Chengdu Taste Seattle — Restaurant in Seattle

I knew this restaurant would serve authentic Sichuan cuisine, but it ended up being a little too authentic for me

I got the Mapo Tofu here, which is a popular Sichuanese dish of tofu in a spicy oil-based sauce, and minced meat (pork in this case) I've had mapo tofu before, in a place designed to cater more to Western audiences. This is absolutely not that. The flavor in this dish explodes at you - it's fiery, unafraid, and strong. It just takes one bite for it to hit you over the head with its mouthfeel. The rice is barely able to slow it down; it just provides temporary relief from the marauding conquest that this dish has over your mouth.

While the sauce and peppercorns provide the immense depth of flavor, my favorite part of this mapo tofu has to be the namesake tofu. It's probably the best tofu I've ever had. So unbelievably soft that it collapses upon itself while bringing it from the bowl to the plate. I've never had softer tofu before, and it felt like cutting into a dessert more than anything. It also acted as an excellent sponge for the rice. The dish came absolutely loaded with tofu as well, which was fantastic I also liked the pork as well, but I thought there could've been more of it

This dish is spicy. Like really spicy. I can usually handle spicy food pretty well, but the amount of Sichuan peppercorns put in here is crazy. It really is that numbing spice which makes your mouth unable to process anything else. Eating with rice helped slightly, but at the midway point through this massive bowl, I had to call it as it was just getting too spicy.

This raises an interesting philosophical question on how to judge this dish. Usually I look for enjoyable experiences when going out, and due to the spiciness, I can't say this was very enjoyable - it was in fact a bit painful to eat towards the end. On the contrary, I can recognize the quality of this dish, and the effort that went into creating it. I guess I'd have to judge it as a mix of the both sides. There's a balance I need to strike with how much I liked something, versus how good I think it is objectively. Usually, both of those are in harmony, but it's cases like this where they split apart a bit

Anyway, the portion size is pretty incredible. A single bowl of tofu could easily be shared by two people with no problem. It's a little weird that you have to pay extra for the rice, since no sane person is just going to have this tofu bowl by itself, but the overall cost of around $22 in total was really not that expensive

Overall, I can't say this was the most enjoyable dish in the world, but I know when there's exceptional quality, and this...

I'm Chinese American from NYC and have been living in Shanghai the past 8 years. I've actually been to Chengdu 6 or 7 times. I've eaten at a LOT of Chinese restaurants in my life.

Without a doubt, Chengdu Taste would one of my favorite places it were in Shanghai. In fact, it's better than 90% of the places I've tried in Chengdu - no joke. It's that good. In fact, it was so good we went back - 2 meals in 3 days.

What we ordered and my rating out of 10:

popcorn chicken 8 crispy chicken with red chili pepper 9 (photo #1) sauteed eggplant 9 sour veggie fish 8 sauteed string beans 9 ma po tofu 9 pork rib dish (can't remember the name, see photo #3) 10 pork dish with veggies (can't remember the name, see photo #2) 9 twice cooked pork 5

Advice:

and 2. are very similar, and while 1. is their signature dish (plaques on the wall), we all thought 2. is better. If you can handle a few bones, get 2.

is very spicy, probably the spiciest thing we ordered, but VERY flavorful. If you can handle spice, order it!

was excellent because it wasn't too salty. I think many places make mapo tofu too salty, and that's coming from someone who LOVES salt. haha

If you're not into spicy food, 8. is an excellent choice. It's not spicy at all while still being very flavorful. For you Chinese folks, I think on the menu it's 农家小炒肉.

Atmosphere - just like the photos. It's bright with huge windows and tastefully decorated. I actually think it's a bit too nice given the neighborhood.

This is only my 2nd ever Google review. I'm writing it simply because Chengdu Taste blew away my expectations. If you're ever in Seattle and are in the mood for Chinese, don't...

The sichuan food here had us all craving more. I loved the notes of numbing pepper in every dish. The standout dish for us was the spring onion chicken in pepper sauce. While traditionally, the sauce is used as a dipping sauce and there is always never enough for the amount of chicken served, this restaurant flips that notion on its head and serves the chicken drowned in the sauce and I love it. There’s numbing pepper in here as well and we found ourselves adding this oil/sauce onto almost every other dish.

The cumin lamb on toothpicks were perfectly tender and chewy and so so flavorful. Definitely a must try if you love cumin lamb.

The boiled fish was a bit different than I expected but it was a pleasant dish to round out the spiciness of everything else. I wasn’t a huge fan of the spicy popcorn chicken but it definitely had an aura of better quality. I personally preferred the oily spiciness in the way that other sichuan restaurants do it.

Overall, I would highly recommend this restaurant. Can’t wait to take my friends...