Little Szechuan

This location is hot pot only (Melting Pot concept, but Chinese) — which they make very clear when you walk in or call. No reservations… but you probably don’t need them. We were there on a Tuesday night and one of only 3 tables. This is too bad because I like the hot-​pot only concept.
The hot pot itself was OK — it was spicy and there was a good variety of meat, vegetable, and fish to cook. You can choose between spicy and non-​spicy broth. My Taiwanese counterparts were happy with the authenticity of the food. There is a sauce bar where you can mix up your own dipping sauce.
Just watch the oil — Szechuan food is naturally oily so go easy on adding oil when you mix up the sauce!

DIOS MIO!!! This place is the s*&#. Soooooooo good. First of all they are the only place in the TC that does Hot Pot. What is hot pot you say? FOR SHAME FELLOW UnilocalER! You should know… but keep your pants on I’m about to educate you. Hot pot is a Chinese dish where you DIY. You sit at a table that has a burner on it, the servers bring you delicious, delicious broth, you choose your ingredients, throw them in the pot and cook it yourself. It’s like a soup buffet but better becuase there are few buffets outside of Vegas that are worth the calories. The only way to do this is go for the all you can eat for $ 28. It sounds expensive but after you look at the prices for the individual ingredients it’s the only way that makes any damn sense. Trust me… then thank me later.
So I went with a friend. We did the 2 types of broth. The spicy (this is not f#&*(% around. It is legit spicy.) and the fresh and light. When you get this I strongly suggest doing 2 scoops of the fresh broth to 1 of the spicy. So we ordered all of the following for the soup: thinly sliced beef (yes), chicken (meh), breaded pork belly (YES QUEEN), udon noodles (yes), 3 types of mushrooms (yes), cabbage (meh) and Chinese broccoli (meh). I would have liked to add some seafood but my eating partner was not a fan. The fish balls and crab would have been amazing in this. Then we ordered some skewers; shrimp (would not do again… not much meat) Cauliflower (love it but needed to be cooked a bit longer) and the pork belly. Sweet baby jesus in his manger the pork belly was bomb! We ordered these a few times. The skewers are included in the unlimited. Get lots. I don’t know what the seasoning they added to this was but I considered illegal activity to get it.
They also have a sauce bar for you to customize your individual bowls. Take advantage of this. Cilantro, sesame oil, garlic, green onion, oyster sauce etc. It’s all tasty added to the soup.
This is probably one of the best meals I’ve had out in the TC in a long time. It’s not going to be for everybody but if you like more authentic Asian foods run do not walk here. It’s fantabulous.
Also, they don’t really let you take leftovers on the unlimited but our server was incredible and let us. One of my cups was basically just noodles and chicken with no broth. So I dumped it in a pan with plain chicken broth and boiled it. The soup was so flavorful and injected itself into the ingredients so well that it seasoned the broth to the point where I couldn’t tell the broth wasn’t the original. Beg your server to take home the leftovers. It’s worth it! Then tip her very well so she keeps this practice going.

While the outside of the building is unassuming, and almost downright dingy, the interior is definitely a step up.
The restaurant is pretty wide open, with the main distinguishing feature the custom-​made tables with flat, electric burners built into them. Our booth’s table like most in the restaurant had five burners — one large one in the middle and four smaller ones — one at leach seating spot.
In practice, the large burner is used for most meals for two of more people. The smaller burner is used for single servings such as a person dining alone. In the case of my wife who has seafood allergies, this was a huge advantage. Having a smaller burner for her allowed her to have a broth that held little risk of contamination. Meanwhile, the rest of us at the table enjoyed a large pot with seafood. The biggest issue in this case was that the large pot could be aggressively boiling with some liquid popping out of the pot, and potentially into hers. This was easily mitigated by turning down the heat which was on the surface of the burners (rather than under the table as at the Melting Pot.
Chinese style hot pot is very much like fondue. There is a large pot of boiling soup (in our case, there was a yin and yang shaped bowl with a divider that separated the spicy and non-​spicy broths. The various meats are served raw, to be cooked within the soup by diners at the table.
Food quality was good — much better than the hot pot meats used at Pagoda Dinkytown, which has a similar hot pot offering. By being a dedicated setup for hot pot, there were a number of key advantages over competition like Pagoda. First, they had portable stands for all of the raw foods. At Pagoda, the raw meat trays were put on chairs next to the table which made it hard for guests to reach the food, and it didn’t look great, either, getting food off of chairs. Also, the built-​in burners were much more convenient, and allowed my wife to have her own separate pot (big plus for those with food allergies/​intolerance, or just want to have something different). Finally, they had a wide variety of utensils for serving and pulling stuff out of pots.
Service was very good, but one of the waiters we initially had did not speak much English, which made it challenging to ask questions related to allergies. Once we got reestablished with a different waiter, we were fine. Service was generally good, but since they were busy, it was a little hard to get a hold of a waiter on occasion.
Also, there was a «sauce bar» which included self-​service items such as sesame oil, chopped garlic, oyster sauce, chili paste chili oil, soy sauce, salt, MSG, chopped green onions, chopped cilantro, dry pepper flakes, and peanut sauce.
Limited parking is on the side and behind the building. There may also be parking on the street (or side streets) as well. Spaces are a bit tight,

