Randomness Guide to London - Differences between Version 24 and Version 14 of Red And Hot, NW1 1JD

Version 24 Version 14
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Sichuan restaurant just off Euston Road, between [[Euston Station]] and [[King's Cross St Pancras Station]].
 Sichuan restaurant just off Euston Road, between [[Euston Station]] and [[King's Cross St Pancras Station]]. They aim for authenticity of atmosphere as well as cuisine; laughing and talking loudly is encouraged.
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Previously known as Snazz Sichuan <small>[http://flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/577935924/ photo]</small>, this restaurant became part of the Red &amp; Hot group in early 2010. Although the management and other staff changed, and the menu also changed in line with that of the other restaurants in the group, the chef stayed on. The ambience is also similar, with tables covered in fresh white linen.
 The menu is divided into cold dishes and hot dishes; a page at the front of the menu suggests that the best way to order is to have all your dishes arrive at once, rather than starters followed by main courses. It also explains that the usual custom is to have your meat/fish/veg dishes first and then plain rice at the end, "to make sure that you're full", but you can have your rice earlier if you prefer. On both [[Kake]]'s visits so far, we did in fact ask for our rice to come with the other dishes, and I do think this is the best way to do it, since it lets you cleanse your palate between dishes. There's no rice section on the menu; I don't know if there's any choice other than plain rice, but I don't think anything other than plain rice is really necessary.
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[[Kake]], [[bob]], [[Sarah]], Mr Noodles, and Bellaphon visited on a Wednesday evening in June 2010. We hadn't booked, but there was no problem finding us a table when we arrived a little after 7pm, as we were the first customers of the evening. Indeed, we've never previously had trouble getting a table when it was Snazz Sichuan, even on a Friday evening, and never saw it full &#8212; however, we were given to understand on this visit that the new management hope to be able to fill the place up a bit more, so this situation may not persist.
 [[Kake]], [[claud]], [[Juliette]], and [[Sam]] visited on a Tuesday evening in June 2007. When we arrived at 8pm, it was reasonably quiet, but got busier and noisier (though not unpleasantly noisy) later on. We'd booked, but probably didn't really need to.
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Hot and numbing beef (&#27700;&#29038;&#29275;&#32905;/shu&#464; zh&#468; ni&uacute; r&ograve;u; &pound;8.80) <small>[http://www.flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/4666795315/ photo]</small> was good, with tender and well-spiced beef. Fire-exploded kidney flowers (&#28779;&#29190;&#33136;&#33457;/hu&#466; b&agrave;o y&#257;o hu&#257;; &pound;7.80) <small>[http://www.flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/4667544276/ photo]</small> managed to avoid the unpleasant smell/taste that kidney can often have. Sichuan-style pig's blood mix (&#23500;&#36020;&#27611;&#34880;&#26106;; &pound;12.80) <small>[http://www.flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/4666868045/ photo]</small> was interesting and quite tasty, incorporating luncheon meat (which worked quite well &#8212; don't be put off by this) along with the congealed blood. However, the pieces of squid also included in the dish were overcooked and rubbery.
 The first dish we decided on was a cold one, "strange-flavoured rabbit"; it wasn't particularly strange but was certainly good (mind out for the bits of bone, though). Two of our three hot dishes were ones I'd had before, but these renditions were among the best I've tried: fish-fragrant aubergine, and ma po tofu (a replacement for the preserved egg dish we'd wanted, which was off the menu that day). We also ordered fire-exploded beef tripe, which turned out to be a good contrast to the other dishes. Some reviewers have complained that the dishes here seem to lack variety, all involving "a slick of fierce-looking red oil"; I do see their point, but I recommend they try the beef tripe. Our fifth dish was chicken in Chong Qing special sauce; rather soupy, and not hugely interesting. Five dishes, a &pound;20 bottle of Rioja, and plain rice for four came to &pound;78 including service.
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Special fried chicken with dry chilli and cumin (&#39108;&#39321;&#36771;&#23376;&#38622;; &pound;12) <small>[http://www.flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/4667505002/ photo]</small> was very good &#8212; tender but not mushy chicken in a crispy coating, not overcooked or greasy at all, and with a good flavour imparted by the dried chillies. Fish soup with pickled vegetables (&#39080;&#21619;&#37240;&#28271;&#39770;/f&#275;ng w&egrave;i su&#257;n t&#257;ng y&uacute;; &pound;12.80) <small>[http://www.flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/4666826381/ photo]</small> was also good, with tender fish fillets bathed in a rich and fairly spicy broth. Pea shoots in rich broth (&#19978;&#28271;&#35910;&#33495;/sh&agrave;ng t&#257;ng d&ograve;u mi&aacute;o; &pound;8.80) <small>[http://www.flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/4667361450/ photo]</small> came garnished with century egg and a couple of peeled prawns. Opinions among our party were divided on this one; some felt the pea shoots were a little undercooked, while others liked them like this.
 [[Kake]]'s next visit was on a Saturday lunchtime in April 2008; again, we'd booked for our party of three, but really hadn't needed to as the place was empty when we arrived at 12:30pm and stayed almost entirely empty throughout our meal. Strange-flavoured rabbit and fish-fragrant aubergine were again good; we also tried the dry-fried green beans (very good), the drifting-fragrant prawns with cumin (excellent flavour but slightly overcooked), the stuffed wonton dumplings (perfectly fine), and the hot and sour soup (disappointingly lacking in complexity; the only note that came through sufficiently was the sourness). These five dishes, plain rice for three, soup for three, tea for three, and two large bottles of water came to &pound;66 including service.
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Dan dan noodles (&#25812;&#25812;&#40629;/d&#257;n d&#257;n mi&agrave;n; &pound;5.60) <small>[http://www.flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/4667385268/ photo]</small> were OK, but nowhere near as good as the ones we've had from [[No. 10 Restaurant, SW5 0QT|No. 10]] in Earl's Court ([[bob]] also tried these on a previous visit before the change of management, and noted that the noodles were <i>really</i> soft, and there was less meat than at No. 10). Zhong's crescent dumplings (&#37912;&#39171;&#23376;/Zh&#333;ng ji&#462;o zi; &pound;4.80 for eight) <small>[http://www.flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/4667373676/ photo]</small> were very good; smooth, silky-skinned dumplings enhanced with a coating of a deeply savoury chilli oil.
 Service on this second visit was a mix of amusingly incompetent (when spoken to in English) and acceptable (when spoken to in Mandarin). They refused to give us tap water, and they only had one kind of tea.
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Sadly, one of the casualties of the menu change was a dish we'd enjoyed before and been hoping to order this time &#8212; the strange-flavour rabbit (&#24618;&#21619;&#20820;/gu&agrave;i w&egrave;i t&ugrave;).
 The "interesting" names of dishes are direct translations from the Chinese, according to [[claud]]. The hotpot menu used to come only in Chinese, but as of April 2008 it's available in English.
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Service on this visit was very friendly and helpful, with staff happy to take the time to place our dishes in the optimal positions for photography &#8212; something of a contrast to the often less-than-accommodating service under the old management (for one thing, the refusal to serve tap water is well in the past).

