The Red is amazing! Their food and atmosphere is amazing! I go here pretty often when I eat out. The staple dishes that I order are the Spicy chicken, xiao long bao, and shredded potato. They all taste very good. The spicy chicken is my favourite. They fry the chicken in a way that makes it have a kind of smoky flavour. There is a good meat to fried part ratio. Their xiao long bao, or soup dumplings, are done better than some dim sum places and have a promotion buy one get one free. All the food at The Red is not overly oily, as some places can be, and they are not stingy with their food and meat amounts. The décor is modern with a pretty red geometric lighting down the middle of the restaurant, but the red colour isn’t harsh either. Waiters are friendly. Overall, The Red has delicious food for a fair price.
Tim B.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Saint Paul, MN
Wonderful plentiful food, authentic cooks, great dishes. What is not to love! When in the area I will go again and again.
Bernard H.
Rating des Ortes: 1 San Francisco, CA
Finally my own ‘Kitchen Nightmare’. I found plastic in my pancake roll with beef. Pulling out the long plastic strand – which was in between the layers of the pancake – felt like pulling out an ingrown hair… disgusting. Who knows what else was rolled in there? This was just unforgettable and unforgivable. I really wanted to like The Red. The décor was modern and you order on a tablet which updates the price as you select your food. Even the pancake with beef tasted pretty decent until I noticed the white plastic sticking out of my food. They did take the item off my bill, but frankly, the meal was ruined as I questioned what could be lurking in my other dishes. Chinese restaurants often have a stigma of being unclean and having questionable quality standards. This doesn’t have to be the case; there is no excuse to overlook hygiene in the kitchen. It saddens me greatly as what I experienced at The Red(and ironically this review) will further compound this negative impression on Chinese establishments. I personally will not return to The Red, but I hope the management team can improve cleanliness of the kitchen.
Frank W.
Rating des Ortes: 3 San Francisco, CA
I’m Chinese, and I’ve been to enough Asian restaraunt a. I’ve been here twice. Service is so so. Food is so so. On the salty side. Very pricy among Asian food.
Trish O.
Rating des Ortes: 3 Markham, Canada
Three stars for amazing food but less a couple of stars for 1) Chinese waitress who takes a while to hand us an iPad menu to order all our food(very nice — very hi tech) and the language is all in Chinese — we are quite obviously a family of Caucasians. Then laughed at us when we asked for the English version 2) all lunch prices we paid were $ 11 to $ 13 per item, certainly none of the great reasonable cheaper prices I saw mentioned on previous Unilocal reviews — I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they gave a special menu for the Round Eyes with much higher prices.
Tay L.
Rating des Ortes: 3 Mississauga, Canada
Great Sichuan food! Terrible service. Upon entering at 6pm, the male host was very disorganized at taking down numbers for people waiting for seats. Ended up waiting ½ hr for seating when he told us it’ll be a few minutes. Food however was very good but I continue to stress how disorganized the staff can be. Our waitress missed a dish completely and decided. Ordered Sesame pancakes(highly recommend), Dan Dan spicy noodles(recommended but super spicy… think: numbing spice) and the grilled beef sizzling plates. All the food was spicy and delicious, so if be prepared for spices… it is Sichuan after all. Would recommend and would go again, despite quality of service. If you can tolerate that then hope you enjoy the food!!!