I lived in China and can tell you this place is pretty damn authentic. If you have never had hotpot I can warn you if you don’t like spicy food at all this may not be the place for you. There are Sichuan peppercorns even in the «healthy» (mild broth) which will sure enough make your mouth go numb. As far as for the standard «spicy» broth it definitely delivers on the spicy element. For $ 27 dollars you can do the all you can eat which is definitely the best way to tackle this monster. They have an assortment of ingredients from beginner (thinly sliced meat and veggies) to advanced (any type of offal you can think of i. e brain). You can also get grilled items. One of my favorite things living in China was something called Yang Rou Chuan which in its most basic meaning is Lamb Meat Stick. It is thinly threaded pieces of lamb that are seasoned with sichuan peppercorns, chili, anise, cumin etc. that are grilled. These were nothing like in China but definitely not bad. We ordered a vast array from meat, seafood, vegetables, noodles and tofu. Some things were definitely better than others. I ordered shrimp which can shell and head on which turned out to be a lot of work and obviously the digestive tracks were not cleaned… :/​.
This all being said there are quite a few items that were good. One on the reasons that I give them high points would be the build your own sauce station. One of most delicious things about hot pot is making your own dipping sauce. They had atlas 10 – 15 choices: Oyster sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, cilantro, green onion, garlic, chili oil, sesame oil, sesame paste, sugar, msg etc. Not many places I can think of where you can find msg in a salt shaker in the Twin Cities haha. If your feel like trying something new I would definitely recommend it. It was relatively clean, the service was decent and they have cold beer for your numb burning mouth.

High marks for the hot pot. I recommend the hot pot with beef, tofu, dumpling and mushrooms. Really delicious. Love the make your own sauce counter as well! Service was also stellar too.

My first time having Hot Pot for dinner. The building looks sketchy from the outside, but we were pleasantly surprised when we walked in. The place is beautifully furnished and clean.
We ordered a big pot of the healthy soup; the broth was delicious! I ordered a small pot of the spicy broth to the side and hardly touched it because it was so oily.
We were the only people in there besides another table and they didn’t realize we were missing two sets of silverware until we asked for it after checking up on us four times. The cashier blatantly pointed out that the tip was not included with the meal. We of course had intentions to leave a good tip but found it rude how he brought it up.
We did Ale Cart, the total bill came out to about 27 a person. If you choose All You Can Eat hot pot, it’s about 27 a person as well.

Opinion on the spicy broth: Too oily. It made me think if the oil in those chili oil paste.
My sister & I barely finish half of our order bc the broth made all the food leave a weird oily after taste in our mouths. Not worth $ 47.xx.
We did tip bc the service was good.

Hotpot in the Twin Cities… It’s quite rare to find one. let alone a good one. Little Szechuan out in Saint Paul is a good one. if you’re willing to pay for it.
This place is super spicy! I love eating spice… but this place has some SERIOUS spice to it. You can get a pot full of spice or full of just plain broth. I recommend getting the half-​half where it’s one side hot and one side just plain broth. You get the best of both worlds!
In regards to hot pot foods, this place is pretty authentic. They have a variety of meats and vegetables you can order and tons of different sauces as well.
It’s been a while since I’ve been here, but I heard they are now all you can eat hot pot and grill for like $ 40 bucks a person. Quite pricey if you ask me. but if you don’t want to make hot pot at home, then this is your best bet. Not sure if they still have a la carte… but you should call to double check!

