🇺🇸 Baltimore Food Review: Lao Sze Chuan (JHU Branch) 🥢🌶️

Finally, some competition in the area! This new Lao Sze Chuan opened right around the corner from Kajiken Ramen. Though the location has a reputation for high turnover 🏪💨, I hope this one sticks around! The menu is smaller and more Americanized compared to the Rockville original – feels like a "lite version" of the classic. 📍 Lao Sze Chuan 3224 St Paul St, Baltimore, MD 21218 💡 Street parking only | Mostly American staff | Service is typical US-style 💵 We ordered 1 small dish + 2 mains + egg fried rice → ~$40 per person (with leftovers). For a full meal, $30–35 should be enough. 🍽️ What We Tried: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Scallion Egg Fried Rice ($9) The star of the meal! Huge portion, great flavor – only downside is they use Thai jasmine rice. Since plain rice costs $1.5, this is a way better deal. Enough for 3 meals as leftovers! Highly recommend. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Tibetan Cumin Lamb ($26) Not the biggest portion, but the lamb quality is excellent – well-balanced fat-to-lean ratio, juicy but not greasy. Strong cumin flavor 🌿, but a bit salty – avoid if you prefer mild food. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Braised Pork Belly ($22) Tastes like Dongpo pork – slightly sweet 🍯. The skin-on pork is cleaned well! About a dozen large pieces (though a couple were mostly fat). The quail eggs inside were delicious. ⭐⭐ Five-Spice Fried Eggplant ($11) Not recommended ❌ – the coating is thick and hard, overshadowing the flavor. The eggplant inside was overly oily. Good taste, but not worth it. Waiting to revisit after their official opening – hoping for improvements to live up to the Lao Sze Chuan name! 🙏 #DMVFood #Baltimore #DMVEats #StudyAbroadLife #BaltimoreEats #SichuanFood #FoodReview