Szechwan Court - Restaurant Review  

8:13PM, Bangalore

Chad treated Uma and me to some delicious Chinese cuisine at Szechwan Court at The Oberoi, MG Road. Here is a quick review of the place.

Decor and ambiance - 2/5

I associate Chinese restaurants with being exotic and unfortunately, Szechwan Court really disappoints in this aspect. It has a very minimalist decor, more suitable for a contemporary restaurant. Also, I personally prefer a slightly dark and cosy setting and found the restaurant very bright lit. The music is typical instrumental Chinese restaurant music, which is forgettable.

Service - 3.5/5

The waiters were warm and friendly but I thought they could have run a tighter ship. Particularly when they brought us our appetizers before the cocktails.

Beverages - 2.5/5

Surprisingly, the cocktails were very average and I'll go as far as to say that I've had better at rock pubs in Bangalore, which are traditionally beer havens. My order of a dirty martini turned out to be a dry martini, which was what it said on the menu. However, being a 5 star hotel, they should've made me a dirty martini or at the very least informed me of its unavailability. Uma found her Mojito and MaiTai to be quite well made. Chad stuck with Tiger beer and I joined him after the martini.

Food - 4.75/5

All faults aside, the food at Szechwan Court is heavenly! By far the most delicious Chinese I have ever sampled. We started with soft-shell crabs, a fried corn dish, a chicken with dry chillies and scallions and some vegetarian wantons. All of these were very well done. So much so that we ordered another round of the soft-shell crabs since they were outstanding!

Main course consisted of a baby corn dish for Uma while Chad and I split some tenderloin in black pepper sauce and prawns in XO sauce along with some braised noodles. The tenderloin was nearly perfect. The prawns were good but overshadowed by the tenderloin and the crabs.

We ended our wonderful meal with an almond and fig tart and a sticky chocolate pudding with ice-cream, both of which were again very well done.

One point to note is that presentation of the food was very simple, unlike say, Toscanos.

One last gripe we had was that we were informed that we would have to finish our drinks by 11:30PM after which they would have to clear them away. Honestly!

Overall, the food was out of this world and every Chinese food-lover should definitely try this place. It is super expensive but I didn't care!