Red Pepper

This is the type of Chinese food that I actually crave for! It’s so hard to find restaurants I actually like that serves authentic dishes.
I’ve only gotten take out here. The servers seem nice enough. I haven’t sat down so I don’t really know wha the service is like but they’ve always been courteous.

Woohoo! As good as it gets!

Omg… Omg. so good. Delicious. Recommend the Water boiled fish. This is super authentic Chinese food. A little expensive but you get what you pay for

If you like Málà, a numbing, spicy Chinese sauce which consists of Sichuanese peppercorn, chili pepper and various spices simmered with oil, this is your spot. I’ve eaten Málà hot pot (麻辣火鍋) in Fuzhou, Sydney & San Francisco, as well cooked by my inlaws.
This is the first Sichuanese joint in Seattle that has turned me into a repeat customer. I’ll say that the 3 star status is not reflective and shouldn’t be a deterrent. I’m a regular now! Recommendations, Málà (numbing spicy) dishes with lamb and beef or spicy cumin stir fry.
4 Stars!

No need to run over to the east side for authentic szhechuanese food. This place hits the spot. Everything I’ve had so far has been comparable to, if not better than, the szechuanese-​go-​to-​places on the east side.
Double Cooked Pork (回锅肉), Veggies in vinegar, KungPao Chicken, Dry Pot with Chicken (干锅土鸡). Would recommend and will be making this my new go to place for spicy food.
protip: if you spend $ 20 you get to collect stamps here for free food down the road.

Had the spicy ma la combo pot, sour fish, and sliced potato dish. Very delicious, albeit spicy. Great portions too

Pretty good overall, the rice noodles were little saggy. But everything else was good and authentic!

The food is great because it is quite similar to the ones in China. The service is good while I am ordering to-​go. I love chicken with many chilies and the fish. (LAZI Chicken and Sour Vegie Fish)
It takes 15 – 20 min to prepare the food so I always call first and then pick up the dishes.

First off, I wouldn’t recommend the noodle soup. It has NO flavor and all I tasted was plain cooking oil. Not sure if it was made like this or because they sent out the wrong order (I ordered spicy broth but they sent out a clear broth instead, so they simply dumped out the clear broth and «replace» with the spicy one). I took one bite and it was so disgusting that I can’t even eat it anymore. They try to charge me for the noodle but after I talked to them, they took it off the bill.
We also ordered a cold dish appetizer and a «pork belly» dish (but they used American thin kind bacon) and they tasted fine. Just overly seasoned with salt.
Also, we didn’t order any rice, but a bowl of rice came with the «pork belly» dish and they ended up charging $ 2 for the rice on the bill. Not a fan of sneaky charges. thumbs down.
The only reason I gave them 2 stars is because the staff has a good attitude and nothing more.

Food =4
Mapo Tofu was delicious, though uncomfortable with the numbing aspect.
J…(sp?) chicken specialty was also good but still hot though we asked for not hot. But I looked at the other table & they had 10X more peppers than ours.
Msg/​salt headache afterwards =2
Service =4
Ambience =2

One-​liner: pretty good spicy szechuan style restaurant featuring hot pots with numbing peppers.
Food: got the fish hot pot and ja ja mien (black bean noodle). Fish itself was really tender and tasty! Broth though had a lot of numbing peppers which I’m not personally a fan of.
Atmo: clean, fairly new, air conditioned (I point that out only because there is SPICY food).
Service: typical Chinese restaurant service– brought food, refilled water, not rude. Didn’t expect more than that ;)
Try again: if I’m on the mood for spicy food maybe

When we first got here, we noticed there were flies everywhere. Since the food looked good, we decided to still try it… bad idea. It took them 30 minutes just to take our order. Even worse, we literally waited over 40 more minutes for the food. Every time we asked where the food was, we were told «our chefs are very careful with the food.» BS. The people next to us were served before we were. In the end, we won’t come back here again. The flies also only got worse as we sat here… horrible.

Hardly will I try a restaurant for a second time. A little bit salty this time but still great :)

the best Szechuan dishes you can find in Seattle area！
Spicy, yummy, better service than before!

I got to try Red Pepper when I was in Seattle for a conference. This place definitely ranks with some of the best Szechuan restaurants I tried in NYC and Philly. Admittedly, I could try only one dish (Boiled fish with spicy sauce), which came with a copious amount of Szechuan pepper sprinkled on it – I wish I could go back there for more!
I was there by myself, and they took good care of me. I got to learn that they had a change of management/​ownership recently — from other Unilocal reviews it seems this change is for the better! :) Do give it a try if you are in that area — it’s spicy and fiery — not your regular Chinese take out!

Very great place with authentic food. Their service is much better since they changed ownership.

Like all the other comments mentioned, this place lacks customer service. Thought the service was bad I impressed with their food. The flavors was great but a little on the salty side.
If you like spicy food and you can afford to wait for food to arrive (30−45mins) then you should definitely check this place out.

The food is incredibly authentic. I lived in China for 6 months and always loved the Szechuan food, and haven’t been able to find non watered down equivalents here in Seattle. I found the portions really good actually — we ordered three dishes for 3 people and couldn’t finish. The server gave really good tips and directed us to the best dishes, and indeed it was excellent.
If you can’t tolerate spice or unique Chinese flavors this place isn’t for you though.

Interesting experience.
I was here on a weekday night and it was packed. There was a huge line waiting and the line was even longer than Thai Tom. Why? Because Thai Tom was closed for some water system repair thing.
I walked by here and discovered that LimeLight Thai Bistro was no longer in business and they only had a paper sign of Red Pepper. I waited for about 20 minutes for a table. The menu is not extensive but provides a good variety of dishes.
I ordered a pork dish and it came with a small bowl of rice. I was full after my meal. The portion was not very big, so you may or may not need to order some extra rice/​dish.
There was only one lady waiter who speaks English while I was there. She was really nice and even checked on me in terms of the flavor. She re-​filled my water too. When I paid for the food, she told me that was the last day of their 20% off deal for grand opening. So I got 20% off my bill.
Dishes are slightly pricey when compared with other restaurants on the Ave. From what I remember, dinner menu ranges from $ 8 — $ 15. I am happy to see more Chinese restaurants opening in the University District area. It is rare to find a good Chinese restaurant around here. But I am sure once DTF opens at University Village later this year, I will be much happier!

First Sichuan on the ave, 20% off! I happened to walk pass this new place on a very rainy night looking for a take out. It was a nice surprise for finding this one day old restaurant.
My fish and tofu with Chillis was great but very salty. I like the fried rice. The staffs was very friendly. The place look posh and nice. They do need a better sign though. I saw coming soon sign outside and went in. Turned out they were open. Overall, it was not bad.
I love Sichuan food so I’ll give it a other try soon. maybe go back for a nice sit down dinner.