Tasty Szechuan — Restaurant in Hayward

This is a great local gem. The parking is limited to street parking. The interior and furnishings were clean and modern. I was pleasantly surprised by the cute design and the effort made to make the restaurant cozy and stylish.

My party of three shared the following:

The sour chili beef sliced soup ($19.95) which was our first time having something like this; it has a slightly sour taste and an great heat in a dish with no visible chilies. The meat was a bit tough but the bamboo and the noodles were great. I am not a fan of bean sprouts and could do without them but overall a pretty good dish.

The wontons in chili oil sauce (10) ($9.95) was my favorite dish. The wontons had a nice thin skin and they had a great texture and flavor. It’s much lighter than other chili wonton dishes I’ve had previously. I think because of the exclusion of sesame paste. Not spicy to me at all.

We also got the fish fillet in hot chili oil ($18.95) and it was lovely. I was impressed by the large pieces of fish fillet and the amount provided. Usually when I order this dish elsewhere it’s not as nearly as abundant. There is still a lot of napa cabbage and bean sprouts underneath the fish for those that like that part of the dish. The spice wasn’t overwhelming.

To round out the meal, we got the bok-choy with black mushrooms ($12.95). It was perfectly seasoned and a great palate cleanser.

If you’re looking for the extreme mala spice or spiciness, you might have to ask them to make it spicier, but for me it was perfect. My mom thought it was a bit too spicy and my brother thought it wasn’t spicy enough.

Our total was $86.99 including tip. A great price for the amount of food. We had plenty of leftovers and they wrapped it up for us which always makes the dining experience much better. Though friendly, the staff is sometimes all in the back at once so don’t be shy to say ‘excuse me’ loudly to get what you need. I would come back if i was...

Tasty Szechuan is a hidden gem in Hayward and very close to Castro Valley! Service is awesome, and the food comes out so fast and fresh. Also, today is international women’s day and the staff gave us a cup to celebrate, such a sweet gesture! 😊

We’ve been here twice now and plan to regularly come back to this spot whenever we crave for Szechuan food. We ordered the following:

String green beans - when you order this, it only details the green beans but it comes with eggplant too! It’s so good with rice

Spicy lamb with cumin special - I’m not a huge fan of lamb because it can get gamey, but I was impressed with the flavor of it! My fiancé raves about this dish and said this is one out of the best dishes he’s tasted.

Beef noodle soup - I really enjoyed the soup base here, a lot of other restaurants can make the soup very plain and this had a good umami taste to it and there’s chili oil on the side if you want to spice it up. The noodles were chewy and complemented the soup well.

Boiling hot fish - bomb with rice. Very addicting numbing spice taste and fish was so tender!

Spicy dry fried crispy intestine - sooo good and crispy. A...

Good food, but the service was very slow and pretty much absent. First, we didn't know that you have to order through the QR code. The waitress that sat us only mentioned to find our menu through the code, but didn't mention you have to order through it too. Next, I had some questions about the menu because some were only written in Chinese, but I could never catch their attention (raised hand so many times). They didn't even check our table throughout the whole meal, even though there was only three other tables eating. The only time they came was to give the check. Also, they don't split checks, so I don't understand what was the point in ordering online through separate phones if they're not going to split the check? Our friends and I paid half in cash and credit card, and they took 10 minutes to process that. I understand the staff are nice, but it barely helps when they're inattentive and negligible. It feels like we were ignored and that sucks because we were very interested to have Chinese food more often, but not when the staff is not interested in helping...