The first time we tried to go to this restaurant we timed out as we drew card number sixty-something and were too hungry to wait, but we duly noted that any place an all-local crowd will wait over an hour to eat must be good. So we tried it again the next week and after standing about an hour, which is great for working up an appetite, we got seated in one of their comfortable, well-spaced booths in the large, open restaurant with minimalist modern decor. The Sichuan food was excellent, starting with the standard Bo Bo Chicken appetizer, and the house special cold noodle was also great. Ditto for the fish sitting in a big wok with chilies (usually but not always called Feitengyu 沸腾鱼) though you have to have a very high tolerance of oil to enjoy this dish. Lastly, the Gong Bao Shrimp – a dish to delight any expat, this was more mildly flavored though still with a nice bite to it. Portions were generous and all the above including Harbin Beer, juice AND a bottle of local wine for only 286 RMB for two explains the popularity of the place with the mostly young crowd. Service was friendly but don’t bother with their wine – the “Garcon” took ten minutes trying to open it, beginning with trying to twist off the top part of the bottle by brute force and finally pulverizing half the cork before giving up - you get the idea. No English on the magazine-style menu but you can just point at the pictures. Arrive VERY early (well before 5 PM) if you expect a reasonable wait, or try sometime after 8 PM and before closing. In addition to this new one next to the K-Wah Center (嘉华中心) that we tried, as noted by other reviewers, Spicy Joint has five branches around town.