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Here’s where to go when you want a blast of spice and the numbing sensation of Sichuan peppercorns
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| Jay Friedman
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Sichuan food has become one of the most famous regional Chinese cuisines in the U.S thanks to mala. “Ma” is the numbing effect brought on by Sichuan peppercorns, and “la” roughly translates to spicy. Many of Sichuan cooking’s standard-bearing dishes — such as mapo tofu, Chongqing chicken, and hot pots — are marked by intense spice and the brilliant red color of chile oil. Not all Sichuan dishes are four-alarm fires, but there’s a certain type of diner who likes to find the item on the menu with the most peppers and stars next to it, just to see what it’s like.
The Seattle area is blessed with more than its fair share of great Sichuan places. Here’s some of the best, as always organized geographically. If you want to let us know about restaurants that should be on this list or just say, “Great job, Eater Seattle!” email our tipline: seattle@eater.com.
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Enter through the doors of the Asian Food Center in north Seattle and you’ll immediately be drawn to the chile-laden dishes at Spicy Style of Sichuan. The boiled dishes, like the water-boiled beef, are gorgeous to look at and intense to eat (you’ll need bowls of rice on the side). There are dry pots with your choice of cured bacon, sizzling spicy squid, and various vegetables; an endless selection of entrees; and, for the adventurous, dishes like grilled black tripe, spicy trotter with mustard, stir-fried apple snail meat with chile peppers, chicken gizzards with pickled cowpeas, and spicy crispy pork tripe.
(206) 468-3511
(206) 468-3511
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/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/59605023/Dong_Ting_Chun_fish_1523.42.jpeg "10 Amazing Places to Eat Sichuan Food in the Seattle Area (3)")
Greenwood’s Chef King serves up large portions of Chongqing chicken, water-boiled fish (with a good beef option also available), and a rich version of mapo tofu. Yibin “kindling” noodles, both funky and fiery, are a specialty here. More adventurous and heat-seeking eaters can order maoxuewang — a spicy stew with blood and pork parts — as well as the tongue-tingling suan la fen (sweet potato noodles), with intestines and peanuts. Or there’s the option to leave things up to the kitchen. “Whatever” is basically an omakase order that lets the chefs decide what you want. Customers who want a second surprise can add “I Don’t Know.”
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72220331/Chef_King_ma_po_tofu_20230311_161808.0.jpg "10 Amazing Places to Eat Sichuan Food in the Seattle Area (4)")
Nine Way, in Redmond, has a menu full of noodles and dumplings. The Nine Way noodles are the house version of dan dan noodles, and like the other noodle bowls can be customized for spice level, garnishes, and extra toppings. Nine Way also has hard-to-find sweetwater noodles, which are both spicy and sweet with an udon-like chew. Another specialty are the Chengdu zajiang noodles with peas (a soft, yellow variety). Wontons are the way to go in the dumpling section, available in a variety of spicy, numbing, and sour configurations. Also recommended is the maocai, a customizable hot pot that’s cooked in the kitchen, saving you the work at the table.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72220332/Nine_Way_noodles_with_peppers_and_more_20230406_143625.0.jpg "10 Amazing Places to Eat Sichuan Food in the Seattle Area (5)")
Bellevue’s Dan Gui Sichuan Cuisine serves up a solid selection of items. Saliva chicken is a popular cold dish — the chicken is poached and placed in chile sauce that makes for a mouth-watering (hence the name) experience. Chile-mixed eggplant with preserved egg comes in a large mortar with a pestle provided to mash everything together until you get a funky mixture. The menu showcases numerous bowls of fish in broth; try the ma la tofu pudding with fish filets in a spicy and numbing broth. The seemingly simple dry pot cabbage shows off the skill of the kitchen, as the wok hei smokiness shines through.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72220333/Dan_Gui_fish_and_cabbage_20230411_141704.0.jpg "10 Amazing Places to Eat Sichuan Food in the Seattle Area (6)")
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The atmosphere at Bellevue’s Spicy PoPo Szechuan Fish is young and fun. Order the signature Spicy PoPo and you’ll soon be greeted by a giant cauldron of swai fish swimming in broth. You can choose your level of both ma and la, then add your choice of meat and vegetables. (Beef, pork intestines, tofu skin, and lotus root are highly recommended.) You can similarly customize a dry pot, or order from a selection of Sichuan classics like cumin lamb (done two different ways), Chongqing ginger rabbit, dried sauteed green beans, and more. One unique dish to try: soybean paste shredded pork that you place in tofu skin wrappers.
