Chilli Cool (Sichuan) – London, England (7/10)
Apr 10th, 2009 by admin
[UPDATE: May 2009 - I returned in the same month with several food bloggers for more food at Chilli Cool. This time, I wasn't restricted to non-meat dishes and had a far better meal! We had the dry-fried beans and sliced pork belly again, as well as beef slices and ox tripe in chilli oil, hot and crispy pigs intestines, shredded potato slivers with dry chilli and finally the large fish and chilli hot pot, which is highly recommended. I'm glad I returned rather than simply dismissing Chilli Cool based on my mistakes in ordering food. I do think that it's a very meat-heavy restaurant where vegetarians will have a hard time, but for meat lovers, it's heavenly.]
ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW:
Background:
Having walked past Sichuan restaurant Chilli Cool many times since it opened, I always thought it looked rather intriguing. After studying the menu at length (there are takeaway-style menus you can pick up), I decided to visit with a friend. I have to admit though, I’m not the biggest fan of Sichuan cuisine, despite having had regular doses of it when I lived in Beijing. That doesn’t mean I won’t try it now and again in London, although I’ve yet to re-visit both Snazz Sichuan and Bar Shu.
First impressions:
The restaurant is narrow but deep (as I entered, I could see all the way down to the far end), and at 7pm on a Monday, it wasn’t very busy. The interior is simple and plain, but it was clean, more importantly. The diners near us were a mixture of mainland Chinese and English, while the staff all spoke Mandarin (the tall waiter wearing glasses speaks very good English). Being out of practice, I struggled to even order tap water in Mandarin, so I was glad he was our waiter!
Menu:
The menu looked good and there were various dishes I wanted to try, such as double cooked pork, vermicelli with minced pork and the fish hot pot (with fresh chilli and chilli powder & including four rounds of vegetables). There were also things I would return to have at lunch, such as dan dan mian, braised beef noodles and minced pork dumplings with chilli oil. I cursed myself for not having worked harder on my Chinese, as there was a ‘specials’ menu, in Chinese only. No matter how hard I stared at it, I couldn’t read it (and was too embarrassed to ask for help).
However, as there were only two of us, coupled with the fact that my friend prefers seafood to meat, I ordered the following instead:
- sliced belly pork in mashed garlic sauce (£6.00) – even though this was classified as a starter, it was exactly the same size as the three main dishes. The pork belly was very thinly sliced and served with equally thin slices of cucumber. It was quite garlicky. I did enjoy this, although perhaps in my mind, I was expecting something different. I do love meat, but found the fat to lean(er) meat ratio a bit too much for my liking. I’m sure though that pork belly fans will love it. The waiter was probably horrified to find my little pile of fat on the side of my plate when he cleared our dishes!
- simmering tofu with minced meat (£6.80) – the name of this dish suggested to me that it would be simmering at least when it arrived or even as we ate it. It was in fact an already simmered and rather bland dish consisting of fried tofu triangles, which I can’t stand
- dry-fried beans (on the menu, it’s described as ‘stir-fried before stewing the jack bean dry’ (£5.20) – I always seem to order this when I eat Sichuan food, and it never fails me. Despite all those chillis you can see in the photo, this didn’t really taste even mildly spicy (not having eaten the chillis!). But I did prefer it to the tofu and prawns
- gongbao king prawns with peanuts (£9.50) – what I really wanted to try was the chicken. This was like a badly cooked dish you would find in a sub-standard Cantonese restaurant, of which there are many. It was oily but didn’t taste even mildly spicy. Fortunately, the prawns were crunchy
The verdict:
I’m not going to discount Chilli Cool based on just the one visit, when I’ve already identified enough dishes for at least another dinner and several lunches! Perhaps I chose the wrong dishes, and perhaps the ‘specials’ are to die for. I’ll have to return with someone who can read the ‘specials’ menu, as I’m positive there are hidden gems on it. And the fish hot pot looks like a must to share with more people!
Dinner for two cost £35.00 with service charge and minus alcohol.
10 – Perfection, 9.5 – Sensational, 9 – Outstanding, 8.5 – Superb,
8 – Excellent, 7.5 – Very Good, 7 - Good, 6.5 - Above Average, 6 – Average
All the London restaurant reviews on World Foodie Guide
Contact details:
Chilli Cool
15 Leigh Street
London WC1H 9EW
Tel: 020 7383 3135
Opening hours noon to 22:30
Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide
Wow, that looks good. The 干煸四å£è±† looks like the stuff I used to get in Shenzhen…nothing like the bland version I had at the Chinese restaurant in New Jersey last year (after ordering in Chinese). Found a new Sichuanese restaurant by my brother–I’ll have to see if it meets expectations soon.
