ANNOUNCER: It’s easy to look at Tacoma Szechuan and laugh. Outside the Lakewood restaurant is a banner over the name of the former smoothie restaurant the Chinese restaurant replaced in the strip mall. Inside, there’s a smoothie counter, a glass display with crystallized rock formations, reviews of the restaurant matted in neon orange, and traditional Chinese art.
On the menu of 100-plus items: Alcohol Made Special Soup, Chong Gin Hot Chicken, Kidney with Pickled Pepper Sauce, House Special Intestine & Beef Strip, Ant on a Tree, and Stewed Jelly Noodles.

Hardy-har-har.

Tacoma Szechaun might sound funny, but the boys enjoy the food.

JAKE: I don’t think I’ve ever seen the place completely full. But it’s busy. It’s almost always busy. Monday night at eight? Busy. Saturday at five? Busy. Fortunately, busy is enough for a place like this. I’ve spent too much time in Chinese spots eating entirely alone. To me, there’s no soundscape quite so grim as the scrape of a single spoon scooping sauce out of the bottom of a single platter of kung pao chicken in an otherwise empty dining room. Conversely, I am perhaps inordinately pleased by the buzz of a room in use: the screaming children, the clatter of dropped silver, the shouts in Chinese from the back, the chatter of the table of six asking time after time after time for more white rice, more white rice, more white rice. In a place like this, I can relax. I can take my time reading the menu and not feel bad about demanding a couple of extra minutes to internally debate steamed or fried dumpling, hot garlic tofu versus two kinds of meat. At Szechuan, my server will just nod and move on to the next table, then the next, and eventually work her way back around to me.

JASON: The servers are patient — especially as we work through the language barrier. The best part, however, is the menu where the various dishes have a corresponding picture to show exactly what you’ll be eating. With Asian food, that is sometimes helpful to those who want to eat more adventurously but don’t want to feel they are on “Survivor.”

JAKE: Nothing funny about that.

JASON: I like to ease into the meal with soup, but at the Szechaun, their idea of a starter soup is more trough-like than cup. The bowl was big enough for a haircut. I started with the pickled vegetable soup, which wasn’t full on flavor.  Because I have egg allergies, I am limited, and most of the Chinese soups are egg based. This bowl of watery veggies is one to skip.

JAKE: I agree. Soup here is a meal, served not by the pint or quart, but according to how many spoons will be sharing the bowl.

The sweet-and-sour options are never very impressive, the meat (chicken or shrimp) battered and fried in the customary way and covered with a sauce that tastes like pineapple juice, melted penny candy, maple syrup and Liquid Smoke all poured together into an old rum shaker and kicked repeatedly around the kitchen. But then, this is a Szechuan restaurant (its name is a good clue), and the sweet-and-sour quadrants of the flavor spectrum are not something that Szechuan cooks have ever done particularly well. Spicy is their thing, and Tacoma Szechuan knows how to work with chile peppers and peppercorns and pickled vegetables, and anything else that will light a mouth on fire in hopes of making you forget the heat and humidity of Western China in the hot months, or our week in the South Sound.

JASON: The Mongolian beef had a spicy kick with generous slabs of beef in a sweet sauce. All-in-all though, this dish has a typical retread feel — nothing better or worst than many other places. Not true for the Kung Pao Chicken. This classic dish had a fresh, spicy flavor that worked well with white meat chicken and crisp vegetables. I disagree with you bro, I also recommend the sweet and sour fish — a sweet sauce across a white fish that is lighter than its chicken and pork counterparts. It’s a perfect lunch meal.

JAKE: Whatever. I say stay in the spicy zone at Tacoma Szechuan with these treats: Crispy pork & tofu with hot tomato sauce, hot pepper fried shredded potato, eggplant in hot garlic sauce — as you can tell, I prefer the spicy rather than the Americanized Chinese food I grew up with at the Great Wall of China.

JASON: It never ceases to amaze me how many local foodies don’t venture along South Tacoma Way and into the Lincoln District on 38th Street to experience the Asian restaurants there. There are true gems – Tacoma Szechuan being one of them. Despite irrational rumors that owners are unfriendly to non-Asians, or that choices are limited to items like tripe, fish heads and tofu is not true. In fact, some of the best Korean barbecue, Chinese food and teriyaki exist in our international districts. Sure Le-Le Restaurant on Hilltop is excellent, but there is much more awaiting food lovers in the predominately Asian communities of the South Sound. 

JAKE: Where did that come from?

Tacoma Szechuan

Where: 9601 South Tacoma Way, No. 102, Lakewood, 253.581.0102

When: 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. daily

Scene: Comfortable, eclectic décor. The service is friendly, quick and accommodating.

Menu: Chinese (Sichuan) with a huge menu, well over a hundred options, and the portions are big and the flavors fresh.

Damage: $7.75-$13.95, family hot pot $24 for two