Szechuan Cafe

This being a Chinese restaurant in Corvallis, it is very good! My mom and I went there for lunch today and we would both give it high ratings. This place can really turn up the heat as Sichuan food is can be known as mouth numbing cuisine. The menu ranges from Chinese-​American (which is like a handful of dishes) to authentic. The interior is nice, picnic benches as seating is a little odd, but that’s only minor. Good, quick service (side note: all the servers can speak Chinese)
We ordered the rabbit, xiao long bao, and a chives, eggs, garlic pan fried rice flour (?) wrap. Both of the wrap and XLB were homemade and done well as it is typically not a Sichuan dish. We got a discount, I think, for trying the homemade dishes. Regardless, we were very pleased. Definitely can’t wait to come back here again.

Five stars!!!
I have eaten at 11 Chinese restaurants in the Corvallis/​Albany area, and this is by far the best Chinese restaurant I have eaten at.
Food: this is probably the most authentic Chinese food in the area. We had the Szechuan spicy fish, seafood pot, pot stickers, and green onion pancake. There are so many other dish that I want to try. They also have some «xiao chi» available in the display section, but I was way too full to try it all.
Service: waiter was nice, he refilled our water when it got low. Food came pretty quick which was a nice surprise. There were probably only six other tables dining when we went.
Ambience: clean with Chinese pop music playing in the back ground.

They have had a change in management recently and are not the same. We will probably try it one more time before writing the place off for now. Menu is not the same, which isn’t a big deal, but the new layout is not very user-​friendly. Server was very polite, but the service itself was incredibly slow (when they weren’t very busy). Not sure what was going on in the kitchen, but the food took forever to appear. One dish was not available, and it took them 30 minutes to come back to the table to let us know. When the food did come, servings were smaller. Again, not a big deal, as the portions have always been huge — it was just another disappointment to tack on to our visit. The spicy shrimp and crispy rice, one of our favorites, is now only available at lunch (?). I’m quite sad about the changes, as this was the only Chinese restaurant in town worth eating at.

They did a free buffet today! I mean it’s literally FREE and everything was fantastic! I don’t know if they changed their kitchen team or what but it got some real spirits of cooking right there! Try their «Original orange chicken» and it’s definitely the best in town!

The service was fast, friendly, and efficient. The food came out quickly, and it was really good! It was more authentic than most restaurants. I will definitely be coming back for more!

I’ve been all over eastern and central China and can say that this place is as close to the real deal for authentic Szechuan cuisine as I’ve seen anywhere in the US. You don’t go for the décor, ambience or friendly service. There isn’t any.
You don’t go for Americanized Chinese food — that is foreign to them and they have no idea how to make it.
You DO go if you want actual Szechuan cuisine. The lamb dishes and the dry pots are really excellent. The lunch deals (even after they stopped topping them with a fried egg) are a better deal than pretty much anywhere else in the area.
So if you understand that you’ll be getting hot and spicy real Szechuan food that is not designed to cater to the American palate, but instead to the central/​southern Chinese palate, then you’ll enjoy yourself. If you associate «Chinese» with the pseudo-​Cantonese place across the street, then you won’t get that here, so just know that ahead of time and decide accordingly.
On balance, this is one of my favorite restaurants in Corvallis on the basis of the food only.

I used always been there for the cold dishes. Now the food is fine but the service is so disappointed. Always waiting for the waitress, won’t go there any more.

My wife and I took my mother here for her birthday. The service was very slow (–1 star) but the food was very good. We had the sizzling hot plate, wontons, beef with green onions and garlic, and egg plant in garlic sauce. All of the items were much more authentic than other corvallis Chinese food restaurants.

IT’s Great! My favorite is the Spicy Shrimp with Crispy Rice. Delicious and spicy!

Nice Chinese in Corvallis. Perhaps the best Chinese restaurant overall. Have eaten several items off their menu. Mapo tofu, shaved noodles, and the Szechuan garlic ribs among the favorites.

I’m actually from China and this place is authentic. If you want to try real Szechuanese cuisine, you gotta give this place a try but only if you enjoy spicy food. This is not really the place I’d recommend people to order americanized dishes like orange chicken or general tso’s, they do these dishes about as good as other places but you’re missing out if that’s what you order here.
Szechuanese food uses a lot of numbing peppers to give the food a kick and an unique taste. This is a real dining experience. The staff is usually very busy but it’s also a Chinese/​asian cultural experience to flag them down. It’s just something you get used to eating at good popular Chinese restaurants. The sizzling spicy lamb dishes are fantastic and full of flavor. They also have these beef wrap appetizers that remind me of home.
Even my boyfriend who is very picky about greasy Chinese food admits this is an experience that he looks forward to whenever we visit friends down in Corvallis.

