I rate this 1 1/2 due to pathetic service, and greasy bad tasting food!

I went there as part of a MeetUp group!
This was the 3rd week of March, 09!
There were 11 people!

To state how popular Hengyang is, there was one table of 4 Alcoholic Chinese men- drinking and kibitzing.
The near 1 1/2 Hours we were there no other customers!

The service was Pathetic.
Imagine the waitress ( with bad attitude) with but one table- and pathetic service!

One would imagine then attentive service, well guess again – as Tea Cups were empty!

For sure, I will never eat there!
The next day, I personally had digestive tract stress!!!

The dishes cooked in OIL- were very greasy, and seemed like rancid oil- the taste masked by Chili and MSG and spices to me!

Since the Organizer of this group also runs a Food Review site, I would have expected something better than this as a Choice of Chinese, with literally hundreds of Chinese Restaurants around SGV…

I parked on the street, but would imagine there is a back lot..

NOTE: the specialty menu is posted in Chinese on the wall…may be a bit difficult if you don’t read Chinese, but they do have another translated one.
So the Order was made- which I had no say, or another woman at table…

Ordered was:
sauteed cauliflower with pork oil, the hot & spicy tofu, the spicy whole fish (very bony and cremated), and the bangly with chicken, Spicy Tofu, Cumin Lamb, and Spicy on Spicy, Dried Cucumbers (which weren’t dry at all), the Shredded Squid, the Bitter Mellon with Chinese Sausage, and the Preserved Meat…

My take was the Chili Dishes with rancid oils, and or saturated lard were greasy with a terrible and rotten taste!

Some dishes had no flavor at all!
Most oil dishes all tasted the same: Greasy and Rancid to me!

To me some of the non oil dishes were average at best. Very heavy on the oil to saturate your chapped lips.

**This restaurant is for the hardcore Chinese food purist, only, who appreciates BAD food- that these so called experts would call Bistro…

Not sure how much MSG, but for sure it was there.

I have been to Chengdu 3 times and have eaten then some authentic Food~ I have had Hot Spiced Chili food, but personally tend to not want food cooked in Lard or Rancid Greese…

The bill was divided I believe 10 ways, my share I left $15.00

I left this meetup also…

Beware of Yelp reviews~ you can be blindsided!!!

NEVER AGAIN @ this Chili Joint!
~

From:
(taken from Jonathan Gold’s LA Weekly Review)

Excerpt:\
if you’re not careful, you can end up with a tableful of what is essentially the same dish, rabbit or lamb or preserved pork or fried eggs or duck tongues or splintery chunks of frog, stir-fried with a colorful mosaic of garlic and hot chopped peppers. The basic formula is delicious, a real wonder to behold, but it gets monotonous after the fourth or fifth iteration if you don’t vary it with something like stewed wild pumpkin farmer-style; sliced dried cucumber tossed with shredded fresh shiso; a wintery stew of chicken with chestnuts, translated as “bangly” on the menu; or cauliflower in “pork oil,” cooked with enough crunchy lardons to power a dozen French salads.