Old Cheng Du

We were in the vicinity and since the last time I dined there was 10 years ago, we decided to have our lunch there We ordered: 1. 辣子鸡 deep fried chilli chicken dices 2. 三蛋油麦菜 3 egg vegetable 3: 香辣小龙虾 Spicy Crayfish 4. 重庆小碗面 ChongQing Small Bowl Noodle 5. Ice Water (Refillable) 6. 王老吉 Chinese Herbal Tea 7. White Rice 8. 串猪肉 pork on skewers The noodle and chicken was on point. The true “mala” numbness and spicy taste that follows any Sichuan cuisine. The vegetable was a let down - we shouldn’t have thought a Sichuan eatery will do a Cantonese dish well. The skewered pork was also a let down - too much salt and not enough other spices. We were pretty disappointed with the Crayfish as well - the cray fish was tiny without much flesh and sauce was just so-so The bill came up to near $100/- for 2 pax. It’s a much more expensive than the usual Sichuan restaurant we go to in Geylang. And we will be back there if we crave for Sichuan cuisine in the future, definitely not here.

We 1st tried this through a recommendation from a Chinese friend who ordered takeaway to give us a treat. We tried the various dishes and were blown away by the authentic Sichuan taste. However, our first trip to this eatery was a disappointment. We had to wait more than 30 minutes for our order to be served. It was a non-peak weekday dining. The eatery level 1 air-con was not turned on. Other customers who arrived earlier were dining in a stuffy environment. I was disappointed that the 水煮鱼 (spicy broiled fish) vegetables used were the stems of vegetables. I have tasted better spicy broiled fish and this was definitely a big disappointment. The vegetables used to prepare this dish were a put off. It seemed that the chef uses left over vegetables to cook this dish. I definitely will not use these leftovers to serve my guests. I would have given a 2 star rating but my spouse like the taste. The saving dish was the spicy brinjal 鱼香茄子. Overall, the dishes were well seasoned. Sadly, we would not return to try their other dishes anytime soon.

This is located just beside the mrt and is along the stretch of Chinese restaurants. Came here on a thur night and the place was quite packed by 8pm. Portions were quite generous and you could choose to opt for 2 different sizes for most dishes! Would probably be back to try the grilled fish. All in all, it was a hearty meal.

Giant portions please see picture of the sichuan boiled fish. This was the SMALL portion and I’m a bit terrified to think of what the large would look like. I really enjoyed everything here. We ordered the saliva chicken/ spicy marinated chicken, spicy cold and sour potato noodles, and the old chengdu chilli chicken, but it became all rather one-note. It of course isn’t the fault of the restaurant but rather a characteristic of cuisine that employs peppercorns.

Food was decent, but not very fantastic. One of the dishes we ordered was 干煸四季豆 (stir-fried string beans), a classic dish in Sichuan cuisine. But when it was served, the so-called "string beans" looked more like cowpea beans. The chairs look slightly similar to the bamboo chairs in teahouses in Chengdu, but are clearly not the real thing. Good effort to recreate the Chengdu experience, nevertheless. Seeing both of us carrying backpacks, the restaurant should have taken the initiative to provide the fordable bag basket for us to put our bags, instead of only providing it after we took an empty chair to put our bags, and a waitress complained that the chair "blocked the way", which was, in fact, not the case. This restaurant accepts cashless payment methods such as Shopee Pay, but this is also the first restaurant that could not confirm receipt of my payment at the cashier counter. I asked why, and was told this is their practice. The cashier lady asked her colleague to verify, but her colleague didn't respond. Then the cashier asked me to leave my number, but I refused. Instead, I let her take a photo of the payment confirmation screen. Cashless payment was supposed to be hassle-free, but a few minutes were wasted as they were clearly not digital-ready.