Very tasty and authentic Chinese food. People that recommended this place said it was pricey but I think the prices are fair for the quality and quantity of the food.

My husband and I ate here and will never go back.
Service was AWEFUL!!!
Food was mediocre at best.
My husband had the Chicken Curry., no flavor.
Pluus they charge you extra for white rice!
Never again!

Szechuan Café in Corvallis (I assume there are about 1,352 Szechuan Cafes throughout the United States & Canada & Mexico) is located in a small strip mall next to Bi-​Mart (like most of the other Szechuan Cafes in the US, Canada & Mexico).
Anyhow, this is a wonderful little restaurant where I mostly get General Tso’s Chicken to go, eat-​in occasionally. The seating is a little odd… picnic benches. But besides that, the food is very, very good and the servers are extremely nice.
SC is also, as others have said, more on the authentic side. Perhaps some of the Chinese patrons would say otherwise, I don’t know, but it’s good.
The menu is diverse with things like Frog and Pig Intestines and Stinky Tofu (I don’t know what that is and am not going to find out because I’m a wimp). I like to try different things, but usually stick to the GT Chicken because each time I get it, they make it a little different. One day a bit garlicky, the next day, more sweet. You get the picture.
If you order to-​go, they answer the phone in Chinese… which is odd, but if you state clearly that you would like to place a take-​out order, they will hand the phone to somebody who will help. The food is quick and awesome. I’ve been eating there since they opened. If you’re in Corvallis and need some good authentic Chinese, this is the place.

I would totally come back for this place. They serve the best and the most authentic Szechuan food. Everything was so awesome and I would love to invite my friends come along with me for the next time!

Pretty dang tasty. The lunch special is a great deal. The Kung pao & beef with green bean are da bomb. Sodas are by the can, not fountain. Both times I’ve been here (and I live in Seattle) it’s full of Asian college students. That’s always a good sign.

I enjoy my daily meals there very often until yesterday when I was ordering their «Cold Dishes» for to go. The lady who was ready to pick the dishes and put them in box was giving me a look as if I was picking them up for free. What a disgusting customer service? And the restaurants was a bit noisy at the time so what I told her was a bit hard to hear, the lady respond in a very impatient way «I can’t hear you!» Come on!!! You are making money, and I am buying foods from you, I am not supposed to be treated that way!

EDIT: I’ve read a lot of complaints about the service. You sometimes have to flag down the waitstaff — just make eye contact and wave. It isn’t that they’re rude or uncaring; it’s just how things are done elsewhere. Honestly, I like this method better than someone wasting their time hassling me while I’m eating anyway.
If you are used to americanized Chinese food, this is not the food you will be expecting. And I mean that in a very good way (as long as you like very spicy food). The menu does include some familiar dishes as well as a huge number of less commonly seen dishes. I’ve been here several times now, since it’s close to where I live, and I’ve loved every mouthful. My boyfriend gets sweet and sour shrimp at every Chinese place we go to. The shrimp here are different. These are not heavily breaded, possibly not breaded at all but still with a slight crispiness to the outside, and the sauce has a slightly different flavor (almost like there’s vanilla in it), but it’s super good. I also like the «Spiced Boiling Seethe Fish» — this is three different words that might mean ‘hot’ and every one of them is true, but if you’re willing to cry and snot your way through it, it’s amazing — chunks of fish with vermicelli noodles and a ton of dried chilies. There are also less spicy, but no less amazing dishes, such as the gluten and black mushrooms and the garlic sautéed soy bean greens (which may be seasonal).
A couple of cautions: be ready to point out what you want on the menu if you can’t order in Mandarin/​Cantonese, you may have to ask for things more than once depending on how good your server’s English is, and don’t try to package your own leftovers at the end of the meal (I’ve had dishes taken out of my hands because I had tried to put the food into takeaway containers myself). Also, while there is a decent range of semi-​exotic soft drinks, there is not currently any beer here and the domestic soda list may be limited.

I thought this place was good… I would like to try more dishes in the future to give a better review. I had a chicken stir-​fry with peppers and ginger, rice, and potstickers. Thought they were yums and I will definitely return.

For a pretty good price during lunch, this isn’t such a bad deal. I got the chicken with string bean. Came with hot and sour soup, rice, an egg, lettuce and some carrots. Only reason why I gave 3 stars is because the chicken was WAY over salted. Blah.