Restaurant: Szechuan Impression
Location: 13816 Red Hill Ave, Tustin, CA 92780. (714) 505-9070
Date: April 14, 2019
Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese
Rating: that dependable SI quality
I’ve long been a huge fan of Sichuan Impression having eaten regularly at the Alhambra location and about 40 times at the West LA location. At the opening of SI West Yarom and I met one of the owners, Kelly, and struck up a friendship. She’s come to a bunch of our dinners and she invited us down to a big dinner at their flagship Tustin location.
And my commitment to Chinese is even more demonstrated by the fact that this night was the Game of Thrones season 8 premier!
This Tustin minimall much be a hot spot for Szechuan because just like in West LA there is a mob outside waiting.
We, of course, have our big table and owner-planned menu.
Special salad. This is off menu, and is a cool salad of carrots, cucumbers etc.
With a tangy soy based dressing poured over.
Cold Noodles. On the westside, I found this dish a bit heavy, but this version was excellent with nice chewy noodles and tangy sauce.
Juicy Steamed Chicken in Chili Sauce. This classic cold appetizer was excellent here. Not absolutely perfect. This particular night, the chicken was good, but the sauce was a little flat.
Cumin mutton. Super tender. Awesome version of this Szechuan classic.
Off menu, fried chicken, aromatic peppers, and crispy rice.
Tea Smoked Pork Rib. Pork rib, dry chili, scallion, minced peanuts. This was a moderately contentious dish in the group, but I loved it as always. The meat is super tender, melt from the bone, with a dry and nutty heat.
Spicy Crab. This was one of the best Chinese crab dishes I’ve had. Like a Chinese version of Maryland Eastern shore spicy crab. The meat was delectable and not overcooked, and the shell soft enough you could chew right through it.
Spicy beef noodle. Very spicy with thick chewy knife cut noodles and soft beef. Like a very spicy Szechuan beef stew.
Ginger Frog. SUPER spicy with fabulous flavor and delicate but (very boney) frog. I was addicted to this. But because it was Orange County, we only had a couple serious Chinese fans augmented by some newbies — who were a bit scared by the amphibian factor.
Fish filet with green chilies. Really nice version of this dish. Thick soft fish and lots of green heat. Very delicate and flavorful.
Pig trotters. Chewy, but lots and lots of flavor.
The classic shredded potatoes. Great with sauce.
Sweet and Sour Shrimp. Super garlicky, spicy, tangy. Really like this dish too.
Fried rice.
MaPo Tofu. 10 out of 10 version of this classic dish. Salty, but not too salty, with lots of mala.
Lettuce. Also very good. Tons of good garlic flavor.
Kung Pao Chicken. Fabulous. Very much Chengdu style with the heat, sweetness, and tangy quality.
Of course a brought a bunch of my famous gelato, left to right:
Testing out a new Italian nut source — Salty Pistachio Gelato – using my new egg yolk based nut formulation with the new Sicilian Pistachio to produce a pistachio base with a slight saltiness — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #salty #pistachio #sicily #nuts
Testing out a new Italian nut source — Caramel Nocciola Gelato – using my new egg yolk based nut formulation with the new Piedmontese hazelnut to produce a hazelnut base, then adding in house-made caramel and chopped up hazelnuts — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #hazelnut #Nocciola #caramel #nuts
Testing out a new Italian nut source — Salty Pistachio Gelato – using my new egg yolk based nut formulation with the new Almond to produce the base, then weaving in Italian apricot variegate — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #nuts #almond #apricot
Very Cherry Gelato – a super intense amarena cherry gelato topped with candied amarena cherries — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #amarena #cherry
Traditional Cassata di Siciliana Gelato — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Sicilian Christmas cake as a gelato, with a ricotta almond base mixed with candied fruit and dark Valrhona chocolate chunks — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Cassata #Valrhona #CandiedFruit #fruit #chocolate #ricotta #almond #RicottaCheese #cheese #CassataSiciliana
Like all of the SI branches, this is excellent. As this was the flagship, and the owners bringing out the dishes, everything was really on point tonight. The only (slightly) off dish was the cold chicken which was a little flat. It was fun too to try some new (off menu) dishes like the “salad” and chicken with crispy rice. The crab is on menu and I was particularly spectacular.
