Da Sichuan Bistro

This place is not for the faint of heart or those that can not take heat. Da Sichuan is amazing. It’s one of my favorite restaurants to go to when I’m in Palo Alto. The dishes do not just deliver over the top spicy heat, some of their dishes do that, but other dishes also delver a numbing spice, as well as dishes where the heat builds up in intensity.
The tip for those that fancy themselves as aficionado of spicy food (but really can’t take the heat) should avoid drinking water at all costs. That will just make things worse, as the staff correctly points out (the solution is to drink milk or have some chocolate).
I’ve lost count the times that I’ve been here over the years. My favorite dishes include the following:
1. Boiled Beef. Beef drenched in hot spicy broth with herbs (scallions, parsley, and garlic) along with napa cabbage. When I have dining companions that can take the heat, I will ask the kitchen to kick it up a gear on the heat.
2. Chilli Slice Beef Marinated. This is a staple when I dine here with my friend from the Sichuan province. A kinder, gentler spicy dish (sort of) that is not hot so much as it numbs your mouth. A nice appetizer to start off the meal.
3. Dry Wok Hot Pot Intestines/​Dry Wok Hot Pot Fish. The ingredients are pretty much the same for both these dishes, except for the intestines/​fish. Which one I order, depends on whether I have an adventuresome dining companion (intestines) or a wimpy one (fish). Where the boiled beef has a lot of sauce, the dry wok hot pot dishes are dramatically less saucy (but not necessarily less in heat).
4. 911 Chicken. Spicy deep fried chicken. For those that think that General Tso’s chicken is an authentic dish, I steer those dining companions to try the 911 chicken. It looks more exotic and scarier than it actually is when one first glances a that red chili pepper and chili flakes that is abundantly available with this dish.
I’ve come here so many times that the folks here no the core dishes I order.

I absolutely love love love this place! the food is always hot, freshly made right then when you order it. it is ridiculously delicious and the staff is so sweet and funny, mom and pop shop. I eat here literally 3 times a week and i love love love it. Keep up the great work you guys! It really is a hidden secret little gem.
Guys! Go eat some fantastic food!

I love their dishes almost everything is great! The waiter is funny and kind. But the food is almost tooooo way toooo spicy

I’ve been coming here for over 4 years — it’s my happy place when I feel like spicy Chinese food. And they never disappoint :)
Easy to find, lots of parking in the lot behind the restaurant (which has a door from the lot so you don’t have to go around the block). The restaurant is smallish and can get quite full at peak lunch hour so get there early if you can!
The woman who runs the pace is quite the character… she tries to act like she’s this rude host but she’s quite friendly and it’s all an act. She will help you with selecting dishes if you like. But I know what I want — the dishes with the most red chillies next to them, of course :)
Killer hot and sour soup — you must get this… the wontons/​dumplings in hot chilli oil are simply amazing! My favorite dishes are the Manchurian chicken, the volcano beef, the fiery wrapped lamb, the steamed chicken (or fish) and most recently, the shredded pork in garlic sauce! All spicy but not mind-​numbingly so… the dishes have a complex mix of tastes and textures so it’s always a treat! The last time around, I tried the eggplant in garlic sauce and it too, was absolutely fantastic!
~ 5 stars for some of the most enjoyable Szechuan food I have experienced here in the Bay Area. Would highly recommend going with a group of three to four people so you can order more and enjoy more dishes — do it family style :)
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This place is delicious! I work close by and come here very often with co-​workers for lunch. Friendly owners, and excellent foods as always!

Chinese food can be savory. This one is blah. Chinese food can be healthy. This one is hell no. —-from a used-​to-​be iron Chinese stomach who felt extremely uncomfortable right after the meal, started aching several hours after eating and still aches after more than one day.
quick update: two days have passed and my stomache still lasts. I guess I am poisoned.

Very good Sichuan food. I don’t know how you can go wrong with a place like this, and they deliver to me in Mtn View which is a plus! A little expensive but you get a lot. The first time I ordered here I didn’t have a menu and they still had everything I asked for. Chongqing chicken is very good. Their beef tendon in chili oil is perhaps the best I’ve ever had. 4.5 stars overall.

I’ve been here a few times, so I know what to expect. Tonight was the best experience I’ve had yet. The staff was extremely attentive and friendly. Our food came out within a few minutes.
The best dish we had was the Dry Wok Hot Pot Chicken. It was perfectly spiced, and piping hot. Brilliant. All in all, a very pleasurable experience. 5 stars for the food, and an easy 5 stars for the service.

