Red Chilli

This is about the most fitting name for a restaurant we’ve ever seen – none of this naming-a-restaurant-after-a-dish-not-on-the-menu hooey (we’re looking at you, Blancmange), the Red Chilli restaurant is all about the red-hot fruit and plenty of it.

You wouldn’t call this food sexy but we’re not talking about fine dining here – we’re talking about getting down and dirty with Sichuanese.

Red Chilli’s preserved eggs blob away in a mire of oil and chilli and their squishy cubes of silken tofu are a mix of turquoise-coloured jellied egg and volcanic oil topped with a generous handful of green onion. The creaminess of the preserved egg almost acts as a barrier against the slow-building, intense burn coming from all that chilli.

In a plate of dried whole chillies nests a cluster of deep-fried chicken pieces covered in Sichuan pepper – they’re not exactly spicy but they’ve got a cold burn to them – the type of burn that only Sichuan pepper can provide. It makes you feel like the sides of your mouth have melted but the fun of this dish is in fishing out the little pieces of chicken without coming head to head with the dried chilli.

Green beans with fried pork mince is always a house favourite but if you really want to pull out the big snacking guns, order the deep fried pumpkin in duck egg yolk – the shards are sweet and salty, squishy in the middle and crisp on the outside – they’re especially good for vegetarians (at least, not particularly fussy vegetarians – duck eggs can be a deal breaker with the more hardcore veggos because they mate for life... the ducks, that is).

Come to Red Chilli for the décor and you’ll leave disappointed. This is a restaurant for those who like to eat, not recline in Eames chairs and comment on textured wallpaper. Even the toilets have a character of their own (read: doors hanging on by the teeth). Don’t bother with the steamboat upstairs, either – level one is where the real magic happens, as long as you order specifically and like it hot.

If eating tasty snacks is your top priority, you’ll revel here. If glam service and surrounds aren’t a must, the fact remains: this is some of Sydney’s best Sichuan food.