The conquest of the city by Sichuan restaurants is nearly complete. When the earliest eateries from that remote region of China first appeared on the Upper West Side in the '70s, they were palaces of the pallid, with a sticky-sweet stir-fry of baby shrimp in a barely spicy red sauce as their marquee dish. Later, as actual Sichuan immigrants trickled into the city, and the chains Wu Liang Ye and Grand Sichuan arose to spread the gospel, we've had real—and really hot—Sichuan food in many Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens neighborhoods, "mah-lah" (numbing-spicy) peppercorns and all. Our portfolio was completed by the appearance of stalls at places like Flushing's Golden Mall, where the offal-intensive cuisine was showcased at its working-class level.
Not long ago, an upscale Sichuan restaurant materialized in Yorkville. Five years ago, when good Sichuan in that neighborhood was unthinkable, my knee-jerk reaction would have been that the place was probably awful, but now I'm eating my toupee. Despite the comical name—suggesting a Sino-Swiss ski lodge—the food at Szechuan Chalet is exemplary. (Don't let the spelling of "Sichuan" bother you, either—it's an Upper East Side dialectical affectation.) The place has the usual uptown Chinese restaurant vibe—a certain cheesy elegance that includes white napery, modern art, and waiters in waistcoats who coddle their customers but are prone to crazy malapropisms.
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