Sichuan restaurant Red Pepper is expat-friendly to the core. Being the market minority, Westerners are forced to adapt to local dining culture and it can be intimidating. Red Pepper was built to alleviate these hang-ups. The waiters are adept at casual English while the interior resembles an American teenager’s idea of the Far East, lifted from the pages of a comic book. Dragons float around the ceiling over hanging lamps. The mood is strangely tranquil. Your chopsticks rest on models in the shape of – you guessed it – a red pepper. It is not authentically Sichuan (or Chinese for that matter), and you will likely find more Westerners than locals eating inside. The reason is simple: Red Pepper was designed to make the expat feel at home.

Ordinarily at a Sichuan restaurant, you would not find Peking Duck as a special and the words “chopped suey” would never appear on the menu. But Red Pepper’s food is about fun, even if the spice is toned down for Western palates and if the menu looks distinctly Chinatown. You do not eat at Red Pepper for authenticity but rather for a carefree, tasty meal that makes you feel like a kid again. Top of this nostalgic list is fried garoupa with sweet and sour sauce (HK$520). The fish is deboned, battered, deep-fried whole then smothered with sweet and sour sauce with shrimp. You cannot really taste the delicate garoupa but they are not reaching for the stars here. The dish is supposed to be a fun concoction of flavours that you want more of. Almost every table orders fried prawns with chilli sauce (HK$380), served on a sizzling platter at the table as diners hide behind napkins. The thick sauce is beautifully heavy on Chinese celery, moderately spiced and lightly caramelised to further complement the large, crunchy prawns. Diced chicken with pepper and cashew nuts (HK$145) is another tasty signature. Fired aggressively, it is a good example of wok hei, a Cantonese description that encapsulates the absolute importance of high heat in Chinese cuisine. Desserts are thick and heavy, so best to end with a mildly refreshing almond beancurd (HK$35).

For a middle-market Chinese restaurant, the wine list is not too shabby. Predictably heavy on Bordeaux and Burgundy, you will also find single bottles from five or six other wine-producing countries, both new world and old world. Three Champagnes and a moderate list of cognacs, sherries and whiskies round off the list.

The staff speaks good English, a welcome feature for expats who normally point to order at Chinese restaurants. Overall, waiters retain the no-nonsense approach in local service culture, only without the surliness and rudeness.

Dinner for two with seafood signature dishes will cost about HK$500 per head excluding wine. However, your meal is considerably cheaper if you stick to the simpler beef, pork and chicken dishes that make up most of the menu.