Modern Szechuan

My GF and I tried to go to Xi’an Famous Foods across the street, but the line was long so we went here instead. Glad we did, this place is as authentic as the restaurants I used to frequent during my stint in Shanghai.
We ordered xiao long bao, chao mian with seafood, sweet and sour soup, and General Tso’s chicken (not authentic but she’s Taiwanese so she’s allowed to order it). The noodles came first and were very good. The octopus was tender and not at all rubbery, and the shrimp was de-​shelled already, which was nice. Next came the chicken, which had no bones in it (less common than you’d think with the more authentic restaurants) and was flavorful. I’m not a big fan of sweet & sour soup, but she is and she said it was fine (although there was so much else good food that we didn’t finish it).
The only low point was the xiao long bao. When they were first served, we opened one up and found that they were undercooked on the inside. The meat is meant to look firm like a meatball, but it was runny and mushy. We sent them back and asked for them to be cooked longer, which the server was happy to do. She was apologetic, and returned later with properly-​cooked xiao long bao. Consider us happy.

The outside of this place looks very confusing as it seems there is more than one restaurant that is located here like a food court in a mall.
There is a steam table with food already prepared and hot. That is sold by the pound. Then toward the back is a counter to order fresh food. I looked at the daily specials and ordered the sauteed chicken and shrimp which was one of their hot and spicy items. Since they had brown rice available, I ordered it with brown rice. That did cost a dollar extra.
When I started eating I could see there was diced celery, onions, chopped green and red bell peppers. After a while I wanted more heat so I asked for hot sauce. I was given the usual packets of hot sauce you get at most Chinese fast food restaurants. The shrimp were tender and plentiful. The chicken pieces I believe was boneless dark meat chicken chopped up fine.

The outside of this place looks very confusing as it seems there is more than one restaurant is located here like a food court in a mall.
There is a steam table with food already prepared and hot. That is sold by the pound. Then toward the back is a counter to order fresh food. I looked at the daily specials and ordered the sauteed chicken and shrimp which was one of their hot and spicy items. Since they had brown rice available I ordered it with brown rice. That did cost a dollar extra.
When I started eating I could see there was diced celery, onions, chopped green and red bell peppers. After a while I wanted more heat so I asked for hot sauce. I was given the usual packets of hot sauce you get at most Chinese fast food restaurants.

One of the worst if you look for authentic Chinese places. All noodle dishes are bad. Meat are not fresh.

The soup is ok. But the menu promises pulled and/​sliced noodles. They have neither. Very disappointing

What a random place. Service is bad — food is good. The place looks rather outdated and run down. Our server didn’t seem to know the menu when we asked about the food. We thought about leaving the place without ordering, but decided to stay merely because we didn’t feel like looking for an alternative. We asked for iced water, but were given 3 bottled waters (which we returned!). We ordered 2 hot and sour soups, a wonton soup and orange chicken– the food was surprisingly good, and actually better tasting than the food we had in Chinatown. But all dishes came at random times. The orange chicken was served, but the rice for it came 10 minutes later.

The menu says Modern Szechuan but apparently there’s another name for this address. Oh well but I decided to try this spot as I am sick of deli food and want something that has a bit more flavor to the food. Plenty of seats at the front of the restaurant as well as the back.
You can do buffet which I believe is $ 6.99lb or order hot food from the other counter. They only have one size containers for the hot buffet but I tend to consume less and get a little of everything. I don’t like to waste food and money so no overflowing in my container. The food was tasty way better than the deli spots by me or around me.
Definitely will be back!

This place used to be called Sun Yip. Not sure why they changed the name to Modern Szechuan, because it’s totally the same as before.
Now to the food. Got sesame chicken over white rice. It’s way too sweet for my liking. Still a great deal for $ 6.50, especially with the size of its portion. You can literally have it for 2 meals but of course I ate the whole thing and feel stuffed.
Not the greatest, but great value.