Thai Express is closed on Sundays and this place is just across the street. As one of the few places I haven't tried in the area, I thought it would be worth giving it a go.
It wasn't bad, but it wasn't particularly good either. To be honest, this probably a 2 star in most cities --- Cincinnati just doesn't seem to have many good Chinese options, which is strange considering how many Thai and Indian spots there are around town.
The Sweet & Sour chicken was ok. The fried rice was actually very flavorful. I thought the portion size was a little short on protein with maybe 5 small pieces of chicken. The vegetables were rather bland. The pepper steak dish was much better. Still a small portion, but much more flavor.
The prices are dirt cheap, which was a nice surprise. The portion sizes are barely adequate and is mostly rice.
It had been about 5 years since I'd eaten at Red Pepper while I was a student. Â I remember it then being decent for lunch, but nothing special. Â I'm sorry to say that things have gone downhill. Â Service was a mixed bag. Â Our first waiter disappeared after taking our order and never returned to refill drinks. Â Another waiter eventually noticed and took over our table. Â Food was inconsistent too. Â Our appetizers (cheese wontons and beef dumplings) were overcooked and room temperature....possibly left sitting too long before they were brought to the table. Â Out of 3 entrees we ordered, only one, the sizzling beef, would be worth ordering again.
Review Source:Red Pepper started out very well for me. They have kind of slowly digressed into something more of a "just another Chinese restaurant" status, unfortunately. When I first started school at UC four years ago I would go to China Food. I was told that they are the best Asian cuisine in Clifton. I found out first hand that I did not like them very much. Maybe it was a personal taste or maybe they got worse, I don't know, whatever the case I decided to form a search committee (consisting of only myself) to find a new go-to spot for Chinese. I originally thought that I had found that in Red Pepper.
The first time I ordered Red Pepper was for delivery. The food came fairly quickly and it was still hot which is a must. Their prices are reasonable, including dinner special prices and lunch special prices depending on when you order. I thought to myself, not a bad first impression, so I ordered them again, several months later. This time however the food comes and it is cold, dry, bland, and basically uninspired. I thought maybe it was a bad night and I decided to give them another shot.
This time we dined in. The restaurant itself is a very quaint little restaurant. It has a dark aura about it and looked to be in reasonably good condition. We sat down and ordered off their decently sized menu. It took an awful long time to get our food. We were one of 3 tables in the restaurant so that wasn't an issue. Our food did come out hot so I wasn't really as mad. I was also able to enjoy a nice Sapporo beer with my meal. The food although hot, still didn't taste like anything special.
This last time I went may have been the straw that breaks the camels back and what makes me re-commission my search committee. As we walk in we are once again one of only a few people that are in the restaurant. We are seated and when the waitress comes over to ask for our drink order I was for a Sapporo. In turn she tells me they no longer are certified to serve alcohol...AHHH!!! I know some people may not care but a nice beer with Chinese food to me go hand in hand. It's like a Friday night with no two pizzas (Credit to Joey Tribiani for that comparison). Not only was I not able to enjoy a crisp beer but they made me suffer more by making us wait at least 45 minutes. I thought to myself though, maybe they are making it fresh which is why it is taking so long...Nope. Couldn't have been more wrong. The fried rice was obviously fried earlier in the day and by earlier i mean when they opened. The sauce was non-existent, and the veggies looked sad and depleted.
I love the atmosphere of Red Pepper and the employees there couldn't be more friendly. There is just something about it that has lost its spark. Maybe being in Clifton for that long will do that to you. I don't know. Regardless, I probably won't be going back unless I am craving Chinese delivery, but otherwise, I'll probably stay away. Sorry guys, you used to be my favorite!!! So disappointed.
FOOD: Really good! Everything had the perfect amount of flavor and I usually require a ton. Perfectly cooked too.
DELIVERY: I live close to the river and they delivered! It came faster than quoted and was still warm after the appetizer.
VALUE: An appetizer and two entrees delivered for less than $25. Couldn't complain.
As first, I thought my carryout chicken pad thai was kinda pricey at $6.50, but, in hindsight, I would do it again. It was well seasoned and paired well with the rice.
The vegetable egg roll was super, super small.
The restaurant decor is beautiful and the pictures of plates of different dishes is a great idea.
If I could give a 2.5 I would, but I'm feeling generous so I'll  go with a solid 3.
