Chengdu Taste — Restaurant in Providence

Chengdu Taste 495 Smith Street Providence RI

I needed noodles. On chilly October Fridays, noodles make perfect sense. Spicy noodles even more so. Chengdu Taste hadn’t even been on my radar but thanks to quirk of Google* it was thrown onto my laptop screen.* The promise of legit, spicy Sichuan cut short the search and it was off to Providence.

No problem parking here, especially at 4:30 on a Friday. Chengdu has a lot and there’s a lot in the semi-defunct strip next to it. Won’t be too much competition because most of the cars in Smith Hill will be trying to escape it at that time.

The menu is pretty large. The first half is devoted to a very broad array of Sichuan dishes - with little chile peppers next to almost every item The back part covers standard the Chinese and American-Chinese dishes required to please less adventurous palates.

I started with Spicy Sichuan Cold Noodles. Cold food on a cold day may sound counterintuitive, but I don’t get this dish enough; it’s a favorite and I figured the spice might trick my body into feeling warmer. It worked. With little beads of sweat forming on my brow, they were perfect - just salty enough with a barely sweet soy-based sauce. Plenty of chile heat and enough Sichuan pepper to put my mouth into a high voltage tingle.

Next up - Shredded Beef with Longhorn Peppers. One of the best versions of this one I’ve eaten as well. Unlike the last heavily sauced/overcooked one I had in Cambridge, Chengdu’s take stood out. The beef had a starchy sheen & tender chewiness with tons of sliced peppers. The seeds had been removed but it was still spicy, with a crisp & bright flavor.

The Crystal Shrimp dumplings came last. Almost like a killer dessert, I was looking forward to these most. Often a dim sum offering, I wondered - just for a second - if it was kosher to get them for dinner. But, just like chili dogs, I can never turn these down. As it turns out, I probably should have steered clear. They were a little bland and extra fragile, collapsing in chopsticks and just as hard to keep on a fork. I made a note not to order Cantonese food at Sichuan restaurants. And vice versa. But it was a small glitch compared to the perfection of the first two plates.

Service is on point, but don’t expect a ton of warmth. The folks on staff do the job right; they don’t rush you and they don’t keep you waiting either. Perfect balance. Perfectly happy not to be cuddled myself, and never a fan of the chit-chatty /forced joy server style, it’s just the way I like things. Smiles may not be frequently on display, but when they are they are genuine & sincere.

*It probably says more about RI’s diversity of Asian restaurants than search algorithms. Punch in “Best Lao Food in Providence” or “Cambodian Restaurants” and most of the results will be Thai places. Type “Best Thai” and the first 4 hits will actually be Thai…followed by 13...

We love this authentic Chinese restaurant! You have to get the steam Shanghai little juicy pork buns and I promise you, you won't regret it! They are similar to soup dumplings without a lot of soup. They are super tasty! The shrimp dumplings were also delicious! One of the better ones I have had in the state. I have had the Mei fun and their noodles are thicker than typical Mei fun I'm ein and Mei fun are both okay, pretty bland in my opinion. I did really enjoy their pork fried rice! The texture and flavor was great, they could add more sauce to it though. The grand mariner shrimp and general tso chicken were good! My husband loved the hot pepper chicken, he thought it was nicely spicy! We enjoyed the chili dumplings as they have a great flavor but not spicy more sweet. The garlic eggplant was great but some parts are spicier than others. The won ton with red sesame oil was pretty good but preferred the chili dumplings more. My husband loves their Dan Dan noodles here! They have great flavor and really spicy! Eggrolls are okay. The fried dumplings were good, not super thick. We did enjoy the sauce too! I did find it odd they don't have any hot sauces or chili oil that you can bring home. We ordered a ton of food and they gave 1 duck sauce and 1 soy sauce packet which I thought was funny. That's okay because we never use them but if you do, make sure to ask for more! You can order online or call to order. Another plus, is that they have a parking lot! The restaurant looks nice inside too but we have only...

There's only 7 tables. I would say the dining area is about 12x 25 ft². Lobby is 4x4 Im pretty sure there isnt a bathroom in here. It's a really small place so I would not recommend going with parties larger than 4. They do have a sign theyll be moving to a bigger place in November, so hopefully that works out!

If you order take out, dont order and show up at the estimated time, go about 20 min later. Also, if you order through their website, there is 4% surcharge for using a credit card but there isn't another option to pay in cash at the restaurant. You also can't call in, to place an order. I haven't tried it, but maybe if you make the order in person, pay in cash, wait an hour and come back for the food, you can get around that.

The portions seemed decent. The food was good. We got general gao's tofu, veggie fried rice, fried lamb w cumin, and pickled veggies. The tofu is lightly fried and doesn't really taste like tofu, its very airy. The fried rice was great - lightly seasoned and not swimming in oil. The fried lamb has a lot of seasoning so be prepared. Both the tofu and lamb had hot spicy pepper pieces but if your not a fan of spicy you can just eat around it and you won't get the extra kick. By the way the fried lamb is a szechuan dish so it's supposed to be spicy. The pickled veggies didn't have a WOW factor, they were okay. Not...