Red Pepper

SUPER odd place, weird kitchen folk, weird front desk/​owner guy, but super nice waitress… A little clueless.
But interesting to observe.

I got a craving for Chinese food, and this was the closest place. That’s about the only part of this place that was good. I wasn’t expecting great authentic Chinese, just some decent General Tso’s. I called ahead and ordered, but when I got their they just ignored me and talked on the phone for ten minutes. When I finally did get my food it tasted like it had been made a while ago and reheated. The rice was old and stale, the chicken was pretty bland. I won’t be back, and will continue to hunt for good Chinese food in Uptown.

Pathetically small portion size. Passable food quality. Messy, dirty looking place. Pass.

This is the worst excuse for a Chinese establishment I have ever seen. My friends and I order from here quite often and today we all ordered combination platters by delivery. One of my friends was about to go in for his first bite when he saw a MAGGOT on his general tso’s chicken. I don’t ever leave bad reviews because I understand things happen, but when I called to ask the manager to take our food back and refund us he refused. It took 5 minutes of explaining that we don’t even want the food for the manager to consider sending back his driver. He told us that the only way they will fully refund us is if we haven’t touched any of the food. I understand that this restaurant is just trying to turn a profit, but they clearly don’t care that they served people contaminated food. They don’t even deserve the title «restaurant.» This is a clear health code violation and somehow the manager found a way to blame us. If I could rate this place zero stars I would.

This Chinese restaurant would probably be the better of all the Chinese restaurants at UC. Food is ok but not the best.

I ordered a Kung po chicken combination platter with a boba milk tea. The food was a bit under seasoned for my taste; but I kind of liked the cooked chicken portion. The fried rice which comes with the Kung po chicken did not have any variation, it only had rice, egg and soy sauce. I was very disappointed with the boba tea, tasted like sweetened chemical syrup. If you like Chinese food with a mild seasoning or spice level; you may want to try this restaurant.

Delivered vege lo mein and hot and sour soup to me apartment in OTR on a Sunday. It wasn’t awesome, but it was good. Delivery on a Sunday was fantastic! It only took about 20 minutes. The delivery guy was super nice and everything was packaged nicely. There aren’t many places that deliver noodles downtown. That seems like a staple for downtown living. Red Pepper delivers!

I am even reluctant to give it a star. Terrible, we ordered take out from work, I had shrimp with lobster sauce, the dish was unrecognizable, more like a tasteless soup, rather more like tough shrimp swimming in milky dishwater. A co-​worker ordered pork lo mien and found a small portion accompanied with rice, obviously a way to minimize the meat.

I came here for the first time today and ordered carry out. I ordered the Hong Shao pork over rice and Sesame Noodles off the traditional menu. The sesame noodles taste like peanut butter cucumbers and parsley that’s it. It tastes like a peanut butter sandwich with sugar and soy sauce. The Hong Shao pork over rice was quite salty. It didn’t taste particularly good or bad just ok. Usually a black tea egg is added into it and other things. It was 90% potatoe and he rest was actually just pork bits with mostly he skin/​cartilage. It was 12 noon when I walked in and there was no one there. And 1 guy was wheeling things in and out. The cash register guy was on his phone or something and not particularly paying attention. There was one employee hanging out in a booth and I didn’t see anymore at the time.

niiiice lo mein.
rangoons i could have done without-​which makes me sad bc theyre my favorite thing.
i’ll definitely eat there again.

Food came out fast. I was greeted and sat quickly but the shrimp fried rice I ordered was not that good. Very few shrimp in the meal and the flavor was a little off. Also they could truly ease up on the use of wild onions in the shrimp fried rice, regular onions and wild onions is just over kill.

The smallest most pitiful and under seasoned meal I’ve had in ages. They were open on a Sunday. I should have read the reviews first.
Fried rice was really rice and a few specs of egg. No onion no carrot no flavor.
The pad Thai was both small in size and more bland than you’d expect out of a microwave meal.
Thanks but I’ll starve next time.

I placed an order one night out of suggestions from coworkers. Never again. The driver was rude, it took nearly two hours to get what I ordered. I called the store, and the person who answered would only say the drive was new and didn’t seem to care much else. The food was sub par at best, so I won’t spend another dime there.

Some of the best Asian food in the area. Fair price. Timely delivery. Sizable options. It’s good for a night in. Or a snack before you go out cause these will typically make for 1 to 2 meals. Recommended if you live in the area, probably wouldn’t go out of my way for it but a great convenience.

I like this restaurant and manager is very nice because is new management and every things has been changed a lot. It’s beautiful though. I have been to this red pepper, the Beef Noodle Soup is really delicious, I order a lot.