Got carryout from Red Pepper-they may deliver to downtown, but we thought we'd go ahead and pick it up instead. Â My meal was actually really good-I had the Szechuan beef and it was piping hot and flavorful. Â A nice spice, plenty of meat, and crunchy vegetables. Â
Our order of chicken and broccoli was bland. Â Little to no flavor, but at least it was warm? Â The egg rolls were not at all good-greasy and not much in the way of filling. Â But the cheese wontons were pretty good-full of cheese, hot, and great dipped in their sweet and sour sauce.
I'd call this pretty okay Chinese food. Â Some of the food is bland, but the good was *really* good. Â I'll definitely be back to try more.
Red Pepper is mediocre at best. When your hungry and it's late, you want Chinese, it's the best Clifton has to offer. I def prefer it over China Food and King Wok.
The atmosphere is surprisingly nice. I suggest dining in, the food is fresher. The meals I've had have always been decent. My only complaint would be that the rice is almost never fresh. When you have to stab your fork into your rices crusty outside to get it to move, that's kind of a deal breaker.
Just a note, I loved coming here for lunch, getting a nice cold beer in the frosty mug pictured below, but just went there recently and they don't offer alcohol anymore. Wah Wah.
Not to bad, not great. It'll do. It'll do.
I'm not a huge fam of Red Pepper. I've given it several chances. Their Spring Rolls are greasy, the Sesame Chicken is lacking in flavor. The vegetables seem over cooked. I Their service is fast but that's about the only good thing. I do like that they have a good variety in their menu, but everything I've ever ordered from there is so so. The last time most of it ended up in the trash.
Review Source:Let me start by saying that no, I am not trying to be hateful in this review. I have not exaggerated. This is simply a recount of what occured when I ordered from Red Pepper for the first time, today, 10/31/2011.
Is it possible to rate 0 stars?? If so, I would definitely rate Red Pepper 0/5 stars. I do not write many reviews on yelp, but I do frequent many restaurants in the greater Cincinnati area. I can say that hands-down this is the worst Chinese food that I have seen to-date. Ok, it might be the worst food I have ever purchased in the greater Cincinnati area.
As I am cramming for final exams and typing furiously to finish last projects, I decided that ordering Chinese delivery was the way to go. As I am not very familiar with who-all delivers to Northside, I looked to yelp for some ideas. Yes, I saw that the reviews were inconsistent and tended towards the mediocre; however, I thought, "why not?" heck, "give them a chance," they just might be worth it. I'm sorry, but they definitely are not. This is the very first time that I have been afraid of the food that was sitting in front of me. I'll give you the run down:
Apparently the dinner specials come with fried wontons. I tried one. The grease used in the fryer must be old, because one bite left a very oily, bitter taste on the tongue. The "stuffing" was plain cream cheese and was overcooked and dried out. The spring roll appetizer was undercooked. The wonton wrapper was still doughy and mushy, and the insides were basically glass noodles. There was a speck or two of orange that must have been carrots and a few strands of cabbage. But, mostly, it was raw, undercooked wonton.
I ordered the chicken pad thai and garlic chicken, as that seemed to be one thing that people agreed on being good. The pad thai had a very odd aroma coming from it, lacked sauce, had no green/spring onions, the peanuts were congealed (is that even possible???) and soggy, the bean sprouts were unfortunately not sprouting, and the chicken was dry and cracked. The garlic chicken was deep fried. Ok, I have eaten garlic chicken from many different establishments. I have never had it deep fried, surprise number one. There were no vegetables other than water chestnuts and a few carrots. And, surprise number two? Well, I don't know what the heck they were. At first I thought maybe some sort of noodle (how? have no idea!), but then realized that no, too gelatinous. These small, worm-like, things that were stuck to the sides of the fried chicken, due to lack of sauce, were very wiggly and smeared when you pressed on them. What?!?!?!
I'm sorry, folks, but this food was down-right scary. We just wasted $24 on dinner (and yes, surprise number 3? the $4 delivery charge that noone talks about). I hope that Red Pepper can improve the quality of their food, but if not, I would certainly steer clear.
I'll warn that it's been awhile since I have been here, ever since I moved off campus and got a car and found other places, I have not really been back, but Red Pepper was always a good Chinese (like typical American Chinese) standby when I lived in Clifton.
By far, in comparison to some of the places around it only, it is the best Chinese (not Asian, Chinese) place around UC. They have some pretty normal standard dishes that are prepared fine - not great. I think Alex S.'s review almost says what I want to say exactly. It's okay - it's just not amazing. But it's usually consistent and better in comparison to dorm room food.
