Szechuan Mansion Hotpot_Durham — Restaurant in Durham

I love traditional Chinese food. The"mala" flavor profile of Szechuan peppercorns is probably my favorite in all of cooking. This place is the best I have ever tasted.

I ordered the spicy beef tallow hotpot. It was teeming with flavor and heat without being greasy. It tasted strongly of heaven facing chili, Pixian Doubanjiang, Five/thirteen spice and Szechuan peppercorn while incorporating the rich flavor of the beef tallow.

I ordered lamb slices which were delicate and thin but flavorful, tender marinated beef slices that tasted like they had been velveted in a marinade that gave them a perfect and unique texture and taste.

The seasonal veggie bowl was packed to the brim with traditional Chinese ingredients with standouts including wood ear and enoki mushrooms.

The udon came out in a block that had to be cooked all at once but was delicious and chewy nonetheless.

Meat and fish pastes had their own unique appeal and were soft yet bouncy.

I was able to create my own dipping plate which I used to create the equivalent of a dandan style sauce with chinkiang vinegar, sesame paste, fresh garlic, chili pepper, cilantro, soy, sugar and MSG as well as something called "chunk" that I wasn't familiar with but was delicious.

The portions for every ingredient were ample and we were surprised by how much food we had.

The service was exceptionally friendly and the server seemed to be the owner and he talked us through the experience of hotpot, which we'd never had before.

My only complaint is that I thought the rice wasn't sticky enough to withstand the hotpot broth which is incredibly minor in the scheme of things and I wished there were a wider range of beers and rice wines available.

The price was perfect. I was pleasantly surprised and expecting a much larger bill.

10000000/10 food experience. Maybe my greatest food experience ever and I've been to Michelin Star restaurants. Thank you to...

Great place and great atmosphere. We had the two flavors hot pot combo b with an exercise of spam fried rice. All the places to eat here are on one side of the street like an old west town and there's street parking which may be difficult to find and is a large parking lot across the street where there is a Harris teeter with their sign saying don't park there so you make it towed if you do. Food came out quickly obviously since you cook it yourself and you boil it up and eat it and it was pretty good. The spam fried rice was okay. It wasn't very flavorful so you might want to skip that, but it was only $1.99 and the place does not have their sanitation grade prominently displayed. It's sitting over there by the cash register. You can barely see it says 9 either eight or zero. Regardless, we drove a long way and decided to try it and overall it was pretty good so definitely a good place to try. All of the food you see in the picture below cost about 60 bucks. And they have a bar where you can make your own sauces. With some recipes above, you can dip...

Overall: B+

Food: A The food was excellent and the choice of various broth, meats, vegetables, and sauces is the best part of your experience here. By far, the highlight of the night.

Atmosphere: B The atmosphere was great and welcoming. Great decoration and Asian culinary design. I really like the aesthetic. The tables are spaced enough so you don’t feed crowded.

Service: C The service was unfortunately the slightly disappointing part of the experience. More than just eating food or a buffet style approach; hotpot style restaurants can be a little overwhelming for first timers. The menu is different because you gotta check things with a marker and the waiters barely interact with us. Honestly I don’t remember any of them ever making eye contact. Strange.

Restrooms: B For this style of restaurant, it’s typical. A simple clean bathroom (nothing to rave about).

Parking: C There’s no immediate parking, so you can either street park or park across the street in a shopping center parking lot. It’s not far; but it’s annoying thing...