“We are good at making noodles,” he said.

Once people see the name, “they will realize it is a noodle shop very easily,” he said.

Ting, 50, who is from Fujian Province in China, came to the United States 25 years ago. He lived in New York before coming to Madison five years ago “for business.”

He bought the second-floor State Street restaurant Soga Shabu Shabu in 2015 from its original owners, and moved it across the street two years later. He sold Soga last year and in February it reopened as Taste of Sichuan.

His State Street restaurant didn’t work because there are too many restaurants Downtown, Ting said.

Ting, who lives on the West Side, spent the past year getting his new Chinese restaurant, Szechuan Garden, open at 6654 Mineral Point Road, in what used to be Dahmen’s Pizza Place. The space in Clock Tower Court was formerly a Hooters restaurant and bar.

Business so far has been just OK, he said.

Originally proposed as Sakura, it opened Aug. 20 and has cost him “much money, energy and time,” Ting said.

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