Astoundingly good Szechuan food. Appropriately spicy. Yet, a delicateness and sophistication to the flavors. We had sliced fish in hot sauce, hot and sour wonton soup, green beans, beef in hot pot, and fried chicken in hot peppers. All were excellent.

The spicy chicken cubes were delicious. A great balance between crispy and moist. The peppers were a little on the light side, but they did their job. Overall very tasty

This place apparently has been written up in a newspaper for its uber-spicy Sichuan Chinese food, so it was a little more busy than I remember it being when we first came here several years ago. I also remember it being better a few years ago, but this place is still legit if you want to burn/assault your taste buds.The dish to get is their spicy chicken with red pepper dish - basically little fried pieces of chicken covered in red chili peppers and scallions. SOOO good! Their spicy mapo tofu was just okay - I've definitely had better. Stay away from their fried pork chop dish - this one looks better than it tastes (surprisingly tasteless, but maybe because we had just devoured other spicy dishes so this was tasteless in comparison). They also have a fair number of non-spicy dishes for those of you who don't like the spice or who want to bring the kiddies along. For non-spicy, the chow mein fits the bill, and their sauteed green string beans are great!Overall, a pretty good place for spicy food, but don't expect great service. The waitstaff just takes your order and brings the food out. You basically have to stay on top of them for drink refills, getting extra bowls/utensils, etc.

I have been here before and sometimes the food is good while sometime its meh.. Today the food is yummy and i hope they keep it consistently good. My favorite here os the hoot. I like the hotpot way better than the boiled fish. I also like the deep fried shrimp and chillies yuuum.. It is also the perfect level of numbing spicy while i can still taste the food... I will be back..

Definitely not the place you would expect good food from. But it's Chinese food, so you should.Small building on the corner, it's very hard to miss the red sign at night. Doesn't look like it would be a place people would flock to. I guess it's a good thing, because I won't have to wait to be seated when I come here craving that Spicy stir fried intestine.This is actually a great place to try some super ethnic Chinese cuisine. Even better if you like it spicy. The service is pretty good. The chef is super quick with all the dishes. Takes about 5 minutes or so to get the food after you order it. Maybe it could be the dishes I ordered.Love their spicy large intestines here. It's full of flavor and great texture. It's crispy and very satisfying to eat. It is the most addicting dish ever. Always get it when I'm here.I've tried their twice cooked pork and the cured pork with garlic scallions. Both were pretty good. It's a good to dish if you are opting for something not spicy.Their boiled spicy intestines were pretty good too. It's a different type of spicy, and the texture is completely different. I usually order fish or intestine when it comes to the boiled spicy dishes.Lastly, I tried their dan dan mian(noodles). The noodles have a very fresh taste to it. It was $5.99. Kind of pricey for what it is. It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't order it again here.There is a lot of Chung King style restaurants in the 626, this one had good service, food was pretty good, and pretty clean. Definitely one of my GO TO places for spicy Chinese food in the SGV.

Very authentic chongqing food, spicy. The cold dishes are not always fresh though.

I have been coming here for years and it was always excellent. Everything but the bathrooms which I will not describe as they might make you vomit. Anyway, went a couple weeks ago and looked it up to call about their closing time. While on yelp, noticed most of the recent reviews were negative. Couldn't believe it. Went anyway, and it was decent, but a huge decline in quality. Wife and her friend went this morning and said it was absolutely horrible. Whoever they lost, they lost big in the kitchen. I know the same waitresses are outside. So I don't think they sold the place. Maybe they did. They did renovate and make it nice inside, or rather for a hole in the wall... nicer. But the food is no longer spicy, and the quality of flavor is failing horribly. Damnit! This was my go to place for Sichuan Food! Fuck!

Do not let the size of this small restaurant fool you! The food here is so delicious I think even if it was a B or C rated u would still come. For a Chinese restaurant to be a grade A in this area is a star by itself already. The staff is nice ... If you need something they are right there... Otherwise I don't think They like to bother, which is fine with me.Order the spicy fish cooked either way is very tasty!!I miss living near this place!

