Kuanzuo – 宽坐

We were walking around the famous Kuan Alley and Zhai Alley in Chengdu when we had to look for a dinner place to settle our meal. We had initially chosen another, more aesthetically pleasing restaurant, but as we did not have any reservations, there were no available seats

We walked around and decided to settle at Kuan Zuo, which serves Sichuan spicy hotpot. Since we have not tried the local mala hotpot, we decided to settle for this restaurant, where we were led to our table after waiting for 5 minutes

The restaurant is sectioned into different areas due to the structural pillars and beams of the old building. Instead of 1 big main hall, there are various small halls where different tables are placed. There are also a couple of private rooms with no extra spending, as they directed us to the private room for our meal

The plating of the dishes was wonderful, with either flowers carved from vegetables or meats plated to look like a floral design. We ordered a few of their special dishes, like the duck intestines, pig kidney, and luncheon meat, as well as waxed meat. While the ingredients are relatively fresh, the selection was limited as they focused on more expensive items like seafood and live fish. Other than beef, they also had a few options for other kinds of meat

We also order other lighter dishes like winter melon, radish, pumpkin, wild mushroom platter and duck’s blood. For all the innards we ordered, they were very clean, and there were no nasty flavours, which paired well with the soup bases. Some locals might find the flavours on the lighter side, but it sat with us pretty well without being too overpowering. While we liked the flavours, some might find them not authentic enough

Overall, the flavour and spice level of the soup is more catered to foreigners, although you can adjust the spicy level for locals. The dishes are also plated elegantly and cost more than the usual hotpot restaurants in Chengdu. It was affordable for us due to the exchange rate, but it is considerably higher priced. The service staff was great and were very polite and attentive, and even though we were in the private room, the staff were still catering to our wants and requests quite promptly

Address: 4 Kuanxiangzi, 宽窄巷子特色商业街 Qingyang District, Chengdu, Sichuan, China, 610015

Opening hours: 10 am to 10 pm