China Red

Chili Wonton

There are twenty-six blog reviews of China Red on Urbanspoon. I apologise for adding to the fray.

China Red is great because you can always get a table, they serve chili wontons and xiao long bao, and the beers are reasonably-priced. The overgrown baby of Hu Tong, China Red has touch-screen ordering, which is popular with awkward folks who find ordering in a group excruciating, it’s also great for out-of-towners as they will think it’s very “fun” unless they’re from Japan, and then they’ll just be nonplussed that you think it’s fun.

It also has BYO wine with a small per person corkage, but chili wontons and red wine are a pretty disgusting combination, so these days I stick to buying Coopers Green for $6.50*.The problem with China Red is that, while the dumplings** are great value (chili wonton are $8.80 for 8, xiao long bao are $11.80 for 8), as soon as you click on the rest of the menu, it all gets a bit out of hand rather quickly with most dishes priced between $20 and $25, and the quality, while good, is not outstanding. Also the vegetable dumplings are claggy, don’t get them.

Delicious Xiao Long Bao

But why would you get other things? Just order as many chili wonton and xiao long bao as you can stuff in your face. Drink beer. Leave. Maybe pass by Maxim’s Bakery and buy an (extraordinary, flaky) custard tart for dessert. Fin.

*If you do bring wine, keep an eye on the bottle. The staff are very helpful and will fill your glass to the brim whenever they pass your table. You will end up staggering out of the restaurant.

** For a short history of xiao long bao and why “dumplings” is a generally inadequate term, see the Serious Eats article here.

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