Yang J.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Toronto, Canada
We loved the spicy food, but can’t handle too spicy and oily ones. This place is a bit far for us, but it worth the time. We usually order dishes difficult to make at home: cold duck in Wild pepper & herbs, nice! Spicy cooked pork belly with green pepper(a very common dish to test the quality of the Sichuan restaurant), steamed beef in rice flour(it’s for DH who doesn’t like pork), eel fried rice, sweet & sour pork ribs in casserole, cold noodle in hot& sour sauce. The pork ribs taste more like 无锡排骨, it’s sweet and cooked through, not the type of deep fried pork ribs coated with sweet & sour sauce, my son loves it, had 3 pieces! Must try! The cold noodles taste great! I added it after our cold duck was served, and finished it with DH in 3 – 5 minutes! Then we ordered one more and again finished it in 5 minutes. With a glass of cold soya milk, heavenly! ;) slightly overdressed with sauce but yum! Then after the cold noodle, I was done…:D It’s our first visit, a solid 4– star. ============================= We went back twice, some tips: Don’t order cold noodle if you check in very early for lunch, it tasted quite cold & rough, not as chewy as we ordered it later around dinner time. Probably it’s left over/made the day before? But I still recommend it cuz it’s just delicious most of the time; The grilled fish pot is way too salty; mane ask them to be easy on the seasoning; The fried whole fish with sweet & sour sauce and pine nuts taste good and looks quite festive! Try to finish it when it’s hot. No need to take the leftover away, it tastes oily and smelly if microwaved.
Lilian L.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Markham, Canada
Pretty good Sichuan restaurant! Super RED and modern décor inside. Upon arrival, we were seated promptly at a booth. Very comfortable seating. The wait staff were nice and our food came quickly. Must try: spring onion and dried pork pancake! I don’t like onions of any type but it doesn’t have a strong onion flavour. The dried pork was sandwiched between 2 layers of pancake covered in sesame seeds. Just simply delicious! It seems that they are currently some sort of a promotion where if you order the steamed buns stuffed with juicy pork and crab meat or shrimps, you get the regular one with just juicy pork for free. Super awesome deal! The buns are very juicy and make sure you don’t burn yourself when you bite into it. There’s steaming hot juice/condensation in these buns when they’re fresh out of the steamer. We ordered 2 dishes that are on their main menu and not on the checklist form. One was a chicken with chili and the other was a vegetable dish called chef tofu snow pea tip(at least that’s what it said on the receipt). The spicy chicken dish had bite-sized pieces of deep fried chicken with lots of red chili peppers. It’s spicy but in a numbing sort of way and not the usual burn. Didn’t try eating the chili peppers. As for the vegetable dish, it had an assortment of broccoli, mushrooms, black fungus, and tofu puffs. Really yummy and healthy! No complaints on everything we ordered(see pictures). Overall, great experience. Will definitely return for the spring onion and dried pork pancake and also to try other dishes!
Mian L.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Toronto, Canada
The food is great! Trust me, the spicy food is not as spicy as it looks. They have lunch menu(available at the restaurant) and the prices are lower than their regular menu. Atmosphere is nice, spacious, comfy seating, kid friendly environment. Price is reasonable and portion is big. The Spring Onion & Dried Pork Pancake is very good! The small Dandan Noodle in the lunch menu is only $ 3.99 — good deal! The peanut taste is not strong, but it is not too spicy. Definitely worth trying. Service is good, would be much better if you speak Mandarin, but the servers speak English too. The reason why I give them 5 stars is because 1) nice atmosphere, comfy seating(not many Chinese restaurants have this) 2) Food is great and portion is big(you don’t usually get big portion in Chinese restaurant nowadays) 3) Price is reasonable. All items in the lunch menu are under $ 10. The noodle and rice items are between $ 6.99 and 8.99. Most appetizers are between $ 4 – 6. Check out the menu on their website. They also have many non spicy items and Shanghai foods.
J T.
Rating des Ortes: 2 Markham, Canada
The restaurant seems to have trouble maintaining quality lately. The soup-dumpling is on permanent 2-for-1, but the pricing is really weird: you aren’t allowed to get just the cheaper plain dumpling, but are forced to pick a more expensive variety and get the plain one ‘for free’. Of the 5ish things we tried to order, 2 were unavailable because they were apparently not popular enough(lamb dishes). The ones we did get(spicy noodle and cold pork belly) had significantly changed since we were last here — the noodle barely had any peanut taste, just… Sort of soggy and spicy and oily. Unfortunately, this is no longer going to be our go-to Szechuan restaurant.
