The Red Sichuan Cuisine Shǔ Yàn

This is the first time we tried The Red Sichuan, the parking is always horrible, but we decided to give it a try. The Xiao long bao was good and ordering from the ipad was easy and helpful. The servers were very helpful and offered a few suggestions.

We keep coming back. This is our 'go-to' place for Szechuan food in the area. Good portions and reasonable prices, but their increasing popularity is making for ever increasing wait times if you don't have a reservation. Parking is also limited given the other restaurants in the area also enjoy good popularity.

This restohas been in business for eleven year yet i have only been there twice. The service was Aone and having the menu of a IPad is a stroke of Genesis. English with a picture of every item so for newby no surprises.The ingredients were fresh,and the spicing strong.

Looks nice on the outside. That was about it. As soon as I walked in, I prayed the food could redeem the cases of empty beer bottles piled up in the waiting area as well as the visible housekeeping items that were on display right on the bar counter. I felt iffy already. The decor was primarily red and dark with white table cloth. The table cloth was too small for our table and kept sliding around; it also had a lot of pilling. One could see that the exterior was trying to impart some class to the place. Upon entering, however, we felt lost already because there was no sign or person to greet us as all classy restaurants would have. We walked in further and just stood there. The waiting area was spacious but the space wasn't designed well. The bartender/cashier greeted us from behind the bar after another customer and entered us into his tablet.Menu was on a tablet as well. Customers would order from it then press "call server" to finalize it. It said sit back and relax. Our server never came within a reasonable amount of wait time so we waved someone down and it happened to be him. We were not sure if assigned server meant anything because he hardly served us. Maybe it meant who would get the tips in the industry's pecking order.The food was okay. Nothing really bad or especially memorable. The shanghai noodle was too greasy and had a slightly different but distinct flavor from other restaurants that served the same dish. Jellyfish was not cool. In fact, the serving temperature for that particular dish was too warm to me. It was the very, very amateurish service and the staff's lack of communication skills that I am compelled to review. Anybody can deliver food to tables without training. This place would and could prove this true with its random delivery order (soup and appetizer were not delivered first) and service attitude.With every other restaurants, accompanying condiments would (and should) be brought out with the dish (e.g., dumplings with red vinegar). When I asked for some, the kitchen guy in a white shirt pointed at the girl in black who was bringing food to us at the same time. So I turned and was about to ask her but saw that her back was to me, so I said a little louder since the place was so loud, "Excuse me, can I have some vinegar?" She turned around, gestured with one finger, and said "Just a minute!" Then she walked away, turned around, and said, "I will get it for you." I couldn't believe my ears! I go to a lot of restaurants but have never been told by a server to wait! The appropriate response should have been "I will be right back. Is there anything else I can get you?" Get this: It was two different people who brought condiments separately (i.e., one with a tray of three condiments and the other just a bottle of almost-used-up red vinegar). Unbelievable! If she was already looking for the vinegar because she overheard me asking the other guy, shouldn't she communicate that to the patron instead of walking away? The kitchen staff who brought food to our table didn't know where to put the food. I relocated it for him every time because it was put right in front of me. These dishes were meant to be shared. He put it there out of convenience. I had to tell him where to put one dish when it came in a hot pan. He obliged but leaned so far in that he had to put his elbow down on the table to support his own weight as if to say the plate was too heavy and I had just caused hardship to befall him. Really? There was one kitchen staff who kept wiping sweat from his forehead with his forearms on way back to kitchen. Was he sweating that much that it was literally dripping? Ummm....see paragraph above. By the way, the AC was not cool enough.There was no attention to acoustics in the design of the restaurant. It was so loud in there. Don't stay too long or you'll suffer hearing loss. In general, the staff there gave us a sense of disconnection. They were just humping through a hard job and didn't really want to serve anybody. The impression was that they were serving us because they couldn't find a better job.

Our first visit and it's defintely our last. order was done on an ipad, we ordered a soup, 3 courses and a deep-fired pumpkin cake as dessert. The dessert came first! It was stuffed with red-bean paste instead of pumpkin. Asked one of the male waiters why it was red-bean paste and not pumpkin paste as shown in the menu, he replied rudely that it was not his problem and refused to cancel the order. Absolutely poor service throughout the dinner. Will never go back again.