Raised in China, came to the United States 10 years ago, Szechuan food has always been my favorite. It has unique flavor, pungent and spicy, stimulate every sense of the taste bud. It is ranked top of the four categories of Chinese cuisine.Tonight, a rainy day and after a long 8-hour shift, I thought it would be the perfect timing to order some takeout scechuan food for the family. I've heard that this place changed the chief. But I thought to myself how bad could it be? I only ordered two simple hot dishes, Kung Pao chicken and beef with green onion, with some cold side orders.But this probably was the worst food I had ever ordered from a restaurant. The beef was overcooked, not enough seasoning and flavor, with a little sour taste that usually came with the under-prepared meat. The Kung pao chicken, oh my goash, shouldn't be called Kung pao chicken. Instead of pungent and spicy, it had a funny sweet taste. The entire dish was black in color, and I could see the starch used to coat the chicken meat. For god's sake, a brainless monkey would know not to coat the chicken with starch. In addition, in Chinese cuisine, the flavor comes along with the hot pan is quite important. Apparently, the chief did not understand the basic concept of Chinese cooking. I could have ordered a Carne Asada soft taco at 1/10 of the price and had a better taste than this disgusting food.ironically, the only eatable food from the order was the cold dish cucumber. Even though it was also under seasoned, no salt, no garlic, at least it was fresh.This place has changed, the food was not to my taste, and trust me, I know Chinese food. Some of you may think my review was a bit harsh, but I was merely telling the truth. A fast food Chinese restaurant would have better cooking than this place . It used to be decent, now, it's just a scam. I would not recommend anyone to this place.

My caveat of this review is that I'm not the biggest connoisseur of Sichuanese food, but I really thought Chung King was overrated. Second caveat is that I also a basically a wimp when it comes to spicy food. I came here this past weekend with a few friends. I expected a long wait, especially after Jonathan Gold's review, but there was only one other party when we got there. We ordered the following...-Leek with lamb meat: I liked this dish, although I felt like the lamb was a little chewy. I also wish the lamb:leek ratio was more lamb than leek.-Twice cooked pork: I didn't find this dish memorable, but hey, you generally can't go wrong with pork belly.-Sichuan boiled fish: This was supposed to be the highlight of the meal, and we (after my friends' insistence) ordered the fish extra spicy. My friend said it the best when he said, "If you don't eat the seeds, the dish isn't spicy at all." Needless to say, this dish was the most disappointing. The fish was the defrosted tilapia or cod filets, which is okay, but I was kind of expecting something a little more from a SGV institution as renown as Chungking.-Cold dishes: We chose pigs' ear, smoked chicken, and the beef tendon. Out of the three, I liked the smoked chicken the most; the flavor was intensely smokey (despite its appearance) and the texture was not dry (again despite the appearance). The pigs' ear was standard, and the beef tendon was meh.Service: Standard for a Chinese restaurant.Bottom line: Sure, it has an amazing reputation, and yes, there are some standard (although perhaps not standard-setting) dishes here, but at the end of the day, I'm not convinced you can't find better Sichuanese in the SGV.P.S. - Gotta love the random CCTV cartoons playing in the background.

If there is a NO STAR rating, i will definitely give it to this restaurant. This one star is for the waitress Lily.Pls save yourself some money and calories by not dining here!I used to love this restaurant until everything go downhill about a year or two ago. I heard the owner fired the main chef and there were lots of complaints since the owner become the chef himself.We ordered 3 dishes. Spicy chicken nuggets, Spicy hotpot and pan fried dried tofu with bamboo shoots.Spicy chicken nuggets supposed to be crunchy, reddish colored becus of the main ingredient: Chili pepper oil. As you can see there was a pic. posted by someone back in 2008. Yesterday our dish was black in color, not crunchy and has no taste at all. We didn't say anything until the end of the meal. We were not hoping to cause any trouble or asked for another plate so we just let the dish sit there.Big mistake when we spoke up! The owner came out from the kitchen and obviously he was offended by our comments. He kept arguing with us for 15 mins and told us the color of this dish was very different from before or other Szechun restaurants was mainly because he used dark soy sauce and cooked it for a bit longer. He reacted to our complaints with a very offensive manner, raised his voice on us and kept interrupting when we explained why we didn't like this dish.He offered to make us another plate but in a very rude manner......by then we were all fed up feeling we had no right to express our concerns as customers. He deducted couple dallars off our bill. Our lunch costed about $45 dollars for 3 dishes.The other two dishes. One came out very dark in color, again, according to the owner it's because of the Dark soy sauce he used. The other dish came out ok but loaded with tons of MSG..It not worth your calories, money and time to go here. You may see some recent reviews of 4, 5 stars, it really depends on who is your chef i heard they also has another chef that is quite Ok.

