Szechuan is the hottest (in more ways than one) Chinese cuisine you’ll find in Seattle, and every food snob worth his Szechuan peppercorn salt knows that the best examples of this genre reside on the Eastside. Unfortunately, Spiced had only been open for a few months when a failed health inspection closed the restaurant down for weeks. For some who like to live on the edge, its lengthy closure signaled authenticity. (Doesn’t the best Chinese food come from the dirtiest hole-in-the-walls, after all?)

The closure didn’t hurt Spiced’s business—its largely Chinese clientele was ordering up the boiled fish in red chili oil the week after the restaurant re-opened. Spicy pigs’ ears tossed in a numbing mix of garlicky Szechuan peppercorn oil, fried nuggets of golden Chongqing chicken with chiles, cold-sliced beef tendon, and amazing potstickers that (typically) come with a crisp lacy “skirt” of dough overtop are among the restaurant’s best dishes. There are spicy, slightly gamey frogs’ legs on the menu, too.

While Spiced is not the very best Szechuan restaurant in the area, it’s certainly one of the better ones. It’s a large restaurant, with round tables complete with Lazy Susans that will nicely bear the brunt of the 10 or so dishes you’ll inevitably end up ordering. The atmosphere is casual, as it’s mostly Chinese families eating.