By Sasha Moedt (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: May 7, 2014
I’ve always been curious about the Hot Chili House. It’s on my way to UFV, on Marshall Road (just before Marshall crosses with McCallum). The place is always dark, with drawn blinds. It gives off an exclusive and intimidating vibe.
Eventually I made my way there for dinner one night with my boyfriend. When we walked in, we kind of hovered at the door awkwardly like we always do at restaurants, not sure whether to wait to be seated or not. The server — the only staff member we saw all night — told us to sit down in a chiding voice that you’d only hear from your parents. It made me laugh.
I was sorely disappointed with the interior. It was far too normal. It was small, with some nice Chinese paintings and pictures. The tables were not in booths, so there was nothing in the way of privacy.
The menu was extensive. I’m no Chinese food expert, but the list was very long, organized by meats (beef, chicken, pork, seafood), tofu and vegetarian options, soups, appies, noodles, and rice. We took our time with the menu. The trouble was that I wanted to try new things, such as Dai Ching vegetable chop suey, Ma-Po tofu Szechuan style, or even pepper chicken, but one dish was rarely under $10. We ended up ordering a dinner for two — egg rolls, chicken fried rice, sweet-and-sour boneless pork, and beef chop suey.
The server took our order more kindly than she had told us to sit down, and service was prompt and pleasant from then on, which had to be expected seeing as there was only one other table filled in the place.
The egg rolls came out first. Unlike most restaurants, they weren’t cleverly disguised as not coming out of a box, frozen, and microwaved. They looked like something I could have bought from the frozen appetizer section at Superstore, complete with a plastic package of sauce on the side. And there were only two of them. I guess it was a dinner for two.
The chicken fried rice followed, and it was just as disappointing. I’m not saying it was bad, per say, but it was very, very, mediocre. The chicken was in the white stage of frying, as if they didn’t quite want to crisp it. The veggies were fine, and the rice was just okay. I really could have made the same thing at home. And I’m not a great cook.
The sweet-and-sour pork wasn’t a good situation either. The sauce was not sweet or sour, but sort of reminded me of melted red plastic. The pork was dry and had a weird texture — it was very poor-quality meat. The beef chop suey was probably the best part of the meal; it was the only plate that we finished.
All and all, for $21.50, there was a lot of food. Just not really good food. If you’re looking for good Chinese, Hot Chili House is not the place to go.