Its not often that one repeats their visits to a restaurant and find MORE to love about it ESP if its a Chinese restaurant as they tend to have the same dishes on their menu. Furthermore - my family and I eat Chinese food all the time - thus Chinese food is generally NOT on the favorite list.But Chung King is so DAMN GOOD!If you ever wanted to experience the spicy euphoria that is elicit when Andrew Zimmerman visits Chengdu (Province of Sichuan) - Chung King mimics those flavors.On this trip we ordered:A La Carte Smoked Chicken paired with Drunk Chicken feet - $5.25 and you choose 3 items. Simple but beautifully executed. (We usually only choose two items so that we get more of the two items).Boiled Fish Slices in Hot Sauce - THIS IS A MUST EVERY TIME! Each time we devour this dish there's more and more to love about it. From its ample amounts of succulent fish slices to the napa cabbage and peppers. Its probably the only dish in the world that I have to eat rice with because the sauce is so damn delicious! What separates this dish from any other hot pot dishes is Chung King's ability to cook the fish just right! Its NEVER overcooked, cooked to perfection.Spicy Hot Pot - a bit expensive $16.99 but there is SO MUCH ingredients in there. Its a bit repetitive if you order the Boiled Fish Slices Hot Pot, but since we never tried this, we thought we give it a try. It has a little bit of everything: slices of lamb, fish, bean sprout, tofu, noodles, leeks, fungi mushroom, yam slices, napa cabbage, beancurd, and whatever else that I might've left off. It seems like Chung Kung takes all their ingredients and put it into this Hot Pot. Its gianormous. If your ordering this - you should plan this to be TWO dishes or a meal plus left over. (The portion is huge but if your indecisive about the boiled fish or this spicy hot pot, the boiled fish is SECOND to NONE!).Pig Intestines with Hot Pepper - The name sounds disguisting but pig intestines is probably one of my favorite internal organs to devour. A bit chewy, a bit fatty, but always delicious. If your open-minded to pig intestines - this is a must try dish! Fried and seasoned - the intestines are served with ginger, leeks and hot peppers - its DELICIOUS!Beancurd with Chives Stir-friedDo not order: Pork Chops in Garlic Sauce - looks delicious in the picture - but the dish tend to be overfried like the fried chicken cube. The only fried dish they do well here is the Pig intestines.I generally don't repeat my reviews but I was astonished to find the PIg Intestine dish so delicious on this trip that I had to give Chung King another thumbs up.

TOFU IS NATURE'S CRUELEST MISTAKE.Had a fun New Years day dinner with new friends here about 6 months ago (lazy yelpers unite!) There was also beer involved so this review is gonna suck just as much as all my other ones.SPICY SOUP HOT POThttp://www.yelp.com/biz_…If I had a moustache it would have gone numb along with my lips.KUNG PAO CHICKENhttp://www.yelp.com/biz_…Better than panda express....thankgawd.PORK FRIED RICEhttp://www.yelp.com/biz_…SSHHHHHH.....shutup....just shutup....you had me at pork.SHREDDED PORKhttp://www.yelp.com/biz_…I just saw the word pork on the menu and pointed at it mindlessly as the waitress looked at me like I was (am) retarded. Delicious btw.TOFUhttp://www.yelp.com/biz_…My dining companions ordered this obviously...I actually tried it...believe it or not....it tasted like......FU*KING TOFU!......GODAWFUL.....yeah it was spicy but it needed to be spicier to mask the gawdamn tofu taste. I have YET to find a tofu dish that I do not hate.end pointless review.Did I mention TOFU is the work of the fu*king DEVIL!?

Feel the burn. Embrace the burn.Food: For those who love spicy (and even those who don't), Chung King serves up plenty a tasty Sichuan dish. I confess that I have a hard time eating super spicy stuff, but I loved everything this place has to offer. We started off with sauteed green beans (http://www.yelp.com/biz_…) and chow mein (http://www.yelp.com/biz_…). The green beans were nice and wrinkly with just enough seasoning. Chow mein may sound boring, but their version was different from the typical Cantonese variety most people recognize. The noodles are thicker and the sauce has a heavier sesame oil flavor. It's absolutely delicious. Neither of these dishes packed any heat, but I got to sample two that did. The fried spicy chicken cubes (http://www.yelp.com/biz_…) were devine. The chicken was simultaneously super moist, crunchy, and salty. If I could only recommend one of their dishes, this would be it. I also tried the spicy beef with veggies (http://www.yelp.com/biz_…). My tongue was in pure agony after sampling some of this. Even after reheating a batch at home the fire still burned strong.Atmosphere: Not the most impressive place you'll find, but it's also not a hole in the wall. The restaurant itself consists of a house-like structure visible from San Gabriel. You'll find ample parking on the adjacent street. Once you get inside, you'll notice that it's fairly small with the tables and booths sort of crammed together. The have some trays at the front with food that I think is for either a buffet option or takeout. It's not the cleanest...Service: Helps to know some Mandarin. Otherwise, expect limited, but effective communication. You'll get what you want. Getting the check might take awhile.Synopsis: The menu is clearly marked with accurate descriptions of spice level. Whether or not you like it hot, you'll definitely encounter something tasty.