If I were to judge the hot pot here against those I’ve had in several provinces of mainland China (though I’ve never been to sichuan/​szechuan), Taiwan, and New York City, I would give this place three stars as an authentic hot pot. It is okay, but it would not be my first choice if there were other options. I actually prefer the hot pot my wife and I make at home. But this is the only good, authentic, Chinese hot pot I’ve found in the Twin Cities, the staff were attentive, and many of the other reviews I’ve read here seem unfair. So I’m giving four stars to balance the unfair reviews and to make the review reflect local, not national or international competition.
My wife and I went here with another American/​Taiwanese couple. I was excited to learn that the Twin Cities had a dedicated hot pot restaurant. Generally, the hot pot offered at restaurants where it is just another item on the menu are disappointing. This I’ve found to be true whether in a Chinese restaurant in the U.S. or in China or Taiwan. Good hot pot place tend to have large lists of ingredients, in large volumes, that need to be fresh.
We went on a Sunday night before a Monday holiday. The place was fairly empty, which was not a good sign, but the those that were there were Chinese or mixed Chinese/​Other couples, which was a good sign. Generally, I don’t give much weight to «authentic.» A restaurants food can be authentically bad. But I like hot pot and if too many concessions are made to local tastes, it just isn’t going to be what I was looking for.
The hot pot is a large communal hot pot, split into two sections, so you can have two different broths. We ordered half non-​spicy and half ma-​la. The couple we were with wanted ma la, which I agreed to with some trepidation. I’ve had ma-​la hot pots at some of the best and best-​known hot pot restaurants in Taiwan. Having spent a lot of time in China, India, Korea, and Taiwan, I can eat pretty spicy food, but I’ve always found ma la hot pot to be too much and I generally don’t enjoy it. I was happy that the ma la here wasn’t as insane as what I’ve had in Taiwan. But it is still very spicy and I would think many Minnesotans who don’t have the taste for very spicy food would have a hard time with it.
The broth can make the hot pot and is often the difference between a good restaurant and what you can do at home. The broth here was good. Not the best I had, but better than anything we can easily make at home. My wife put it well: it is good, but there is nothing subtle about it. My wife also felt that it was too oily. I didn’t mind it being oily and that may also be more of a sichuan thing as a lot of dishes I’ve had at the restaurant claiming to be «szechuan» style is quite oily.
Like most dedicated hot-​pot restaurants, there is an area you go to for making your own dipping sauce. I was a bit disappointed with it, but to be fair, it was because it was missing some of my favorite ingredients that are popular in Taiwanese hot-​pot places but may not be common in sichuan. In particular, I always love to use «sha cha» paste as the base for my dipping sauce. I’m not going into detail on what that is, but I missed not having it. They were out of chives, which was also a disappointment, since I love to pile the chives in. They did have a decent soy sauce, good sesame oil, minced garlic, sugar, and black vinegar. I was also happy to see MSG. So many Chinese restaurants are «MSG free» here, that is nice to find those that haven’t caved in. For those who believe the MSG causes you problems, you can just skip it. NOTE: you may be tempted to skip the vinegar, but give it a try. It is especially good with the spicy broths and helps counter some of the heat and oiliness of the ma la broth.
They had a decent selection of ingredients and they were all fresh. The the beef wasn’t the highest quality and I did expect better for the price. When we make hot pot at home, we order specially cut beef from Asian butchers and I would expect as good or better from a restaurant like this. I missed not having taro as an option, but again, that is probably a regional thing. The cabbage, sweet potato, dofu, and other items we had were all good.
I’m happy to find a dedicated hot pot place in the Twin Cities that is good. But I still feel I can do as good or better at home and am not inclined to go out of my way to have hot pot here, especially given the price. That said, most people wouldn’t want to go through the hassle of getting the ingredients and buying a hot pot set up at home. For those wanting a good hot pot, this seems to be the only game in town.

Really like the hot pot and bbq here! Definitely one of my favorite places in the cities.
Personally I prefer the plain soup base to the hot one. All the menu items are pretty tasty and worth trying. + Big fan of chicken wings and pork bellies!

