Red Hot Chilli Pepper - Folsom — Restaurant in Folsom

The desserts here are all good and deserve 5 stars. We come here often & have tried them all. 2 Stars ONLY for quality and taste of food recently served here (only Hakka noodles & Fried Rice deserve favorable feedback). It seems as if the owner has dismissed the original chef because, initially, the food was flavorful and worthy of 5 stars, but 4 stars in terms of portion size. My husband and I used to enjoy eating here. Sadly, now, some entrees taste of just sweet and fiery hot chili sauce. Last night, I went here for dinner with my husband & his friend. Cauliflower Manchurian portion was smaller than in the past and without the usual garnishing. Chili Baby Corn was all cut up instead of whole pieces in the past & half the quantity compared to the past; both items were at below room temperature!!!. These 2 appetizers used to be my favorites every time I went there; not anymore!! Due to my disappointment, we didn’t order two other favorites, the Eggplant & Dry Chili Chicken. The sizzling tofu and vegetables platter was red instead of the usual caramel brown color. On a prior visit, when I had ordered this dish, it tasted good but was flooded with potatoes and absolutely NO water chestnuts. In the past, it always used to look brownish and tasted good too; it always had a few potatoes and plenty of water chestnuts. Last night, it had the chestnuts, but was red, disgustingly sweet, and also quite spicy. My husband requested Praveen to have the cook fix it. When it was quickly brought back to the table, it still looked red. This time, just one piece of vegetable in my mouth set my entire face on fire!! The cook had just dumped loads of red hot chili sauce into the dish. My eyes and my nose were dripping and my mouth was burning unbearably. Our friend tried the dish and had the same reaction as I did. The Hunan chicken was average. Only the fried rice and Hakka noodles were good. Despite the ridiculously priced small portions of food served here, my husband and I were loyal patrons; we used to take all our friends to this place. NOT ANYMORE. We are going to BOYCOTT this place. I should have written a negative review some months ago, but I kept giving them another chance over and over again because in the beginning, we used to enjoy the food here. NOT ANYMORE. You cannot gouge customers and get away with serving reduced portions of food prepared by a cook who dumps uncalled for sweet and extra hot sauce in an entree. Their momos are average and spring rolls are below average; the soups I’ve had even in the beginning are mostly water, salt and cornstarch & lacking flavor. Two weeks ago, one of the items we ordered (to take home) was my husband’s favorite Calcutta Chicken. To our utter dismay, the pieces of chicken were sunken in a deep pool of oil. We dumped most of that dish in the garbage can. Hats off to Praveen who holds down the fort here with his smile and polite interaction with all customers. He even remembers our favorite tables. We will not be going to this restaurant anymore. It makes no sense to spend almost $100 on appetizers, entrees and sides for just two people and WASTE most of that food because it is gross and fiery/absurdly spicy even when the entrees do NOT state that those items will be spicy. Incidentally, I have a good threshold for spicy food and always enjoyed it here; but now it is just fire even in a simple non-spicy entree. Sadly, now this restaurant offers ZERO flavor, burning mouth and burning stomach resulting from the presence of an incompetent person in the kitchen. Four Folsom families to whom I had recommended this restaurant have had the same experience as I did: initially, good food; not good anymore. They do not want to take the time to post a review. I am sad because I love Indo Chinese food but am compelled to delete this restaurant from my list...

We were really hungry on a Thursday night, so we decided to stop at this restaurant. The food was honestly very good, but the service and ambiance were disappointing. To start, an Indian gentleman greeted us, but he was noticeably intoxicated—he could barely walk or speak, and the smell of alcohol was strong every time he came over. He kept messing up our order, and another staff member, who wasn't Indian, repeatedly asked if he was okay. It seemed he’d been drinking near the bar, possibly thinking no one would notice since the place was empty and we were the only ones there.

Later, he came by our table and attempted to chat, but he was too intoxicated for anything he said to make sense. With two kids with us, we quickly packed up our food to go, as the situation was too uncomfortable to enjoy our meal. I would not recommend this restaurant. The owner should consider hiring and training staff more professionally. Even though the food was good, I won’t be coming back and wouldn’t suggest it to anyone else.

update 20/12/2024

Thank you for your reply, but I must clarify that it’s not my job as a customer to investigate or tell you what’s going on in your restaurant. I was simply sharing my experience, as I believe other customers should know what to expect.