As one of Jonathon Gold's 99 essential restaurants I knew I had to try this place. The outside looks really ghetto and the interior isn't any better. But I didn't come here for the decor and after a quick glance at the menu we were ready to eat!Recommended:Spicy fried chicken: I like the taste but the chicken were little tiny pieces which was a pain to eatLamb with cuminDecent:Chinese bacon with leeks: the chinese bacon isn't like bacon as we think of it. It has huge slabs of fat and isn't crispy like you would think. It does have a nice smoky pork flavor which went well with the leeksWater boiled fish and beef: I did not enjoy the fish part b/c it had a muddy flavor but the sauce had good flavor

I can't deny the authenticity of this restaurant. It screams, "Szechuan" from the kitchen to the entrance with promises of intestines, kidneys, and frog. Unfortunately, we weren't able to be adventurous and were simply hungry for what friends recommended the most.It's located along San Gabriel Blvd where no other restaurants seem to compete with it. Not even the sign store, which (ironically) advertises massages and pizza across the street can hope to be on the same level. Here's what we ordered:- Fried Chicken Cubes with Hot Peppers - Very delicious. It was like a superior version of Kung Pao Chicken without the peanuts (or any nuts) and it was much crispier than I had anticipated. My only gripe is the Szechuan (Szechwan? Sichuan?) buttons or peppers that it's cooked with. More on that later.- Boiled Fish Slices in Hot Sauce - It was more like a stew and paired well with rice. As spicy as it was, I couldn't stop eating it. For some reason, the spiciness in my mouth never accumulated the way it usually does when I eat, say a bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos. Each bite was fresh. It got to a point where I couldn't eat it anymore because my mouth felt..... weird; NOT because my mouth was a Dante's Inferno of spiciness with levels upon levels of torrid cheesy flames.- Chung King -Flavored Noodles - This was my favorite of the three dishes we had that night only because it didn't make my mouth feel...numb. Also, I'm a noodle fanatic. It was lightly coated with sesame sauce and had a delicate spicy base that didn't steal the show away from the dish's savory, nutty flavor.OK. So I was getting this minor electric sensation every time I'd bite into one of the first two dishes. It was more apparent after I drank water. It got to be so distracting that I couldn't eat anymore even though I wanted to. None of my friends seemed to have the same encounter. I was full anyway, but I tend to eat as long as food's in front of me. I took home leftovers.The next day, I reheated it in the hopes that it was just my crazy self yesterday and my failing palate. After several bites, it was still just as good. Unfortunately, the tingling sensation gradually came back and it made my mouth water too. Drinking water did not help one bit.After much detective work (aka Googling), a profile and description of a Szechuan button comes up and it matches what I find in my leftovers. It looks like a yellow peppercorn bud split in half. In short, this place is the real deal with plenty more food items I'd still try, so don't let one person's experience get in the way of you exploring what's out there. Life's too short.Well, I got the Useful button down even though I can't keep the Szechuan kind around.(It's been a while since I last r-----ed a place, so give me some time to warm up. I've been busy with work, busying myself with eating out, and was simply bummed one of my r----ws was taken down, apprehensive that another may be on the horizon soon so I've been extremely careful with you know what.)Dined on Saturday, January 28

Came with some friends, hell-bent on eating the 99 things Jonathan Gold says you should have before you die - so the fried chicken cubes was on the list. It was very good but very spicy, just full of those little red peppers. No part of it was ever TOO spicy but the spiciness just lingered and wouldn't let go.Maybe that's why the Pork with bamboo shoots was one of my favorite dishes. It wasn't wrought in spicy flavors and was a little bit of a relief compared to the onslaught of burning tastebuds that we had put up with in every other dish.This isn't to say the spicy dishes were bad, some were good, others great, including the fried shrimp that was similar to the chicken cubes in that it was fried but it had a little more going on in the plate as far as veggies go.We also got mapo tofu, my first time, and won't be my last. It was delicious and meaty (thanks to the ground pork on the dishes) and was great over a small bowl of rice.We also got eggplant, again spicy, but very good and meaty, green beans, good but nothing to write home about and we started with some seaweed/pig ears/peanuts. The pig ears (my first time having them) weren't as odd tasting as I thought, just like pickled slivers of meat. There were some definitely more disgusting sounding things on the menu (to this white boy, here) including duck heads, which apparently were just in a serving tray in the kitchen area - a bucket of duck heads. Lovely.The food came fast, probably as it was mostly, if not all, pre-prepared and the serving station where the chefs prepared the food looked like an ice cream bar more than a chinese food kitchen. We had some friends in tow that spoke Chinese, not sure how we'd been able to survive without them but there was a healthy handful of caucasians in the restaurant so don't be too nervous about trying this chinese joint.Oh ya, and for 7 ppl ordering 7 dishes it was only about $14/person. And we were all fulllllllllllll.

Great food!