Red'N'Hot Manchester

[david goodfellow]

Well it had to happen sooner or later, a visit has been on the cards for some time now,however I have not been strong enough to pass by the door of Red Chilli without entering.

I am afraid that you will have to be patient awhile before I post the review as its been a bit of a hectic weekend,and I don,t have my writing head on just yet.

If someone else out there can start the ball rolling it will help me get my act together

[Harters]

Can't help here David.

I've walked past Red & Hot a few times when I've been in the city centre but have always found it a bit off-putting so havnt been in. Can't quite put my finger on why - maybe it's the odd looking menu outside. Look forward to reading what you have to say.

[Prawncrackers]

I haven't been to the one in Manchester but I have the one here in Birmingham, does that count?

[david goodfellow]

I haven't been to the one in Manchester but I have the one here in Birmingham, does that count?

Yes it most certainly does.

Be interesting to compare the two

[Prawncrackers]

Ok David, it was a couple a months ago and there were five of us so we managed to eat a good selection of dishes. It’s quite a small place, the one here in Brum, about 30 seats but not crammed – so comfortable even for the big hungry Brummies I was with. The décor is fairly dark and slick but what is strange is the Chinese travel agency as soon as you step in. I say agency but it’s in fact one desk with a pc and fax. Though throughout the restaurant there are Chinese travel brochures on every table. It’s quite a novelty picking through the menu as you try to decipher which cruise you’d like to go on. As for the menu, it’s one of those big chunky wipe down affairs with photos and names of dishes in both Chinese and English. Handy if like me you speak no Mandarin and the waiters speak no Cantonese! Anyway not much communication is required because the ordering is by way of little bookie style betting slips. You can choose the heat level and simply fill in the numbers that you want. We went for the hottest option of course and the following dishes:

 Beef Poached in Chilli Oil, a must in any Sichuan restaurant. Good generous portion but strangely not hot enough. A little disappointing.

 Man & Wife Lung Slices, I insisted on this dish because I’ve never had it in this country. It was good and surprisingly my friends liked it too. Very textural dish, the slices have a unique quality.

 Mouthwatering Chicken, another classic done very well.

 Jellyfish and Cucumber in sesame oil, this was another surprise textural hit with my friends. As good as any I’ve ever had.

 Twice-cooked Pork, disappointing. They used long rashers of belly pork that weren’t crispy and didn’t taste vibrant enough. I could’ve done a lot better at home.

 Gong Bo King Prawns, again slightly disappointing. It didn’t have instant “wow” sweet & sour hit. Another that I could do better at home.

 Choi Sum in garlic sauce, good but hard to mess this one up.

So all in all a mixed bag, we enjoyed it on the whole but we haven’t been back since. Why? Because we eat better and cheaper in our regular, BBQ Village, around the corner. Sichuan food and Northern Beijing to boot. Imagine having your Beef in Chilli Oil but with crispy lamb ribs and chargrilled skewered chicken hearts too. There are a couple of other Sichuan restaurants in Brum but we haven’t got round to trying those because we are so in love with BBQ Village.

What did look impressive at Red N Hot (bad name btw though the literal translation of Red Contentment Heaven doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue either), were the hot pots. Every table had a discrete built-in induction plate. The adjoining tables had very impressive cauldrons bubbling throughout our meal. Though I find it amazing how on a fairly hot day mainland Chinese folk can eat such a thing, sweating buckets they were. Maybe we will come back when it’s cooler to sample it.

[david goodfellow]

Brilliant, thanks for that, and your tip on BBQ Village,will most certainly drop in there after my next Purnells hit.

Manchester also boasts the built in induction hobs, we were quite surprised to see them in every table

Seems that they are for the banquets (which we did not have).

Try hard to post my report today

[thom]

Below is my original review of the Manchester restaurant, which was nestled deep in the Red Chilli thread. It is from a good twelve months or so ago so things may have changed, and to be fair my dining partner rated it higher than I (and generally I greatly value her opinion, though she is one of those freakish weirdos who has never fully bought into the cult of Red Chilli - burn her!):

"I also tried Red Hot and Spice (if that's the right name?) around the corner which is a new Sichuan place with sites in Birmingham and London. It's an upstairs site, the decor is fine, the service is flaky, and it has the most complicated menus I've ever seen (enigma code like multi-option buffets with all sorts of caveats and provisos).

