You know the saying – “the writing’s on the wall?” – well, whether you do or you don’t, the writing is literally on the wall at Chili & Pfeffer. The Hanzi (Chinese script) depicted in the background of the picture below, translates to, “eat well, drink well.” You can do both of these things at Chili & Pfeffer.
The pure simplicity of Chili & Pfeffer’s layout makes for a very relaxed atmosphere. There’s no special “wow” factor in terms of its aesthetic appearance, leaving the food to speak for itself. And it certainly does. More accurately, it shouts for itself, with the two main ingredients in the kitchen being (yep, you guessed it) Chili and Pepper.
The chef hails from China and has 15 years of experience working in Chinese restaurants under his belt. This reflects in the menu, which is divided into 4 sections: The Water (fish), The Earth (meat), The Sky (poultry) and The Garden (vegetables).
The spicy and surprising ‘Szechuan’s bauch’ (pork belly in a chili and garlic sauce) is a slightly fatty, but utterly delightful starter choice. Meanwhile, they also offer pork ribs a la Chili-Pfeffer, which will get your eyes watering and your stomach smiling. Their ribs secret is that they marinade them for 3 days and then quick-fry them in the wok with veggies.
A major highlight for us was the ‘Sichuan chicken nuggets,’ something you wouldn’t expect in an award-winning restaurant’s menu, but good lord were they tasty. The yoghurt-mayo sauce on the with will have you dunkin’ away and licking your lips to ensure you don’t miss a drop (also, it helps ease the burn) of the deep fried chili cornmeal-crusted chicken.
The 4 main elements of the Chili & Pfeffer kitchen is smoke, spice, colour and intense flavours, and they they are constantly experimenting.
Even though I’m not a fish fan, the owner went and proved me different when he served up the tempura prawns and ‘Tsinggau Halibut’ (a fried fish filet that is definitely the spiciest food we try here). Both of these dishes blew my tastebuds away.
Up until now, we’ve covered the “eat well” part of their slogan on the wall, while they’ve also got the “drink well” part under control, too.
A variety of beers on tap will keep the hop-lovers happy while their extensive list of regional Austrian wines will keep the ‘pinkies-up’ drinkers feeling grapeful they came (yes, we are allowed to make up cheesy words like grapeful).
We’d recommend you end your night with the frozen Khaki Brûlée with Baileys and Hawthorn biscuits, which will leave your tingling-tongue calmed with some sweetness.
If the sound of the word ‘Sichuan’ makes you salivate and start to burn for the spice, you need to check out this original twist on the traditional Chinese kitchen Chili & Pfeffer is serving up.
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