A Sichuan home-style restaurant has just opened within Jianwai SOHO offering a selection of spicy fare. Tianfu Xiangqing Sichuan Restaurant  has a menu that looks menacingly spicy, with descriptions of chilli covered chicken, fish, bull frog, ribs and crab spread across the pages. Even the first page speciality, cold water fish, which is deep-fried, is doused in red and green chilli sauce and stuffed with more than 100 seasonings.

As well as the really hot stuff, there are some unique Sichuan specialities. One example is the bean curd flower, which comes to the table as a bowl of soya bean soup, but soon chills into a solidified slab of bean curd, with two bowls of sauces. Jiangshi Feiniu is a dish made on the spot by dipping beef slices into a bowl of oil heated with piping hot river cobblestones that sit at the bottom of the pan. The beef comes out fresh and tender, and is accompanied with cilantro and onion.

Thankfully, the menu is designed to be user-friendly, with pictures of red chillies next to the names of each dish to indicate spiciness, which ranges from one chilli (mild) to three chillies (extra spicy).

For those who cannot stomach spicy food, check out the steamed pork strips with ground rice served in a pumpkin, black fungus with pieces of Sichuan red chilli (), black fish with sour soup, and fried bean shoots tips.

The menu has a special page for soups, such as duck soup with winter worm and summer grass, and natural wild mushroom soup. The former costs 18 yuan per person, and the latter 10 yuan.

The restaurant's public area is simply furnished. The private rooms are a little better. Average spending is 50-100 yuan per person. The menu is in Chinese only with some of the main dishes illustrated in colour.

Opening time: 10am-10pm.
Address: 3/F Shopping Area, 8th Bldg, Jianwai SOHO, Jianguo Lu, Chaoyang District.
Tel: 010-8186-5787.