In fact on one of the menu's they charged you for food left on your plate to stop you over-ordering which means if you're tight on cash you'd have to eat till you were sick or stuff it in your pants to avoid a surcharge.

What about the food though? Well, it was fine. The dry-fried lamb with cumin was (if I say so myself) less good than the near identical version I make at home from that Chinese Food Made Easy book (one of the simplest and tastiest Chinese dishes ever - I eat it weekly), a baked fish dish was fine, but the revelation was the introduction to "smashed cucumber with delicious sauce".

Effectively it's chopped cold cucumber (the initial "smashing" with a cleaver is meant to feather the edges of the chunks so they absorb the sauce more) with a hot thin sauce of soy, rice wine, maybe chilli oil, garlic and sesame oil. It's astoundingly moreish and apparently it's a traditional light side-dish to have with hot, oily Sichuan dishes.

I shall look for it at Red Chilli, and recreate it at home (it's also in the Chinese Food Made Easy book).

For me Red Chilli still holds the top spot, no contest."

[david goodfellow]

Thanks for that Thom.

Mrs G enjoyed it (except the lamb hotpot dish)

Report on its way!

[david goodfellow]

Well, where do I start?

I won't bore you too much about scrawping one of my uber expensive alloy wheels whilst rejoicing finding a parking place across from an always busy Chinatown. As I sat there listening to my wife chastise me for being mean,a taxi nearly took my wing mirror off. So it was off to the car park for me.

Walking past Red Chilli was not as painful as I thought that it would,as I looked down the steps into the basement I was fairly content to give it a miss this time.

Just around the corner in Faulkner St was the target, and gazing up amongst the myriad of neon signs, we were only fifty meters away

I knew what to expect as we gazed up the two flights of steep stairs as we had been here before, not to eat only to collect a menu and take a look around.

I pictured drink fuelled punters struggling up these stairs thankful in reaching the top in one piece.

The room was more inviting than I could remember, however it could be that I was more receptive this time.

In the corner of the waiting area is a small screen on a table which shows photos of the food whilst you are waiting to be seated.

The place was about a quarter full of Chinese people, mainly ladies who like to shop, designer clothes and bags much in evidence. Another young English couple were sitting close by us.

The menu is presented like a thick bound wine list from a posh eatery, however inside are again, photos of all the food on offer.

A number of tables seemed to have the "Luxury hot pot Buffet (£18pp)making use of the induction hob already mentioned above.

This had a choice of three "bases". with additions of lamb,beef, fish, ham,etc, etc, etc.

The only caveat being, that all the food from the first and subsequent course had to be eaten or you had to pay £8 to have it put in a take away?

I was keen to identify the famed (Red Chilli) hot pot dish, and it was listed here as "Sliced Lamb Sichuan style house special (£7.95).

We asked the waiter to point us in the direction of the signiture dishes, however,we chose our own as he was not too well informed.

I have to add however that the service was a notch up on the usual, leave you to it attitude.

Ok, I know its not adventurous, but its a standard that can be compared, we choose the classic Gong Bao Chicken with peanuts (£7.95).

This arrived pretty quickly looking not too dissimilar to the Red Chilli version, with perhaps, fewer spring onion,and a lot less of the nearly raw garlic slices.

It did,n't really suffer because of this, the sweet sticky sauce was spot on,not a huge amount of heat,just enough,with the most welcome whack of fresh ginger,every so often. Portion size was generous, pretty similar to RC.

I should add that the chicken was super tender, and we both felt this dish was excellent.

I fancied the Twice cooked Pork, the one that Prawncrackers had, however Mrs G liked the look of the King Prawns with Broccoli(£9.50), so being the gent, and especially that she had to suffer the Hotpot dish, that was next.

Well, surprise,surprise, Cilla, at least a dozen of the largest,plump prawns that you may imagine arrived on the plate interspersed with vivid green, sparklingly fresh broccoli, spring onion greens, and a few mushrooms, with the kind of white sauce that I love but can not as yet recreate at home.

This was really fresh and between a portion of chicken was a complete contrast, much appreciated.

The lamb did not arrive,due to a break down in communication, and even though we were feeling full, asked for it to be served, so we could make a definate comparison.

Well the first thing that we observed was a lack of chilli oil that normally tops the RC version. I can understand the oil slick putting a lot of people off, but not me.

The next thing that was different, was no birds eye chillies, just a huge topping of thickly sliced dry chillies.

