some of that powdered cancer in your soup.
Food aside, the service is pretty much terrible, especially when they are busy. The waitresses who served us were straight up rude. When we asked for a napkin or even if we would get that bubble tea we ordered 30 minutes ago, they would toss whatever it is we asked for on the table and leave. I understand that customer service probably isn’t the highest priority on their list, but I kindly ask that they treat people with respect. Although the food was good, the kind of treatment we received left a bad taste in my mouth.

First visit: The potstickers were my favorite. The meat dumplings pretty much the same as potstickers, only colder and boiled. The Hong Kong Seafood Soup was on the boring side and had lots of cornstarch and not too much seafood. Shrimp friend rice was not bad, but nothing special. Second visit: #35 Greens and Tofu Soup very good, They light broth and bok choy with the tofu very clean and tasty. #116 Pork, squid, shrimp (tho no shrimp in the dish we got), bean sprouts, and we added broccoli and it was slightly salty and delicious. Will order these again, along with the potstickers.

Positives: The food is good. I recommend the Singapore noodles and Ox tongue. What is great is the food isn’t that expensive and you get a lot of food for your money.
Negatives:
However, the service stinks. Lately it’s been taking me half an hour just to get my check so I could leave. They clearly need to hire more waiters and waitresses

This review might be rounded up for those who like authentic Chinese food. I can’t say that I do so that’s why my review is lower. Many love this place for that reason alone, I must say that I am somewhat «Americanized» when it comes to Chinese food.
Tried two dishes here, the kung pao chicken was okay. The dish was okay, wasn’t huge on the sauce or the amount of veggies in my dish. The chicken was good though.
The pan fried noodle with chicken was better, Loved the noodle had a similar sauce. Dish was pretty good though.
Like I said, this may be a 5 for some of you out there. Give it a try for sure, you may like it better than I did.

I went here on Thanksgiving. We got the Mongolian Beef, Sesame Chicken and General T’so’s Beef, all $ 10 – 11 each. The basic entrees were adequately priced. They had a large selection of other dishes that were considerably more expensive. I did like how they brought the rice in a separate bowl how you would get it at an Indian place. The food was delicious and all the flavors came through. I personally found the texture of the General T’so’s a little odd, but my brother loved it. The Mongolian Beef was very tender, and their veggies were fresh and well prepared. If you want to get adventuresome, they are a legit Chinese establishment with pork kidney, snail, and fish dishes. I wasn’t there to get all Andrew Zimmern though. Other tables had setups with metal pots and a flame underneath I found interesting. I also liked the «picture menu» they gave along with the regular ones.
The service was mediocre. I was not impressed with the idea that they didn’t place any sauces on the table. I don’t feel you should have to ask for soy sauce at a Chinese place, and then it came in clear packets. I felt that detracted from the «sit down» restaurant feel they’re clearly going for. For me, packets are for delivery/​carry-​out. It was also a bit odd that each time someone came to our table, it was a different person, and we had our dishes brought out one at a time over about 5 minutes rather than all at once. No kids menu, but the way the dishes were brought with extra plates it was great for sharing. Overall a good choice for Chinese — their food stands out.