Now Open: Szechuan House
If this building looks familiar, it should. For many years, the low-slung, brown brick structure at 1403 W. 39th Street was the home of the late restaurateur Tommy Macaluso’s namesake restaurant, Macaluso’s. Then Macaluso’s chef Scott Warren took over the lease and opened it, in 2007, as Scotty’s on 39th. Then two young restaurateurs opened it, all too briefly, as Bella Restaurant & Coffee House. By the end of 2008, it was empty.
There’s a new restaurant in the space, although I use the word new advisedly, since the current occupant, Szechuan House, is as close to a classic 1960s Chinese-American restaurant as you can get in this century. If the Bo Lings restaurants and its contemporaries go after a more modern, sleek ambiance, the creators of Szechuan House warmly embrace the tasseled velveteen lanterns, swag draperies, koi aquariums and sugary pink “sweet-and-sour” sauce of another era.
That isn’t a put-down. There’s something comforting about the retro sensibility of this restaurant which offers economical family dinners that start at $25.90 for two people and include appetizers, choice of soup and two entrees. The “Dinner for Seven” includes the “Flaming Appetizers,” soup, and seven entrees for $90.65. Go on, eat something!
I had dinner — for one — recently and discovered that the crab rangoon had no discenerable trace of shellfish and the Orange Chicken didn’t have any orange peel in the sauce — or even a hint of orange flavor. But the portions are generous and most the entree prices are under $10.