The thinly sliced lamb was good, and it was extremely hot,we dug into the dish hoping to find the comforting bed of iceberg lettuce, but this dish relies on slices of onion instead.

Within about a dozen mouthfuls, beads of perspiration started to appear on my forehead and I realised that having not had a skin full of beer, or was it just that I am a light weight, defeat was not far off.

We doggie bagged it

To sum up,

We were pleasantly surprised at the quality of this place ,both the Chicken and Prawn dishes were excellent. The Lamb was not as good as the Red Chilli version,however that said it was'n't too shabby either.

I'm really pleased we finally got around to try this place out, we would most certainly recommend it, and rest assured we will be returning to try quite a few of the other dishes

[david goodfellow]

Made a return here to try a few more dishes just to see if everything was as good as our first visit.

Well the first thing that we looked for was the cucumber dish as recommended by Thom above, but we could not find it on the menu. But on reflection I must just have missed it

We liked the look of the Steamed fried Dumplings but sadly they were "off".

Not really feeling like starters we nearly always plump for three mains and this is what we chose.

Fried cumin flavored Lamb.

Flowered Squid with Preserved Pickled Peppers.

Fish flavored Shredded Pork with sweet and sour sauce.

Boiled Rice.

If ever a marriage was made in heaven it has to be cumin and Lamb and chuck in copious amounts of coriander its pretty near perfect. All the coriander ,except the root was used giving it a bit more texture, thin slices of Lamb and strong hit of garlic and not overly strong on the chilli made this dish very moreish.

The pretty as a picture Squid was again a very generous portion, big hits of raw-ish garlic and fresh ginger, and again not too much chilli did not overpower the tasty and pleasantly tender fish.

We enjoyed the Pork dish as much as the other two, again not over powering heat wise, the chilli building up gently throughout the meal.

Normally we can not manage to eat all three dishes as in reality each dish will serve two people, however for some reason we polished them off with gusto, and waddled out into a rainy Manchester night.

We are really pleased to report that this visit was as good as the first, because we were dreading not enjoying it quite as much.

Well worth a visit.

[Harters]

Lunch at the Manchester branch.

I was knackered by the time I'd climbed the stairs but it's quite a nice modern room when you get up there. The only other punters were a group of young, presumably Chinese, folk getting heavily stuck into one of the stainless steel bubbling cauldron dishes that David mentions. The menu is a bit odd but also strangely reassuring to those of us not confident with Chinese food - big posh book thingy of laminated pages of photographs and name of the dish (but no description of what it might be). Normally, I'd shout "beware" of any place that has food photos as a menu but here it worked.

The cucumber starter dish mentioned by Thom must be no more. It appears in the online menu but not the book. Question put to the waiter got a blank look except for being pointed at chicken and cucumber dish.

Gung Bao chicken is a Sichuan dish I like and I regard it as a good dish for comparision of different places. This was generally OK. I preferred the overall flavour to that I had a few weeks ago at the Atherton branch of Red Chilli. Here the heat is quite pronounced and the sweetness just a backnote. Red Chilli's version was a bit too sweet - but I'm nit-picking. What I didnt particularly like were the big pieces of dried and fried red chili. They were plastic-y and unpleasantly chewy to try and eat and difficult to disentangle from the food to avoid eating(if you're as cack-handed with chopsticks as I am). Bloody big portion which I managed to just about clear as I was in "greedy bastard" mode - but it's easily have served two.

[PhilD]

What I didnt particularly like were the big pieces of dried and fried red chili. They were plastic-y and unpleasantly chewy to try and eat

I think you usually eat the chillies in the Gong Bao chicken however there are some Sichuan dishes where the chillies are quite large and they are are there to both give flavour and fragrance to the dish but aren't meant to be eaten. I wonder if they have done this in their version of Gong Bao?

[Harters]

I think you may be right, Phil. These were sliced about 1cm wide strips and, as I say, not at all pleasant to eat. They weren't really hot either.

Since I posted, I'm reminded that you get a similar thing in some dishes in Mallorca - there's one of the villages that's very big on sun-drying chilli which then go in without being rehydated.