Personally I think it’s high time for Chinese restaurants to have their ‘specials’ menu available in English as well, the lack of it is simply archaic and out of touch. Credit goes to Wong Kei, Young Cheng and indeed Snazz Sichuan for doing away with this kind of prejudice.
Thanks for your review (guinea pig and all) as I can’t stand restaurants with naff names; I’ll wait for your re-visit before I take the plunge.
I go here frequently as its near my office and imo it’s better than Snazz Sichuan which is also nearby. But as you point out, it can be hit and miss depending on what you order. It’s also best to go in a group of at least 4 as the portions are huge.
Their best dish is the fish hotpot (but only if you can handle the ma-la from the sichuan peppercorn). Other faves include fried chicken with cumin (la zi ji), water boiled beef (shui zhu niu rou) and the dry fried beans that you ordered. The dan dan noodles and dumplings in chilli oil are OK – better than the overrated Baozi Inn but not a patch on what you can get in China.
Fat Les – I hear what you’re saying. Being BBC and able to speak Cantonese, I’m often given the Chinese menu and feel frustrated that I can only pick out the odd character. But sometimes the translation can be bad e.g. ’stir-fried before stewing the jack bean dry’, so the menus should also include photos as well as English ! These menus are common in Beijing and I ordered some great dishes that I might have ignored relying on English translation alone.
I’m confused – if you wanted the Gong Bao Chicken, why did you have the prawn?
I agree, it is high time they did away with special menus in only Chinese for the Chinese population. After all; I’m half Chinese but I can’t read it! Then again I have no shame and I will demand they translate every single dish for me
I’ve heard this place is best visited as a larger group to get a proper scope for the food. I can’t wait till we visit.
The Chinese-only menu thing frustrates me too, though Sung does make a good point about the problems with translation. I have wondered if it would be plausible to learn “menu Chinese”, as it were — just enough to manage to read a menu. Might be a good project for food bloggers and other interested parties… set up a website or something and work on it between us as we learn. Perhaps we could use the Ning network to organise it?
Sorry to hear the meal was not necessarily up to snuff. Its frustrating checking out a new place only to be disappointed. The dish looks amazing from the photos and based on your description much cheaper than paying for a plane ticket to China.
ChinaMatt – it was rather tasty. I hope Sichuan food in the States lives up to your high standards and expectations after living in China for so many years!
Fat Les – I know, why have these ‘special’ menus for just one type of customer? Haven’t been to Snazz Sichuan in ages, but I do remember back then, their hot pot menu was still in Chinese only (probably assuming non-Chinese don’t eat hot pot?!). I’ll update the post when I’ve revisited…
Sung – thanks for the excellent recommendations! Will most definitely print off for my next visit. That Chinese menu is really bugging me now. I keep thinking I’ve missed out on some gems…
Lizzie – I wanted to eat mostly meat, but the friend I was with wanted (preferred) seafood and vegetables, hence my slightly bizarre choice. Can’t wait to see what you think of the food!
Kake – sounds great in theory, but I wouldn’t be able to do it, and I used to be able to read Chinese! Some descriptions use really obscure characters…
OysterCulture – well, I’ll go back and try some other dishes before I make up my mind about Chilli Cool!
Helen Yuet Ling
Well, I was always more interested in reading Chinese than speaking it, which was part of the reason I dropped out of my Mandarin course
I think I still have my textbook somewhere… will have a hunt for it.
Re Snazz Sichuan, when I was there last April the hotpot menu had finally made it into English, which is something!
What a shame you didn’t think it was that great this time around. I look forward to your next post on this place before I make up my mind about whether to try it.
Kake – after 18 months of intensive courses in Beijing, I was still unable to read a menu apart from being able to identify basic words like ‘cow’, ‘chicken’, ‘potato’, ‘egg’ and so on. Flowery descriptions of dishes are beyond me!
A Girl Has To Eat – I’ll be going again soon, so watch this space!
Helen Yuet Ling
Hi Helen. Did you not think that they add a lot of MSG to their food? More than say Snazz Sichuan? I had the crispy intestines, the dan dan mian and the fish hot pot and they all had that characteristic MSG taste. Or is that just umami from very good stock? I am a bit sceptical…
Chawanmushi – sorry, I’m not that good at tasting MSG in my food. I can tell when it affects me afterwards (say after dim sum), but I don’t recall feeling the usual symptoms after my two dinners here. You can always ask for MSG not to be added if you don’t like it. That’s what my dad does in Chinese restaurants.
Helen Yuet Ling