Szechuan Chongqing Restaurant (Robson)

Vancouver is one of the best cities that offers an extensive variety of international cuisines, and even with food from the same region, it can be dramatically different in its taste and cooking techniques. For example, regular Indian dishes have little resemblance to dosas from Southern India or Sri Lanka. Among all the cuisines available in Vancouver, Chinese food perhaps offers the most amazing diversity in its dishes based on its original regions the food comes from - Hongkong, Taiwan, Szechuan, Hunan, or the types of dishes - noodles, hotpot, congee, dim sum, etc. Perhaps because of the huge Cantonese population in Vancouver, Cantonese restaurants seem to dominate Chinese restaurants. Among the less dominant Mandarin restaurants in Vancouver, Szechuan food seems to be considered as the typical Mandarin food for some reason.

There are quite a few Szechuan restaurants scattered around the city, Szechuan Chongqing Restaurant being one of them. We tried its main location on Commercial Drive twice in the past, and none of those two dining experiences left extraordinary impression on us. They recently opened up a new location right on Robson and Jervis Street about two months ago. It is much smaller, and carries less extensive menu than its main location.

When we arrived the restaurant, there was exactly one person dining there during lunch hours on a Saturday in central downtown Vancouver. Not exactly a good sign. Their menu looks decent, however, each dish's market price is about 3 dollars more than I would expect to pay for Chinese food. We ordered Dan dan noodle with pork chops and Chongqing Chicken.

Food arrived fairly quickly, not surprising considering we were the only diners in the restaurant. A bowl of dan dan noodles in seemingly spicy broth came with a plate of pork chops. Finely chopped green onions were sprinkled on top. Of note, I find it weird to have pork chops as a side dish. It's like ordering dumplings and they throw in a side dish of smoked beef. Noodles were nice and chewy, and pork chops were delicious. Despite the heavy chili oil floating on the broth, the noodles were not Chongqing level spicy. The second dish, Chongqing Chicken, was brought to us five minutes after. It's diced, spicy chicken nested on a mat of fried spinach. After having the dan dan noodles, I find the taste of Chongqing chicken too salty for my liking, but it's otherwise tasty and spicy enough to be qualified as Szechuan food, though I had to wash down the heavy sodium taste with a can of diet coke.

I haven't been to Szechuan or Chongqing personally, but my grandfather grew up in Szechuan and he told me a lot about Szechuan and its local food. People in Szechuan have a relatively slow living pace - you would see many people walking around in the park, playing chess on the street or drinking tea during regular working hours. They enjoy low-key life and that kind of lifestyle is perfectly reflected in their local cuisine. Nothing is fancy, and nothing requires rare, expensive ingredients - unlike Cantonese cuisine often uses high quality seafood even in dim sum and congee. What makes Szechuan food outstanding is the diversity of its street food. Szechuan people have the ability of turning the most boring meal of the day, breakfast, into a gourmet feast. Randomly pick a street in Szechuan and walk down at 6 am in the morning, you would find a ton of food stands selling breakfast - all kinds of buns (meaty or sweet), dumplings, a variety of noodles (rice noodles, glass noodles, buckwheat, thick or thin handmade noodles, includng dan dan noodle), wonton soup, congee, pastries, etc etc. And they are incredibly cheap - for a good bowl of dan dan noodles, you wouldn't pay more than $1. So when I was growing up, Szechuan food represents the best street food that you could imagine. However, for some reason, Szechuan/Chongqing food suddenly rises up to restaurant level in Vancouver and you are expected to pay 10 times more than what it's worth. In Szechuan, people get up early, have a nice and cheap street breakfast, and get on with their slow-paced and low-key life. It has lost its authenticity and simplicity to its nature, when taken out of the original environment.

Overall, I would rate Szechuan Chongqing Restaurant decent. Worth a second try. Aside from Lin's Chinese Cuisine and Peaceful restaurant, Crystal mall is the place to go to if you are a hardcore Mandarin food lover. There are several inexpensive, friendly mandarin restaurants next to the mall that offer authentic dishes.