Sichuan Rouge has opened in Causeway Bay, can you handle it?

Hong Kong’s latest restaurant opening promises hot city nights. Carolynne Dear puts the pepper to the test

Sichuan Rouge explores the flavour profiles of China's hottest cuisine

Sichuan cuisine means one thing - heat. This style of cooking from China’s Sichuan province has a flavour profile known as ‘mala’. It’s characterised by bold, spicy flavourings combining mouth-numbing Sichuan pepper (‘ma’) with the heat of chilli peppers (‘la’). 

Bringing the heat to Hong Kong, Sichuan Rouge opened in Causeway Bay’s Soundwill Plaza II earlier this autumn, promising diners a fine Sichuan experience with ingredients and chefs alike sourced from Sichuan province. Revered for its complexity, Sichuan cuisine is said to embrace a "hundred dishes and a hundred flavours". Clever use is made of local spices to create 24 Sichuan flavour profiles. But at the heart are the two key ingredient trios of Sichuan peppercorns, spicy red chilli and pepper, and spring onion, garlic and ginger. While by no means a Sichuan aficionado myself, I can attest to there being a lot of ‘ma’ and plenty of ‘la’ at Sichuan Rouge.

I was invited to dine at the restaurant on a weekday evening. It was ahead of a public holiday in the city and the dining room was pleasantly buzzing. Large groups crowded round tables groaning with dishes, eagerly looking forward to a fun night with family and friends.

The red-hot interiors are inspired by the glamorous nightlife hotspot of Shek Tong Tsui in 1930s Hong Kong. Today a genteel residential neighbourhood, Shek Tong Tsui at the beginning of the 20th century was the city’s raucous entertainment district, with opera houses, restaurants and high-class brothels. Dark wood furniture, traditional neon signs and ornate carved window frames conjure the golden era of the district while the rich red colourway mirrors the spicy menu.

Master chefs Hu Taiqing from Sichuan and Hong Kong’s own veteran chef Kenny Chan Kai Tak have put together a menu that aims to challenge the notion that Sichuan food is solely about numbing spiciness. However, I’m dining with the bloke who is not afraid of taking on a chilli challenge. 

We start with a delicately flavoured young pigeon with pepper which was light and, so far so good (for me, at least), with not too much heat. A duo of soups appeared next, one a satisfyingly thick hot and sour concoction with a good grinding of pepper, the other a warming matsutake and conch broth.

For our mains, we had opted for one of the restaurant's signature dishes, twice-cooked pork with black bean and soybean paste, along with deep-fried chicken with chilli. These dishes were served alongside a satisfying bowl of Chengdu dan dan noodles. The pork was wafer thin and extremely tasty, mixed with the delicious bean paste. The bite-size pieces of chicken were served in a huge colourful bowl with a dramatic pile of dried chilli and scattered with nuts. For me, the chicken was a little too hot, but the bloke tucked in with gusto and the remains ended up accompanying us home in a doggy bag. The dan dan noodles came with a chilli paste on the side enabling you to mix in as little or as much heat as you wanted. 

The restaurant was packed by now and we opted to tuck into our Lava Black Sesame Ball pud on the pretty outdoor terrace overlooking the harbour. The space had been decorated with a huge neon light installation, perfect for social media pics. We ate on bar stalls watching a sparkling drone show unfurl on the opposite side of the water, a relaxed end to an enjoyable evening.

Sichuan Rouge, 27/F, Soundwill Plaza II, Midtown, 1-29 Tang Lung Street, Causeway Bay; 9370 6345.

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