Little Szechuan

This review is for the beef noodle soup, which is simply amazing. It is very tasteful but not too salty. There’s very generous portion of stewed beef in the soup and the beef is extremely tasty. Honesty I’ve got to say this beef noodle soup actually surpasses all the beef noodle soups I’ve tried in China. So it’s worthy of trying.

I wonder why the rating is so low… it’s a very authentic Chinese restaurant!

I wanted so much for this to be more than it was. Granted I may still come here because there are not a lot of Sichuan options in the area. You walk in and it’s the same thing you’d expect out of any Chinese restaurant. It doesn’t really stand out.
My go-​to dishes include: Chongqing wings (or really something similar), mapo tofu and dan dan noodles.
Wings — they were actually really, really good. I wish they were a bit more spicy though. The wings were a good size and they were moist and delicious.
Dan Dan noodles — they were quite bland and missing a lot. Tasted more like thai peanut noodles than dan dan noodles.
Mapo tofu — it was tasty, but not quite up to par on what i was looking for. The level of spice was just not quite there. A ton of tofu, which isn’t terrible, but I’m used to having my mapo tofu sauce also contain ground pork.
I’d definitely be interested in going back and checking out a few more dishes.

Great food! I miss the St. Paul location (since been turned into a hot pot place) simply for convenience sake, but would gladly make the drive to Minneapolis location for the fare served here again and again.
We were seated right away, though the place with buzzing with people and we arrived during prime dinner time. The staff was nice and helpful, refilled our water without being asked, and our dishes came out promptly and steaming hot.
My husband ordered Chung King Chili Beef, which was tenderly cooked and extremely flavorful. I ordered my favorite, which was the Ma Pa Tofu, and we devoured both with a side of Shrimp Fried Rice. As far as fried rice goes, it was much better than 80% of the places I’ve had, not gooey or too soft, nor too greasy or under-​cooked. Yum.
I’d recommend this place to anyone looking for good Szechuan fare.

Food is great. I went there with friends for lunch on a particular sunday. Here’s what I would recommend: dried bean curds with crushed black bean, kung pao chicken, shrimp lou mein, a spicy fish dish, and shredded pork and shredded tofu.
What I don’t like that much is sesame chicken and sweet and sour chicken. The reasons I don’t like it are that (1) it tastes a bit meaty for me, (2) the sauce tasted funny and ‘fake.’ This well-​known restaurant (ever on the CNN news before) should make their own sweet and sour sauce rather than using the packaged sauce.

Overall, Little Szechuan does satisfy the occasional yearly Mainland Chinese food craving. I visited the place two times and was somewhat satisfied with its offerings.
These are some of the dishes that I’ve eaten:
— Peking duck with wrap (²⁄₅)
— Diced fish with garlic sauce (³⁄₅)
— General Tso’s fried tofu (3.5÷5)
— Twice cooked pork belly (3.5÷5)
— Dumplings with ginger sauce (³⁄₅)
The dishes are a-​ok, but it is way too heavy for my liking. The prices for the dishes are also very expensive when compared to nearby competitors of Village Wok, Hong Kong Noodles, and Kowloon. Nothing against this establishment, but it did not align with my palate and college budget.

The food is not fresh. I could tell they reuse oil for frying. The service is not acceptable.

Parking was inconvenient as their designated lot is shared with the bank and is a one-​way, with the exit being nearest the restaurant entrance — seemed a little backwards. The service was also very slow even though the inside wasn’t that busy. We weren’t greeted until we had stood there for a while. When we were finally seated, they placed our 5-​person group at a small booth in the side corder, where we had to pull up a chair on the end to accommodate everyone. The waiter was new — which he stated every time we asked questions — and was unfamiliar with the food and ingredients. We had a nut allergy in our party so we needed that sort of info.
The food portions are huge so it’s easy to share and I would recommend ordering a couple of plates and splitting between your group. My cheese wontons, however, were 80% undercooked wonton wraps so maybe skip those. My chicken low mein was very good, though all the chicken was hidden on the bottom. It was enough to fill me up and probably more than enough to share for those with smaller appetites.
Overall, we felt very misled by the «top restaurants by CNN» advertisements on the windows and I would not visit again.

