Complaint Review: Szechuan East Philadelphia Pennsylvania

In 2019, city health inspectors discovered mouse feces in the food preparation area of the Szechuan East restauarant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Fourteen other disgusting violations were also noted.

I have personally witnessed rats, mice, and numerous types of insects in and around the restaurant. The cooks never washed their hands when I watched them. The kitchen is filthy. The outside rear of the restaurant is incredibly dirty and bad smelling. As a consequence of this lack of hygiene, multiple customers have reported becoming ill.

The food itself is old, cheap tasting shlock buried in salt and cooked in burnt, ancient, recycled grease. It is often terrible tasting, bland, spoiled, cold, stinky, and/or otherwise undesirable. The ingredients taste like they came out of a can or freezer. Nothing seems fresh. 

The all-you-can-eat special is a scam because you are required to eat all of the food served or be forced to pay a $5 penalty. I believe that the cooks deliberately make some of the food taste badly so that you will not eat all of it and thus have to pay the extra $5 fine.

You will receive normal portions of extremely cheap ingredients like rice and inexpensive vegetables, but expect tiny amounts of pricier ingredients like seafood, poultry, and beef.

Any good reviews were written by employees or naive foreigners who believe that boiled rat is a delicacy.