I don’t like leaving negative reviews, but this was terrible.
In short, mediocre food wrought with unprofessional, frustrating service.
My companion and I walked in about 7:30 on a Sunday evening. Some utterance was made by two Asian fellows in street clothes. We waited for a moment before my friend spoke up, realizing they had meant to address us. One told us to sit where-​ever we like. This wasn’t a language issue, it was straight attitude.
Service was obsessively attentive, we felt like we had walked in right before closing. Our food arrived quickly and was just okay… but could be better, the the combo specials left me wanting a slightly larger portion. I appreciated the fresh veggies and they weren’t over cooked, chicken seemed of decent quality.
Our server was anxious to take our plates away, again pressure to GTFO it seemed.
Sadly the experience got worse.
Before we ordered I displayed the dinner special coupon I found in Bearcash, and naturally our server failed to apply it. We inquire and ask him to correct it. He takes $ 1 off after tax. This wasn’t our coupon. Again we ask, now the manager has to come over and tries to explain how the printed coupon was wrong… Like seriously?
We got out there paying the correct amount… After demonstrating some math and sales tax calculation… But seriously? Incredibly unprofessional, frustrating experience. It’s a nice place, I hope the next managers can do better.

Despite the fact that things were never really ‘uphill’ here… things have still managed to go downhill. I have a pretty low bar for Chinese food. Yet, somehow I still managed to walk out of here extremely dissatisfied. Let’s take things one by one:
1) SERVICE– I almost enjoy the language barrier at most Chinese places, it makes me feel (however possibly untrue) that what I’m about to eat has a sort of authenticity to it. But when my dining partner and I stopped in at Red Pepper, the attitude we got from the server/​hostess was undeniably rude. She may as well have rolled her eyes at us. Few words were exchanged and I haven’t felt so unwelcome in a long time. It was clear that our presence was inconveniencing the staff. STRIKE ONE.
2) FOOD– I believe our server forgot to ask us if we wanted white or fried rice. What kind of rice did we get? A mixture of white and brown rice. It was weird. The food was lackluster, at best. You can spend the same amount of money at ANY other Chinese food place in the city and get the same quality with better service. STRIKE TWO
3) FLIES– Wait, what?! No seriously, there were little fruit fly (gnat) things flying everywhere. We were constantly swatting to keep the bugs out of our face as we attempted to dine. When plates were brought out for our crab rangoon, the dish placed in front of me had what appeared to be a small smashed bug on it. Go home Red Pepper, you’re drunk. STRIKE THREE
If I find myself in Clifton craving Chinese, I’ll go to King Wok. If I find myself downtown, I will go to Shanghai Mama’s. Sadly, I cannot think of a scenario that will ever bring me back to Red Pepper.

** This review is for the NEW Red Pepper **
Apparently it is under new management and has been remodeled. I have never been to the old Red Pepper so I can’t really compare.
Big tip: There are two menus! One has the americanized dishes and includes all the lunch specials and deals. The other has the traditional Chinese dishes! I’m not sure why they don’t offer them both up front; we had to ask for the second. Unfortunately it is more expensive — but after ordering a few items off of it, I don’t regret it.
+ Nice remodel job. It felt clean and modern.
+ Beef Noodle Soup! The broth was tasty and the meat was tender. The noodles were okay. I like the thicker handmade noodles from other shops I’ve been to, but these noodles didn’t kill the dish either. It was a large serving!
+ Spicy Fish Bowl. Don’t let the oil intimidate you because this dish was pretty good! The red pepper was just the right amount — tolerably spicy but not so bad that it’d make you sweat in front of your date.
+ Szechuan Green Beans — I don’t know what to say. They were flavorful. Just get them if you need a nice vegetable dish to add to your order!
— I wasn’t crazy about the prices here for the traditional menu. They were kind of pricey… though they gave large servings of everything. I would’ve preferred slightly smaller servings with cheaper pricing so we could have more of a variety. Or maybe it’s just meant to be for larger groups of people…
In the end, I’d go back to fill my cravings for Chinese food!

I’ve only been to Red Pepper once, and I honestly couldn’t tell you anything memorable about it. The food was very average Chinese-​American and wasn’t anything fantastic. The interior was very pleasant and nicely decorated, so when I first walked in, I was expecting the food to be pretty good, but it wasn’t anything more than your corner Chinese take-​out. I had ordered the orange chicken and it was only OK.
It has been a while since I ate there, so I MIGHT consider going back to give it a second chance. but that is a big maybe.

My first taste of Chinese takeout in Cincinnati. Do I really need to lower my expectations that much?! As a carb-​lover my favorite pigout Chinese dish (which was often seen as hilarious by friends) was the chicken lo Mein combination with pork fried rice and an egg roll. So red pepper, what do you got?
The fried rice gets negative three stars. It was basically lumpy rice quickly fried up in a pan. Terrible and without flavor or seasoning. It would make an entire generation want to return to eating grass.
Chicken lo Mein — not lo Mein but no terrible. Thicker flat noodles than I’m used to in my lo Mein but noodles can work no matter the size and shape. Couldve used more/​any sauce or seasoning.
Hot and sour soup: the only saving grace. Not amazing but frankly hard to mess up so I enjoyed it all the way down.
Final word: Bland
Return Trip: Never