(425) 698-0160
(425) 698-0160
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72220334/Spicy_Popo_fish_cr_20230331_181432_101.0.jpg "10 Amazing Places to Eat Sichuan Food in the Seattle Area (9)")
Frying Fish does a bustling business in Bellevue based on a reputation for consistency. It’s constantly packed with people eating chile-laden dishes like the chef’s specialty “FeiTang” platters with crab, carp head, frog, and even fish fresh from the on-site tanks. Diners can check out the display of assorted cold appetizers like the pig ear with chile oil, dry bean curd with celery, and chicken feet with pickled chile. Spicy and sour dumplings are a great way to start the meal, and don’t overlook well-known dishes like kung pao chicken, a Sichuan dish done right here.
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YangGuoFu Malatang, known as YGF MalaTang (or YGF if you’re really hip), this construct-your-own hot pot place has locations in the University District as well as Bellevue’s Lake Hills neighborhood. Simply grab a bowl and start pulling desired items from the refrigerated showcase for a fixed price (currently $14.99 per pound). Choices include a wide variety of meat, mushrooms, tofu, vegetables, noodles, and more. A cashier weighs your bowl, asks your choice of soup base (spicy beef bone is best, with tomato available for the more timid), then sends it back to the kitchen for you to retrieve from a pick-up window moments later.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73266940/Malatang_at_YangGuoFu_MalaTang_20240228_143732.0.jpg "10 Amazing Places to Eat Sichuan Food in the Seattle Area (12)")
Sichuanese Cuisine is a classic at the corner of 12th and Jackson in the Chinatown-International District. (There’s another location in Redmond.) It’s reminiscent of the “fly restaurants” in Chengdu, a family-run place that’s short on atmosphere but attracts diners (like flies) with generous portions, decent value, and delicious flavor. A popular way to start is an order or two of steamed or fried dumplings (there are 20 to the portion); you might see staff members seated at a table filling and crimping them. Check out the chewy bean thread noodles with clinging pieces of pork that give the dish “ants on the tree” its name. “Pepper” (aka Chongqing) chicken and the blistered green beans are also frequent orders. Another option: their all-you-can-eat Sichuan-style hot pots.
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The experience at this Chinatown-International District hot pot spot starts with the choice of a single soup base or a combination of two. Chengdu Spicy is popular (and most indicative of the hot-pot-loving Chinese capital), but other options include pork bone, mushroom, and tomato. The menu offers a wide variety of meat, vegetables, tofu, mushrooms and more to order a la carte or in combination platters. House specialties include deep-fried pork, cumin lamb, shrimp paste, and square bamboo shoots, while pork brain, beef aorta, and goose intestines among the more “daring” options. There’s a sauce bar with sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic, cilantro and more to create an endless number of dipping possibilities. Things can get messy, so the restaurant thoughtfully provides hair ties, clothing spray, aprons, and coat covers.
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The celebrated Sichuan chain from Southern California opened its first Seattle location in the Chinatown-International District in 2020, serving popular specialties such as toothpick lamb with cumin, mung bean jelly noodles drenched in chile sauce, and a cold spring onion chicken in pepper sauce. Boiled beef in hot sauce offers a double whammy of chiles and chile paste, and mapo tofu aficionados should definitely give Chengdu Taste’s version a try. If dining in, boboji is a fun cold dish comprised of chicken and vegetable skewers in either a red chilie or green pepper sauce. This is also a great place to try maoxuewang. Sometimes called duck blood casserole, it actually has a wide variety of ingredients including fish, ham/spam, organ meats, and more in a spicy broth.
(206) 333-0457
(206) 333-0457
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Enter through the doors of the Asian Food Center in north Seattle and you’ll immediately be drawn to the chile-laden dishes at Spicy Style of Sichuan. The boiled dishes, like the water-boiled beef, are gorgeous to look at and intense to eat (you’ll need bowls of rice on the side). There are dry pots with your choice of cured bacon, sizzling spicy squid, and various vegetables; an endless selection of entrees; and, for the adventurous, dishes like grilled black tripe, spicy trotter with mustard, stir-fried apple snail meat with chile peppers, chicken gizzards with pickled cowpeas, and spicy crispy pork tripe.
(206) 468-3511
(206) 468-3511
Greenwood’s Chef King serves up large portions of Chongqing chicken, water-boiled fish (with a good beef option also available), and a rich version of mapo tofu. Yibin “kindling” noodles, both funky and fiery, are a specialty here. More adventurous and heat-seeking eaters can order maoxuewang — a spicy stew with blood and pork parts — as well as the tongue-tingling suan la fen (sweet potato noodles), with intestines and peanuts. Or there’s the option to leave things up to the kitchen. “Whatever” is basically an omakase order that lets the chefs decide what you want. Customers who want a second surprise can add “I Don’t Know.”
Nine Way, in Redmond, has a menu full of noodles and dumplings. The Nine Way noodles are the house version of dan dan noodles, and like the other noodle bowls can be customized for spice level, garnishes, and extra toppings. Nine Way also has hard-to-find sweetwater noodles, which are both spicy and sweet with an udon-like chew. Another specialty are the Chengdu zajiang noodles with peas (a soft, yellow variety). Wontons are the way to go in the dumpling section, available in a variety of spicy, numbing, and sour configurations. Also recommended is the maocai, a customizable hot pot that’s cooked in the kitchen, saving you the work at the table.