Decent option for hot pot. Their all-​you-​can eat hot pot was on the expensive side (~$ 26 – 27 I believe). They do have a decent selection of anything you may want to put in the hot pot though. Know that their portions tend to be pretty big though! So I would order less and then add more if you’re still hungry (they do charge for leftover food). Their broth was pretty good but they were lacking some classic sauces. Where they fault is in their service. Our broth boiled down to a very low level, and they didn’t come over to fill it until we asked them to. They also never came around to re-​fill waters, and we had to ask them to do so several times before they finally came around once. In general, they were also just very slow to bring out our broth and the meats/​vegetables/​etc. even though the restaurant was far from crowded. It is a a good option, but the service and price were detractors from the experience.

Somewhere around a 3.5 for me. Winter is rolling in (The Beloved DOT is praying for a school snow day tomorrow) and I felt like some warm food. I was first in the door (and had the place to myself) at 11:30. Quickly seated. $ 27.30 for the «all you can» or less for one-​by-​one. I did some price checks and I would have been up the the full price if I’d ordered piece by piece, so I went all the way. Just water… I’m cheap.
The food came out pretty quickly. Guess they figured I knew what I was doing since no instructions were given! And that, my friend, is a necessity. You get a pot of spicy broth that needs to heat up on the table-​top element. Which is off. Which has lots of Chinese writing and not much else. I (being clever) figured out the on/​lff and hot/​hotter/​HOT settings and was on my way. I got shrimp (they show up shell on) and crispy pork belly with a couple of kinds of mushrooms for a start. First hint: if you are by your self order ½ servings. Shrimp was great. Friend pork belly? Meh. Second set were some chicken meatballs and beef strips. The chicken was very good. The bee? Not some much… fatty and full of connective tissue. Good thing it was thin. Lots of nice dipping sauces.
Would I got again? Probably not. It was OK, but for that amount of money I’m going back to On’s on University for some spicy Thai.

Not worth to spend the money on their hotpot (more than 30 for each person)

Went here to try hot pot with my family for the first time ever and we were blown away! Everything was delicious here! The broth was superb and the dishes were of adequate size. The waitress was extremely patient with our indecisiveness and did not bat an eye when we kept changing our orders. This is definitely going down as one of my new favorite restaurants. We did all you can eat for $ 27.99/person. I strongly recommend this place and strongly recommend their dipping sauces. Everything here was delicious!

I would say it’s the only hot pot place I will go in Twin Cities area. They provide a wide variety of food and their spicy soup is real spicy. The food in general is good except for Bacon. When we talk about bacon in hot pot, it’s not real American bacon, it’s just meat with more fat. However, the bacon provided here is real bacon which is weird in spicy hot pot. I didn’t rate this place too high is based on the quality/​price ratio. It’s at least $ 25 – 30 per person.

So this is the second time here in 3 days for me and the family. First day we came from a long drive from Chicago and needed something to hit the «G» spot — something that would blow my socks off. I googled Hot Pot and this placed popped up, so we decided to give it a try since we were passing through anyways.
We walked in and waited for a minute or two for someone to sit us. While standing there, I Couldn’t shake the mouth watering smell coming from the broths from the tables positioned right next to the entrance. At that point I knew that this was going to be a nice experience (at least I hoped).
Once we sat the server gave us two sheets of paper and a pen. Never having been to an establishment like this, we weren’t quit sure what we were looking at. At first, I didn’t know why she didn’t ask us if we needed any help! Then I realize, that having done so, I can see some people will take offense to that. Treating them as if they were newbies to the process. A few minutes after my deep train of thought, I asked the server for her help with broth selection, spicy /​mild /​non-​spicy. She recommended that we try the half and half which was chicken base and a spicy base. For protein we ordered the ribeye beef /​house meatballs /​octopus and tripe. For veggies we ordered the oyster mushroom /​enoki mushroom and the variety veggie plater which was way too much veggies and shrooms.
Once I started throwing everything into both broths (felt like I was dying of hunger) it didn’t take but a couple of minutes for most of the items to cook. Once the food hit everyone’s plate, it disappeared within minutes. During this whole eating process I noticed a dead silence from our table as well as all the tables; other then the boiling broths. Every table was focused on getting their grub on. Everything was on point!
After realizing that I ordered way too much food, and had tons of uncooked protein and veggies left over (eyes were bigger then our stomachs) we asked if it was appropriate for us to take all the left over and some of the broths home? With no hesitation, she said that that was a great idea. I don’t know why I was shocked.
The waitress was very attentive and did not let my water cup go empty, as I was chugging water down like no tomorrow (that spice I tell ya!). At the end she bagged everything up for us .
The total bill for a family of 5 with 3 small ones was $ 87.00 and some change. A little expensive but that’s the cost of over ordering. Well worth it!
My second experience a couple of days later was the same as the first but with less al Le carte ordered. Left there with another big smile.
I would recommend this place to anyone that is adventurous and needs a little kick /​boast in their lives (at least in the adventure section).