Johnny W.
Rating des Ortes: 3 Markham, Canada
Excellent service with this restaurant. The food here wasn’t truly to my liking(since I was a part of a group, it’s majority rules) but was tasty in general. Once again, like other places I have been to in the past, I will emphasize one thing if planning on dining on a Friday or weekend evening… GOEARLY!!! You should arrive there just prior to 6PM. Parking within their lot is limited. When we were leaving at around 7+ PM, vehicles were circling us like great white sharks in the ocean, awaiting for us to leave.
Maggie W.
Rating des Ortes: 3 Markham, Canada
First impression of the place was quite nice. Modern Décor and Red ambiance with Red Panels on the ceiling to match their restaurant name, «The Red». We ordered 6 dishes in total for a party of 6 ppl. 1. «Couples’ Lung Slices» it’s simply a spicy dish that consist of Beef Tongue, Beef Slices & Beef Tripe. The presentation of this dish wasn’t that appealing. It really looked like it was just dumped onto a plate. But the taste was quite nice and it was full of spicy pepper oil at the bottom. But downfall was it didn’t have enough tongue and tripe. 2. Chicken & Corn Thick Soup. The soup was quite large for a large lol. Taste wise was not bad either. 3. Pipa Style Tofu with Snow Pea Tips, Mushroom, Black Fungus, & Bamboo Shoots. Quite tasty I especially liked the tofu and greens. 4. Vegetarian Spring Rolls. It was ok. But nothing special. 5. Crispy Rice Cake with Chicken Slices. The crispy rice cakes were quite tasty and the chicken was on too. I didn’t mind this dish but not everyone enjoyed it: P 6. Duck Egg Deep Fried Shrimps. This was delicious but yet again. The presentation was lacking. Used a big dish for a small amount of shrimps. Again looked like it was just dumped onto the plate. Overall the food was not bad. Would probably try it again and try more spicy dishes next time.
Brandy W.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Markham, Canada
Authentic Sichuan food. The cold beef and noodle and pickles are fabulous. However, the other dishes are just so so. The thing is you need to order the Right dishes here.
Lynn C.
Rating des Ortes: 3 Paris, France
I arrived late into the party so i didnt get a chance to order anything — it was my second dinner of night anyway so I was cool with whatever was ordered. The décor and ambiance of the place is pretty impressive, but the food seemed less so. The water cooked fish was full of little bones in the fish and the bottom of the dish was covered with yellow sprouts and no napa. The most disappoint part was that it wasn’t even all that spicy. They offer soup dumplings(xiaolongbao) which is really weird for a Szechaun restaurant. I’ve had better Szechuan food in less decorated restaurants — this place feels like a westernized version of szechuan food, lacking spice, numbess, intense flavour and saltiness, which disappointed me. 3 stars because the food is decent and we didn’t order too many szechuan dishes. If someone really wanted to come back, I wouldn’t say no.
Dian W.
Rating des Ortes: 5 Windsor, Canada
best spicy Chinese food in Toronto! So many choices so much food!!! Definitly my favourite Chinese restaurant here! And very nice service
Alice C.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Unionville, Canada
Been coming here for a couple of years now. Came for dinner tonight. We are not very adventurous and seem to get the same dishes plus a new dish each time. At the moment, they have a special on steamed soup dumplings(seew lung bau). It’s buy one portion and get one portion for free. They are large, juicy and really tasty. I would recommend them. We also ordered fish in chilli oil, stir fried lamb, tung choi, beef brisket soup noodles, fried pork dumplings, sichuan steamed belly pork and beef slices & tripe in spicy oil. All the dishes taste really good but being Cantonese, I’m not sure if it’s really proper and traditional Sichuan food. Nevertheless, it’s a nice place to go for a spicy dinner.
Christine L.
