Hole-In-The-Wall Affordable Sichuan Noodles

川渝小吃坊 — Chuan Yu Xiaochi Fang in English — is a super popular hole-in-the-wall eatery near Zhongshan Station. Its name literally translating to which translates to Sichuan and Chongqing Snack Shop, this place specializes in affordable Sichuan cuisine. Now, when we say popular we mean popular: we had to line up for around half an hour to get seated, and the service is fast-paced to keep up with the crowds amassing outside. While this restaurant may not be the best spot for a relaxing dinner, they do some good noodles and cold dishes and most of the time, your money goes a long way.

You’re expected to order as soon as you’re seated to keep things moving. The menu is all in Chinese, but we’ve included the Chinese names of the dishes we ordered if you’re struggling to read it. For noodle dishes, you will need to choose between rice noodles and regular noodles. You can also choose between three levels of spice for most dishes, and unless you’re really good with spicy food, we recommend sticking to the least spicy/medium spicy options. Be warned: the noodles dishes are really big, so you may want to keep that in mind when you’re ordering, or you’ll end up (like us) with way too much to finish.

The first thing we ordered was the Mouth-Watering Chicken (口水雞, $140). This was awesome — the chicken was perfectly cooked, and we love the sour, spicy sauce. The peanut and cucumber added a great crunch too. If you’re not a fan of cold meat, you may not appreciate it, but we’d definitely get it again.

Our next choice was another favourite — spicy jelly (川北涼粉, $80), also known as liangfen. These are made with some kind of starch (usually mung bean) and have a bouncier texture than noodles, which some people love and some people don’t. Other than the texture, it was fairly similar to the chicken as it had the same sauce. We love this dish and make a point to order it whenever it’s on the menu, but there were a few haters in the group too.

We had mixed feelings on the next dish, the steamed riced pork chop (粉蒸排骨, $140). Most of us loved it — the meat was tender, having been perfectly steamed without any sogginess, it had a good level of spice, and the pumpkin gave it a sweet aftertaste. This dish does have a rather distinct flavour, though, which some of us appreciated more than others.

The most expensive item we ordered was the boiled spicy beef (麻辣水煮牛肉, $380), which is one of the few things we wouldn’t really recommend getting. The meat was nice but could have been a little more tender, and although we liked the taste of the marinade we didn’t feel that it had been left on long enough: you could only really taste it on the outside. There also wasn’t much meat, as the dish was pretty heavy on sprouts and other vegetables, so in the end, we didn’t feel like it was much of a worthy spend.

One of our favourite noodle dishes of the night was the Chonqing spicy noodles (重慶麻辣小面, $75), which we took a gamble on and ordered in medium spice. They were pretty spicy, so beware if you have a sensitive tongue. These noodles are made with different kinds of peppers and chilli peppers, including mouth-numbing Sichuan peppers, with a nutty, sweet aftertaste from peanuts. They were really good.

We also weren’t the biggest fans of the meat with pickled vegetable noodles (酸菜肉絲米線, $85), which we found to be a little on the boring side, especially compared to some of the other noodles we got. The sourness from the pickled vegetables added a little something, but it wasn’t enough to fill the noodles with any flavour.

We were relatively divided on the big green bean with sour sauce noodles (川北涼粉, $75). It was still very nice, but the beans were definitely the dominant flavour, giving the dish a slightly grainy texture. We liked it, but it couldn’t compare to some of the others.

Another noodle dish we really liked was the rice noodles with sesame sauce and green beans (重慶手工酸辣粉, $75). These had a nice sourness from the rice vinegar that was balanced well by the added flavours of sesame, peanut, coriander, and the sauce absorbed well into the noodles. You could taste the beans, but they added to the experience instead of taking away from it. We’d get this dish again.

Last but not least, we got some simple water boiled vegetables (燙青菜, $40) to add a little freshness into our carb-heavy meal. They were pretty standard, but nice all the same.

Overall, we enjoyed our meal at Chuan Yu Xiaochi Fang. The chicken and spicy jelly were great, as were the Chonqing spicy noodles and the rice noodles with sesame sauce and green bean. The sesame sauce rice noodles with zha jiang (乾拌雙醬米線, $75) was another fantastic noodle dish that we got, even though we never managed to get photos. The rest of the noodles were nice, but they couldn’t compete with the other dishes. We were extremely impressed with how big the noodle dishes were, though — we had ordered a variety because they were pretty cheap, and we realized as soon as everything arrived that that was a huge mistake. If you’re in the mood for something cheap, big, and spicy, this might be the place for you!

What’s the vibe?

Fast-paced and busy hole-in-the-wall joint that specializes in Sichuan cuisine. Expect long lines and lots of locals coming here for their cheap, spicy noodle fix.

Worth it?

Yes, but some dishes were more worth it than others. The serving size is very generous, and we really liked certain things we ordered.

Would you go back?

We want to say yes, but the long lines are a little discouraging. Maybe if we’re in the area and have time to kill!

Last updated December 2019.

Chuan Yu Xiaochi Fang

Chinese Name: 川渝小吃坊

Hours: 11:30am – 9pm

Phone: 02 2559 9101

English Address: No. 8, Alley 6, Lane 18, Nanjing West Road, Datong District, Taipei City

Chinese Address: 台北市大同區南京西路18巷6弄8之1號