GW Marketplace in Duluth is beginning to feel like a second home.
Chilispot, a new Sichuan chain restaurant, is located in the shopping center, along with two other spots reviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in the past year: Jiang Nan and Dubu Gongbang.
Credit: Henri Hollis
Credit: Henri Hollis
The complex is filled with Asian businesses, but Chilispot is extremely similar to Jiang Nan, another out-of-town Sichuan chain that could be considered a direct competitor. Jiang Nan is more polished, in terms of service and ambience, but Chilispot might have the better food.
The new restaurant has a simpler interior design, but the dark-walled dining room still is more impressive than one might expect based on its humble exterior. Like its neighboring restaurants, the menu is enormous and helpfully illustrated with large, colorful photos of most dishes.
Credit: Henri Hollis
Credit: Henri Hollis
Chilispot has plenty of options familiar to American diners, including dan dan noodles, steamed wontons, kung pao chicken and fried rice. However, that doesn’t mean all these dishes are approachable; Chilispot is a restaurant for lovers of spicy food, and some items will punish milder palates.
For those who can handle the heat, Chilispot is a playground of spiciness. Sichuan cooking is famous not just for the intensity of its heat but also for the distinct differences between the spicy flavors — from the numbing effects of the native peppercorns to the sharpness of hot peppers to the lingering spread of chile oil.
The cooks at Chilispot understand these differences and employ them to great effect. In the chile oil-coated wontons, I first noticed the savory pork filling and tender noodles before a rich heat bloomed. The restaurant’s mapo tofu (which I preferred over Jiang Nan’s) contained the slightly trippy, buzzing effect of numbing Sichuan peppercorns, adding a phantom texture to the silkily savory dish.
Credit: Henri Hollis
Credit: Henri Hollis
Chilispot offers several whole grilled fish options, including one called chef’s special grilled fish — an unassuming description for a dish that could not be more flamboyant. The fish was served in a large chafing dish over live flames, so it continued sizzling on the table.
Although it wasn’t identified on the menu or by our server, the deboned fish was a lighter variety, with tender, flaky meat. Whatever it was, it had a luxurious texture, like it had been poached rather than grilled.
The rest of the chafing dish was filled with a fragrant, oily sauce and a variety of interesting items, including lotus root, wood ear mushrooms, tofu skins and peanuts. The chef’s special version was not too spicy, which my dining partners appreciated, but I might have preferred the hotter version listed on the menu.
Stone pot beef, another theatrical dish served sizzling in a massive vessel, might have been even better. I believe it could have fed a family of six.
The beef was hotter than the chef’s special fish, with thin slices of meat swimming in a heavily spiced sauce redolent with ginger and garlic, almost like a curry. Vegetables such as bell peppers, onions and potatoes were chopped into rustic hunks that continued cooking at the table as the dish sizzled in its thick bowl, ensuring they were crisp-tender and not overcooked.
Not every dish was fabulous. A side of sauteed cabbage was cooked to the point of falling apart, and the fruit wasn’t ripe enough in a dessert-like dish of papaya and gelatin.
But in terms of value, it’s hard to find another white-knuckle thrill ride of flavor as intense or rewarding this side of Masterpiece on Buford Highway. It would be easy to get lost in the sauce at GW Marketplace, but Chilispot has enough firepower to hold its own.
CHILISPOT
2 out of 4 stars (very good)
Food: Chinese, with focus on Sichuan region
Service: quick, professional, but not warm and fuzzy
Noise level: low
Recommended dishes: spicy Sichuan wontons, pot stickers, chef special grilled fish, stone pot beef, Sichuan-style steamed pork, mapo tofu, eggplant with garlic sauce, dry-fried string beans
Vegetarian dishes: okra in spicy juice, mashed eggplant with century egg, assorted Chinese pickles, milky papaya jelly, deep-fried handmade tofu with special sauce, bean curd with egg yolk, egg yolk-flavored corn, braised Shanghai greens with black mushroom, eggplant with garlic sauce, sauteed bean tips, asparagus with white sauce, sauteed sliced potatoes with spicy and sour sauces, sauteed baby cabbage
Alcohol: no
Price range: $25-$50 per person, excluding drinks
Hours: 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 4:30-9 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays (closed Wednesdays)
Accessibility: fully ADA-compliant, with street-level entrance
Parking: free lot
Nearest MARTA station: none
Reservations: yes, but not necessary
Outdoor dining: no
Takeout: yes, online ordering through Chowbus
Address, phone: 2180 Pleasant Hill Road, Duluth. 470-359-7231
Website: chilispotusa.com
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s dining critics conduct reviews anonymously. Reservations are not made in their name, nor do they provide restaurants with advance notice about their visits. Our critics always make multiple visits, sample the full range of the menu and pay for all of their meals. AJC dining critics wait at least one month after a new restaurant has opened before visiting.
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