Spicy & Tasty

[Nathan]

ate here with a group of 8 last night. ordered a lot (a lot!) of food. not a fan of the frog dish. tripe, enhanced pork and lamb were all terrific. I've had that pork dish before elsewhere but under different names.

my general take was that it's better than the GS' or the Wu but considering the trek it's not exponentially better. everyone should do it at least once though.

we were definitely victims of CARS though...as the spice level was kind of low.

[ratgirlny]

I notice this thread has not been active for a while. We visited Spicy & Tasty for the first time on Saturday, but I was a little disappointed. I think, alas, that we got the "gringo" treatment. We are a family of 5 - including 3 kids. We've been to Grand Sichuan and Szechuan Gourmet in Manhattan, and wanted to compare. We spent time 2 years ago in Chongqing China so we are not unfamiliar with real Sichuanese food (Chongqing has a reputation for the hottest food in Sichuan, in fact).

I ordered Cold Jelly Chengdu Style, cold cucumbers, lamb with scallions, dry cooked string beans, Ma Po Tofu, and double cooked pork (those last two are kind of reference dishes). We also got Yang Chow fried rice for the kids. They gave me what I think were sesame noodles instead of the cold jelly noodles - nicely done sesame noodles but not what I wanted. I should have complained but didn't because my 3 year old was slurping them up. The cucumbers were pleasant but nothing like the addictive Sichuan picked vegetables at Szechuan Gourmet. The lamb with scallions was awesome. Ma Po Tofu was pleasant but not especially spicy - my corner takeout can make it spicier if I ask them. The double cooked pork was OK, but I like the fattier kind of pork.

So...did we get the toned down white-people food, or is this just what Spicy & Tasty is like these days?

Incidentally, we shared a table with two Taiwanese guys who said they come regularly for the noodle soup and who were not at all familiar with the Sichuanese dishes.

[Pan]

I don't know, ratgirl. I went a few weeks ago and had a delicious meal, as usual. I ordered in such a way as to try to accommodate a friend who's on a low-carb, low-fat diet. We got the eggplant with garlic sauce, I think (the red, tomato-based sauce) and the cucumber for cold dishes and a steamed fish with ginger and scallions (not that low-fat, because of substantial oil, some of it sesame oil) and beef stew with daikon (called "turnip" on the menu). Only the stew was moderately spicy, but all of the food was delicious. I knew what the cucumber would be like - fresh cucumber with just a bit of sesame oil and maybe a touch of vinegar (I don't remember but I don't think so).

It probably helps that I've been to Spicy & Tasty a lot of times, but I've never had an unsatisfying meal there. I've never been to Sichuan, though. I still have no hesitation in recommending Spicy & Tasty, but there are certainly other excellent restaurants in Flushing. It's not Sichuan, but next time you're in Flushing consider trying Hunan restaurant. For Sichuan-style, there's also Little Pepper. I've been to both of these places only once, found Hunan great, and liked Little Pepper but found it too aggressively peppery and oily - since that's authentic, it may be just the thing for you.