On another visit by [[Kake]] and [[Sarah]] in October 2010, the chicken with chilli sauce starter (&#25104;&#37117;&#21475;&#27700;&#38622;/Ch&eacute;ngd&#363; k&#466;u shu&#464; j&#299;; &pound;7.80) <small>[http://www.flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/5159037535/in/set-72157624077781991/ photo]</small> and the preserved eggs with tender bean curd (p&iacute; d&agrave;n d&ograve;u fu hu&#257;; &pound;7) <small>[http://www.flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/5159963984/in/set-72157624077781991/ photo]</small> were both very good. The chicken was served off the bone, but the flavour didn't suffer from this.

Dishes [[Kake]] has previously enjoyed here when it was Snazz Sichuan include fish-fragrant aubergine, ma po tofu, and dry-fried green beans, all of which were among the best renditions that I've tried, and the fire-exploded beef tripe, which turned out to be a good contrast to the "slick of fierce-looking red oil" present in many of the other dishes. [[bob]] also puts in a word for the hot and numbing pork (sliced pork in broth, sampled in December 2009); pretty good, with the pork not overcooked and certainly hot and numbing as described.

[[Kake]]'s verdict: I'd definitely like to come back and try more of the menu. The obvious comparison to this place would be [[Chilli Cool, WC1H 9EW|Chilli Cool]], another Sichuan restaurant in the same area &#8212; however, despite the similarities in style and competence of cuisine, the ambience in the two places is utterly different, so my mood would dictate which of the two I'd prefer on any given day.

