Szechuan Brothers Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Vancouver

We ate here for the first time, we tried the Mongolian Beef and the basil chicken. My lady said she really liked the basil chicken dish ( lighter color dish in pic) the Mongolian Beef I asked them to make mild. Which it was mild, but was lacking flavor. There was very little sauce to the beef and onions, etc.. It wasn’t bad tasting by any means. But compares to Lee’s Garden where I usually go for my Chinese food. This is no comparison to Lee’s Mongolian Beef! If you live in the Camas area and don’t want to drive all the way over to Portland on 181st & Division St. Then Szechuan Brothers is a ok second choice that’s closer to home. But for the better tasting food, I’ll drive the extra distance to Lee’s majority of the time! Portions were not very large and prices were a little speedy as well. Lee’s portions may not be much larger, but their prices are a little cheaper over all! Hard to beat Lee’s Gardens in my opinion. I was hoping Szechuan Brothers was going to be the first Chinese restaurant in the Camas/Vancover area that finally compare with Lee’s, but no such luck! Szechuan Brothers also is set up more like a traditional Chinese restaurant where they have metal chop sticks instead of silverware. You’ll have to ask for silverware if you not any good with chop sticks. They had what I believe was a green tea, not much flavor there either! No sugar on the table, just sweet and low! We asked for real sugar and they brought out a tiny little saucer with a little sugar and a small spoon. Waiter was pleasant enough, but not over friendly by any means! I’ve been going to Lee’s Gardens for decades. So they know me well there and I’m treated very well being one of their long standing regulars! Szechuan Brothers is a brand new restaurant and maybe with time people will build better relationships with their waiters and waitresses? Over all this isn’t the worst place I’ve ate at and it’s certainly worth giving another shot and try some of their other dishes? I’ve found many times a restaurant has at least one item on their menu that stands out and is great tasting. You just got to be willing to keep trying different dishes till you hit the jackpot and find that one dish you really enjoy eating! This restaurant was good enough to go back again and try our luck with a different dish next time! Side note, I liked how their receipts are done, it shows 3 different choices for percentage of tips from 18%, 20%, & 25% and how much your total would be for each tip. There’s also a choice to decide your own tip and total yourself too! They do give large glasses of water, but in my opinion the water wasn’t very good. Another advantage to going to Lee’s, Lee’s has great...

Our experience at this restaurant was a mixed bag.

FOOD Overall, the food was pretty good. It turned out to be more of a family style situation when we realized until the food came. My Orange Chicken was just a large plate of Orange Chicken. My wife's plate of stir fried vegetables was a small platter of vegetables. My daughter's rice dish was a heaping plate of fried rice. Once we figured that out, we just threw it all in the middle and scooped what we wanted from each onto the empty plates they provided. Prices were a little high, but portions were healthy. Our daughter, whom we were visiting in college, walked out of there with enough food for another three or four nights for herself. If you come in alone and are not expecting this, you may be disappointed with the situation.

SERVICE Service kind of sucked, though. We came through the door. Whomever was in charge saw us from across the restaurant (it's a distance), asked how many, then pointed to a table near him rather than coming to get us. He seated us at a table where no one should ever have to eat. This one table is half behind the work counter. I didn't find out until later, but my wife had a full view of the bussing service with all of the garbage food and dirty dishes for the entire dinner. With the place less than half full, this table should have been a table of last resort, not a table of most convenience for the servers.

I had also ordered the lamb skewers as an appetizer. They forgot them until dinner was over, then, rather than asking if we wanted them, one of the ladies unceremoniously placed them on the table as we were ready to start boxing up the left overs. I think they forgot them on the counter, as they were no longer warm. Insult to injury, they were also on the bill.

Again, I found out after we left, when the lady put the plate on the table, she reached across my wife who says she received a blast of what she called 'the worst body odor' from her passing arm pit, remarking that it was a good thing we'd already eaten when that happened.

In the future, if picking up, we might return to the restaurant as we did enjoy it well enough. If eating in, we may try other places in the area. The food is good, but the place just doesn't make you want...

I'm being generous on 3 stars because it was NYE and they were professional. Here are my concerns from a Dasher perspective (food courier)

1. They were overwhelmed with orders. There were literally 20+ tickets taped to tables representing a customer's pre-order including food delivery services. I witnessed customers who called in, coming in and they went through each order trying to find their order and only to tell them it's not ready.

2. I waited 22 minutes here at this restaurant for my customers food. Fortunately they have chair you can sit on to wait, but, we shouldn't be waiting that long.

3. The restaurant was accepting orders when they were clearly overwhelmed.

My suggestions, have a better process to accommodate orders, if you're not staffed to meet demand, then cut demand by turning off 3rd party apps until all is caught up. I think ppl would understand and, yes you may lose that business temporarily by this action, however, they will come back. If you make somebody wait, their frustration grows, and will build a negative bias which could affect future business. I hope you take my advice and learn from this lesson.

We are in precedented times, true, however, you gotta cut bait when your sinking.

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I'm wishing everybody well for 2021. My reviews are unbiased and not compensated for a better review. I'm honest and open and put aside many covid related issues aside.

This restaurant followed the government mandates, no indoor dining, masks required, and signs stating to social distance. The restaurant does Uber eats, Doordash, and grub hub for delivery as well as to go orders. Just prepare for a wait....