Very very good… the dumplings with chilie sauce are the best I have ever had… I might go back for dinner. yes, that good… fried rice is soft, light, not to much soy like others… very good… beef brocoli excelltent… the lemon chicken is fantastic, not like I am used to… a nice crunchy breading… very very good… most I try the breading is mushy… this is incredible. And the restaurant is medium sized, very clean and orderly, very sweet staff and helpful staff.

The spicy fish is strangely oversweet… And the lamb is not quite fresh. The waitress is quite weird. Among so many Chinese restaurants in Palo Alto, I don’t quite recommend this one.

This place is my favorite non-​Dim Sum chinese spot in Palo Alto, its a classic chinese spot, kinda dirty, sandwiched between not 1 but 2 chinese massage parlors, and staffed with a surly but nice wait staff. I love their hot dishes here, Manchurian chicken, volcano beef, and their dry fried string beans are the best, ask for them 911 hot. It’s only downfall is that its not cheap and the large groups of people from stanford who will take up banquet size tables in a restaurant with maybe 30 seats. But please don’t go if you are going to order hot pot, eat everything in the hot pot, then request that it is sent back for it being too salty. I have seen this done and it made my blood boil. But this place is great if your not a trashy cheap person.

I am no expert in chinese food, but this little hole-​in-​wall place serves really delicious food. The spice level is pretty mild for me (I am used to much higher level in Scoville chart), but that does is not a negative point, because the heat does not overpower the other tastes, so at the end of the meal you can say that the food tasted like _​_​_​_​fill in tastes here_​_​_​_​, than just «man that was hot».
A bonus point for the owners — the most colorful characters I have ever seen. The constant banter between the husband and wife is hilarious, as are their little antics and idiosyncrasies. They are really fun to watch and interact with.

A small chinese restaurant locate 1 block away from Hong Kong restaurant on El Camino Real. There is a huge parking lot behind the building, parking will not be a problem. The restaurant has a rotten/​run down smell that i could barely stand. The table and floor are sticky.
Half of the menu items are spicy which is good for people who enjoy that, I do too. Their ingredients aren’t as fresh as other local chinese restaurants.
If you want to eat here, you better know what you want to order.

They use tea bags for their tea.
Brown rice is not edible and not authentic Chinese brown rice
Fish fillet was overly salty
This place was not very good. It looks like a hole in the wall Chinese restaurant, but food isn’t good enough to justify itself.
I would highly recommend Chef Zhao’s instead.

Someone ranked this the number one Szechuan restaurant in the Bay area. So I came here to try it out with some expectation. Unfortunately I was a bit disappointed from that angle. The food is certainly fine but not number 1 on my book. I agree this is pretty authentic old style Szechuan. So you won’t disappointed if that is what you are looking for. Pretty solid but not number 1. I’ve had it better. Szechuan food has evolved the one doe snot offer the more newer menu. But over all good food and good service.

There are 2 things that go hand-​in-​hand when going to a restaurant. Great food and Wonderful Service. No matter how great the food is, in my opinion, if the person who serves you this great food is rude and dishonest, then the chances of returning are slim.
I went with 2 other coworkers for a quick lunch and have to say the food tasted pretty good. The portion size was not too big or too small, just right. Food was served hot which is always good. No issue with the food at all.
Now, the other part of this equation is the service. The lady taking the order just seemed not happy to be there at all. There was no «how are you doing?» or a simple smile to at least hide her not-​so-​great-​mood. The bill came along and we each placed our cards (3 in total). I cringed because I knew before the bill was taken to her that she would not want to do it. I was the lucky one to pay the bill.
In a previous life I was a waiter and know that split checks can be a hassle but it comes with the territory of working in the food service industry. The fact she did not want to do it, irked me and I just left no tip. But lo and behold, this unhappy person decided to add herself a $ 6 tip. I will definitely not come back based on service alone, no matter how delicious the food might be.