Bellevue’s Dan Gui Sichuan Cuisine serves up a solid selection of items. Saliva chicken is a popular cold dish — the chicken is poached and placed in chile sauce that makes for a mouth-watering (hence the name) experience. Chile-mixed eggplant with preserved egg comes in a large mortar with a pestle provided to mash everything together until you get a funky mixture. The menu showcases numerous bowls of fish in broth; try the ma la tofu pudding with fish filets in a spicy and numbing broth. The seemingly simple dry pot cabbage shows off the skill of the kitchen, as the wok hei smokiness shines through.
The atmosphere at Bellevue’s Spicy PoPo Szechuan Fish is young and fun. Order the signature Spicy PoPo and you’ll soon be greeted by a giant cauldron of swai fish swimming in broth. You can choose your level of both ma and la, then add your choice of meat and vegetables. (Beef, pork intestines, tofu skin, and lotus root are highly recommended.) You can similarly customize a dry pot, or order from a selection of Sichuan classics like cumin lamb (done two different ways), Chongqing ginger rabbit, dried sauteed green beans, and more. One unique dish to try: soybean paste shredded pork that you place in tofu skin wrappers.
(425) 698-0160
(425) 698-0160
Frying Fish does a bustling business in Bellevue based on a reputation for consistency. It’s constantly packed with people eating chile-laden dishes like the chef’s specialty “FeiTang” platters with crab, carp head, frog, and even fish fresh from the on-site tanks. Diners can check out the display of assorted cold appetizers like the pig ear with chile oil, dry bean curd with celery, and chicken feet with pickled chile. Spicy and sour dumplings are a great way to start the meal, and don’t overlook well-known dishes like kung pao chicken, a Sichuan dish done right here.
YangGuoFu Malatang, known as YGF MalaTang (or YGF if you’re really hip), this construct-your-own hot pot place has locations in the University District as well as Bellevue’s Lake Hills neighborhood. Simply grab a bowl and start pulling desired items from the refrigerated showcase for a fixed price (currently $14.99 per pound). Choices include a wide variety of meat, mushrooms, tofu, vegetables, noodles, and more. A cashier weighs your bowl, asks your choice of soup base (spicy beef bone is best, with tomato available for the more timid), then sends it back to the kitchen for you to retrieve from a pick-up window moments later.
Sichuanese Cuisine is a classic at the corner of 12th and Jackson in the Chinatown-International District. (There’s another location in Redmond.) It’s reminiscent of the “fly restaurants” in Chengdu, a family-run place that’s short on atmosphere but attracts diners (like flies) with generous portions, decent value, and delicious flavor. A popular way to start is an order or two of steamed or fried dumplings (there are 20 to the portion); you might see staff members seated at a table filling and crimping them. Check out the chewy bean thread noodles with clinging pieces of pork that give the dish “ants on the tree” its name. “Pepper” (aka Chongqing) chicken and the blistered green beans are also frequent orders. Another option: their all-you-can-eat Sichuan-style hot pots.
The experience at this Chinatown-International District hot pot spot starts with the choice of a single soup base or a combination of two. Chengdu Spicy is popular (and most indicative of the hot-pot-loving Chinese capital), but other options include pork bone, mushroom, and tomato. The menu offers a wide variety of meat, vegetables, tofu, mushrooms and more to order a la carte or in combination platters. House specialties include deep-fried pork, cumin lamb, shrimp paste, and square bamboo shoots, while pork brain, beef aorta, and goose intestines among the more “daring” options. There’s a sauce bar with sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic, cilantro and more to create an endless number of dipping possibilities. Things can get messy, so the restaurant thoughtfully provides hair ties, clothing spray, aprons, and coat covers.
The celebrated Sichuan chain from Southern California opened its first Seattle location in the Chinatown-International District in 2020, serving popular specialties such as toothpick lamb with cumin, mung bean jelly noodles drenched in chile sauce, and a cold spring onion chicken in pepper sauce. Boiled beef in hot sauce offers a double whammy of chiles and chile paste, and mapo tofu aficionados should definitely give Chengdu Taste’s version a try. If dining in, boboji is a fun cold dish comprised of chicken and vegetable skewers in either a red chilie or green pepper sauce. This is also a great place to try maoxuewang. Sometimes called duck blood casserole, it actually has a wide variety of ingredients including fish, ham/spam, organ meats, and more in a spicy broth.
(206) 333-0457
(206) 333-0457
- 14 Essential Seattle Coffee Shops
- 16 Sensational Chinese and Taiwanese Restaurants in the Seattle Area
- Seattle Desserts You Have to Say Yes To
