Red Chilli, George Hudson Street, York

11:32am Saturday 8th March 2008

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RED CHILLI is a restaurant on a mission. It says so on the menu.

The company's aim, so diners are told, is to "enhance your experience of Chinese food, looking after your pocket, stomach and soul".

I don't usually have much time for mission statements, which generally contain the sort of corporate jargon and self-righteousness that journalists instinctively deride.

But at least in Red Chilli's case, the sentiment is admirable and fairly clear cut. And, most importantly of all, they achieve their goals with flying colours - anyone who comes here will get good food and lots of it.

I'm a big fan of Chinese cuisine and had already had a great time at Red Chilli with some old university mates, so I was very much looking forward to returning for a friend's birthday last Monday.

Situated in the old Presto supermarket site on George Hudson Street, the restaurant is one of York's largest eateries, but it does not feel cavernous. Good use of partitions and a thoughtful lay-out mean tables retain a fairly intimate feel.

My friends and I arrived at 7pm on the dot, and were shown to a window table by a friendly waitress. Rach and Mev each ordered a Chinese beer while Clare and I shared a bottle of still water.

The menu is varied and vast. Once you get past the mission statement and some blurb about Red Chilli - they specialise in Beijing and spicy Sichuan food and have six other branches around England - you are confronted with a seriously long list of dishes.

Some of the more obscure offerings could have done with more explanation than the Chinese name provided, but after much deliberation we made up our minds.

Birthday girl Rach started with Beijing dim sum (£4.50), followed by home-style bean curd with minced pork; Mev opted for spare ribs in OK sauce (£6.90) and then fruity tangy lemon chicken (£7.50); Clare chose the vegetable spring rolls (£2.70) followed by stir-fried chives with bean sprouts (£6.80); while I went for spring onion bread (£3) followed by stir fried frogs' legs with red and green pepper (£7.50).

We were told that the dim sum would come ten minutes after the other starters but we said we'd rather wait and have them all arrive together. Our waitress agreed, if somewhat hesitantly.

I'd tried the spring onion bread on my last visit so knew what to expect - a chewy, flat disc, somewhere between a pancake and a focaccia. I enjoyed it dry, but the others thought it better when dipped in the sweet and sour OK sauce that came with Mev's ribs.

Those, for their part, were delicious but fiddly. The individual pieces of meat were fairly small, and de-boning each one in turn was a minor inconvenience. They did, however, taste fantastic and the sauce was sublime.

Rach and Clare came up trumps with the spring rolls and dim sum. The rolls were light and crisp, and were packed full of fresh green veg. They went brilliantly with soy sauce, and Clare boldly declared them the best she'd had outside Asia.

The dim sum consisted of a very generous serving of about ten soft pastry parcels containing a mixture of meat and spices. Again, they were full of flavour and cooked to perfection, and well-complemented by the accompanying sweet dipping sauce.

On to the mains, and Clare was again delighted with her choice. The bean sprouts were suitably crunchy and the chives gave the dish a garden-fresh zing. Clare said she was surprised how tasty such a simple dish turned out.

Mev, too, had no complaints. His lemon chicken was succulent and the sauce extremely fruity. Personally, I thought it too sharp and tangy, but then one can hardly expect subtlety from a dish called tangy chicken.

Rach's dish, which included fried bean-curd, minced pork, mushrooms and bamboo shoots, was very rich and heavy but had an excellent combination of flavours.

I hadn't had frogs' legs since a school trip to France ten years ago, but really enjoyed them fried with black bean sauce and crunchy chunks of pepper and onion.

I got a veritable mountain of limbs, and while trying to dissect them with chopsticks is not something I relish doing again, it was an excellent dish.

We neither wanted nor were offered desserts, but were instead brought a plate of juicy orange segments, which was a satisfying end to our meal.

We estimated the bill before it arrived, and all went higher than the final total of £64.90. Service was exemplary throughout, with staff advising us when our food would be coming, and checking all was satisfactory.

With our pockets and stomachs having indeed been treated well, we left in fine spirits - our only gripe was that finishing the hefty portions had proved to be mission impossible.

• Red Chilli, 21-25 George Hudson Street, York l Tel: 01904 733668

• Gavin visited Red Chilli on Monday, March 3, 2008