It is probably one of the most authentic Chinese restaurants in a district of Vienna where you might least expect it – the Sichuan Restaurant in the 22nd district far outside the city centre at the Alte Donau (Old Danube). Not only does it serve typical Chinese cuisine but in fact it serves one of the four most influential cuisines of China – the Szechuan cuisine.

At the Sichuan Restaurant you can enjoy your food at a wonderful terrace with a view

And because the restaurant mainly serves Szechuan cuisine the food does not lack chili and other exciting spices. So don’t expect something too mild here. But that is exactly when things start to get exciting, right. That is why I love coming here.

To reach this place you need to get off at U1 Alte Donau take the exit and walk towards the swimming baths and there on the left side you cannot miss it. It truly does look like a Chinese house somewhere far from Vienna. And yes, it does follow the tradition that you do not walk inside a house by walking zig-zag. Because it is the Chinese that believe that the evil spirits cannot walk zig-zag and so you need to build entrance areas accordingly.

As soon as you reach the entrance door you find out that this place is decorated with lots of awards and that the people that come here are very often employees of the United Nations which is just one subway stop away. And so you might sit among a chitchat of lots of different languages and people.

The special lunch meal offers you three courses. This times’ starter: spicy-sour noodle salad

As for the food the restaurant offers a special meal every day on work days for little bit over 9 Euros as well as the typical lunch meals except here you find food like kung pao chicken and mapo dofu instead of the regular crispy chicken something. The special lunch meal gives you entree, main course and dessert where you can leave out the dessert to pay less. This time I took this offer and started off with a spicy noodle salad followed by stir fried duck with veggies and rice.

The main course of the special lunch meal was stir fried duck with veggies and rice

The duck really tasted nice but was completely different from the typical crispy duck. But I really liked the taste – again not missing the chillies. At the end came the dessert. I thought this time I had to have one as they served baked ice cream. You probably all know that one: where they put alcohol on top of the dough and burn it. There there was no alcohol and no burning but some outer shell around the ice cream and something I liked a lot which was pretty much like a cake.

The dessert was especially yummy: baked ice cream

And so the dessert was the perfect conclusion of a perfect lunch. The sizes of the meals are not enormous instead the restaurant is very considerate when it comes to quality and when it comes to satisfying the wishes of the guests. Here it is normal that the waiter helps the customer choose the right dish and recommends him something. Just like in China where the customer tells the waiter what kind of food he wants to eat and the waiter tailors the meal selection to his wishes. I truly like this here.

The bill comes in style at the Sichuan Restaurant

Still, it is not a cheap restaurant but it is also a restaurant where you can meet with a group of people and ask for a separate room – very convenient. But the best thing about the restaurant remains the building and the wonderful terrace with the view at the little pond.

Info: China Restaurant Sichuan (http://www.sichuan.at), Arbeiterstrandbadstrasse 122, 1220  Vienna; Tel: +43/(0)1/263 37 13; Fax: +43/(0)1/263 37 14; email: info@sichuan.at; opening hours: daily 11:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. & 5:30 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.; credit cards accepted (AmEX, Diners, Eurocard, Mastercard, Visa, JCB, Maesto)