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cityweekend

Savory Waits for Those Who are Patient

Floor to ceiling crayon-colored partitions with circular incisions surround tables like 60s stripper cages, introducing a note of funky privilege to this decidedly middlebrow and spectacularly inexpensive restaurant. Unfortunately, these very partitions emphasize the prevailing experience of Spicy Joint: you cannot get in. Ever. Already at 4 o'clock diners line up. By 5:30pm the crowd covers the entire floor and waiting for a table only proves to be a meditation on eternity and longing. The menu has every Sichuan favorite known outside Chengdu, but hot boiling dishes are a special treat and specially treated. Aim for oily vessels brimming with, well, any meat (beef, catfish, bullfrog, shrimp, etc.) and laden with rice noodle, tofu skin, Chinese cabbage and fresh cucumber. Spicy Joint frequently turns to the mala end of the spicy dial, especially with the classics, but complimentary sweet and sour flavors take a bow in a delightful kung pao chicken and icy plum beverage. It's worth the wait, trust us. --Katya Knyazeva

 

fatcow

A nice addition to the city's Sichuan options. It isn't the spiciest or most authentic, more of a Shanghai meets Chengdu thing, but the flavors are nice. Also branches in Pu Dong Food Inn and inside the Amanda Plaza on Changshou Rd.

 

7 months, 1 week ago