flavors are decent but portions are tiny, doesn’t justify the cost of each dish. overall i was pretty disappointed.
we got:
— drooling chicken (spice level = 0/​10, numbing level = ⁰⁄₁₀)
— water boiled lamb (spice level = 5/​10, numbing level = ⁰⁄₁₀)
— hot pot fish (spice level = 6/​10, numbing level = ⁰⁄₁₀)
total: ~$ 42
drooling chicken: there was maybe 8 small pieces of chicken on the platter. seeing as how this is an appetizer dish, i’ll let that one slide. traditionally this dish isn’t supposed to be all that spicy. and although it’s marked as spicy on the menu, I couldn’t taste it at all.
water boiled lamb: well cooked, tender lamb. but serious dearth of vegetables in the dish (cabbage? bean sprouts??) aside from green onions.
hot pot fish: i liked that there was tofu in this dish in addition to the fish. but really, only 5 – 10 pieces of tofu? come on now. also, see water boiled lamb comment above about lack of cabbage or bean sprouts in this dish.
and rice is not free with entrees here? what is this world coming to…

Really delicious and unusually prepared dishes. We had our huge dinner at home and everything was carefully packed and just gorgeous.
We had a beautiful variety of seafood and vegan dishes. The wide noodles were like silk and truly out of this world. The fish with lemon and sweet and sour shrimp came with the sauces in separate containers so everything stayed crispy and fresh. The spicy tofu was rich and savory and the eggplant was perfection.
Highly recommend.

The food is able to cover up some of the shortcomings of this spot. Firstly, let’s get this out of the way: the food is excellent here. I think most of the dishes are appropriately «sichuan» by being fairly spicy, and the flavors are on point. Take a look at the clientele… mostly chinese people so that’s a good sign. We had the pork and sour veggie clay pot (so good, broth was rich, full of meat and noodles and veggies), the spicy dumpings (good, but a bit doughy… and overly chili oil), the tan tan noodles (not very good, but very spicy), the mushu pork (pretty good, crunchy… but the «pancake» might as well be cardboard), and string beans (nothing to write home about). Still, food is good here and everything is pretty authentic.
Service on the other hand… is pretty terrible. Sure, it was Friday night and busy… there was a line from the counter to the door. There’s three people here. a young guy who doesn’t take orders (busboy?), a woman (only person who can take orders), and older guy (pretty much a crazy guy who can take orders but i can’t understand him and watched him force some people to order things). It took us about 15 mins to order, another 20 mins to get food, and on top of that… don’t even try to add things or ask for extras. We had to ask different guys for beer… I’m pretty sure we were charged twice anyways. And we never got rice… probably got charged for that too.
I’m sure you guys get busy. but hire 1 – 2 more people and this would be a solid place. I’m sure people will say this was a one-​off and it was busy, but you just can’t overlook how poor service can be, no matter how good the food is. If I come back… it’ll be an off night (if they have any).

Very solid place for spicy lovers, although I find it a bit overpriced for the portion size.
I love spicy food, and Sichuan food is some of the most spicy you can have. Having grown up on a steady diet of Cantonese food, unfortunately my knowledge of Sichuan food is a bit lacking. Nonetheless, having come here a few times with my Northern Chinese friends, I feel it’s time to leave a review.
Main dishes ($ 9-​$ 15):
I can’t comment on the authenticity of the food, but I can say it is damn tasty. The cumin lamb (孜然羊肉) is my favorite dish, especially the jalapeños, although they could give you a bit more meat. We often get the 水煮鱼 fish in soup as well (the one with the 麻辣 numbing flavor), but I’m not as big a fan of the numbing type of spicy. The fish soup here seems as good as other Sichuan places I’ve tried, although perhaps the portion is a bit on the small side. Another favorite is the spicy chicken 辣子鸡. It’s nicely fried here but (perhaps you can guess) again I think they could increase their portion size for the price.
Appetizers ($ 4-​$ 8)
Some of my favorite appetizers include the drooling chicken 口水鸡 (or as my friend appetizingly put it: saliva chicken) and the thinly sliced spiced beef 夫妻肺片. You can’t go wrong with either and, contrary to the main dishes, I think you get a good amount with the appetizers ($ 8 and $ 7 for these two dishes respectively).
Service:
I’ve had varying levels of service here, ranging from awful (had to wait forever before they acknowledged our table or got us tea/​water) to very good (came by to check on us multiple times, providing free dessert, chatting with us sociably), so I’m not sure which one is accurate. They speak English, but a good Mandarin vocabulary will be helpful!
Overall, I enjoy the times I eat at Da Sichuan, although something grates me each time (either the price or the service). As a result I don’t go nearly as much as I should, and instead opt for the nearby Hong Kong restaurant instead. Still, it’s a spicy lover’s dream, and so I can’t fault the place too much :)