e. Sze Chuan House at the Aloha Hotel

The greatest thing about living in Malate is being a stone’s throw away from really good Chinese food.  A few examples are Tao Yuan & Shin Shin 5 minutes away, Wok Inn & Emerald Garden 10 minutes way.  One among these golden finds (and a 2 Dirty Apron favorite) is the wonderful Sze Chuan House at The Aloha Hotel.

Located inside the Aloha Hotel (beside G-Hotel), Sze Chuan House is your typical hole in the wall Chinese restaurant–the unpretentious type that you wouldn’t step foot in, had you not heard from a friend how good the food is.  The menu is typically Szechuan with a slight hint of Cantonese consisting of a lot of the regulars- hot pots, tea-smoked duck, braised pork, Kung Pao, steamed fish and more.  The beauty of Sze Chuan however is in its execution.  Most of the time.

Inside Sze Chuan House

The day we went to Sze Chuan House, we  came from an excursion in Divisoria, and so were particularly hungry.  So hungry in fact, that I forgot to take pictures of some of the food. (i. I’ve uploaded additional photos :))

I expected a lot more from their Xiao Long Bao, also referred to as the soup dumpling.

Xiao Long Bao

Perhaps it was because the waiter took our order out of the glass freezer (where customers can buy frozen dimsum etc. to take away) and probably re-heated it in the steamer.

A freezer full of dimsum you can purchase to steam and eat at home.

The dimsum price list.

Whatever be the case, it was tasty- just lacked that soup oozing feeling when you take your first bite.  A forgivable discrepancy.

A soupless Xiao Long Bao

Sliced it in half but still no trace of soup.

The siomai was better though.  A good amount of pork to shrimp ratio.  Nice bite consistency and a decent sized  parcel.

Been meaning to experiment with Siomai, so may use the Sze Chuan version as my benchmark.

My obession with Siomai continues

The Salt & Pepper Chicken was also pretty good.  Not too dry (as it often gets when over fried) but lacked that spicy garlicky kick you often get when you order the eel version.  First time I order this with chicken, so perhaps the meat just masks all that chili flavor.  Will remember to order the eel version only from now on.

Not salt & pepper enough chicken

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Apart from the Divisoria adventure that left us famished, we also decided that that day would be our binge day (the one day in the week wherein we could have more than 1,600 calories) so we ordered a few more dishes.

I felt that the Salted Fish Fried Rice could have used more salted fish. I suppose this statement holds true for a lot of other Chinese restaurants in Manila but it was a bit of a let-down in what’s supposed to be a “golden find.” Nonetheless, it definitely hit the spot; we wolfed down about two thirds of the plate.

Salted fish fried rice

I ordered an additional Steamed Lapu Lapu with Ginger and a Light Soy Sauce. The fillets were cooked well and were extremely tender. Again, the sauce could have been a bit more potent. This is the kind of sauce you should spoon onto your rice to enjoy how the salty gingery goodness permeates through each grain. Yum! It took a few more spoons full of sauce to achieve a semblance of that.

Steamed lapu lapu with ginger and a light soy sauce

I still enjoyed it though.

Isha.

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All in all, a mediocre experience at best.  But we’ve had such lovely experiences in this place that we will happily forgive and forget.  Helps too that we have a discount card, so the bill was very reasonable.

If you do venture into my neck of the woods and eat at Sze Chuan House, I would highly recommend their Hakaw, steamed fish, and Fried Intestine.  All very good at very reasonable prices.

Rikks.

Sze Chuan House

2150 Roxas Blvd, Corner Quirino

(02) 526-8088

http://midafood.com/