Reviews
If you're headed to Little Szechuan, the brightly painted, authentic Chinese restaurant on University Avenue in St. Paul, pick up some friends on your way. You're going to want to roll at least three deep to stage a multi-order attack on the menu, which offers more than 200 dishes. Where to begin? The dan dan noodles swimming in chile oil and the chicken lettuce wraps are the perfect appetizer entry points, to be followed closely by Szechuan spicy tofu—a deep-fried version that continues the fiery chile theme. More adventurous diners can wade into funkier fare like the pork ear shreds or tongue slices (basically a cold salad with thin sections of tongue), while the traditionalists can delight in how well Little Szechuan does staples like kung pao chicken and stir-fried pea tips. ... Divide and conquer.
My favorite Szechuan place remains Little Szechuan in St. Paul, which also happens to be one of only two restaurants in all of St. Paul for which you will consistently wait for a table (the other is Casper & Runyon's Nook). The food is phenomenal - and phenomenally hot. The people of the Szechuan province believe that there is a sixth taste to food, the quality of ma la, which translates roughly as "tingling and numbing," which you may think of as "excruciating" or "delightful." Some dishes at Little Szechuan are cloaked with a sauce that looks like tomato sauce but is in fact a thick purée of some of the hottest peppers known to man.
For years, Chinese-food lovers pined for a place that featured a credible Sichuan bill of fare. Last year we got it with Little Szechuan - a real-deal University Avenue storefront. Bamboo shoots with spicy oil, fish fillet with tofu in spicy broth, Chung King chili shrimp, and beef stew with spicy hot sauce are guaranteed to set your taste buds tingling.
Little Szechuan vaulted onto the scene this year with a menu offering equal pain and suffering to all: If you wanted the numbing, burning bliss of Beef and Tofu cooked with Spicy Tasty Broth ($10.95) you'd get said bubbling, numbing chili inferno whether you were white, blue, spotted, or whatnot, and whether it was Tuesday lunch or Sunday dinner. Eureka! Bring on the delectable, paper-thin beef short ribs, trot out the platters of emerald-green pea tips, and load up on sea-foam-green meadows of cucumber topped with handfuls of black-red chili pods. Real authentic Szechuan cooking for all? Call it a miracle, call it a joy, but be sure to call for another beer to numb the heat—you'll need it.
I did not experience a single misstep in any of my five visits to what is easily the best eatery in the east metro, and one of the handful of honest and authentic Chinese dining experiences citywide. Little Szechuan's food is superb.
– Andrew Zimmern
Mpls St Paul Magazine
Little Szechuan isn't one of those generic Chinese restaurants that puts the word "Szechuan" in its name for marketing purposes, oh no no no. Little Szechuan is the real deal, a Szechuan specialist that uses chili peppers the way blizzards use snow. This is how Szechuan food should be. I think Little Szechuan is the best thing to happen to St. Paul in years.
– Dara Moskowitz, Food Critic
City Pages
Are they authentic? A Chinese-American friend tells me that they come closer to dishes he's had in China than anything he has had at other U.S. Chinese restaurants.
– Jeremy Iggers, Food Critic
Star Tribune
The food is the real deal – woodsy, oily, spicy and hot enough to make your eyes water and numb your tongue. In other words, addictively delicious. The restaurant has only been open a week, and I've been back three times – once on the paper's dime and twice on my own.
– Kathie Jenkins, Food Critic
St. Paul Pioneer Press
Little Szechuan inherits a gorgeous renovation undertaken by the former Bui’s Cuisine owners, along with their beer and wine license. It is a relaxing and wonderful place to eat for lunch and dinner.
Asian American Press