I love the location of Little Szechuan. The restaurant is located off the Green Line, on the East Bank of U of M campus. It’s the ideal place for a top-​notch Asian restaurant. Unfortunately, we found Little Szechuan to be a few notches below our expectations. The fried dumpling appetizer seemed to set the tone for our meal: they were satisfying but ordinary.
My daughter ordered sesame chicken, her favorite Americanized-​Chinese dish and was disappointed that the result was «sweet and sour» chicken with a few sesame seeds sprinkled on top. I was equally disappointed when my Kung Pao Chicken lacked spice. It seemed more like an order of Teriyaki Chicken with a few peppers added.
The highlight of the meal — and the only item I’d go back for — was the sizzling beef. It was a welcome take on your typical ‘beef with vegetable’ dish with the addition of fresh ginger and crispy rice.
On future visits to campus, I’m likely to take my daughter to the Tea House on University (Stadium Village). However, I’m also interested in trying the Tofu house on the East Bank if I can convince my daughter that Tofu is more than a 4-​letter word.

Lunch Special review:
I always walk past this place on my way home from campus, and I always read «Top restaurant ranked by CNN» as its plastered on every pane of glass.
I finally had a chance to stop in during lunch. They serve lunch cafeteria/Luby’s/Chipotle style. In fact, this place just reminds me of an Asian Chipotle. You point at what you want, and they scoop it on your dish. The food is pretty good! You get $ 8.75 for your choice of stir-​fry noodles, white rice, or fried rice. This is in comparison to Chipotle’s $ 7.01 chicken burrito bowl with the tortilla on the side without the guac (I know it’s extra, that’s why I don’t get it: p).
I was stuffed after inhaling their lunch special! It’s essentially 2 – 3 meals on one plate. I told myself I’ll have some self control and take half to go. 10 minutes later as I looked at my empty plate, «eh, I’ll just eat a really small dinner». I failed in both scenarios. I got the spicy tofu, beef and broccoli and fried fish. All of which were good!
Service was good and the restaurant is nice and cleannn.
Little Szechuan is a nice contender to Chipotle in the lunchtime spot now!
Does it warrant the countless «top restaurant» stickers on its windows? meh

This is our «go to» Chinese restaurant in MSP since their sibling location in Frogtown decided to focus on hot pots exclusively. Private rooms available for larger groups. Reliably delicious, reasonably priced.

Don’t let the lukewarm rating keep you away! I finally went here a few days ago for the lunch special (rice/​noodles plus three entrees for $ 8.75) and it was great! You get a huge selection to choose from (and it’s nice to actually see the dishes) and you walk away with an enormous amount of food for a great price.
Tip: you don’t have to choose just one rice or noodle base, I saw people ordering half noodles, half rice (plus the three entrees).

Make sure to get the dried tofu with peanuts appetizers and the black bean eggplant entrée. Mmmmmm.

Yes! Szechuan food! One of my favorite Chinese foods. I love spices and I love Szechuan spice. This place is one of the best Chinese restaurants I’ve been to in the Twin Cities. I’ve only been here during lunch for their lunch box special, but it’s really good. Very authentic! I try to limit myself to eating out 1 – 2 meals a week, and when I do, I choose wisely and that means I choose Little Szechuan! Little Szechuan is by far my most eaten restaurant in the Twin Cities. I’ve probably been there 50 times or so since the store opened in 2014. This place is legit!
The lunch box special includes either selection of one or combination of steamed rice, fried rice, or chow mien. Then you get to choose 3 dishes for a cost of $ 8.75. It’s a little pricey, but they pack a lot of food, whether you dine-​in or take it to-​go. I recommend going to the oldish Chinese lady because she gives a lot more food than most of the other people that serve. She packs the to-​go box a lot. A normal person can probably make 2 meals out of it… but I’m a big eater, so I eat it in 1 sitting.
As far as the dishes they offer during lunch, there is probably 10+ options a day. They do have some dishes that are there everyday such as their vegetable offering, which is really good, orange chicken and broccoli beef. The rest of the dishes usually vary. For example they always have a tofu dish, sometimes it’s fried tofu (my favorite tofu dish) or sometimes it’s water boiled tofu with napa cabbage, sometimes it’s mapo tofu (also pretty good). Also they usually have a fish dish: Either the spicy fried fish (by far my favorite overall dish they have) or more healthy spicy water boiled fish, which is good as well. So, when I go, I usually get a fish dish if they have it, tofu for sure, and either healthy stir-​fry vegetable, which is quite flavorful, or eggplant if they have it. The eggplant is really good as well. Honestly, coming from California, it’s sometimes hard finding good Chinese, more specifically Szechuan food in Minnesota. This is probably one of the best options you can get. I’d eat this everyday, if I wasn’t watching my money or my weight haha.
Other things to note:
The line gets really long during lunch time, but generally is pretty fast. They do run out of my favorites a lot such as the fried fish, where I will have to wait for them to cook more, but generally they’re pretty good about that. The lunch box special is served from 11AM-​2PM. So make sure come during that time.
Also the special is only on weekdays! If you come here, you don’t have to get the lunch special: There’s other options as well such as Beef Noodle Soup, which I heard was pretty spicy and good or order dishes and share family style.
This is a top Chinese option for students and family gatherings alike (They have 3 separate private rooms that are up for reservation).
3 stars really doesn’t do this place justice. It is on par if not better than HK noodle and Kowloon… let alone village wok… I’ve lived in California where I’ve tried a plethora of Chinese/​Taiwanese restaurants. This is definitely on bar with some of the most authentic and best tasting restaurants out on the West Coast. Honestly, if you observe the ratings at this place and only factor in the ratings given by Asians. This place would be 4 stars. Who would you trust more about opinions about good, authentic Chinese food? An Asian or non-​Asian? I’ll let you decide on that one.
In conclusion, if you want to some authentic, really good tasting Chinese option at a pretty affordable price. Definitely check this place out! I have a bunch of pictures of the lunch boxes… check those out as well!