Still, now that I can drive and don't live a few blocks from here, I go elsewhere, and if you can get out of Clifton, I suggest you do too. But if you need somewhere in Clifton, this is my suggestion.
I first discovered the Red Pepper while eating with a colleague back at UC. I had totally given up any hope that I would find anything up around Calhoun/McMillan at that time that was palatable. Then I was introduced to the Red Pepper, and it became a regular staple of eating out for me in the neighborhood. I have continued to eat here on and off, over the years, including after the move to their current location. No-this is not "fine dining Chinese food.' But it is reasonably priced comfort food. Think of it as diner food, with only Chinese Food.
I have received pretty good service there over the years. Â Usually, I hit the Red Pepper to get the lunch special. My favorite go to selection is the Garlic Chicken, with brown rice instead of white rice. Throw in a spring roll or an egg roll, and some chinese mustard, along with some soy sauce and I am good to go. I switch it up once in a while, with Kung Pao Chicken, Szechuan Chicken, Pepper Steak, or Sweet and Sour Chicken. Occasionally I get the Egg Drop Soup. But what I really appreciated, is that it was one of the few places close to UC I could go to for lunch, get something decent, and get back on time from. Whether I ate there, called it in, or got delivery, the service was always good, and they were quick. Â
No, I don't get the beer at Red Pepper. It is pretty much awful, macrobrewed, garbage. But I usually came here for lunch, when a beer would not be best during work hours. Plus I never came here for the beer in general, so I am fine with a cup of tea.
I actually last ate AT the Red Pepper on December 24th of this past year. I bought some family for a non-traditional Christmas Eve when our traditional gathering fell apart because of some family who had to unexpectedly cancel hosting it. The service was good, everyone enjoyed it and they bailed us out under unusual circumstances.
Since then, I have gotten carry out a few times, always treated well, and always gotten good service. If you are in Clifton or at UC, give it a try! It's definitely better than eating on campus.
Bleh. That's the best expression I can give this place. First of all, this place is empty so the service better be relatively fast, which it wasn't. Secondly, there's a good reason why it's empty because the food was just not appetizing at all. Let's just say I only went there twice and I still have vivid memories of how bad the food was.
For bad American-ized Chinese food, go somewhere else.
I really wanted to like this place. I really, really did.
Unfortunately, I could not.
To start off with, the service was LOUSY. No two ways about it. It took forever for the waiter to get me a drink and get my order. Had they been busy, I would have been fine with this.
THEY WERE EMPTY. #fail
Then the food came, I wouldn't call it inedible because I was very hungry at the time.
However, it was extremely greasy. I usually eat half and take the rest home.
I just left it there. Couldn't even handle it as leftovers.
Chinese restaurants are usually full of win for me, so this was a big let down.
If you're really wanting to test your luck, try it out.
But my fortune cookie says, "would not try again."
Red Pepper is past it's glory days and any more the food is bland and i cannot tell the difference between general-tzo's and the orange chicken. Â If you order it spicy it will be somewhat spicy but the quality has declined since i first went there. Â Try King wok accost the street it is a little better.
Review Source:Red Pepper is ... fine. I don't know, it's hard for me to become excited over food I feel that I could cook from home with the right equipment and sauces.
Don't get me wrong, it's pretty darn good food. Lord knows it's better than the awful King Wok across the street. I usually get some sort of beef dish when I go (beef stir-fri is basically a staple in the Alex diet) with extra baby corn and water chestnuts and they've never screwed up that order, so that's a plus. Still, it's vegetables, meat and sauces all quickly prepared in a wok - and I do mean quickly. They get that stuff to you, which moth delights and worries the hell out of me.
They're delivery is a little slow - even for slow delivery. They say it will take about half an hour to 45 and it usually takes them about an hour to make their way over. Â When I did this, I lived in Clifton and just three (long) streets away, and it still took an hour! ... I learned unless I wasn't staving to just go pick it up myself.
Going in is actually a surprisingly nice experience. They have everything set up well with decorations and comfortable booth and a really classy cloth menu. The food is still the same quickly process Asian cuisine, but they try to mask that really well with décor.
I don't hate this place, I'm just not overly in love with it. Still, with it's cheap prices, I'll eat here - I just won't wait for them to deliver it anymore.
This place is ok... but you can find far better Chinese food elsewhere.
When I lived in Cincinnati, I went there a handful of times. The food was decent...not great or anything to write home about...but it was ok. Their wontons were probably the best part of the menu.
Service here always lacked and I always walked away thinking, "I don't think I'll come back again"...but usually did when friends wanted to go.
