LAReview
Chengdu Taste
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Being the person in your friend group who loves spicy food can be a lonely place. You never get to eat where you want to eat, and you’re generally demoted to putting tableside chili flakes on everything. Convincing a group of grilled cheese enthusiasts to cross town for a restaurant that actively ignores personalized spice-level requests doesn’t go well. So you need the kind of spot that makes people realize spice doesn’t have to mean pain. You need Chengdu Taste.
Located in Alhambra in the San Gabriel Valley, Chengdu Taste is not some diamond in the rough. In an area known for having some of the best Asian restaurants in the country, Chengdu Taste is royalty. But unlike the dim sum spots with two-hour waits on the weekends, Chengdu Taste’s reputation is largely based on one thing - spice. And a lot of it.
Chengdu Taste specializes in Szechuan cuisine, which generally involves a type of peppercorn that will make your face go numb and stay numb. But this family-run Chinese restaurant isn’t in the business of searing off your tastebuds. They’re in the business of cooking some of the most insanely flavorful dishes you’ll ever eat.
photo credit: Jakob Layman
The key to a meal at Chengdu Taste is knowing how to balance the spicy dishes with the non-spicy dishes. The toothpick lamb with cumin, the couple’s sliced beef, and the best dan dan noodles in the world all fall in the non-spicy category, and should be the cornerstones of your meal. From there, add the spice: the mapo tofu, the boiled fish with green pepper sauce, and the mung bean jelly noodles. These dishes will clear out your sinuses in one bite, but they’ll also simultaneously warm your ice cold heart. When spicy is done as well as it is here, it cures you.
Chengdu Taste is one of LA’s great restaurants - not just because the food is spicy, but because it’s incredible. And when you’re sitting in their big, casual dining room surrounded by all your friends, eating everything in sight, that becomes abundantly clear. The grilled cheese enthusiasts will be thanking you.
Food Rundown
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Dan Dan Noodles
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Mung Bean Jelly With Chili Sauce
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Couple’s Sliced Beef With Chili Oil
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Mapo Tofu
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Toothpick Lamb With Cumin
photo credit: Jakob Layman