Lan Sheng

Something about this restaurant made me feel like I was in Chinatown. Cool little spot, more low-key than Szechuan Gourmet across the road. Shame they don't offer the spicy cucumber salad that Szechuan Gourmet does, but other food is good. Plus, lunch special of $7.50 is some bargain for Midtown.

Great meal. We ordered 5 dishes: the famous Chongquing chicken, the Cumin Lamb, Chicken with Asparagus, Sauteed Spinach with garlic and Beef with Smoked Tofu. It was all wonderful. The lamb and Chongquing chicken are spicy, but have enough flavor otherwise so that the spiciness isn't overpowering. Even the chicken with asparagus and spinach, which could normally be bland, were delicately flavored and delicious. The service was OK, but the food was good enough to make up for it. Highly recommended.

I've gone to this restaurant over a dozen times now and it just keeps getting better. By far the best Szechuan restaurant in Manhattan, and that includes the place across the street from Lan Sheng (which I used to go to until Lan Sheng opened up - the place across the street has poor service and the food is not nearly as consistent and high quality as Lan Sheng). The person below who described his "numb tongue" doesn't know what he's talking about. That numb sensation is the whole point of authentic Szechuan food and comes from the very unusual and special peppercorns they use. If you look closely at your dish, you'll notice all kinds of exotic ingredients that the untrained tongue doesn't recognize or appreciate. This place is by far the best place for Gui Zhou chicken in all of NYC. But be prepared for real spices, intense flavors, and different sensations. This is not a typical Chinese restaurant where you go to get Shrimp Fried Rice. This is the place you go if you really love spicy food and want to indulge your taste buds on a real adventure for both mind and body!

For the first time in I can't remember when, I've thoroughly enjoyed Chinese cuisine. I must qualify that I am a vegetarian and therefore one must extract from that. However, I recognize that a chef who can pull off excellent vegetarian fare in the face of a meat eating culture has much to offer to the world of taste. The spicing of the dishes was spot on. I read an earlier review wherein the individual was put off by the numbing of his tongue/palate by what he considered to be MSG or salt, rather than a spice. I suggest to that reviewer that it was most likely a pink pepper that caused the numbing effect and made even a sip of his water taste oddly sweet. This place has ambiance of what I remember as a child (in the 50's) and a darn fine wait staff who will do what they can to facilitate. KUDOS to Lan Sheng!

I guess he's the manager or head waiter but the guy who seated us was very anxious and frantic to the point that it made us not enjoy ourselves at all. I orderd scallion pancakes that never came. I was not charged though. One of the entree's came a good 5 minutes before the second entree. The General Tso's chicken ended up being cold and the chicken in the Kung Pao chicken had a weird consistency, it was thigh meat that felt slimy, like it hadn't been fully cooked.

We were pretty excited to check this place out after coming back from China, but we were sorely disappointed. My tongue was numb not from spice, but from the salt or MSG. It was pretty inedible in my opinion, but at least it was pretty good when I made a fried rice out of it later. I would say check out Wu Liang Yi for a better Szechuan experience.

We visited the restaurant at about 3pm and leisurely placed our simple order with the wait staff. They got my order right and my partner's order wrong but were quick to apologise and replaced with the right order as quickly as they can. This i thought, was commendable. However, the szechuan food we had were not as good as Szechuan Gourmet across the road (although their lunch sets are $1 less). In our opinion, the dishes weren't fiery enough.