Szechwan — Restaurant in St. Charles

We live in the St Charles area and have been looking for a place that has good Chinese that is closer to us than Lao Szechwan in North Aurora. Given the positive reviews, we were cautiously optimistic about Szechwan, even despite the fact that based on the photos and ingredients we knew from the start it was going to be more Americanized Chinese than anything approaching authentic.

We were pretty disappointed. To start, we wanted to get black pepper beef and honey chicken which they have on their menu, but not available through the online ordering system. We tried calling in, and it rang through to voicemail saying they were not taking phone orders at that time. Okay - new plan - Home Style Beef and Orange Chicken. We also got pot stickers and crab Rangoon.

The beef dish comes with celery and carrots, but everything had been way overcooked so the vegetables were limp with no life left in them. My wife and I both agreed that the orange chicken has the appearance of having been sitting around for quite a while - it was overly breaded and the sauce had completely permeated the breading so it was more of a sludge of coating. There were also two large slices of some unidentifiable other meat in with the chicken. Honestly, Panda Express has fresher ingredients and better tasting options - and if I'm comparing you unfavorably to Panda Express, you've done something horribly wrong.

To be honest, we should have known from the first bite of rice that we were in trouble, as even the rice was way overcooked. Yes, the plain white rice was not good.

My wife said her crab Rangoon were fine, and the pot stickers were equally okay.

In retrospect, a place that is called "Szechwan" but advertises itself as making "Mandarin and Cantonese" food makes no sense. It's like a restaurant calling itself "Paris" but serving in German food.

Unfortunately, having crossed this restaurant off our list of local places to try, we will have to continue to make the 40min drive each way to Lao Szechwan whenever we want good Chinese. It's quite the commute - but well worth it.

We paid $50 for our meal of two entrees and two appetizers, thinking it would be good to have leftovers. We ended up throwing half...

Honest feedback! (Went twice) First time- Owner Nancy took our order, no other staff was present.. She had mentioned we could make your desired dish!

We (family and friends) had questions on couple dishes. Nancy... then changed her demeanor standoffish personality and not so welcoming, she got very loud and bold attitude. Stating we do not change out dishes.

We all looked at each other with confusion and felt uncomfortable 😳.

We placed our orders and tried to enjoy our night out.

The food was delicious!! We all was happy with the taste of our food. (We just thought Nacy had a bad day.. reason of her service).

Second visit their Nancy didn't have no server's.. she took our order (kept it easy and simple order) the restaurant was extremely cold.. we was all wearing our jackets.

We received the food..everything was delicious. However, my chicken fried rice was over cooked. I informed her of the issue.. Nancy got very upset and her anger got the best out of her.. she loudly started "if you don't want it, give it here" She didn't offer to replace it or show any customer service recovery.. she did not come to our table to refill any of our beverages after the complaint.

My messages to Nancy You have lost very good people as far customers due to your unprofessional, rude personality. Please seek professional help!! Your food is delicious. However, your demeanor is in bearable! This is the reason we will not come back to...

Updated March 2024 visit I had the most disappointing dinner. I was not greeted when I entered and the lady (most likely the owner) just showed me to my table without any niceties service was very slow, disinterested. I had to call the server a couple of times because she used to just disappear food was average at best the hostess (again, most likely the owner) stopped by the table in front of me and the two tables behind me but skipped mine!! I was incredibly insulted at the exit there was no "thanks, see you again" This is the second poor dining experience I had. Also, during Covid , they had messed up my carry out order. I gave them 3 chances due to it being local but they blew it. I am not going here again. Clean restaurant, tasty food, good service....