Restaurant: 香辣汇Xiang La Hui
Location: 621 W Main St, Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 703-4165
Date: December 21, 2019 & May 28, 2021
Cuisine: Szechuan Chinese
Rating: Some great dishes
Continuing the Lunch Quest series in which Yarom and I explore more casual Asian lunch spots.
Some friend reviews and an eater article brought us to this new Szechuan entry on Main St.
Food photos as decor — something I can get behind.
But the inside is of that newer style appealing to the under 30 set with a touch of decor and smaller rectangular tables (as opposed to the older “palace” style places).
The menu has most of the Szechuan classics.
And by 5/28/21 they made one of those super fancy modern Chinese picture menus.
Cucumber in garlic. Excellent. nice crunch. lots of garlic. only missing the spice.
Chicken w/ chili sauce and pepper. Whole cleaver-ed chicken. Lots of bone but tons of flavor. Green and numbing and gorgeous.
Toothpick lamb. One of the most flavorful and most tender versions of this dish I’ve had.
Shredded Pork with Garlic Sauce. Classic, not bad. A bit sweet for Yarom.
Dan Dan Mein. Fairly typical Chengdu Style. Not that nutty or spicy though. Ok.
Stirred up.
Stir Fried Rabbit with Green Pepper. Super hot, lots of mala, and very very tasty. Little bones though.
Cumin Lamb. Super tender and full of flavor.
Cold Noodle (with chicken?) — delicious with a nice vinegary flavor and great texture. Much better than the dan dan.
Pork Belly with Rice Flour. Old school traditional.
Live spicy roasted fish with Rattan Pepper. You get to pick your “add-ons” individually. We added all sorts of stuff here including crab sticks, spam, lotus root, etc.
Mapo tofu. Excellent version. First rate really.
Wok-Fried strong beans. Very nice version with crunchy beans.
Grapefruit Aperol Tarragon Sorbetto — Cold pressed Fresh Grapefruit juice from my garden, Aperol and fresh Tarragon! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — Unique and bracing — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #sorbetto #grapefruit #aperol #tarragon
On the first visit, I would have liked to try more dishes, but of the ones that I had, at least half of these were great and the other half were pretty good. It’s not as consistent as Sichuan Impression, but the chicken with chili sauce, toothpick lamb, rabbit, and cold noodles were fabulous.
On my second visit I found everything we ordered to be excellent, particularly the toothpick lamb, mapo, and cold noodles. I’m upping my “rating” to consider this one of the best Sichuan kitchens currently operating in the SGV. The style is quite representative of Chengdu.
