As the beginning of my second semester at Penn State begins, I decided to continue working on this blog. While I may go back and review the North Food District at a later time, I wanted to focus more on the various restaurants that exist downtown and in the surrounding areas. Although I did try to eat mainly at the dining halls on campus, as I had a campus meal plan, I did find myself adventuring out into the neighboring eateries.
In an attempt to continue to stay true to the original intent of my blog, I am using the same list of criteria as before to review these restaurants. However, since it is not a dining common, there are a few tweaks that I decided were beneficial and would help me stay true to my original ambition. These tweaks that I deemed worthy to include cover things like reviewing the cost efficiency of the restaurant, and the location of the restaurant. I decided to do this because we are all poor college students, and as I mentioned in my first post, these restaurants can add up. To not include this would be a disservice to my readers.
For my first debut into the downtown cuisine I chose to write about a Chinese restaurant called Little Szechuan. This restaurant was recommended to me several times by many people, so of course I had to go check it out. Personally, I ordered the General Tso’s Chicken, and I found it to be phenomenal. I don’t know about you, but I tend to be very picky with Chinese food. Going in my expectations, despite the glowing reviews I had gotten from friends, were not very high. I was very pleased to be wrong.
The selection covered the basics that most Chinese restaurants have available. I’ll confess that I am no expert in this area, but I believe that there was a good variety. I am including a link to the menu here ( https://eatstreet.com/state-college-pa/restaurants/little-szechuan-state-college?order-source=WHITELABEL&session-id=A573A63D87250116C013E7E791C72EA4 ) so you can determine if Little Szechuan has what you are craving.
I found that there was always enough seating for my party whenever I went, but there were not many tables to include a large party. If you want to go with a larger party, I would recommend calling ahead, or taking your meals to go.
The address of Little Szechuan is 228 W College Ave, State College, PA 16801. The restaurant sits next to Five Guys and is near Noodles & Co. The closest housing area to Little Szechuan is the West Housing Area. If you don’t feel like traveling that far, Little Szechuan is does have a Grubhub option.
This restaurant, while seeming to be a reasonable amount for a Chinese restaurant, can become pretty pricey for the average college student. If you don’t feel like paying the full price, I would recommend splitting a dish with a friend. The portions that they serve here are pretty big, so it is not unreasonable to share.
Something that I found really neat about Little Szechuan was the fish tanks that are located in the seating area. These fish are not here for just cosmetic reasons, the animals are also served in the restaurant, giving a new fresher quality to the establishment.
I hope you find this helpful and check it out soon!
Link to restaurant website: http://littleszechuanstatecollege.com/29027