First Look: Lao Sze Chuan, Opens Today in Strongsville

On Friday, September 18, Sheng Long Yu will open his third Lao Sze Chuan restaurant, joining others in Orange Village and Pittsburgh. While those two locations are stunning places to dine, this latest iteration in Strongsville manages to surpass them both with respect to interior design.

Set inside the former Red Lobster by SouthPark Mall, the standalone building’s interior was completely stripped and rebuilt using components shipped over from China and assembled onsite.

“We got rid of almost everything inside,” Yu explains.

Lao Sze Chuan was founded in Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood in 1998. The following year, Travel and Leisure magazine named it the number one Chinese restaurant in America. The location at Pinecrest was the first in Ohio. Strongsville will be the second.

Fans of the Pinecrest restaurant will see a strong resemblance in terms of overall design, but subtle improvements have been made throughout.

“We are very experience-focused,” says Yu. “We changed the seating: the chairs, the booth fabric, the colors.”

There is a large glass-encased wine cellar, spacious central bar, and private rooms equipped with large lazy susans that spin with the press of a button.

New tableware delivers popular items such as Szechuan-style whole fish in dramatic fashion, while new ceramic crocks keep soups and stews hot for hours. The Peking ducks are marinated, air-dried and roasted until they are glossy, golden and crispy. Even traditional dishes are given the gourmet treatment as evidenced by the chicken and broccolini, strip steak kung pao beef and uber-crispy General Tso’s chicken.

Lau Sze Chuan Strongsville will be dinner-only to start.

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