Five years ago it was the foremost Sichuan restaurant in Little Neck, Queens, home to many Asian restaurants, and then in 2018, it picked up and moved to the Manhattan Valley on the Upper West Side. Sour string beans with minced pork, Chengdu green bean noodles, ma po tofu, cumin lamb, and Chongqing stew chicken remained among its menu highlights, now with some Hunan thrown in, but there were some new things, too, like the relentlessly spicy “burning noodles.”

Founded in 2005, this long-standing favorite was once located on Flushing’s main drag but relocated to College Point in 2012. It’s still one of the city’s best and least expensive Sichuan restaurants but is now a little harder to get to. The menu favors appetizers in chile oil, dumplings, Sichuan classics including hot pots, and lots of offal. French fries dusted with Sichuan peppercorns are a cross-cultural wonder, and the vegetable and tofu section of the menu is formidable, much of it vegetarian.

When it opened a decade ago, Land of Plenty defined a new upscale style in Sichuan cuisine. Decorated with antique farm equipment on stark white wells, it radiated a staid East Side atmosphere, but even then the food was shocking in its heat and depth of flavor. Order anything with the three chiles symbol, and you can depend on it being mouth-searing, including Madame Song’s seafood noodles, poached rabbit, and crispy tofu with roast chile and cumin. Unlike many similar spots, the lunch specials are not watered down.

When it first opened, Szechwan Absolute was the third Sichuan restaurant to appear in the modern apartment complex and retail center known as One Fulton Square, owned by NYU grad Kevin Yin and one floor up from the original Szechuan Mountain House and more upscale Sichuan restaurant Guan Fu. The menu is elaborate and tends to be spicy as hell, as seen in the dish of boiled tilapia filets, enough for a half-dozen diners. Offal abounds, and spice combos are sometimes innovative. The space is spare and handsome.

The menus of Flushing’s upscale Sichuan restaurants are full of all sorts of other regional fare, including Dongbei, Tianjin, and Shanghai dishes, reflecting a mix of cuisines now popular back in China. Founded in 2017 in the New World Mall, DaXi — cousin of a restaurant in the Sichuan capital Chengdu — is a vibrant room with plush banquettes. Pork ribs are delivered in a bird cage, kung pao shrimp deconstructed, and the usual spicy cucumber salad turned crunchier by using only the skins.

Open since 1985, Szechuan House is the oldest restaurant serving the fiery cuisine in Flushing. Though its menu has been modernized, it still concentrates on the classics. Recommended are clear noodles in spicy meat sauce (sometimes known as “ants on a log”), tea-smoked duck, and sliced beef and tendon. There’s also seafood galore, including the hottest thing on the menu: “slice fish with peppercorn.” The most unusual we’ve encountered? Wasabi arctic surf clams, sounding like the adversaries in a Ninja Turtles movie.

Elmhurst’s preeminent Sichuan restaurant offers the menu from a nominally Taiwanese perspective, but most of the dishes are faithful to the originals, with plenty of chile oil, dried chiles, and green chiles, but with a restrained hand on the peppercorn throttle. The interior is comfy and box-like; the menu voluminous. Try yam gelatin with duck, diced chicken with peanuts and hot pepper, or sliced lamb in fresh hot pepper. Note: Lots of organ meats like kidney, intestines, and tendon grace the menu.

With an original location in Flushing, Szechuan Mountain House expanded to the East Village, taking over a second-story space on St Mark’s Place that’s perpetually busy. All the classics like mapo tofu are solid, but less ubiquitous dishes with novel presentations steal the spotlight, like the legendary sliced pork belly with chili garlic sauce, served on a wooden frame. The portions are huge, so come with a group to share, and expect a wait during prime times. The place boasts a rustic interior, with semi-private individual booths and a fountain.

Public Village is a micro sized restaurant on the Lower East Side that appeared as if by magic in the tortuous summer of 2020. The regular menu was Sichuan, along with a special menu of Dongbei food, and the Sichuan side in particular included dishes that have remained relatively obscure here. One such was wan za — green spinach noodles topped with ground pork and yellow split peas, with or without soup.

This offshoot of Midtown’s celebrated Café China (which is opening in a new spot nearby) places Sichuan food in a bistro setting. There’s little innovation here, and the spice level has been toned down, but that’s all to the good for those who appreciate the cuisine in its milder forms. The oil-slicked standard of tripe, tendon, and sliced beef is recommended, and so is the mapo tofu, which utilizes crushed peppercorns rather than cracked or whole ones. On the plus side, you can drink sake with your meal; on the negative, the dim sum is awful.

Decorated with murals of Chinese theatrical masks and using the tagline “colorful food,” Chuan Tian Xia is the jazziest Sichuan restaurant to hit Sunset Park. A very spicy bowl of peanuts materializes first off, possibly followed by cold sliced beef ribs with vinegary dipping sauce, green pepper fish in a chile-laced broth, and then a wok of the stylish green-stemmed cauliflower, now being seen in Chinese restaurants all over town.