Tian Fu Seattle — Restaurant in Seattle

TLDR: Best Authentic dishes, great staff. You must try the roasted fish and chicken dry pot!! Read on for food descriptions.

This spot is the best authentic Sichuan/Chongqing spot I have found on the West Coast. I lived in Chongqing for a few years and am always on the lookout for my two favorite dishes : Gan Guo Ji (Dry pot with Chicken) and Wanzhou Kaoyu (Wanzhou-Style Whole Roasted Fish). Tian Fu had both so I pulled my 3 friends to come try it with me for their first authentic Chinese food rodeo and we all had the BEST time. Only thing missing was the crate of 3% Chinese beers that you usually pass around while eating the kaoyu. Tianfu was also running a special that if you spent $100 you got another entree for free (I think that was the deal??) so we ended up with the spicy shrimp dish as well. SO MUCH FOOD that made amazing leftovers since we definitely couldn't eat it all lol! Our our oder could have happily fed 6-8 people.

Sichuan Peppercorn - a love story. Sichuan Peppercorn is a unique peppercorn that adds a smokey numbness to ones tongue. If you bite one (it looks like a reddish black peppercorn) and chew it on the tip of your tongue for 15 seconds or so, you will begin to feel your tongue and mouth go a little numb. Its a fun ride, and the sensation is believed to bring out a deeper, more complex flavor from the red chili peppers. This is why with the famous bright red chili foods of Sichuan you may never experience a "fire mouth" the same way you would with a thai chili or a jalapeno. I can eat the bright red Sichuan food for days yet still cry over a jalapeno, so don't be intimidated by all the red chilis!

Mouth Watering Chicken - half a chicken is boiled and then set to cool in an oil made of red chilis, garlic, ginger, onion, and Sichuan peppercorn. The chicken is served cold in the bed of red, flavored oil. The flavor is light, mildly spicy, and slightly smokey from the Sichuan peppercorn. This dish does have bones, so be careful while eating it.

Fish-Fragrant Eggplant - this name doesn't do the dish justice. This dish also doesnt have fish in it and doesnt taste like fish; rather the sauce used is also common in another dish that does have fish in it. The eggplant is fried with a brown, garlicky, sweet and sour sauce. This dish tastes particularly awesome with a bite of steamed white rice.

Chicken Dry Pot - my favorite dish. This is a Chongqing specialty of various vegetables (lotus root, potato, cabbage, red onion, broccoli.. whatever is on-hand really) stir-fried in a unique spice blend that no Chinese chef has ever revealed to me. The veggies are slightly spicy and salty and very addictive. We added chicken wings to our dry pot and wow- we all agreed that these chicken wings are some of the darn best chicken wings we had ever had. It seems that they were flash fried and then coated in the same spice mixture!

Wanzhou Whole Roasted Fish - I wish I was with you to try this dish as it is AMAZING but somewhat intimidating... Luckily the staff here at Tianfu was awesome and super happy to help describe how to eat it. They come out with an entire pan with a small fire lit underneath (like a tea candle). In the pan is a whole fish covered with a spicy sauce filled with veggies. The fish used is usually pretty thicc so worrying about small bones isnt usually an issue - just stab a chopstick or fork into the sides of the fish where the lean meat is. It usually falls right off the bone, especially the longer the fish cooks in the sauce. WARNING - the fish gets spicier and spicier as it cooks and soaks in all the sichuan peppercorny chili goodness. About 15 minutes through picking at the fish, flip it around so you can continue eating all the lean bits from its other side. This can get messy, so you can ask your server to do it for you. Also, You don't need to wait for the fire to go out to start eating the fish- it is ready the moment they bring it...

I remember seeing Tian Fu open in 2019 and finally paid a visit on a weekday night. I lived in the area for years and have seen the space change from an Olive Garden, to buffet, to Japanese restaurant, and to it’s current iteration as a Szechuan and Northern Chinese style restaurant. Because it’s in the Northgate North building there’s plenty of parking in the garage. The restaurant was probably 25% full but that’s partly because they have a lot of tables. The staff were all friendly and the main waiter was magnanimous. She was appreciative that I visited and was very attentive and helpful. The menu has a lot of choices and being Szechuanese they have many chili dishes. I landed on the dan dan noodles, stir-fried green beans, and the sizzling plate of beef. Everything was delicious. The dan dan noodles were tasty and the sauce had a spice that I’m not accustomed to in the dan dan noodles, but it a good addition. The stir-fried green beans had the signature wrinkled skin that only a wok at high heat can impart. There was a strong gas flavor likely from the gas that fuels the wok flame, but I didn’t mind it and liked the flavor actually. Finally the sizzling plate was really good. It was in a pool of bubbling hot oil so it was splattering a bit but was fine once it cooled down. The beef was nice and tender and the vegetables cooked down further on the sizzling plate. I’m glad I finally visited and plan to stop by again...

First time at this restaurant. We ordered a variety of fish dishes and desserts. The food had an off putting flavor and was room temperature if not basically cooled. Can’t really describe the flavor. It was aromatic but not in a good way. I do enjoy aromatic flavors normally. Left everyone’s tongues tingly but the food was not spicy. Just our tongues felt tingly then numb. Very strange sensation. We ordered all spicy dishes and we all enjoy spicy food. Food was not spicy at all except if you classify whole peppercorns as spicy, and there were alot of peppercorns, too many and not needed as they didn’t add flavor to the dish in a positive way. Dessert also was not very good. Ordered 1 mango pudding and it had maybe 4 penny size pieces of mango in the entire dish, and the “pudding” was completely liquidated. Not a pudding consistency in anyway. The flavor wasn’t very good either. Service was ok. Didn’t know we had to order online, didn’t realize that until after we sat for awhile and no one acknowledged our way for service. I give the restaurant 2 stars just incase on the off chance that the flavor was just not to the palette of mine or anyone I was with (4 adults). Would not return and would not recommend. Was not worth the $150 bill. They did add their own tip as part of the...