Agreed! I’m saying this as a criticism of the restaurant, not you, my friend.
My same Uncle who always forces us to eat at Yongsusan loves Hop Li on SM Blvd, if that tells you anything. 
Wait, no, it doesn’t. I looked up Yongsusan but misspelled it, and my phenomenal search skills got “Young Susan Sarandon.” I finally found the restaurant you’re referred to (one search b/f I resorted to the quotation marks)… Is it terrible???
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Is water wet?
It’s the Yamashiro of K-town.
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Anybody know what to make of the fact that the restaurant menu, the restaurant website menu, the doordash menu, and the grubhub menu are all different? They all follow approximately the same formulae, and they all have roughly similar pricing, but they only overlap a bit.
In the end we called the restaurant and ordered directly, which worked out fine, but they said they preferred online orders. I asked which site to use, and they seemed to think they were all the same.
Kinda strange experience.
(On the ma-la note… the stuff we ordered was very slightly numbing… hardly enough to notice until you took a mouthful of ice water and then thought… oh yeah, can’t feel cold properly)
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I would wear one of those in a second. I may perhaps bedazzle it.
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Tried the Laziji the other day and really enjoyed it. As I think you can see in the pic, there was a healthy dose of well-toasted peppercorns, which gave it great flavor and added crunch.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/fXdJ82RxyxPHRgW87
Interestingly, when I went through my “ma la” spiel over the phone, the guy taking my order was like, “yes yes yes, I know,” making us both laugh. So it seems our efforts are getting through. 
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Eyes on the prize…
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I had a long chat with Yang Hu the owner/partner who has made all the changes.
He was well aware of the interest on FTC about the Szechuan menu/chef.
He is planning to do live (not frozen, as he claims is served by the Boiling Crab and all the other BC imitators) crawfish at Hop Woo.
He is interested in hosting up to 30 FTCers on a Sat afternoon to try the crawfish as well as other Szechuan dishes. I will firm it up with him and see what dates he is looking at. Once I have a date I will post here and take the first 30 who reply.
We had the Griddled Cauliflower, Water Boiled Whole Fish, Mapo Tofu and the Fried Chicken.
Unlike the Laziji shown above ours was missing the a huge amount of peppercorns, but it had a decent amount. The Water Boiled Fish had plenty (but the whole fish itself was more bone than anything else).
Tofu and Cauliflower (with leeks) were awesome.
So it is a work in progress for me but better than GuYi.
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I constantly crave the cold garlic noodle dish, it is one of the best dishes on the Westside (and a bargain, at $6)! Mouth waters thinking about it.
I have relatives visiting from Texas, not adventerous eaters. I had slowed cooked prime short ribs for 6 hours, and then stuck on bbq, and while we were all talking and catching up, the ribs went up in flames. The ribs were coals. 
Online ordering for Hop Woo said it was too late for delivery, so I called. They had me in their online system at the restaurant and I tried to order quickly, since they were close to closing. I asked for the mapo tofu with brains, and the guy on the phone kept saying they didn’t have brains, but I could get spicy mapo tofu. Then someone spoke to him and said okay, they have brains. I also got the intestine again, just to try. I got plenty of food for the non adventurous eaters.
The food arrived in 20 minutes! Great, because we were all hungry. The mapo tofu was unlike the first time I ordered it, which was mild. This time it was hot and mouth numbing, as was the intestine. This time, the intestine was soft and well cooked. Much better than last time. The texans all enjoyed their food. It seemed better than what they got at home, and it was just run of the mill stuff, like beef with broccoli. Hop Woo saved the day!!
charred ribs - we saved what meat we could and made chilaquiles with it and later will use in quesadillas.
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oh man, that pic needs a NSFL tag.
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I checked out Hop Woo yesterday for lunch. We asked for the Sichuan menu but the first person just gave us both the lunch menu and the large menu. We ordered mapo tofu and the crispy chicken in the chili peppers. I avoided the peppers and the chicken itself was bland. The mapo tofu was pleasing and had a mild spice to it but not as spicy as I had expected.
We then managed to ask about the toothpick lamb and then a different FOH person came out and he said they could not make the toothpick lamb as the chef was not there. {reminded me of this thread and the Chente references}.
He suggested the chicken in the sesame sauce, which we ordered (pic). I didn’t realize it was served cold. This was more of a tingly spicy than an overt spicy.
I very much want to come back when I can get the toothpick lamb. Any idea when the chef is actually there?
!
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I am guessing - based on your experience as well as @Bob_Brooks - that it is dinner only at this time if one wants to be sure that they have the goods. Or, call first and ask for the Sichuan Chef (but whoever is answering may say “YES” to a lot of things they may not understand in English completely).
As I mentioned before the owner is serious about doing an FTC tasting that he called a “Szechuan Food Festival.” He emailed me today and we are in the process of setting it up. I am sure that would be an excellent time to inquire about the varying expertise throughout the service day/week.
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Hi, the Sichuan chef is not in the restaurant in Thursday during lunch hour.
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Hi Bob, thank you for posting the Festival! I have created a topic for this Festival and included some Traditional and Modern Szechuan Food 101 on the topic. Your opinions are appreciated!
Szechuan Food Festival by Hop Woo
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It’s great and very nice of you.
But I think you should choose the date to make it clearer for readers who would like to come.
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Is the chef ever there at lunch or dinner only? What days or nights?
Sichuan chef is not in restaurant on Thursday only during lunch hour.
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