Dainty Sichuan

Dainty Sichuan

176 Toorak Rd, South Yarra

(Ph) 9078 1686

It had been a long time since we caught up with T and R =) T really wanted to come to Dainty Sichuan - it's her new fave place, she said she has to come here once a fortnight =P P and I aren't fans of spicy food, especially SICHUAN food! We pleaded and begged her to go somewhere else but she insisted on coming here and said we'll order some non-spicy foods so we gave in..

What a random Asian restaurant in the middle of South Yarra?! I would never come here if not for T's suggestion. Apparently for dinners there's always a line here, so T had made a booking for this Sunday lunch, which wasn't too packed.

She had a few dishes she wanted to order - she said she had brought a few different groups of people here and had managed to convert them to Dainty Sichuan lovers too haha =P But most of the dishes she wanted to order were spicy ><

We had a long "discussion"/argument about what dishes to order, and how much spiciness P and I could take - P is actually a little bit better now but I'm still not a fan of spiciness =/ We were initially going for 2 non-spicy meat dishes but T said we wouldn't get the full Dainty Sichuan experience and we wouldn't like it as much if we don't order one of the spicy ones, and said we can pick out the chillis etc etc, even after I insisted I wouldn't like a chilli dish - in the end we agreed on one chilli dish but asked them to have it less spicy. So we settled for a a totally non-spicy pork dish (Fried Pork Slices), one spicy dish (Chongqing Chilli Chicken) which we asked them to put less chilli in (apparently they don't really do it but we gave it a shot anyway) and a vegetarian dish (Corns in Gold Sand).

R got us all cans of Wong Lo Kat Herbal Tea - he said we all need it to cool ourselves after the hotness of it all, it really scared me =P Though the drink is definitely very tasty and refreshing =)

The first dish was the non-spicy one - Fried Pork Slices $27.80

This was super tasty! Pork belly deep fried, wrapped in lettuce and dipped in either a sweet and sour sauce or a chilli sauce. The fat in the pork was pretty much melted during the frying process but still had the gooey fat texture - was delicious!

Next came the Corn in Gold Sand with salted yolk $19.80

It doesn't look that special but was surprisingly good too! P was initially very against this dish - he's like "what's so special about corn?" but T said we need a non-meat dish to separate it all, and lucky we got this it was delicious too =) It was mainly corn kernels with some peas, deep fried and coated in salted egg yolk - deliciously sweet yet salty... and crunchy!

Last came my dreaded dish - Chongqing Chilli Chicken - Chilli & Sichuan Pepper, Chicken with bone $27.80

T said they actually did give us less chilli than the normal dish - apparently normally you have to search for the chicken amongst the chilli, but now there's more chicken than chilli =) They said it tastes better when it's more chilli but I don't think I would agree on that =P The chicken was deep fried and then fried with the chillies and other herbs so it was very fragrant. It was quite chilli but I could JUST handle it, P really liked this dish and the chilliness and flavours - said he wouldn't mind trying some of the other spicy dishes on offer here =__=;; The Herbal Tea definitely made the meal much more enjoyable I could actually take the chicken and enjoy it even though my mouth was on fire =P

Food~

7/10 - everything was surprisingly tasty, maybe because P and I were having low expectations thinking it would all be too spicy for us =P May have been better if we didn't order all fried dishes - didn't even realise as we argued and ordered =P Next time will try a wider variety!

Service~

3/5 - food came very quick =)

Atmosphere~

2/5 - during this late Sunday lunch it wasn't too busy, actually most of the people around us were having hot pot so the restaurant fogged up which made it even hotter =P

Was surprisingly good, will be back =)

C.

xo