Mary S
Sichuan Mathai was amazing! The food was incredibly flavorful and clearly made with care. Every dish was rich, well-seasoned, and satisfying. The atmosphere was also great, making the whole experience even better. Definitely a spot I’ll be coming back to and recommending to others! Me and my boyfriend got the pad kee mao which was spicy even when we ordered the slightest bit. We also got the black bean stir fry and the cumin lab stir fry.
… moreY Lee
This place is a total scam. All the nice looking photos of authentic looking sichuan dishes aren’t what you’re going to get. They’ll take out all the expensive ethnic ingredients and replace them with cheap filler ingredients and sell it at the price point of the real thing. All the while, they advertise the dish with what seems to be fake staged or AI generated images to fool people into ordering from them. See below for side by side photo comparisons.
I ordered the pork intestine pot and fish fillet with pickled mustard from uber eats.
In the photos, the pork intestine pot was a dry pot consisting mostly of pork intestines, scallions, and dry peppers. What I got instead was a watery soup with a tiny serving of pork intestines and a bunch of cheap filler ingredients like spam and tofu. It wasn’t even just the photo that was deceptive – the description said nothing about the consistency of the dish or any of the extra filler ingredients. It felt like they were purposefully misleading consumers. Edit: they only fixed this on uber eats after I complained on the phone for ten minutes.
As for the fish fillet with pickled mustards, the photos showed the dish being topped with green chilly peppers and sichuan peppercorns. Again, this is not what I received. The version I received was *completely* absent of sichuan peppercorns and green chilly peppers. It wasn’t even like the peppers were hidden underneath – I mixed the ingredients around to find any sign of peppers and there were none. Unsurprisingly, I tasted zero numbing spice and zero regular spice. For the record, I ordered level 3 in spice, which was the highest level they offered.
Absolutely horrible experience and a complete and utter scam. While I want to support a local business, and particularly one that claims to be sichuanese in west philly where such a niche is underrepresented, I cannot support a business that lies to its customers to cut costs.
And for the record, I called them to ask for a refund and file a complaint, but they deferred responsibility to uber, even though I explained to them multiple times that uber eats wasn’t able to refund me for this order. Further, they kept excusing the misleading photos were “old and outdated” even though they haven’t been in business for that long. They also tried to gaslight me that spice level is subjective and that’s why level 3 spicy wasn’t spicy enough for me, even though the problem was that they didn’t use *any* peppers when they cooked the dish.
… moreSuet Lim
As a Malaysian, I was curious how well they handle the Malaysian side of the menu. The kari kering or dry curry is excellent with a keen fragrance. It’s stir-fried style, so no gravy but we still want to sop up all the sauce. The mentega shrimp was decadent and delicious. Best eat it at the restaurant, ideally as appertizer with 3 friends. It is that rich and will not travel well. And the fried egg treatment is best with shrimp. On the Sichuan side, the lotus root is deliciously crunchy with a slight mouth-puckering flavor from the pickled veg. The cold marinated, spicy beef tendon and tripe is as good as any I’ve had elsewhere.
… moreJay Powell
Decent food with a bit of Asian variety. Vegetarian options are good, depending on whether or not they cook separately from the grill (cross-meat/vegan contamination ). Easy parking is accessible during the evening hours. In-house restaurant seating is roomy and somewhat cozy but manageable… Date night location… possibly.
Worth the try
… moreAlina Zarate
They have vegan and non vegan options. I had the vegan basil fried rice and it was good. The restaurant was empty when we dined in, but we still had to order online. Even if you order a vegan dish you have to mention no eggs on vegan dishes.
… moreFranklin Martinez
I’m an incredibly picky eater, but all four dishes my group and I bought were absolutely delicious and I definitely would order again!
We got the M4 Sizzling Soft Tofu, T7 Pad Thai, M10 Sizzling Black Pepper Beef, and the M1 Stir Fry Malaysian Dry Curry (my favorite). The dishes were incredibly flavorful, the meat was cooked beautifully, and the presentation was spectacular.
Regrettably, we were all very hungry before we even got to the restaurant so as soon as the food arrived (which didn’t take long at all) we immediately started eating so I only have a photo of the sizzling soft tofu that was most certainly sizzling! I definitely recommend anyone try this place, even the picky eaters!
… moreThe Singing Alize
Just ok. The photos on the menu look nothing like the food delivered. Pad Thai is dry and without any vegetables; crab Rangoon is a horrible disgrace. Wontons should be light and folded like little stars like the photo. Instead they gave me overly cooked, burned empanadas with dry cream cheese inside. I have no idea how this place has a 4.8 rating. If the company wants to change their crab Rangoon recipe to be more appropriate, and give me a free order, I’ll delete this review. It’s $8 and was maybe worth $1 or $2. Otherwise, please allow a better business to occupy this spot on prime Baltimore avenue. Sorry.
… moreAllen Wu
Great authentic food, the aroma and fragrance enhances the taste very well. They have four different cuisine selections and does them each very well. I especially loved the stir fry malaysian curry and sizzling soft tofu. Dug in too fast before remembering to take a picture! Also got the pad thai and sizzling pepper steak.
… moreAbe Barranca
We’ve eaten here and gotten delivery several times in the past two months. They are phenomenal. Large portions, high quality, dishes you can’t get many places. Their fish is particularly fantastic. I’m so glad they joined the neighborhood.
… moreJamie Schnaitter
The food is pretty good but I really wish they would add “no bell peppers” to the list of requests on the delivery apps… that makes it hard to order from their menu because I can’t eat them
… more