[Prawncrackers]

Nah you definitely don't eat the dried chillies in Sichuan food, they are for flavour only. Actually I can't think of any cuisines where you would eat dried chillies with out rehydrating them first. Anyway, have you guys tried the classic Sichuan Dry Fried Chicken pieces with Chilli & Peanuts in your travels? Now that dish uses a few chillies, here's crappy pic taken with my phone below. Note we'd already eaten all of the chicken and peanuts, this is what was leftover. Truly extravagant amount of chillies, we guessed that there must have been between 100-150:

Edited January 27, 2010 by Prawncrackers (log)

[PhilD]

Yes, it is a great dish. I used to frequent a restaurant that made it "on the bone" with legs and wings of black skinned chicken. It was superb especially when washed down by a few bottles of Harbin beer.

[IanT]

Anyone been to the London branch yet? I had a read of the menu yesterday and it sounds very good.

[Amy D.]

visited the manchester branch on saturday, as usual with the vegetarian OH, we shared the forest mushrooms; cold crunchy woodear mushrooms in a fantastic savory chilli oily sauce, and the Sichuan Style Spicy Steamed Aubergine; a similar sauce but this time it was soaked up by the creamy soft and warm aubergine. When they did eventually arrive the Spring Onion Pancakes were great in that way that fried oily dough is (though whilst perhaps better than the ones at red chilli they could still do with more spring onion flavour). We also orderd the Fried Pumpkin Pancakes which arrived about the same time as the spring onion pancakes (before the mains), although to me it seemed like they should have been more of a sweet as they were served with a small dish of condensed milk, either way these pancakes just weren't to our tastes consisting of some flavourless glupe inside a greasy fried shell. The Sliced Lamb Sichuan Style was for me a better version than the similar dish served at red chili - it had all the flavour I desired but with just the right level of spicyness (for me at least). The OH also really enjoyed his Tou Fu with Mixed Mushrooms.

Most of the food was fantastic however we were really disapointed by the service. We only seemed to be served one dish at a time with a wait of at least 20 mins between dishes, at one point i had lost hope that we'd ever get our mains. still as the food was so good i'm willing to hope that this was just a one off as they were really busy, & I'll definately be testing this theory soon.

[Harters]

Thanks for the report, Amy. I'll have a try at the sliced lamb - I don't like too much heat in my food and have been put off by the descriptions of the Red Chilli dish

[david goodfellow]

Thanks for the report, Amy. I'll have a try at the sliced lamb - I don't like too much heat in my food and have been put off by the descriptions of the Red Chilli dish

John, I'm not sure the "spicyness" that Amy D conveys has anything to do with heat. Although I may be wrong.

From my experience (see above) its most certainly as hot as the Red Chilli version, however it is possible to dodge the dried chilli here as it is used more than the tiny birds eye bombshell ones in the Red Chilli version.

I can feel a visit coming on (to them both)

[Amy D.]

indeed the lamb is still a hot & spicy dish, just not as scalding from chilli peppers as the one I had at leeds red chilli. Though on the other hand the Sichuan peppers seemed to be more potent. The dish is addictively moreish, definately worth a try at least once.

[Harters]

Ok, I think I now have to fess up to being a wimp in the matter of all things chilli. Or, at least, Sichuan chilli matters

I ordered the sliced lamb (noting there also seems to be pork, beef or seafood on offer). A vast portion arrives - certainly enough for two. And boiled rice - now I don't know if it is supposed to be "sticky rice" but sticky it was. With my lack of skill with chopsticks, sticky is a good thing.

The first few mouthfuls were good. Nice lamb, tasty broth, fragrant spicing, excellent crunchy vegetables. Then the chilli kicked in and I stopped being able to taste anything. Which is all a bit of a waste and, as such, it's not a dish I'd be in a rush to order again.

[david goodfellow]

We seem to favour a visit here rather than Red Chilli and its strange passing an old love without a pang of regret, Still.

It was our intention to try a few different things this time, and indeed in the morning of our visit I sort of decided the Hot Pot was the way foreward. As the day wore on I had sort of gone off the idea a bit because I had a real craving for the Gong Bao Chicken, hmmmm.

We were the only non Chinese in the place, and as we have noticed on previous visits everyone (except us) was young.

About a third of people had the Hot Pot, steaming bowls of various stocks and huge mounds of food to cook in them. It looked very tempting.

We skipped the Stewed Frogs Legs and Multi flavoured Pigs Intestines and plumped for,

Steamed fried Dumplings (£4.50) which were freshly made and hence took an age to arrive. Mrs G enjoyed them more than me, the pork filling was a bit tasteless and the dipping sauce a tad too vinegary.

