1207 S. Jackson St, Suite 211
Seattle, WA 98144
206-568-6446
Open Everyday, 11am to 10:30pm

Sometimes, it’s great to be wrong.

I’ve been in Seattle about 9 or so years now, and have eaten out well over half of those days. I was pretty much convinced that there was no great Chinese cuisine in the city. There were good ones, but I hadn’t been to one that came close to those in New York or San Francisco. Clearly, that’s because I’ve been living in a hole, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

About a year ago, Cam and I stumbled onto Szechuanese Cuisine, at the corner of Jackson and 12th, and it has been our mainstay for Chinese take out. It’s good… really good in fact. Particularly, unsurprisingly, the Szechuan chicken. And, in fact, that is where we were heading the night we decided instead, we’d try Seven Stars Pepper, located across the street. It was an adventure, and I always like a good adventure.

We were quickly seated and brought tea and a spicy pickled cabbage as we started to look through the enormous menu. I really mean huge… I think if I went there with 4 people every day for a month it would be hard to get through it. Of course, they have the standards… cashew chicken, broccoli beef, etc. But there are also dozens of dishes that I’ve never heard of, like Hot Pepper Fried Shredded potato, Szechuan Dan Dan noodles with pork, Chong Gin hot chicken… and some I’m frankly unlikely ever to try (Hot Pepper Intestine and Kung Pao Kidney).

On this first trip, we weren’t familiar with the dish sizes. They are huge. Most of them came in pie plates. We had ordered a dumpling appetizer, fried rice and three main dishes. For the two of us. There was enough food to stuff six people. Our second trip, this past weekend, we cut back, only ordering two main dishes, won tons, and a noodle dish. This was still too much food, but Chinese is always best when you can sample lots of different flavors, and I ended up with a lovely lunch of leftovers. Still, this is a great restaurant to go with a few friends.

Topping my list of dishes we tried are the Dan Dan noodles. Seven Stars Pepper uses gorgeously hand shaven noodles which are tender and the perfect thickness. They are beautifully coated in a rich, but not overwhelming, peanut, sesame and ginger broth and stir fried with greens. It’s almost, but not quite a soup.

Other favorites were the Broccoli with Hot Garlic Sauce, which was still a bit crisp with a nice sweetness to the spicy sauce, the Beef with Hot Peking Sauce and the Szechuan Hot Sauce Won Tons.

The Hot Pepper potato was quite delicious and spicy, but it’s also a bit like eating very undercooked hashbrowns. If you can deal with the slightly slimy texture, it’s a great vegetable choice, but it’s not for everyone. Similarly, the Honey Walnut prawns (not on the menu, but on the specials board when we were there) took some guts to try. They were very goopy with the honey mayonnaise sauce, and the prawns were very deep fried… Cam and I both quite enjoyed them, but kind of in the way we enjoy eating really greasy fried chicken. It’s not exactly the most healthful option on the menu.

I was surprised by the steamed dumpling appetizer. I don’t generally enjoy thicker pot stickers… I prefer Japanese style gyoza. So, the first bite of these, I wished we had ordered them fried. But somehow, I kept finding myself eating more and more of them, my fondness growing with each bite. I still might try the fried version next time… but I also recommend them steamed… they are beautifully juicy and flavorful, and the thickness of the dough manages to sneak in just under the wire of not being too thick.

So, Seattle does have great Chinese food after all. And, I’m sure, that if I poked around a bit more in the International District, I’ll find even more. If you have a suggestion, please send it my way!

(One note on the Dan Dan noodle photos: they were not taken at Seven Stars Pepper… so don’t expect such nice chopsticks and bowls if you go. They have standard disposable chopsticks, plain white soup bowls. I took these photos from the left-overs at my house.)

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