My visit was on September 26, and if you have CCTV footage, I suggest you check it for that date. The staff member was indeed Indian, as he specifically asked us where we live and mentioned that his uncle has a house nearby. He was clearly intoxicated and mumbling the entire time, making us very uncomfortable. If he is your manager or connected to you in some way, that might explain the defensive tone of your response.

You had mentioned earlier that I should contact you to give you a chance to improve—possibly offering free food as compensation. However, it’s been two months since my visit, and as a working parent with a full-time job and a baby, reviewing restaurants is not my priority. I took the time to write this review to share my genuine experience, not to go back and forth.

Your response, instead of addressing the issue professionally, only reinforces the lack of training and accountability in your establishment. Thank you.

Update: December 21

The owner has now deleted their response, but for the sake of clarity and transparency as a Level 7 reviewer, this is what they had originally posted:

*"We are extremely sorry for your experience and this is definitely not acceptable. We have a strict policy about such issues and will surely take action. Our manager was not on site that evening but we do have video footage which we will review with the employee. Please reach out to us at hello@rhcpfolsom.com and give us a chance to make amends. We try hard to provide the best food and service and would like to prove that to you if you would be kind enough to give us a chance. We look forward to hearing from you and fixing this. Sincere apologies once again.

Update - 10/28/24: We did our research and are a little confused. Your pictures are dated Sept 2024, and you are writing such a serious review at the end of October. If this is a real concern, please reach out to us so that we can investigate. We legally cannot take action against any server without proof. Also note that we don't have any Indian servers except the manager who does not work on Thursdays."*

It’s clear they’ve found themselves in hot water, so they’ve resorted to deleting their replies—proving my point about the lack of professionalism at this establishment. I’ll be advising all my family and friends to stay far away...

Hubby and I decided to try this out to since it is new to the area. Much to our regret, we'll never go back to this restaurant.

There's no wait when we went in at about 6pm on a weekday. We got seated right away.

Ambience is casual, suited for families. It looked clean inside.

When we sat down, the male server (never got the name), gave us a menu and left us for a few minutes to decide. When he came back, he asked: "Are you ready to order?". To this, we replied: "Yes, please". And then much to our surprise, he said: "Ok let's go!" We found this kinda a rude response to a customer, as if he's impatient in waiting for our order. We just ignored this, and continued to order the following: SWEET CORN SOUP FRIED TOFU WITH VEGETABLES CHICKEN DRUMS OF HEAVEN

When the food arrived a few minutes later, and we started to eat, we found all of these three very salty. Even the Sweet Corn soup, was salty! The Vegetables were soggy, and the chicken were more on the tough/chewy side. We didn't want to waste food, so we ordered VEGETABLE FRIED RICE to counter the saltiness of food and hoped that the fried rice would help. But nope, after the fried rice arrived, it too was salty. While trying our best to swallow these food, here's the server coming over and asked us; "How's the food?", and to this, I replied and pointed to the food: "These 3 are very salty (pointing to the three food)". And to our astonishment, the server just looked at us and left. AGAIN! No response! I don't even know if he heard us, or just chose to ignore our response/answer to his question.

Now, when we were asked for the bill, the server asked: "Did you like the food?". To which I replied "No. The food was horrible and very salty." Again, no response, he just left our table, came back with the bill, and took our card. Still, no comment. I'm pretty sure he heard me when I responded because my husband even commented about my very "too honest" response. We were given the full bill and paid for it. I guess this restaurant does not really care what their customers feel about their food nor care to improve on both the food or service.

Food: 1 Star. Too Salty. There are much more better tasting food option somewhere in Folsom than this. Service : ZERO star. I kid you not, this interaction between us and the server did happen. I even thought and felt as if we were being "PUNK'D"!

I suggest the owner train their servers/wait staff better or else, they will lose a lot more customers.

Hubby and I eat out a lot, so in my opinion, this is the worst if not one of the worst tasting food I'd eaten in, and the worst service I have ever encountered.

Of course, taste is subjective, and service can be different and depends on who's serving you. But for me, overall, a hundred...