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Given its location and bold Chinese stylings, including a glowing yellow front room and a bar crowned by a red pagoda, it's no surprise that this branch of Wu Liang Ye attracts Upper East Siders whose idea of adventure is asking for their General Tso's chicken with dark meat. Fortunately for them, the kitchen does a good job with mainstream dishes like Tso's and crispy tangerine prawns. Parcels of prawn are encased in dough and soaked with a very sweet, aromatic sauce and tossed with strips of tangerine peel. But the restaurant specializes in the food of China's Sichuan province, so most dishes of that pedigree are far more expert. Though there are better versions to be had in the city, the Sichuan staple spicy beef tendon, translucent sheets of noodle-like tendon slicked with a sauce featuring the strange metallic heat of Sichuan peppercorn, is fine fare indeed. The same heat enlivens dan dan noodles, which look like bare white noodles before you stir up the fluorescent red sauce from the bottom of the bowl. String beans, a perfunctory side dish elsewhere, is a must-have here, cooked until wrinkly and sweet and littered with salty bits of pork and vegetables. Be warned: Many Sichuan dishes are oily, so don't complain when braised beef fillets with cabbage arrive swimming in red oil. — JJ Goode

Sliced beef tendon with roasted chili vinaigrette, $8.95; dan dan noodles, $5.95; sautéed string beans with Yibin City spice, $9.95