Red Pepper

According to these minutes of the Framingham Department of Health, Red Pepper has decided not to reopen:

I have never tried some of the other Sichuan places but I can’t imagine them being better than Red pepper; the food at Red pepper is consistently excellent and the lunch menu is quite inexpensive ($ 6.75 for entrée, rice and soup). A seven foot ceiling keeps their heating and cooling costs low and there’s not much ambiance but the food quality and lunch price have made me a regular customer. One caveat: stick with the spicy dishes and ask them to tone down the heat a bit if you have sensitive taste buds.

Temporarily closed by Framingham Dept. of Health:

It is closed… not sure what happened. Hope they come back as there is not many authentic Chinese restaurant around

They did it again! We are regulars at Red Pepper bit we usually get take out. Not a big fan of their ambiance. But the other day we decided to dine in and order random things on the menu which we had never tried before. The bone — in lamb stew with bean noodles and fish with tofu was out of this world.
Bone in lamb stew was very similar to Indian lamb stew, spiced to perfection and meat was falling off the bone. You can feel the marrow and richness of the stew with every bite. Tofu with fish was great too. Never had such tender tofu and tender fish!
We stopped minding the ambiance. When you need something hot, spicy and comforting, red pepper is the way to go. Please don’t change ever.
Other best dishes: Kung pao chicken, sauteed string beans, cumin flavored lamb, cumin flavored spicy fish

Food is great. This place has my highest rate, spicy but eatable. I came from Bay Area, California

Red Pepper is a great place for lunch or dinner with one caveat: you have to be OK with a low/​no ambiance dining experience. As a result, this may not be an ideal first date place. Started going here for team lunches while working in the area and it quickly earned the nickname «basement» due to the fact that there are no windows in the main dining room. Now, this is much better than «dirty glass» down the street, but we went to both on a regular basis because who cares? The food itself is very good:
— Attentive waitstaff
— Kitchen is impressively fast
— Hot and sour soup may be the best in the area
— Very affordable for lunch or dinner
Recommended!

A group of friends ordered a variety of plates. Both the vegetable fried rice and white rice are good. We collectively had the general TSO chicken, sweet & sour chicken, chicken & broccoli, and egg rolls, and chicken wings. Overall quality of food was very good. You see a lot of Asian people eating here so that should be the first clue the food tastes as it should.

Five stars:
Ma la dou fu yv — hot tofu fish
Lazi ji — hot fried chicken
Huiguo rou –Twice cooked pork
People like dan dan mien, me not so much. Food comes out amazingly fast.

I love the new authentic Chinese places that have popped up in metro west.
We are big fans of all of them including. Shaanxi gourmet so we wanted to try out red pepper last night.
Very stark in appearance, filled w Chinese families and teenagers. Absolutely loved the family style presentation in Pyrex baking dishes.
Started off w Dan Dan noodles and spicy dumplings. Good way to get the ma la taste buds activated. We followed with dry braised beef with peppers, chicken w pickled peppers, stir fried Bok choi .
Loved every dish.
Wish they had more noodle dishes and wish they translated the board specials

It’s a good and cheap Chinese place.
The food is really very good with lots of spices.
And quite reasonable.
And the service is too quick may be because they prepare everything in advance.
But the food is good. Staff helpful
But the ambience is not that great.

I’m not a fan of spicy food at all, but I found that this place has some really decent food. Service was great, food was serviced quickly and the portion was good for its price.
Dandan noodle: I like it, but too much sauce on top.
Ma po tofu: one of my Fav dishes, but sauce is also on the heavy side
Mi-xian:Noodle soup; I love love this because it’s not spicy lol; for $ 6.50, this portion is pretty big
I forgot the name of other dishes… If you like a healthier version of Chinese food, this may not be the place you wanna go. Oh try to ask for no msg.

Pretty good Szechuan for a reasonable price, the dishes are spicy which I like but they were a little too salty and there were not very many fresh ingredients. May be it is what we ordered but all in all a good enough place to eat.