I would suggest walking across the street to King Wok if you want good Chinese food.
I hustled over here after being treated to the Ohio Bookstore on a Monday afternoon. The restaurant was fairly empty, and we immediately were seated.
My date and I split a huge order of chicken pad Thai and washed it down with two ice cold Rolling Rocks. The pad Thai was simple and excellent, and the chili sauce provided subtle kick and sweetness.
Our server, Rick, was intensely laid back and cracked me up with unintentionally funny lines like, "Want an extra side of rice for $1.25?" and "Here are the kinds of noodles we have."
Rick awesome server. So nanchalant,
Red Pepper is a decent Chinese place. It's not excellent, but it's not awful either. For Lunch in the $5-7ish range and dinner in the $6-8ish range (excluding beverage purchase, tax, and tip), it's a decent amount of food. I might give it a 3.5 stars, if that were available. I will round up because the decor/atmosphere is quiet and nice. The staff could be more attentive, but the food comes out quick enough.
I like the egg drop soup just fine. The fried rice is a little bland, but decent. The Moo Goo Gai Pan is decently flavorful, but doesn't have as many mushrooms as the name implies it should.
I absolutely agree with James H on his review of the General Tso's chicken. The sauce is good, the broccoli is green (and they give you a ton of it), but the chicken can hardly be called chicken! There is equal or more breading than chicken. It's kinda gross, really. The sauce and little tiny bit of chicken is what makes it edible, but come on Red Pepper, if you're going to call it chicken, put some more chicken in it!
Not at all impressed!!! I usually rate my Chinese restaurants on their General Tso's Chicken. Red Pepper's version of General Tso's is dough balls... I scoured through the 6 balls of fried dough and only found small pieces of chicken the size of maybe the tip of my thumb. The sauce was pretty good. However, to pay 9$ (after drink, tip and parking) for dough balls, does not seem fair to the customer. I will NOT be back.
Review Source:I really liked the Garlic Chicken I had, it came with a little bit of rice but they offered me extra at no charge. Â The soup was also good.
The waiters always topped off my drink and all in all this is a good place. Â
Only concern is that I paid $18 for one person but I do eat more than the usual person does.
We had a group of 14 people, no problem, the table was long and two waiters took care of us. Â Service is A+.
Red Pepper, a classic staple to the UC student on a budget...
Years after graduation, it still receives my attention as a solid Chinese place at very nice prices.
Quality: 4 stars, it's better than your standard Chinese fare through it's variety and consistent offerings, but is by no means a leader in the pack.
Service/Ambiance: 4 stars, it's a really nice place to eat given it's location yet the service is nothing to be overly amazed at; pretty standard.
Value: 5 stars, when all said and done this place fits the bill given the nicely sized portions and very low bill amount, location and high traffic help keep the prices down.
Bottom Line: Give it a few tries and you'll maybe find it to be placed in your rotation. If you live near the area there is Cilantro and Thai Express to further your Asian cuisine interests.
Though I do not want to sound offensive by any means, Red Pepper is in fact, a generic Chinese restaurant. There, I said it! I have eaten here several times, and each time I come away saying "meh, that was okay." The prices are about average, the food is about average, the wait staff are fairly consistent. The only thing that separates this from the other generic Chinese places in the city (numerous that they are) is the interesting environment, a curious split-level design. They also have pretty good hot and sour soup; Aside from that, it's nothing spectacular, it blends in very well to the McMillan strip of slightly-above-mediocre dining.
Review Source:My group was looking for a place for dinner after visiting the zoo. The service was fine, and the ambiance is no different than any other average Chinese restaurant.
I got Chicken Lo-Mein with the dinner option (included soup, wonton, rice). Â It was OK, but it wasn't anything to write home about. My fiance, and I ate for $18 which was less than I thought I was going to pay.
Overall, it's not bad, but it's nothing that would make me recommend it to someone else.
Chinese restaurants are as numerous as gas stations. It takes a lot for a Chinese restaurant to stand out in such conditions, but Red Pepper manages to do so. Another restaurant in Clifton's glut on W. McMillan, Red Pepper is a unique two-level Chinese restaurant that encourages a more complete dining experience, with a full wait staff and plenty of seating.
They offer all the standard chinese fare but make a great Moo Goo Gai pan as well as Kung Pao Chicken. The dinner special includes soup and a wonton (crab rangoon), as well as fried or steamed rice. The prices are reasonable but a little more expensive than the usual Chinese take-out place.
In the end, the little extra price is worth it for the nice atmosphere and the good food.
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