Totally Not better than Kowloon — especially price-​wise. I’ve been a fan of their Chungking chili shrimp for years, but they’re serving it way too greasy at this location. Lo Mein was greasy/​salty too. And my husband got the wrong order. Only positive was the fast & friendly service.

There are a lot of Chinese restaurants to choose from in the area around the same price range. I wasn’t really impressed with Little Szechuan — it was pretty «meh.» I ordered fresh veggie spring rolls (my favourite) and they ended up being shredded iceberg lettuce and about 5 pieces of shredded carrot wrapped in rice paper with a bowl of weirdly spicy sauce. I tried two tofu dishes and wasn’t overly excited about either. Not really anything special about it at all.

Modern looking, legit Szechuan food. The only other Chinese food I had while in Minneapolis was at Pagoda in Dinkytown. This place was much more impressive in terms of décor and food (tastier AND cheaper). As soon as I opened the menu I wanted to order everything, which I can’t say for Pagoda. The menu had clear, labeled pictures for every dish so it made deciding much easier.
My family ended up sharing quick fried cucumber as an appetizer (served warm, which was new to me, but still good and spicy), quick fried crispy fish (so good! Perfectly fried and flavored, and not greasy at all), salt and pepper shrimp (this one didn’t have much flavor), and sautéed green beans. As is custom here, they provided a large bowl of rice for us to share for ordering an entrée. Overall the food and atmosphere was nice. Based on my experiences, I would recommend coming here for more legit Chinese food, and going to pagoda for Americanized Chinese food.

Reviews gave me hope, not a fan. Lo mein was incredibly salty, rice was cold, my friend ordered Szechuan pepersomething chicken, was served cold like it literally came out of the fridge. Could barely eat a few bites, threw up afterwards.

I have been to their other location before and I like the food better every time I eat here. Dan-​dan noodles: very flavorful. Spring rolls: The sauce is very good — I’d like to know what’s in it. They’re filled with cabbage and carrots and choice of shrimp, pork, or beef. You just don’t find cooking like this in some suburban strip mall. I also got the pork belly with leeks, peppers, and green onions. Tastes like bacon because it basically is bacon, but combined with the other indgredients it makes a suitable dinner choice. If I get a chance to eat here again I am thinking 5 out of 5 status.

To me, Szechuan cuisine means spiciness, with the quinessential items including proteins cooked in a chili oil broth. Done well, your mouth burns with every bite but you find yourself unable to stop eating. Done poorly, it tastes like you’re eating greasy peppers which will definitely unsettle your stomach later.
This place was quite good. I picked up a few orders to go, so I don’t know how the service is like. The restaurant seems fairly large, with a wide range of tables of different sizes. The menus contain pictures of what the dishes look like, and what I received matched the pictures. Flavors had a good amount of spice without overwhelming the palate, and not too heavy or greasy. I’d say it tasted pretty authentic to Szechaun chinese food.
That aside, there isn’t too much that is exciting about this place. There seems to be an aroma of cleaning supplies or windex that makes things not as appetizing. If you’re in the neighborhood and wanting something a little spicy, then this is your place.