Rating des Ortes: 4 London, United Kingdom
If you are looking to try a new authentic Sichuan restaurant in Markham, this is the place to be! For all the spicy food lovers out there who think that they can handle the heat, you must come and try some of their spicy dishes. You will definitely not be disappointed! I came here on a Sunday night for dinner. We ordered the following items: 1024. Cold Spicy Duck Tongue 1071. Spicy Boiled Sliced Tilapia 1150. Snow pea shoots(garlic) 1208. Cold noodles in Hot & Sour sauce The spicy boiled sliced tilapia was my favourite dish. This is a traditional Sichuan dish, so if you want to experience some authentic Sichuan cuisine, this is a must-try item. However, be sure to check with them about the price of this dish before ordering it, because they sell the tilapia by pound. Overall, everything tasted great. The service was fairly fast, but keep in mind that this was on a Sunday night, and the restaurant was only 60% full. I’ve come here on a Friday night before, and I ended up leaving before being seated because the line was way too long. Therefore, be patient when you come here on a busy night, because the food is promised to be worth the wait!
Jon C.
Rating des Ortes: 3 Toronto, Canada
Wow this place is hot! If you in for spicy food, this is the place. The Red means it’s red-hot spicy! This place is not really hidden, but definitely overshadowed in this suburban strip mall. But this place should not be discounted, it’s provides enough heat to blow you off our seat. Specializing in Sichaun-style food, you will assuredly get dishes that are marinated in chili oii. First we tried this cold spicy noodle which is quite nice, the noodle itself is clear and actually isn’t as spicy as thought. Also tried this combo appetizer that has three things on it: braised beef, jellyfish and some pickled radishes. The beef and jelly fish are great and had so much flavor to them. I really liked this and is definitely a must. And then I got this tofu/fish pot that was super spicy, you could see it coming from my face. About the service though, I think they could have used another waitress as on a Saturday night it was full. She hardly had enough time to serve all dishes and field requests for water or extra napkins to counter the heat coming from the food. Overall, good food, could be better service.
Billy K.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Philadelphia, PA
3.5 stars Another good JK recommendation. — I really liked the layout of the restaurant, the seating is well spaced and comfortable… kind of rare for many Asian restaurants. I was never«bumped into» the whole evening — bonus points. — Staff were friendly and spoke perfect English to me(I’m not Asian… obviously). — Kudos for good fast service. — My new favourite wonton soup for sure. Nice chicken flavoured broth with roughly 10 large home made dumplings. Excellent dumplings. — The pumpkin and mixed mushroom dish was an easy standout for me — I enjoyed it with a side of steamed rice. Brought a smile to my face. The pumpkin tasted better the longer it sat absorbing the heat and sauce. — Black bean beef ribs with peppers /onions served on a hot plate was also good but a little spicy. I would prefer the meat to be slightly more tender though. So many things I want to try on the large menu. I will return very soon. This is my kind of place… BK
Jennifer K.
Rating des Ortes: 3 Markham, Canada
The Red is a Sichuan restaurant that opened less than a week in the plaza at the corner of McCowan and 7. Impressive deco and even the entrance looks impressive. The interior is spacious with high ceiling and those red chandeliers just made me went Wow! Looking at the menu, there is a lot of similarity to Ba Shu Ren Jia and as matter of fact it is related. We shared: Cold Free Range Chicken with Spicy Sauce($ 9.50) Beef Ribs With Hot Black Bean Sauce on Sizzling Hot Plate($ 12.99) Fish Fillet with Potato Noodles in Hot & Sour Soup($ 8.50) All the dish were prepared with fresh and good ingredients and portion size was great for the price. But what lacking is the spiciness kick which is the style of Sichanese cuisine. Waitrees told me that the kitchen did toned down the spice level a bit because of the clientele in the neighborhood. So if you really want to experience the essence of the dishes, you would need to request when ordering! I will be back to try out other dishes. They do offers set lunch for $ 7.99 with appetitzers, soups, iced tea!