Shushilu is one of the first restaurants in Chengdu to take "Sichuan vegetarian" seriously. Its founder was a Sichuan chef who turned to vegetarian cooking in 2016 without giving up the craft — instead keeping the four words that define the cuisine, numbing, hot, fresh and fragrant, entirely intact. That is the hardest step in vegetarian cooking, because a great deal of Sichuan aroma comes from animal fat and meat; remove them and you have to restore it through spice ratios and control of the wok.
Its most interesting habit is to change the menu with the twenty-four solar terms: spring bamboo shoots at the start of spring, lotus root at the summer solstice, chestnuts at the autumn equinox, radish at the winter solstice — cook whatever the season grows, one thin page of menu, following the sky. Our Chengdu vegetarian deep-dive eats whichever version is in season, all year round. If you assume vegetarian food is bland and light, a meal from the boiled series here will change your mind.
To eat seasonally, pick your dates by the solar terms — bamboo shoots around the spring equinox, lotus root at the summer solstice, chestnuts at the autumn equinox, radish at the winter solstice, each good in its own way. The city-centre branch is easy to reach, straight off the metro; evenings are busy, so booking a day ahead is advisable. First-timers should start with the boiled series, which is where its real skill lies.
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