Accessibility: Two steps up to get in. Two steps down to get to the rearmost dining area and to the toilets. The ladies' toilet doubles as an accessible toilet, but in addition to the barrier of the steps, as of June 2010 the toilet chain is high up in a corner and would be hard to reach from a wheelchair.
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* [http://bellaphon.blogspot.com/2010/06/red-n-hot-euston.html Bellaphon's review of our visit]
* [http://www.independent.co.uk/living/food_and_drink/reviews/article2579282.ece The Independent review] (of Snazz Sichuan)
* [http://www.chowhound.com/topics/405836 Chowhound thread] (of Snazz Sichuan)
* [http://majbros.blogspot.com/2007/06/snazz-sichuan.html Dos Hermanos review] (of Snazz Sichuan)
* [http://valkyriekaren.livejournal.com/983312.html?style=mine Valkyrie Karen's review] (of Snazz Sichuan)
* [http://lizzieeatslondon.blogspot.com/2009/11/snazz-sichuan.html Hollow Legs review] (of Snazz Sichuan)
* [http://helengraves.co.uk/2009/12/snazz-sichuan-kings-cross/ Food Stories review] (of Snazz Sichuan)
 * [http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/reviews/10620.html Time Out review]
* [http://www.independent.co.uk/living/food_and_drink/reviews/article2579282.ece The Independent review]
* [http://www.chowhound.com/topics/405836 Chowhound thread]
* [http://majbros.blogspot.com/2007/06/snazz-sichuan.html Dos Hermanos review]
* [http://valkyriekaren.livejournal.com/983312.html?style=mine Valkyrie Karen's review]
* [http://londonrestaurant.blog.co.uk/2008/11/17/snazz-sichuan-euston-nw1-1jd-020-7388-5055057 Eating Out In The Capital review]
* [http://lizzieeatslondon.blogspot.com/2009/11/snazz-sichuan.html Hollow Legs review]
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<div class="last_verified">Last visited by [[Kake]] and [[Sarah]], October 2010. Opening hours taken from a takeaway menu collected in June 2010.</div>
address='37 Chalton Street'
category='Chinese Food,Featured Article,Hotpot,Restaurants,Sichuan Food'
 <div class="last_verified">Last visited 19 April 2008 by [[Kake]] et al.</div>
address='New China Club, 37 Chalton Street'
category='Chinese Food,Featured Article,Restaurants,Sichuan Food'
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formatted_website_text='rednhotgroup.com/">http://www.rednhotgr...'
host='81.2.102.215'
hours_text='noon-11pm Mon-Thu; noon-midnight Fri-Sat; noon-11pm Sun'
 formatted_website_text='newchinaclub.co.uk/">http://www.newchinac...'
host='213.165.225.132'
hours_text=''
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node_image='https://farm2.static.flickr.com/1285/4666358332_89bfcf8574_m_d.jpg'
 node_image='https://farm2.static.flickr.com/1072/577935924_c58bc86086_m_d.jpg'
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node_image_url='https://www.flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/4666358332/'
opening_hours_text='noon-11pm Mon-Thu; noon-midnight Fri-Sat; noon-11pm Sun'
 node_image_url='https://www.flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/577935924/'
opening_hours_text=''
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website='http://www.newchinaclub.co.uk/' website='http://www.rednhotgroup.com/' website='http://www.newchinaclub.co.uk/' website='http://www.rednhotgroup.com/'

Sichuan restaurant just off Euston Road, between Euston Station and King's Cross St Pancras Station. They aim for authenticity of atmosphere as well as cuisine; laughing and talking loudly is encouraged.

The menu is divided into cold dishes and hot dishes; a page at the front of the menu suggests that the best way to order is to have all your dishes arrive at once, rather than starters followed by main courses. It also explains that the usual custom is to have your meat/fish/veg dishes first and then plain rice at the end, "to make sure that you're full", but you can have your rice earlier if you prefer. On both Kake's visits so far, we did in fact ask for our rice to come with the other dishes, and I do think this is the best way to do it, since it lets you cleanse your palate between dishes. There's no rice section on the menu; I don't know if there's any choice other than plain rice, but I don't think anything other than plain rice is really necessary.

Kake, claud, Juliette, and Sam visited on a Tuesday evening in June 2007. When we arrived at 8pm, it was reasonably quiet, but got busier and noisier (though not unpleasantly noisy) later on. We'd booked, but probably didn't really need to.

The first dish we decided on was a cold one, "strange-flavoured rabbit"; it wasn't particularly strange but was certainly good (mind out for the bits of bone, though). Two of our three hot dishes were ones I'd had before, but these renditions were among the best I've tried: fish-fragrant aubergine, and ma po tofu (a replacement for the preserved egg dish we'd wanted, which was off the menu that day). We also ordered fire-exploded beef tripe, which turned out to be a good contrast to the other dishes. Some reviewers have complained that the dishes here seem to lack variety, all involving "a slick of fierce-looking red oil"; I do see their point, but I recommend they try the beef tripe. Our fifth dish was chicken in Chong Qing special sauce; rather soupy, and not hugely interesting. Five dishes, a £20 bottle of Rioja, and plain rice for four came to £78 including service.

Kake's next visit was on a Saturday lunchtime in April 2008; again, we'd booked for our party of three, but really hadn't needed to as the place was empty when we arrived at 12:30pm and stayed almost entirely empty throughout our meal. Strange-flavoured rabbit and fish-fragrant aubergine were again good; we also tried the dry-fried green beans (very good), the drifting-fragrant prawns with cumin (excellent flavour but slightly overcooked), the stuffed wonton dumplings (perfectly fine), and the hot and sour soup (disappointingly lacking in complexity; the only note that came through sufficiently was the sourness). These five dishes, plain rice for three, soup for three, tea for three, and two large bottles of water came to £66 including service.

Service on this second visit was a mix of amusingly incompetent (when spoken to in English) and acceptable (when spoken to in Mandarin). They refused to give us tap water, and they only had one kind of tea.

The "interesting" names of dishes are direct translations from the Chinese, according to claud. The hotpot menu used to come only in Chinese, but as of April 2008 it's available in English.

See also:

Last visited 19 April 2008 by Kake et al.

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