Tasty Szechuan — Restaurant in Concord

We called to order dinner takeout on Lunar new Year day. The lady told us it would take 45 minutes which we agreed to. Places the order and my 18 year old got to the restaurant to pickup 45-50 minutes later. While there were only a few people seated in the restaurant their takeout system seemed swamped. They stood around patiently for 45 minutes when i called my daughter and asked her to ask about our order. When she asked the guy there he made some snide comment about how it was lunar new year and “you wouldn’t understand”!! He then charged her for the wrong order only realizing it after the transaction completed. Looking at the CC transactions this seems to have been done TWICE! Anyway, they finally got the order and paid for it 2 hours after I placed the order!!!!

I can understand being swamped…one would expect them to manage it better (stop taking order, setting better expectations) but the attitude is unforgivable.

On a pleasant note, there seems to have been some young girl who was bringing out the takeout orders who seemed very cheerful and happy to be able to help customers.

Now to the food:

1. the kung pao chicken was outright HORRIBLE! I have not had such horrible Chinese in over 2 decades. The chicken seemed like some mystery meat and the sauce was a sweet & savory mishmash!
2. the fried tofu with vegetables was OK though a bit heavy on soy sauce
3. the shrimp fried rice was literally some rice doused in soy sauce with a few shrimps. No veggies or eggs. Horrible!
4. the beef with broccoli was fairly decent with decent quality of beef.
5. the star was the boiled fish in sprouts and chili oil. Very good and large portion.

Don’t know if they were just having a really bad day and whether we ordered the wrong dishes, so I am tempted to give them another try, but the man’s attitude make me reconsider.

I will probably stick to “Sichuan Restaurant” on Camino Ramon...

Ate here recently with a few others, and all the food was SO good. With Schezuan be prepared for spice, although they do have a Chinese American food section that has more mild & familiar dishes i.e. Honey Walnut Prawns, Orange Chicken, General Tso's, etc. I also think they use English names for a lot of dishes on the menu that I was actually unfamiliar with, because I know them more by their Chinese names. It's good for people that might not know a dish though.

We had a hard time choosing what to get because there was so much we wanted to try. I can't wait to go back with a more adventurous eater, because no one else in my party wanted to try the Gluttonous Bullfrogs or the Deep Fried Pork Intestines with me.

Food: To start, they gave us a complimentary pot of tea. This lasted the 4 of us the whole meal. We started with the Green Onion Pancakes, which had some delicious seasoned meat on the side, the Eggplant String Beans, and the Vegetable Spring Rolls which were all enjoyed. The Griddle Cauliflower was cool because they brought it out in a hot pot. Be aware, this dish has pork; we thought it was just going to be cauliflower. Their Fresh Meat Soup Dumplings (Xiao Long Bao) were very good, and the Fried Rice Noodles (Chow Fun) were nice as well. Lastly we got the Cilantro Beef and Chili Fried Chicken; they were the most spicy dishes but even the person with us who can't handle spice said they were good although she couldn't eat much.

Service and Ambiance: The servers were very kind, attentive, and the owners even came out and gave us a Chinese New Year gift. You can order yourself from the online menu and it's attached to your table. The cart is shared as well. They also have printed menus and will come take your order if you prefer. The seats are very comfortable which is important for me with back and tailbone issues. The place is a bit small, but there was enough space...

Had an overall NOT GREAT EXPERIENCE.

Three of us came at 6pm on Christmas eve. Place was packed. There was a continuous crowd of people waiting for their pickup, standing in between the in-restaurant tables and diners. This restaurant seems to have NO SYSTEM FOR PRIORITIZING WHICH CUSTOMERS GET SERVED, and NO UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR OWN CAPACITY TO SERVE. Food seemed to be going out in random order, sometimes takeout would get it before dine-in folks; sometimes late-comers got their food before early-arrivals. During this time, one junior waiter, and several hosts tried their best to be polite but they never communicated with us proactively about anything. First waiter wouldn't take my order in person, even though I was dine-in, and pushed me to use their app. Another waiter asked if I wanted to cancel my meal at one point. I saw some tables so pissed they left. All of this POOR SERVICE is likely the result of POOR MANAGEMENT, not the staff.

We waited 1 hour and 37 mins for our first dish to be served. The food that did come out was tasty, I'll give them that, for example 川北凉粉 did taste authentic, which you can judge by how homemade the sauce is; however, the SERVINGS WERE SMALL for a Chinese restaurant (small sea bass, mung bean like 1/2 the picture shown), and the the pork belly seemed NOT FRESHLY MADE.

This place has potential. Chinese restaurants are few and far between in East Bay, let alone Concord, CA, let alone good Chinese restaurants in this area. I give them three stars (instead of two) in the spirit that they train their staff better and increase the size of their...