There was a recent article in Eater Atlanta naming seven authentic Szechuan places in metro Atlanta that deserved attention. When I saw my fave, Masterpiece (which we’ve apparently eaten at for more than a decade!) on the list and I agreed with the review, I added the others to my list. So, when a good friend and I were looking for a place to meet for lunch, I suggested Sho Spicy.

Located in a corner of the Kroger shopping center, where Chastain meets Roswell Road, we had the place to ourselves for most of a two and half hour lunch.

For me, the litmus test of any Chinese or Chinese-American restaurant is their hot n sour soup. If it’s good, it bodes well for the rest of the menu. So we started with that and my friend gave me free rein with the entrees. We decided we would share three, beginning with Shan City chicken.

This is another of those “qualifier” dishes for me: dry (no sauce) fried chicken with chiles and green onions – often available with, or without, bones. They rate the dish with four peppers, I’d put it closer to three but the flavor was good. We also had double cooked pork,

with celery and [something else green]. The pork, as it should be <g> was pork belly, cut thick. This was the third place dish of the three. It was good, but the pork belly was a little tough to “cut” with chopsticks. And we had salt n pepper shrimp.

This dish was the winner, of dinner, hands-down for both of us. The batter was light and the flavor was slightly sweet. With soy doused rice, it was delicious.

They also had a full Chinese-American menu (sesame chicken, Mongolian beef, etc) for those who don’t care for the often spicy flavors of Szechuan food.