About 10/12 plump Stir fried King Prawns (£9.95) arrived next, shell on and thanks to chef an additional well tasty dipping sauce was thoughtfully provided.It was good of the waiter to offer as we asked how they were served, (sauce or no sauce?) and he said the latter, so good show all around.

Fish fragrant Pork slivers with pickled chilli ginger, with a hint of Sweet and Sour sauce £7.95) was next. Its listed as "famous sichuan dish" on the menu and who am I to argue. What it does not say is the dish is predominantly noodles, so if you don't like noodles (we do)don't order it. We think it is a good dish and will try it again sometime.

On to the Gong Bao Chicken with peanuts (£7.95)this really is hugely satisfying although I miss the garlic slices as in the Red Chilli version I don't think this version is as "sticky sweet" as the other though.

We stuck to boiled rice to break up the relentless chilli onslaught and had a beer and a glass of wine and copious amounts of tap water to wash it ll down with.

Please note that they impose a service charge which is unusual in Chinatown, our bill was £45 for the above but we are gluttons and you could perhaps get away with £30 and still be sated

Red Chilli next, for a Gong Bao Chicken comparison.

[Harters]

David

See my above comparision comments on the Gung Bao. It'll be interesting to see your views.

Like you, on my two visits to Red & Hot,I've been the only non-Chinese person and the only person of, ahem, more mature years.

J

[david goodfellow]

Well. We arrive into Manchester's Chinatown to a flurry of activity and a film crew. Excited, we think (or my wife thinks) that its a Corrie shoot, but no Rita, Ken Barlow, or Audrey, just a load of people dressed as "coppers" and a crashed car, on the back of a breakdown truck. Which we assume is all part of the shoot. So remember you heard it here first its a new BBC drama called "Stolen" which will be on your screens sometime next year. This is quite appropriate for Manchester as I heard recently it is near top of the list for car crime, specifically car jacking.

Quite a lot of Chinese people mostly eating hotpot, which we keep threatening to try, but as yet, have not.

I went to bed last night thinking of chilli, and woke up today still thinking of it so, best satisfy the craving. And, as we tried Red Chilli last time, its Red-n Hot this.

I,m always reluctant to order anything but our favourites at Chinese restaurants, as we sometimes get a disappointment or two. Been trying some recipes out of Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty with mixed results so my cravings have been mostly satisfied but its hard to recreate that "commercial" taste from a big kitchen like here.

We rarely have starters here but her indoors fancied Salt and Pepper crispy King Prawn (£5.50) and that is exactly what we got. So nothing special just crunch down tasty seafood, just what we wanted.

There was no way Mrs G was going to approve of me choosing the scorching hot lamb hot pot, marked on the menu with three red chillies. So I compromised and went for the one red chilli dish,Hot and Spicy Beef with dry Chilli ("9.50). Now this is misleading its hotter than a "one" its should be a "two". It was challenging, heat wise. The dominant taste was cumin, which is ok for me as I like cumin, but its better with lamb. The beef was tender except for two pieces which both had a string of gristle running through them. Not the end of the world of course. A minor slip in prep. All in all this dish is a success, but beware it is HOT.

Somewhat predictably, we just had to again sample the Gong Bao Chicken with Peanuts (£7.95). And peanuts it had in abundance, too many I thought, they dominated the dish somewhat. Its not as sweet, sticky as Red Chilli, which I now think that I prefer. Big whiffs of chinkiang vinegar were filling my nostrils, slivers of ginger and garlic kept making surprised announcements in my mouth. Very good in its own right, but for me its better just around the corner from here.

Aubergine in Fish Flavoured sauce (£6.95). Was as tasty as expected. We had similar at Chilli Cool and really enjoyed it. May just try this one at home as I quite like aubergine but struggle to find recipes that appeal.

Glad to report things are still good here. As mentioned above take care on the ratings for the food. It can be hellishly hot, way hotter for instance than Chilli Cool, which is tame by comparison.

This food is an assault on the taste buds, and it is perhaps wise to choose something a bit mild to take refuge in between mouthfuls of it.

Ideal for satisfying your sechuan craving Red-n Hot is a very good alternative to Red Chilli, but treat it with respect or it will whack you big time.

By the way our car was still where we parked it, so we had a pleasant relaxing trip home.

[Harters]

Every time I've been in there (about 5 - it's become my favourite Chinatown place) the mainly young Chinese clientele have all been getting stuck into the hotpot. Some months since I was last there and I think I feel a visit coming on.