Tonight this was a HUGE surprise — first time we have ever eaten here.
My 28-​year-​old daughter is passionate about quality «HOT POT». I have followed her all over Boston in search of the best. Now she lives in NYC and has eaten at the best, in Flushing, queens
Tonight I had THE VERY BEST hot pot ever. (never eaten hot pot in NYC).
— outstanding spices
— outstanding quality meats
— the best seasoned broth selection ever (and not saturated with MSG)
— beautiful plentiful fresh veggies
— outstanding warm gracious service
— excellent value for portion size and quality of ingredients
— clean simple décor. (though paint color of interior is a bit overwhelming /​intense). Excellent quality cook tops
Outstanding flavor — I have eaten at special Chinese restaurants in Honolulu, LA, San Diego, NYC, Chicago.
The condiments available to custom create your own dipping sauces were an «11″– the best part of the meal.
WHAT a WONDERFUL. Surprise. We shall be back, And often !!

My parents visited us a couple of weeks ago and a co-​worker recommended this place to us. Well, I am glad that we were able to try it out for lunch. We did ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ spicy and non-​spicy broth and it was a good choice. The spicy was a bit too spicy for us and we ended up using the non-​spicy broth. We had two plate full of lamb and beef. The beef looked to have more fat and not as lean compared to lamb. However, we enjoyed both although my mom had issues. The seafood was frozen as mentioned in review but we didn’t mind. The vegetables were good as well and my parents and my fiancé’s favorite were the tofu. Overall, not a bad deal at about $ 20 per person. Yes, we were a little stressed with deciding what to put into the hot pot at what time. But, I would certainly come here again with friends and family.

This place had recently switched to exclusively hot pot, which is fon du I believe. You order a broth selection then you pick out meats vegetables and other things. The tables have burners on them so you basically do your own cooking. It’s a real fun dining experience. I found the prices to be a little high because you are charged individually for each vegetable and what not. There are some really unique selections available.

ok, so i had heard that this placed has changed to doing hotpot now and I was very excited to try it since we are very limited here in the TC! I have definitely had better hotpot, but those experiences were in CA and I can understand why it’s not as great in the TC since it’s not very popular and not a lot of people know what hotpot is. That being said, it will definitely hit the spot if you’re craving hotpot.

So here’s the deal, I love hot pot… really LOVE hot pot; so, I was really excited to try out this concept at Little Szechuan. They recently remodeled their St Paul location to only serve hot pot… it’s clearly stated on the door as you enter.
I was really surprised by the remodeled, it looks different with every table having a hot plate (booths and tables). The interior mood is darker and there is plenty of room… feels like they could have included a few more tables in my opinion.
We were seated immediately, it was a Sunday evening and there was only one other table. The menu is interesting… you pick a soup base, then everything else is a la carte. They do have veggie, meat and mushroom plates that include a variety of mixed items for $ 15-​$ 20. The tough part is nothing indicates what portion each item is… we ordered tofu and got the entire tofu container (for I think $ 3). We ordered the base soup… since it was our first time, didn’t want to go crazy (they don’t allow for half-​half of two soups). We ordered a about 15 different items, including meats, veggies, mushrooms and noodles.
The service is pretty quick and a nice feature was the option to get your own sauces and spices… there is a side counter that is self service (neat concept). The base soup is clean and tasty, they took the time to make it right (will try the spicy bases if I go again). The items we ordered we all washed, precut and fresh… definitely on point.
So…why the 3 stars?! Well… since I’ve had hot pot all my life, it boils down to atmosphere and value. Was it good, meh… it was alright… didn’t knock my socks off. Hot pot is to be enjoyed, it’s a social gathering of friends/family…the seating wasn’t all that comfy and there was no leg room (based on how the table was designed with the hot plate). The tables were small and you had to start staking side plates on top of each other, leaving no room to eat or put down your adult bev (you need an adult bev with hot pot yo!). Could someone please turn up the darn lights?! I wanna see what the heck I’m eating people!
If you’ve never had hot pot before… go for it, try it out; bring your friends/​family. If you love hot pot… stay home and enjoy :-) (cheaper, easier and more fun!)

