14 January 2011

Red Chilli Sichuan Restaurant, Chatswood

Let it be known that I have a pathetic chilli tolerance. What is a slightly unpleasant heat in Sir D's mouth translates as a burning fire made of a million chillies in mine, and requires gallons of water (or milk, or rice) to extinguish. So I'm a bit hesitant to join Sir D's family for dinner at Red Chilli Sichuan Restaurant since Sichuan food is known for packing quite a lot of heat.

Chinese Tea - $1pp

It's a Thursday night but the place is packed and we have to wait for a table. Sir D has been before with his family so I let them take charge of the ordering for the most part. The menu is pretty substantial and there are chillies alongside the name of the dish to denote the spicy ones.

Special crispy duck (half) - $20.80

We start with a non-spicy dish to satisfy our tastebuds before they get burnt off. Half a duck arrives on our table and the skin is brown and crisp with tender, succulent meat. I'm usually a bit wary of things that claim to be "special" (especially "special sauce") but this duck is cooked and seasoned nicely with a bit of a soy sauce flavour in the skin.

Steamed and deep-fried Chinese bread served with condensed milk (8 pcs) - $9.80


After eating at Red Chilli the first time, Sir D raved about the fried mantou. The dish usually comes with 4 steamed, pristine white buns and 4 golden, deep fried ones but we throw being healthy out the door and ask for them all to be deep fried. And oh they are good - they come out hot and crisp on the outside almost like a doughnut. They arrive with a small bowl of condensed milk which I like to slather all over the bread. Bliss.

Deep fried chicken dices with dried chillies - $18.80

A spicy dish (with 2 chillies on the menu!) of deep fried chicken and dried chillies arrives and it is bright red and absolutely loaded with dried chilli. On first glance it even looks like there is more chilli than actual chicken, but digging around a bit reveals some lightly battered chicken pieces. Although there isn't any chilli sauce on the chicken, it's still quite hot even after I pick off all the chilli flecks and seeds - consuming two of the pieces is enough for me to start drinking some tea.

Stir fried green beans with pork mince - $16.80

Thankfully we've ordered some green beans which aren't spicy but pleasantly garlicky. These are stir fried with some pork mince and though they're a little greasier than I've seen before they're still tasty.



Bean jelly with peanuts in a sour and spicy sauce - $7.80

I spot a bean jelly on the menu that intrigues me and I order it. It comes out as slippery translucent noodles in a sour and spicy sauce and served cold. Even though it's a chilled dish, the chilli still comes through and despite my poor chilli tolerance I find it quite addictive.

Stir fried shredded pork in Peking sauce and shallots - $18.80

We're still a little hungry so we order one more dish - a stir fried shredded pork in Peking sauce. This is served Peking duck style, with thin pancakes to wrap around the pork and some shallots. It's quite a heavy dish with the sweet and sticky Peking sauce and the meat being quite oily, and I declare defeat after one pancake.

Despite my initial fears of having to gulp down litres of milk to save my burning mouth after dinner, there were a lot of non-spicy dishes on offer at Red Chilli which is great for a chilli wimp like myself. Even the dishes marked with one chilli were tolerable and though I was going into a food coma after all the heavy and greasy dishes, I would definitely come back even if it was just for those deep fried mantou!

Level 1, 272 Victoria Avenue
Chatswood NSW 2067
Ph: +61 2 9411 3298
Open 7 days, 11.30am-2.30pm and 5.30pm-10.30pm
Other locations: Chinatown, Glebe, Burwood


Red Chilli Sichuan Restaurant on Urbanspoon

14 comments:

  1. The crispy duck looks amazing and argh, deep fried mantou buns! So dericious. Good call on getting all eight deep fried :)

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  2. I'm with you when it comes to chlli! LOL. That chicken dish does look like there are more chiliies than actual chicken! Looks great though, in particular the mantou and the duck. Yum.

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  3. lol @ special sauce teehee but mmm deep fried mantou and condensed milk such a delicious pairing

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  4. This is my favourite restaurant amoung all Sichuan, all of the branch have their own diff menu

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  5. That duck looks totally special - yum! I've never had mantou before, but it looks really tasty - can't wait to try it. I love green beans with pork, and the Peking Style Pork looks great. I think I'll have to go to this place - avoiding the chili like have as well!

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  6. This all looks so good! There's a Sichuan restaurant (well, a few actually) in Melbourne too but I've never had a chance to go as the dishes all look quite large in portion so I think a big table is necessary.

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  7. Wow, you're brave to take on the chicken & chili dish with your chili issues. I've had that before and it was quite spicy for me, and I love chili!

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  8. I've yet to venture to this latest arm of the Sichuan Chilli group but it may not happen with family as we have many chilli wimps here!

    Love deep-fried mantou though =p

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  9. I like the look of the shredded pork. Well done with tackling the chicken dish.

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  10. Deep fried mantou love!! Good to know there are lots of not too spicy dishes at this place, though I only seem to have tried the super spicy ones! My brother mentioned there was a deep fried taro dish with salted egg yolk that I'm interested to try!

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  11. Hi Helen - All deep fried is definitely the way to go!

    Hi joey - LOL those were my exact same thoughts when they brought out that chilli chicken dish. I think after we demolished all the chicken pieces there were still a heaping mound of dried chillies left on the plate!

    Hi chocolatesuze - Condensed milk is so much win! Next time I have to ask for some extra hehe

    Hi Wendy - Oh cool I didn't know that each branch was slightly different

    Hi MelbaToast - Mantou is pretty much just bread, but when it's deep fried and eaten with condensed milk it becomes so much more!

    Hi Celeste - Yeah I think with Chinese food I generally try to go with a large-ish group so you can try more dishes

    Hi Simon - haha I didn't have a say! That was Sir D's choice =P I did try it out though, just to see how chilli it really was!

    Hi mademoiselle delicieuse - You should give it a go, it's pretty good! And I think there's enough non-chilli dishes to satisfy the chilli wimps too :)

    Hi sara - Thankfully the rest of the table didn't have issues with chilli otherwise I'm sure there would've been a large portion of it leftover lol!

    Hi Stephcookie - Ooh deep fried taro and salted egg yolk sounds awesome! I'll have to look out for it next time I'm there

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  12. I haven't been but have heard good things... this post has inspired me to finally go.. soon.

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  13. Thanks for posting this review. I am so headed out there in the coming weeks. I love my chili. That chicken with red chili looks stunning :-)

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  14. Hi thang - hehe that's good! hope you enjoy :)

    Hi Sneh - I reckon this is definitely a place for chilli lovers!

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