Szechuan Opera — Restaurant in City of Rochester

I managed to get tickets to Jon Batiste (thanks Dad!!) back-to-back in Toronto and Montreal on a Tuesday and Wednesday and I planned a roadtrip from home in Central Vermont out to Niagara Falls and then Toronto, Montreal and back down to Hartland. My plan was to leave directly from work on the Monday at like 3pm and drive to Niagara Falls. I figured that was about as far as I could make it that first night. In hindsight I think I probably could have made it to Toronto that night. But I guess, better safe than sorry. I was making such good time across the NYS Thruway that I decided to find a spot opened late to get something to eat (I had snacked my way across New York…).

Rochester was the only place with anything open late and really wasn’t a detour of any consequence. I had no idea there was LEGIT Szechuan food in Rochester?? I mean, I guess, how would I know? It’s been a few decades since I lived in Upstate NY.

Szechuan Opera was open until 10pm and I pulled in shortly after 9. The menu is huge. Excellent variety of all sorts of things, including Dim Sum. My problem was I didn’t have a plan. I hate not having a plan when I’m going to a restaurant. I’m THAT person! I read menus and choose items ahead of time. Which probably seems ridiculous. I own a restaurant and I have a somewhat absurdly large menu at my own place. Yet I am one of those people that just does not like to go into a new spot “cold.” I always feel like I maximize my dining experience if I review the menu before.

My other “issue” is that I don’t really ever want to try one thing. I want to try as many things as possible and that does require a plan of attack!

Service was really good and everyone was very friendly. Although they don’t allow anyone to sit/eat at the bar? So I had to sit a table by myself. I am just not a fan of that. But, last minute dining choices late at night…

Got my water, got tea, got truly horrible sake. HAHAHAHA That was my fault. They’ve just got one terrible sake they serve hot (NEVER drink hot sake my friends).

It was a little tricky to find menu items that did not have beef, pork or poultry (which I don’t eat). I decided to focus on appetizers and Dim Sum so I could try a few, different things. Because I just couldn’t convince myself to commit to one or even two items! LOL

FYI: All portions at Szechuan Opera are huge. Regardless of whether they’re called “appetizers” or something else. I wound up with a ridiculous amount of food!

What I Ordered:

Chengdu Style Mung Bean Noodle: Look, when the waiter tells you it’s spicy and you’re in a Szechuan restaurant. Believe them. Delicious, but your taste buds might need some time to recover…

Wood Ear Mushroom with Garlic: OMG!!! First these Mushrooms were the biggest I’d ever seen. I could eat this dish all day. It was so insanely delicious. Wow.

Crispy Cucumber with Garlic: gorgeous, beautiful fresh, delicious.

Crispy Shrimp with Tofu Roll Dim Sum: I think this might be the best fried food item I’ve ever eaten. Hot and crispy right from the oil. Paper thin tofu wrapper. Everything about this was perfection.

Pan Fried Chives and Shrimp Dumpling: Also wonderful and delicious.

Black Truffle and Mixed Mushroom Dumpling: Skip these. Meh. Not so tasty and I didn’t love the wet, gummy consistency.

IMO I ate an impressive amount of what I ordered. Because some of these were just so good I didn’t want to stop. HIGHLY RECOMMEND. Don’t...

Unfortunately my latest experience here was not the most welcoming or pleasant. I’ve been here a few times, the first 2 - I loved my meal, customer service was eh.. (the first time, second time I ordered takeout). However, ever since I tried the pork dry pot dish, I absolutely loved it! The spice, the flavor, the tenderness of the meat, the vegetables - everything was great. I love good food. However, when we received our dry pot I noticed a strange smell but decided to ignore it and eat. I tried the vegetables, they were good and fresh, nice crunch to it. But when I tried the meat, it had a spoiled, old taste to it. Kinda like when meat is old or spoiled or maybe has been sitting out for a while. I asked my brother to try it as well and even he said it tastes very different from the first few times we’ve had it. We told the waiter about it and he got the manager, when she came we told her we love the food, we always get this dish so we know the flavor and tenderness/taste of the meat and unfortunately it has a spoiled old taste to it. Her response was “but aren’t you eating it though.” I said to her “we’re eating the vegetables but the meat hasn’t been eaten because there’s a spoilt taste to it.” & she repeats the same thing not showing any empathy or understanding. She proceeds to say “our meat is fresh, we received it the same day, this morning.” & I told her “well I understand that but if you want try the meat to see what we’re talking about you can but unfortunately it doesn’t taste fresh”. She did not want to taste it, she gave off the energy that we were lying and instead of showing understanding she just kept defending how the meat can’t be spoiled and then proceeded to say “well I’ll just take the dish away and remove it”. Which is fine but still, we came here to eat good food. Unfortunately, we did not get that nor did the manager or the waiter have any sort of empathy or understanding about the meat tasting spoiled. The waiter continued to have a horrible attitude, even beginning our sit down - he just rushes through ordering the food. Purposely talking very fast and over you trying to order. Slammed our cups on the table with our drinks - I mean I understand working in a restaurant, we all have bad days but the fact that every time I’ve been here and had the same waiter constantly rush through ordering, barely letting you get a word out to confirm you’ve ordered everything, displaying an attitude while handling the food, the drinks, etc.. it’s very unprofessional especially at a place where I genuinely loved their dry pot dish. In addition, experiencing the lack of concern or professional customer service from the manager about the meat being spoiled was just very upsetting. I think it’s important to make sure the meat being served is not old, stale, or spoiled at a restaurant and if it is, an owner/manager should take that into account and make it a priority to listen and understand so they can ensure this doesn’t happen again to any future customers - not dismiss the concern and defend why they think it’s not spoiled, so unfortunately this is why I rated a 1-star. Hopefully in the future, if a customer addresses any issues with their food they will learn how to handle the situation much better than how it was...

I really, really want to just hope that it was an off-night for this place - but after my experience tonight I will not be giving them another try.

So on the good side, online ordering was easy. Food was ready ahead of schedule, and the people up front were nice & helpful. Big parking lot & plenty of open spaces. Pickup was super simple. Portion sizes were good. Perhaps a little expensive, but everywhere is more expensive lately - so I can't hold that against them.

Now let's talk about the actual food we got....

Sesame balls were undercooked, and had a very strong chlorine chemical flavor. No idea what happened here, but these were the worst of the items we tried.

Ordered veggie dumplings, but we were given pork instead. We don't eat meat, but we also don't waste food - so we are them. They were cooked well, but very bland and flavorless.

Scallion pancake was fairly pale compared to getting this at other places. It certainly wasn't cooked enough - no browning, not crispy. And for a scallion pancake, it was notably very light on the scallion content. Again, this ended up being fairly bland.

Lastly, the quick fried cabbage. This thing had one flavor, and that flavor is salt. The whole dish was nothing but oil and an excess of salt. It's one of those dishes that's so over salted, that you have to put it down halfway through because you just can't take any more.

We had super high hopes for this place after reading other reviews, but unfortunately we ended up so disappointed with our experience. Usually I'm willing to give any new place a second try, just in case it was a bad night - but our experience was so poor that I can't justify it. I can't recommend this restaurant, and we...