Red Chilli Authentic Chinese

The food itself came quick and was very good, decent sized portions too. Service was pretty accommodating as well, the menu items are a bit strange so the options, although there’s many, are pretty limited in appeal. Nice busy atmosphere, the place is huge!

Even though they have lots of available tables, they won’t give you one. You have to sit at the waiting area to wait. The manager acted like we owed him a million dollars when he sent us to our table even after making us wait for a long time. The worst dining environment I ever had. Food is OK.

The best of the Red Chilli chain of Chinese restaurants, and the best Chinese restaurant I’ve been to — of many.
Don’t listen to the few detractors who don’t seem to know the first thing about Chinese food. Red Chilli is an excellent small chain of (4) restaurants in Manchester (2), Leeds (1) and York (1). I have been to all of them during my travels in England, and the consistently high quality of real, authentic Chinese food (I should know: I’ve been to China and was in a relationship with a Chinese woman, who also enjoyed cooking — for a number of years) distinguishes Red Chilli restaurants from most other establishments even in the nation’s small Chinatown districts.
Unfortunately, the equally consistently unfriendly service in no way differentiates this chain from all the other Chinese restaurants, be it in London’s tourist-​y Soho, or anywhere else. If you are traveling /​eating alone, like I usually do, expect to be treated like a pariah.
Anyway, the food is good to great and entirely characteristic of the Szechuan cuisine especially. Those who complain about «no flavor» clearly either have their taste buds dimmed by decades of smoking e.g., or just do not know anything about *real* Chinese food. The spicier dishes here, especially my personal favorite (stir-​fried pig intestines, or eel, with dry red chili), aren’t for the squeamish. Expect repeated visits to the toilet later that night, with a burning anus to spare. Don’t worry, it’s totally worth it.
Other recommendable dishes include stir-​fried baby octopus with onions and preserved vegetables, deep-​fried fish fillet in various forms, and pig-​in-​a-​pot. I haven’t had a bland or less-​than-​decent dish in ANY of the Red Chill restaurants.
Highly recommended!

This has to be the most overrated restaurant I’ve ever been to. Clearly the locals are painfully deprived of quality, authentic Chinese food, if they would rate this five stars. Wow.
If by authentic you simply mean «offering dishes like tripe, heart, intestines, etc.», then yeah, I guess this is not your usual Chinese take-​out place. However, this Chinese food is absolutely and utterly English, in the most old-​fashioned and unpleasant way. That is, thoroughly devoid of spices and flavor.
Absolutely everything we ate here (and we ordered a lot of food) was truly and completely bland. No flavor. One person at the table commented that the fried rice with pork and tofu tasted like popcorn: Flavorless carbs with salt.
The steamed bun fillings just tasted like dish water, and the mutton belly was served in a sauce that we SWEAR was just Chef Boyardee with the ravioli or Spaghetti-O’s picked out of the can. Yuk.
We left the vast majority of our food uneaten, and reluctantly paid the bill for a huge amount of unappetizing food.

This plush Chinese restaurant is well worth stopping into for an evening of decadent and plentiful food. Tori W and I grabbed some dinner here before meeting Anna F and Niklas H for a few drinks in York town the other weekend, and I’m really glad we did. It’s part of the wee chain, as there’s a Leeds branch too, and so I knew we’d be in for a treat.
OK, so confessional time — I have a problem limiting my orders when it comes to delicious food. I have something broken in my brain, it seems, and I always end up ordering too much. It was after ordering a main of belly pork, rice, pork dumplings and steamed dumplings, that the waitress stopped me as I tried to get some soup too. Even writing the list back sounds super ridiculous! I have a problem, clearly. What’s funnier is the exact same situation happened in the other Red Chilli. Anyway — I cut out the soup, and stuck with the above, hoping Tori would take pity and help me out. I love a selection!
The mains came before the dumplings, as those took a while to prepare, which was a good sign — I like things made fresh. Who doesn’t?! The pork belly was ridiculously tasty, although I could only manage half as I couldn’t handle that much fat. The slices were really thin though, and went beautifully with the sauce and pak choi. Love pak choi. The dumplings, shallow fried with sesame seeds, were exquisite. I think I’d have preferred a salty soy style sauce to dip, than the vinegary one I had, but perhaps that’s more authentic? In any case — balk if you will — I ate all six and half a thing or rice and my main dish. Yup. Lastly, the steamed buns were ace, but I only managed one.
The restaurant here isn’t quite as interesting visually as the Leeds one, in my opinion, but the food is just as incredible. Essentially, this one’s for a right old feast, and a complete indulgence. Don’t come for light bites. (Unless you actually have a sense of control.) The staff were lovely, the food was delectable, and the décor is special. Stop by if you’re in town!

