Chengdu Taste — Restaurant in Paradise

Chengdu Taste is a casual Szechuan joint in China Town. If you enjoy spicy food, read on...if you don't enjoy spicy food you can still read on if you like...=)

Service: It's a very small restaurant that holds a maximum of about 80 patrons. Service has been very good for a small capacity high volume restaurant. The food comes out quickly and although you may have to wave them down to get more rice or the water jug refilled, they take care of it immediately.

Food: Great, great great Szechuan food. The spiciness kind of numbs the tongue, but it doesn't linger like thai food. A glass of water cleanses your pallet and you're right back in the mix. Portions are family style, so come hungry or fatty up like me. My favorites include: Toothpick Lamb: Spicy, tasty, flavorful and I've never had anything like it. Dried Pork Intestines: Flavor and spiciness combo is fantastic, this might be my favorite dish. Twice Cooked Pork: If a dried pork dish isn't your thing, then go with this and all is good. Dan Dan Noodles: If you're feeling noodles, give these a try and enjoy yourself.

Value: Most dishes are in the mid teen price range but you get a lot of food. Coming here hungry or with a group of your favorite foodie friends (as I do) is the best way to maximize your experience. The quality you get for the price is amazing.

Ambiance: Super casual mom and pop feel with open seating. The dining area has 4 large round tables to accommodate larger parties of 8+ and the remaining tables seat 4. Timing is everything in getting a table but the staff is focused on turning tables over quickly by getting the food out asap.

Chengdu Taste that delivers high quality Szechuan food for a very reasonable price. It's places like this that is making Vegas a great foodie city and is putting lots of pressure on the high end Chinese restaurants. After my first visit, I was back 2 days later and had just as good a time as the first. There's lots of dishes to try and they're all exceeding expectations. ...

Visiting Vegas for a conference and ended up finding Chengdu because we stayed in a condo off of the strip, they were open and there was about 2 dozen people, mainly Chinese Nationals / Chinese Americans who were waiting outside. This place is a bit out of the way and not even visible from the main road yet I noticed that about half of the people waiting had conference badges on. Given that this place doesn't really do any advertising it was apparent that word of mouth is how they roll and boy were they rolling. A steady stream of pickup orders and they were even serving people outside on the warm concrete picnic tables.

We waited about 30 mins for a table and our group of 4 was seated in a booth that was sized for 6 - 8 people. We had 4 different dishes, fried rice, and the fish soup. I've had Sichuan food in China and was pretty jazzed at the menu selection. The dishes were quite tasty but somewhat Americanized (saltier) just as one might expect. The only thing that I was disappointed with was the soup. The ingredients were all there but it was essentially broth with ingredients. The flavors were not well blended (cooked together) and the magic of the peppercorns was lost in the too fresh green chilis. You shouldn't have to bite down on a peppercorn to experience the aromatic and tingling effect of the pepper. The soup tasted like it was thrown together rather than cooked for even an hour. It is such a great recipe that they should have been cooking drums of the stuff all afternoon but apparently splash and go was the choice.

Four of us including tip was $150...

Horrific. Seriously. Like, they clearly didn't care, and thus I have zero regrets posting a 1-star review.

The menu is severely lacking, like there's very limited items within it.

And most of all, there's absolutely NO BUDGING in any way to accommodate a patron in ANY WAY.

For example: I wanted something simple and not spicy: you know, some noodles and some sort of protein other than pork.

The Tan Tan noodles seemed promising. I asked the waiter if I could have some chicken, beef or shrimp instead of the pork. NOPE.

sigh... really? umm... ok...

I picked something else out on the menu, some sorta soupy beefy noodly thing... can I have this, but instead of spicy, can it be made mild? NOPE.

Well, I said, what do you suggest?

The waiter said, Tan Tan Noodles, hold the pork. OK, Mr Obvious... but... I sorta need some protein or SOMETHING to go with.

What sort of appetizers do you have with either beef, chicken or shrimp?

He suggested spring rolls. Which as we all know are always chock full of... not-protein.

My friend who I came along with seemed content, and I didn't want to be the type of person who dragged her out...

So I ate a bowl of freaking noodles. There was a soy sauce-y sauce (sound the trumpets!). But... no vegetables, not even spring onion. A BOWL of NOODLES.

To the tune of almost $15.

Never, ever again. EVER.

No photo attached, because, honest to gawd, it was a BOWL of PLAIN NOODLES.

(I miss Da Gemi, which was my go-to prior to seeing a Las Vegas Little Theater production. Unfortunately, they have gone out...