陈麻婆豆腐老店 — Restaurant in Chengdu

Definitely one of the better Sichuan restaurants to be found in Chengdu, however in general I was not overly impressed. They refused to prepare a vegetarian version of the classic Ma Po Doufu dish [麻婆豆腐] often referred to as Ma La Doufu [麻辣豆腐] - hardly a big effort given all one would need to do is not add the meat when making it [this is a quickly prepared dish not one that you have to spend hours making]!

The Shui Zhu Yu [水煮鱼] was nice, but a little too sweet and certainly not 'ma' enough! In other words I'd had better in other parts of China and even in London, so a bit disappointing given this was the home of Sichuan cuisine.

As for the ambiance and décor, the restaurant was pleasant enough, but again nothing to write home about. The toilets meanwhile were smelly and tatty, not unusual in China but perhaps surprising for a restaurant that gets such outstanding reviews.

So in summary good, but not as good as it...

Very tasty Szechuan cuisine. Highly recommended restaurant in Chengdu. Many reviews left with negative service impressions, which is completely understandable. Services in China are, in general, pretty bad, as a result of poor educations and cultural influences. Unless you are dining in restaurants managed and operated by Western brand names, you will not see slightest improvement in services.

As to food, Ma Po Tofu is my favorite, a must order dish if you can handle spices. Kung Pao chicken, another familiar name to Americans, should be on your dining table as well. The subtle difference between America version vs China version Kung Pao is the taste/fragrance of brown pepper corn known as Szechuan pepper. Camphor Duck is another dish made to my dining table, which I would give 5 stars in a heartbeat.

Overall, this is a decent restaurant not to miss if you are doing DIY journey to the land of over abundance, aka...

Best Mapo Tofu in all of Chengdu, but unfortunately the absolute worst service. Tables are dirty and staff (as one person in another review mentioned) almost try to ignore you. When you do get their attention, they look as though they are annoyed to have to take your order. I was there on a Sunday at 3:00 and still had to wait for about 20 minutes. I tried to go for dinner but there were about 100 people outside and they stopped giving numbers. I read from other reviewers that there are English menus, although I failed to get one even though It’s pretty obvious I’m white. Come for the best Mapo Tofu in Chengdu and leave any hospitality expectations...