Disappointing. The three course lunch menu seemed ok value at £9 and the soup and dim sum were lovely. The main course was very greasy and not very flavourful. The pork didn’t seem very fresh either. Won’t be going back.

One of the best Chinese restaurant in the UK. Beef and lamb are well cooked with chilli. The price is good and the service is nice.

My partner and I believe this to be the best Chinese food that we have eaten outside of the Far East The service is fantastic and the waiting staff wear rather snazzy uniforms. They look oriental and are very pleasing on the eye.
The food portions are generous to say the least. A doggy bag is usually required. The ambience is soothing and relaxing. This is a great venue for an intimate meal or simply a leisurely meal with friends. The tables are spaced out in what is a huge restaurant and so offers the feeling of privacy and intimacy.
I really cannot recommend this restaurant highly enough. We tend to just turn up at the doors but if you wanted to be sure of a table then I strongly recommend that you book one in advance, as it has always been very busy on our visits there.
Great food, good prices, large portions, pleasant environment what more could you want?

Agree. I went there with friends just for lunch. 3 people only. costed us over £90. we only ordered couples of dishes + Boiled Rice but the dishes are just too hot (we already asked them easy on their chilli and chilli oil). So we have no choice but have to order soft drinks. We did not really expect their soft drinks are so expensive. One pint enough for you to by 2 pints of beer in pub! Then we were so shocked the moment we seen the bill. Just feel like being scammed. Never go there again.
Plus all the staff just looking at us while we eating, so uncomfortable. Maybe we were the only table at that day at that time.

this was a spur of the moment night, we just wanted to eat somewere and decided to have a try having not eaten here before. we were quite early in the evening to eat, it was about half full with diners, and had a good atmosphere about it. the menu was a tad large. we could read it all night. being a bit short of time decided to do without a starter, my husband had soft shell crab and noodles. i had chillie chicken with rice. and a couple of beers. they werent very quick. but then when they arrived were presented lovely, the water was a lovely chap, who made sure we had all we needed, the food was lovely and by the time we were leaving the place was packed which is always a good sign, i would return here but would book a table and spend the evening eating and try 3 courses.

Update for 2013. Have been going most weeks. Food delicious. Have seen quite a few people complaining about things that are as described on the menu e.g. crispy beef being chewy. If you like traditional fluorescent sauces I’d suggest try somewhere else. ps. The steamed sea bass is sublime! Wacky but brilliant place. Cross between a Tarrantino set & Austin Powers. Waiting staff have ear-​pieces & walkie-​talkies. Décor is neon, lime-​green, glass-​panelled dark-​wood booths across a dark maroon open-​plan expanse. Good place for passing time, people watching. Service is v good, the staff are all young & attentive but you need to engage with them. Food is very good extensive menu lots of seafood, some quite exotic. By far best Chinese I’ve had in York. Pricey. Main with rice £12+ Some dishes double that! You pays your money.

