Chin's Szechwan - Encinitas — Restaurant in Encinitas

A disturbing trend at the Chin's Szechwan locations is that the normally very nice and efficient servers have been meddling with me and my companions during my meals. Talking about personal topics... Interjecting into conversations and business.

It appears to be a trained behavior. I noticed it within the last 6 weeks, maybe. They are nice people and I've never had a problem until this started. They're not being malicious, they are just "not reading the room." Whoever trained them has actually hurt their tips. Once a sweet waitress starts in on the topic of intimacy, I recoil unless she's offering herself, which is NOT the case.

Fill my water, don't ask a question about how my female companion keeps me company.

This is one of three Chin's Szechwans that I now will not go to because of this meddling. I wish there were more Chin's Gourmet locations...

I do like the layout of the restaurant. It is not a typical box with dividers in it.

I am rather limited in my palate and I do not eat restaurant-prepared seafood as a general rule. With that said I have been pleased with their pork, chicken and beef dishes.

Having had both lunch and dinner here, the lunch is a far superior value. I just wish some of the dinner offerings were in a lunch deal.

I've come to love the tangerine beef. (Although the spiciness varies greatly between locations and mealtimes.)

Also, the time of day you eat it might change how it tastes. Obviously, different chefs are on shift and they're both great, but one has a touch more bite to it.

My only suggestion is that they don't serve water at lunchtime without first asking.

For you fellow bicyclists, it is a bit difficult to get to the parking lot from Encinitas itself. It's a real steep driveway. If you turn at the light, the grade is maybe 3° better, still a...

I have to start by saying we use to love Chins. We've been customers for a long time. Unfortunately the quality of the freshness of the food started to fail and not be consistent. We stopped going for a bit but returned to enjoy their generous lunch specials. We enjoyed bringing family and friends as was the case today. We started with shrimp wonton soup but the shrimp tasted awful. I didn't say anything in case it was just me. I noticed one other family member put their shrimp on the side of the bowl. Going on to our meals, we had 2 honey walnut shrimp oreders and Kung pao shrimp. This is something we have ordered many times. Again the shrimp tasted terrible like they were spoiled or going bad. I said nothing until I noticed the other person not eating it as well. When I finally asked, they thought the same thing, that the shrimp were spoiled. We kindly and I promise it was very kind, told them we like their restaurant and this had never happened before but the shrimp could possibly be going bad and did not taste good. He answered, maybe we used a different distributor but I will tell the manager. We heard him speaking to the manager and waited and waited. He finally came over and asked if we wanted to take it home. We said no. He picked up our plates and returned with our check. The manager never came to speak with us, they didn't offer even a 10%discount or replacement meal. We are locals and want to support local businesses but not with the risk of getting sick or bad customer service. P.S. We are the type of people that are quick to put a good word in not just complain so I don't do...

I went here for a Birthday lunch. I really wanted it to be good, as it was a very special day. However, the service was poor- I had to stand and go inside to ask for things a couple of times. The Hunan beef was extremely salty and not a bit spicy (Hunan cuisine is spicy by default). We actually thought that our order had been switched with something else, but we were told it was not... The beef was also involved in some sort of a gooey sauce that was not tasty. The sesame chicken was OK. The xiaolongbao was probably the worst I have ever had. Regarding the xiaolongbao, we were actually asked by the waitress if we really wanted it, given that some people apparently would cancel the order while waiting for it to be ready, as it took about 20-30 min to prepare. I am still wondering why, as the four pieces of xiaolongbao that came to our table were obviously frozen, not prepared fresh. 20-30 min to thaw and steam? Actually, the xiaolongbao lacked the characteristic soup inside that makes it a "xiaolongbao" and not some other kind of steamed bun. It cost us above 40 USD + tip for 2 people, one of them Chinese. I guess that if you're ok with an overpriced Panda Express, this restaurant might be a...