I’d heard that Little Szechuan was offering hot pot – went there this evening with friends and discovered that hot pot is now the ONLY thing you can get here. Period. OK, that was a little surprising, but it was a cool evening, hot pot would be good. I ate at lots of hot pot restaurants when I lived in the Bay Area and liked them.
There are lots of different ways to serve it, different dipping broths, etc., so we asked the waiter how it worked here. He handed us a printed list of broth options (ranging from mild to spicy) and ingredients (meats, veggies, noodles, mushrooms, etc.) gave me a pen and said, «Mark what you want.» When we asked about the broth flavors, he said, «Some are mild and some are spicy.» Then he pointed to a station a few feet away and said, «Get your seasoning sauce there.»
We chose Ma La broth (ma la is a combination of ma – numbing – and la – spicy – flavors characteristic of Szechuan cuisine.) The guy said it was spicy. Well, yeah, it’s a Szechuan restaurant, so we went for it.
When they brought it out, the spicy broth filled two halves of a big divided bowl – turns out we could have had half spicy broth and half mild – but that wasn’t on the menu and the waiter didn’t mention it. I eat a lot of spicy food, but this was over the top, just overwhelmingly HOT SPICY – lots of la but hardly any ma. Except for tongue-​burning spiciness, it wasn’t that flavorful. We solved the problem by ordering a separate bowl of non-​spicy broth and finishing our meal with that.
I don’t understand why Little Szechuan made this switch. All the tables are now outfitted with induction burners for hot pot, so there’s no going back. The once-​bustling restaurant remained nearly empty while we were there. The staff gave no guidance about how this worked, service was minimal, and the bill for the four of us came to $ 91 before tip. Really sad, I won’t be going back.
BTW I originally gave this two stars but downgraded to one after everyone in our party got sick, the details of which shouldn’t be detailed in a Unilocal review.

Three words: Not a fan. Back I’m the day, I would have given this place four, maybe five stars, but now, I feel like they have gotten so popular that they have forgotten what made them so popular in the first place… good quality food. I feel like their portions have gotten smaller and food has become much greasier. I understand Szechuan cooking uses a lot of the chili oil but there is a line. Anyways, last time I came here I had the honey walnut shrimp and it was pretty much shrimp drenched in mayo. I love me some mayo but dang this was like 10 shrimps swimming in a Costco sized jar of mayo.
I will say the service is great here and they are very professional and legit in their silver vests. They are also really fast and friendly.

We went in for chung king chili shrimps, dan dan noodles, and green beans and were disappointed none of our favorites were available.
The greeter explained the new hot pot concept which did not sound appetizing, or maybe it was simply anticipation being met by bitter disappointment in any event, we left and headed to the Tea House.
If we’re ever in the mood to go to a restaurant and cook our own soup, Little Szechuan will come first to mind…

They have remodeled into a hotpot restaurant now and I couldn’t be more than thrilled seeing as I get my dose of hotpot from new York or california. It’s good to see minnesota become an up and coming state for new foods! (All we need is kbbq now) anyway, you get a list of items ranging from the soup base to the raw components (meat, veggies, seafood etc) there’s a lot of selections! It is priced per item so you could rack up a pretty big bill if you’re not paying close attention. My total came out to $ 60 for three people and we were very full and satisfied. The spicy soup is a bit much but was still phenomenal. There is also a little sauce station for you to create your own sauces!
Winter would compliment hotpot perfectly! And we all know what MN is like in the winter!
Never had food there before but I’m hoping people will be able to transition into the hotpot concept seeing as there are other little szechuan’s around the cities that still serve Chinese food.
If we can’t adjust to change new foods and concepts will never be able make it here!