My friend and I booked a weekend in York (1÷10÷2010) and had this restaurant recommended to us.
The restaurant was fairly busy and we hadn’t booked, but were quite prepared to wait the 20 minutes for a table, whilst having a drink.
1 glass of rose and a gin & tonic was £8.10, but we paid and went to sit in the lounge area, after going to the bar ourselves.
My friend noticed that other people were ushered in to wait and had menus given to them to peruse and had drinks brought to them in the waiting area, but we overlooked that and were looking forward to a pleasant evening.
After the allotted 20 minutes we were taken to our table and given menus there, with the staff only giving us a few minutes to look at the extensive menu, we had to keep sending them away as we hadn’t decided, much to their annoyance. We then chose one of the set menus.
The chicken and sweetcorn soup was divine, but couldn’t say that about the rest of the courses that followed.
We had a platter to share of prawn toasts, spring rolls, salt and pepper spare ribs, seaweed and chicken satay, the toasts, rolls and ribs were dripping in grease, the chicken satay was tasteless and the seaweed was the best thing, we left most of the platter.
We were then brought our aromatic crispy duck, normally one of our favourite courses, the first few pancakes came out hard and we discarded them and got down to the softer ones, the duck was cold by the time the waitress had taken her time to shred it and as with the entrée, dripping in grease once again, we think these items had been deep fried! I mentioned that the pancakes were hard near the top to the waitress, but was just ignored and our plates were cleared away.
Never mind we thought, on to the next course of peanut and chilli chicken, rice, vegetables and sizzling beef.
The rice was warm, the vegetables swimming in water, the chicken and chilli was passable and we watched in anticipation as the metal skillet for the beef was placed on the table. Pouring the beef in, it then failed to sizzle, frankly it was embarassing, the waitress just shrugged her shoulders and walked away, by this time, we thought it was hysterical, that they just couldn’t care less, but noticed every table around us had the obligatory sizzle and this did make us giggle.
It took 3 asks to get a bottle of water and by the end of the meal we were so fed up that we just asked for the bill, paid the exact amount and left. We noticed they had left the 10% service charge blank, maybe they realised just how poor the meal and service had been.
They were not amused when picking up the plate with the bill on with the exact amount of money, but the food and service had been poor and like their name, our welcome had been decidedly ‘chilly’.

Where to start?
Sichuan cuisine is currently the darling of the London dining scene, setting appetites and mouths afire.
Red Chilli started out in Lancashire and now has a number of restaurants across the North, with rumours of a possible London outpost always circulating.
The menu is extensive, featuring some Chinese restaurant staples and plenty of excitingly exotic options. I would say you are cheating yourself if you stick to the bog standard pseudo Cantonese options, and you really should just go to a restaurant that specialises in pseudo Cantonese. However, if you experiment you will be rewarded.
Rewarded with lip smackingly, tongue tinglingly tasty, non-​gloppy, non-​MSG, gourmet delights.
The chilli ratings can be a little irratic, but I’ve never had anything I couldn’t palate. And you can always order extra steamed rice.
Food will all arrive at once, unless you specify otherwise, as this is the Chinese way. It is assumed everyone is sharing everything. And to be fair this is by far the best way to experience the variety available.
Top picks — Bejing dumplings (order as soon as you arrive as they take 20 odd mins to arrive), spring onion bread, hot poached lamb (wow), green beans with chilli mince meat (double wow). Whatever you order make sure you add a portion of greens, steamed rice and wash it all down with free Chinese tea.
Yum. Yum. Yum. Yum.

great service and atmosphere. staff friendly. big portions — definitely worth eating here! note that its very busy so you might be in for a wait if you dont book in advance!

Excellent food, nice atmosphere & good service. Really good veggie options (unusual for a Chinese restaurant) without fish oil or oyster sauce etc. Try the veggie set menu — plenty of food!

Excellent!
Red Chilli is one of york’s best Chinese restaurants, the menu is extensive and the food absolutely delicious, I would recommend this restaurant for all groups of people from couples wanting a quiet romantic meal to grops of friends and colleagues looking for a slightly formal setting to dine in.
The service was slightly slow at times but certainly not poor.
The food was excellent and well presented.
The price is about average for food of this quality.

this is a fab restaurant! modern, well decorated, each seating section is in its own little island, so it never feels over crowded! no matter how busy it gets! dimmed lighting, but never to dim. blew me away on our 1^st visit!
very authentic chinese food and the braised pork joint is a must! oh and the beef noodles and the spicey chicken with popcorned rice! the list could go on! i’ve not had the nerve to try one of there hotter dishes yet, but will do one day.
it can work out costly or cheap depending on your eating style, but i generally order loads of dishes and take home the left overs for another meal! they always pack things in separate containers for us
they have another one in manchester near or on portland street, i wouldn’t recomend that one to eat at! as we went once after going to the one in york and was very disapointed as flavour wise was bland compared to the york restaurant.
its a lunch time fav of ours when in york and have not had a bad or moderate meal yet! standard of dishes are consistantly good to exceptional!
service is prompt but not hurried.
toilets are clean, well thought out and the sensor hand wash basins are fun! i always tell my friends there voice activated and giggle as they lean in saying water please

found the food of very poor quality and gloopy. Very expensive! was looking forward to a noce meal out but VERY disapointed, will not recommend.