The Sichuan.

The Sichuan

Zhang Xiao Zhong cooks Chengdu food on City Road, and Harden's diners warn it is not for the chilli-hater.1

Why go

The head chef is a third-generation cook whose family has lived for generations in Chengdu, where this food comes from, and the kitchen's own account has his grandfather working as personal chef to Deng Xiaoping.21 Harden's editors describe authentically fiery dishes and the survey feedback tells you what to do with the menu: go for the authentic and freshly cooked regional specialities.1 The room sits on a stretch of City Road the same guide calls unglamorous and busy, opposite the Honourable Artillery Company ground, and it runs noon to 10:30 seven days.1

Order this / avoid

• Order: the regional specialities off the main card, cooked to order, which is the one instruction Harden's diners repeat.1
• Avoid: ordering across the table for someone who does not eat chili. The survey line is not for the chilli-hater! and it is meant literally.1

What locals & experts say

• Harden's editors: Authentically fiery dishes light up the menu at this City Road restaurant where head chef Zhang Xiao Zhong hails from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, a third-generation chef, his grandfather was personal chef to Deng Xiaoping, China's leader through the 1980s.1
• Harden's survey diners: a cracking Sichuanese restaurant on the unglamorous and busy City Road, and not for the chilli-hater!1
• No bylined critic has written about this room, so the strongest evidence here is a survey guide and the kitchen's own account of itself.

Good to know

• Timing: noon to 10:30pm, seven days.1
• Money: Harden's records wine at 30 pounds a bottle, filter coffee at 3, bread free and 10 percent service.1
• The website: thesichuan.co.uk does not load over a secure connection, so a browser may warn you off it. The business is trading and the page itself is current.
• Single site. One premises, 14 City Road. Nothing here belongs to another door.

Verdict

could-visit — Zhang Xiao Zhong comes from a Chengdu family three generations deep in professional kitchens, and the room he runs on City Road cooks the regional dishes rather than the anglicized Sichuan shorthand. Harden's diners are specific about what that means at the table: 'authentically fiery', 'not for the chilli-hater', and the instruction to 'go for the authentic and freshly cooked regional specialities'. It opens noon to 10:30 every day and pours wine from 30 pounds with 10 percent service, which for this cooking in this postcode is cheap. The kitchen's own line about the grandfather cooking for Deng Xiaoping is a good story and it is the house's, not a critic's. It sits here rather than higher because no bylined review was reachable in this pass and the evidence is a survey guide plus the venue talking about itself.