*** An updated post on China Chef has closed
I recently received an Email from BruceT who mentioned a new Sichuan style restaurant located on Mira Mesa Boulevard. In the Email Bruce mentions cold Sichuan dishes….which meant a visit post haste.
As you approach the restaurant you arrive at the proverbial "fork in the road". Go toward the left, and you'll arrive at a rather generic Chinese Fast Food style restaurant, to the right you'll arrive at "Heavenly Kitchen Sichuan Dishes…." Hard choice, huh?
As we entered we saw the cold appetizers…this indeed looked like our destination. All the usual suspects from the thinly sliced Pig Ear to Fu Qi Fei Pien were in view.
The restaurant itself is fairly small with just a few tables.
As we looked over then menu, we noticed a few strangely familiar dishes like Spicy Fish Slices with Golden Mushroom, and Cumin Flavored Lamb. So while I selected a few appetizers, the Missus had a conversation with our Server. It seems that one of the new Owners is one of the former Chefs from Dede's on Convoy, thus the familiar dishes. According to the waitress he is originally from Chonqing, and this version of China Chef has been open since the end of August.
Here's our 3 appetizer plate(3 appetizers – $5.45):
The pickled greens and soybeans had a strange overly bitter flavor, and left an oily film on in my mouth, the marinated bamboo shoots looked really good, but were bland except for the flavor of sesame oil. The Fu Qi Fei Pien was not bad, but was lacking in Sichuan peppercorns, and the pieces were not cut into uniform slices, still it wasn't too bad.
Since we've eaten at Dede's we decided to try some different dishes, and started with the Chinese Bacon(Howie – it's your La Rou Chao La dish) with Spicy Green Pepper($7.95):
Slices of cured Pork Belly is stir fried with Leeks and dried red chilies. As expected the dish was on the salty side, though not as greasy as I thought it would be. The dish was surprisingly spicy, a very much "in your face" spicy.
Rice Crust with Chicken($8.95):
Not a good rendition of this classic dish, the sauce was on the watery side, and the usual deep chicken flavor was lacking.
Shrimp with Dry Red Pepper($9.45):
First off, we were impressed with all the good sized shrimp, which were not shelled, just lightly battered and fried, than stir-fried with scorched dried red chilies – think salt and pepper prawns(without the pepper) stir-fried with dried chilies. I've had several versions of this classic Chongqing Chili dish, and found this one to be a very one dimensional spicy, lacking the "buzz" of Sichuan Pepper, and the back of throat slow burn. The usual slight sweetness of these type of dishes was also missing. It was very spicy, though. Not a bad dish.
We found the dishes at China Chef to be more on the rustic side, and a bit one-dimensional. Sort of like Dede's with more heat. I may be back in the future to try out a few other dishes, the potential is there. At least you can now take care of your Sichuan craving without driving down to Convoy. You'll find the prices at China Chef to be quite reasonable (from $5.95-$12.95) as well.
China Chef Restaurant
9225 Mira Mesa Blvd #110
San Diego, CA 92126
Open Tues-Thurs 11am – 930pm
Fri-Sat 11am – 10pm
Sun 11am – 930pm
Closed Mondays
Thanks for the recommendation Bruce T!