Five stars because it’s the best Sichuan option in the Boston area. Small portions, but the food comes out ridiculously quickly. I think they might deliver if your order is large enough, because I was on the phone with them once, and my order of 4 – 5 dishes got shopped around for a few seconds among the staff but got no takers.
Also, I had no idea people come here looking for stuff like duck sauce and XX Beef or XX Shrimp. At any place aiming to serve authentic fare, 90% of the time if the name of the dish ends with a generic meat name, it isn’t a good bet. Oh, and their Pork Blood Stew has no pork blood. Beyond that, there really isn’t much to avoid on this menu.
—-My favorites:
Sauteed Lamb with Black Fungus and Green Pepper: wok hei, good depth of flavor, showcases the tender lamb while enhancing it with complementary ingredients.
Fried Corn with Duck Yolks: child-​friendly, but turned out to be a big hit all around. Salt-​preserved egg yolk is one of my favorite ingredients (highly recommend it with shredded potato at Hunan restaurants, or crab wherever possible). The corn is presented as juicy individual kernels, and the light batter is rich and complex. It’s slightly greasy, but the light sweetness of the corn counterbalances that.
Dry-​Braised Fish Filet with Spicy Sauce in Hot Pot: It was a pleasant surprise to see a break from the monotony of orange fried fish to be found on seemingly all other Boston Sichuan menus. The lack of batter made for a succulent and refreshingly non-​greasy dish, and though I can’t say it’s inherently superior to the norm, the uniqueness means I’ll keep returning to it. It’s nice to see a dish like this bubble a little, rather than having heat preservation be the only point of the fire burning under it. I will say I like my «gan guo”/dry hot pot dishes a bit sharper than this, to the point of being overpowering with the exotic spices (had that at Sichuan Gourmet House in Newton upon request, as well as the also non-​battered yet dry version at the brilliant Formosa in Connecticut), but the balance of flavors here was good and doesn’t just get boring after a dozen bites.
The mushroom dish in the dry-​braised section is also excellent. I think they use tea tree mushrooms, which are worth a try for people who dislike the boring mushrooms.
Fish Fillet w. Chilli & Wild Green Pepper: again, refreshing, succulent, the white/​green colors belying the burst of heat and flavor the dish contains.
Sauteed Pork Kidney w. Garlic Sauce: probably the best rendition of this dish in Boston. Go here if you want to try kidney.
Deep-​fried Chicken w. Dry Chili Peppers: I always get this when taking someone for the first time because it’s a crowd pleaser. Just bits of fiery fried chicken. Always disappears in a flash.
—-Also good:
Sliced Fish w. Bone in House Spicy Sauce: good, but I have no idea why this sells out all the time. Supposed to be «country-​style,» and it is. It feels like home, but it isn’t particularly brilliant. Would order again, though.
Huang Hou w. Pickled Pepper: got it for the novelty value of eating beef larynx or whatever it was. Enjoyed it. But actually pretty normal.
Tofu Mixed w. Minced Shrimp: a nice way to counterbalance all the heat of a Sichuanese meal. Subtle but not unflavorful.
Sliced Fish & Tofu w. Spicy Sichuan Pepper: wasn’t that memorable, but hit the spot for what I was craving, i.e. soft tofu and fish.
—-Solid, but wouldn’t go out of my way to have:
Stir-​fried Pea Leaves: they should source more tender leaves. The stalks were slightly fibrous.
Eggplant w. Spicy Garlic Sauce: a little too sweet for me.
Sauteed Pork Slices with Scallion and Black Curded Bean:
Their Twice Cooked Bacon is actually excellent, but this variant seemed to lack something.
Rice Noodle Soup: a little too al dente for me, as I grew up eating carelessly overcooked cafeteria rice noodles that I adored. The soup lacked depth.
Poached Beef w. Cabbage in Hot Chili Sauce: good, but underwhelming; probably one of my least favorite things here. What I don’t get is why it’s cooked in a thick «sauce» in the first place, because the Chinese name says «water,» but whatever. All Boston restaurants seem to do this.

I dropped by Red Pepper at 2pm on a saturday. The place had only a few diners, being as it was a little late for lunch. As we were finishing up, we saw the chefs and staff having family meal, probably getting their own lunch or dinner.
First, the food was great. The quality was top notch, tasted very authentic. We ordered the kidneys which is a technically challenging dish and it was executed perfectly. We also ordered the house lo mein which is usually just okay but it was great here. Despite how few people were dining, the kitchen was definitely on its game, the wok hei was great and everything had that great characteristic chinese wok flavor.
Second, the food came out remarkably fast. Mise en place in the kitchen must be great. I kid you not, within 10 minutes of ordering, our first dish was up.
Third, the portions are fair and the prices are just.
Fourth, the atmosphere isn’t great and they’re definitely trying to save on heating as most of the staff were wearing winter coats but I don’t go to Chinese restaurants for atmosphere, I go for great food.
My parents went to the Red Pepper in Worcester and said that this venue was much better. They used the kidney dish as a benchmark and the one in worcester was poorly cut and prepared.
I’ve been to sichuan gourmet multiple times and I’ve never been really blown away before. I came to Red Pepper with average expectations and was very pleasantly surprised. I’d definitely recommend Red Pepper for people looking for authentic Sichuan food.

Service might be questionable during the peak hours, but you will never go wrong with the spicy foods here! My favorite menus are crispy fried pork intestine, pork belly, lamb, cold beef, and double cooked beacon.

Very authentic and very spicy. Feels like china town all the way out in the suburbs.
The menu is extensive with many Sichuan options. The dan dan noodles are a must have. The food can be very hot and spicy so be careful if that’s not your thing. If you aren’t familiar with Sichuan Chinese cooking please play it safe and order more familiar things on the menu.

This is one of the best Sichuan restuarants in Boston. It’s much better than Sichuan Gourmet which is down the road. When you walk in, you notice 99% of customers are Chinese, then you know the restuarant must be authentic.
You can’t go wrong this place if you like Sichuan food.

To be honest, I hate their pepto bismol wall and think their service is just so-​so. However, I love their food so much that I could totally overlook its flaws.
My favorite dishes are deep fried chicken with dried chili peppers, dan dan noodles, cumin flavored beef and sautéed string beans. My husband and I can easily spend $ 60 here for dinner but always go home with leftovers.
Best Sichuan food in the Boston area!

Upon walking in, it was a bit confusing to find nobody at the front desk to greet you for a few minutes, and just seeing some kids running around and playing right in the center foyer area. Along with the lack in décor and faded pink walls, I felt like I was in a 60’s basement of family gathering, rather than a restaurant. The good sign though, was the place was completely packed with Chinese people, indicating usually more authentic cuisine. One thing atypical for a Chinese restaurant, was I found the food to come out alot slower than the norm.
The waiter gave us a few recommendations, it sounded like there is a range of items on the menu that caters to those who prefer more Americanized tastes (e.g., Mongolian BBQ beef) to more authentic Szechuan cuisine.
If you like spice, this is the place to go, as the «mild» was quite spicy for my weak palate. As for the dishes, I wasn’t really wow’d by any of them. The fish and tofu dish had pieces of fish with alot of breading or something on it. The dou miao (peapod tendrils) was not tender and lacked in flavor. They did have good noodle dishes, with jia jang mian, as well as beef noodle soup, both were decent.