Food: Chili Pepper House
Chili Pepper House
#1 - 3003 Kingsway (at Rupert St)
Vancouver
(604) 431-8633
Typically a favourite restaurant is one which immediately pops to mind any time someone asks — a place that mystifies and dazzles with a spectacular display of food presentation and flashy service and . . . well . . . a large bill at the end, unfortunately.
But sometimes a favourite restaurant sort of sneaks its way to the top, as you notice with each passing month that you crave it more and more often, and you find yourself walking through its doors more and more frequently. Such is the case with Chili Pepper House, at Kingsway and Rupert.
It seems a little unlikely that a small Indian-style Chinese restaurant would have made its way into my personal #1 restaurant position, but hardly a week goes by when I don’t find myself sitting at my desk at work dreaming of Vegetable Manchurian Balls smothered in rich chili sauce, or sweet and succulent Honey Garlic Chicken (who needs dessert when dinner is this tasty?), or hot garlicky Vegetable Dumplings. Every time I look through the Chili Pepper House’s menu, I wish I had two stomachs, so I could order all my favourites but still have plenty of capacity left over for trying two or three new dishes.
The service is friendly and extraordinarily helpful, especially in a city where good restaurant service seems to be a lagging priority. “How spicy would you like that dish compared to the others?” “Did you want steamed rice with your meal, too?” “Are you sure you wanted the Vegetable Manchurian Stir-fry? Or did you want the Vegetable Manchurian Balls?”
I’ve seldom been anywhere that the staff are so careful to make sure there are no misunderstandings with my order and that I haven’t left anything out.
(Incidentally, most people I’ve asked seem to recommend Green Lettuce as the best Indian-style Chinese in the city, and its food is also outstanding, but Chili Pepper House is the one I always find myself craving. And, because it’s a little less well-known, there’s never a wait for a table, unlike Green Lettuce.)
Being just as much a fan of the Chili Pepper house, I wholeheartedly recommend this place as one of the best in the Lower Mainland.
But I can’t remember driving as far as Fraser to get to it. That don’t sound right…
Did I say Fraser? I meant Rupert. I’ll change it.
I googled “Chili Pepper House” and got this page. =P Was wondering what kind of prices for the dishes you mentioned and how much it would have been at Green Lettuce.
I’m Chinese and my guest is Indian - sounds like an ideal venue, no? =)
Isn’t the Green Lettuce slightly more expensive?
I thought the prices were pretty similar, but don’t remember. Perhaps an in-depth Indian-style Chinese food investigative report is necessary. I’ll have to start warming up the belly to work on that. . . .
I think I will hit up Green Lettuce tonight - higher prices be damned - so we have the two Indian-style Chinese (plus I’ll have pics, I think) reviews sooner. =) I’ll get around to Chilli Pepper, too.