Madison Restaurant Review: Tom’s Red Pepper

Now that I’m back in Madison I thought I’d get the ball rolling with a restaurant review in my new hometown. While Madison doesn’t have the sheer number of choices the Twin Cities do, it has a surprisingly vast array of ethnic cuisines on top of the numerous “American” destinations. However in my 12 years of off and on again residency one thing Madison has never had is a good Chinese restaurant. It was because of that history that I was excited to read other reviews of Tom’s Red Pepper hailing it as Madison’s best Szechwan cuisine.

Tom’s is a descendant of the Red Pepper Restaurant that did quite well on the East Side of Madison for a number of years. The new location is squarely on the other side of town sandwiched in a strip mall between a take and bake pizza joint and a bar (it’s Wisconsin there’s a bar in every strip mall). I decided to take out and thank god I did. The space has enough room for about four people to sit there and eat their meals. Now I don’t hold Chinese restaurants to very high standards when it comes to ambiance but this was just terrible.

Of course the real reason I was here was for the food. I ordered two apps and an entrée to split with my partner thinking this was a good way to feel out the place. Well we got a feeling and the feeling was awful. We started with two egg rolls that had a crisp light shell that would have been quite deserving of praise except for the raincoat of grease that covered it. The filling was difficult to judge as again the grease overwhelmed any of the flavors. The best praise I can give the egg rolls was that I could see how they could be good. This faint praise unfortunately was the best I could give our entire meal. Next up was an order of fried pot stickers. This time instead of a light and crisp outer shell we were treated to some of the doughiest dumplings I’ve ever had. Except for the grease you’d swear these were steamed not fried. The filling was nondescript and for once I can’t blame that on the grease. Also the sauce was sweeter than a traditional pot sticker sauce, which made me feel like I was eating a Bismarck not a dumpling. Finally, I decided to take this place to the ultimate Szechwan taste test by choosing my favorite dish, Twice Cooked Pork. A dish which when done right is comprised of velvety pork, cabbage, mushrooms, bell peppers, water chestnuts and a spicy brown sauce that builds over time until a sweet aftertaste lessens the burning. Like every other Chinese restaurant in Madison, Tom’s butchered the dish. The meat was tough and I’m sure is the same pork I’d find in their fried rice or Pork in Garlic sauce. The veggies were all there but so were carrots, onions, bamboo shoots, and some baby corn that were so few that they must have either been an accident or an oversight. The sauce lacked any real heat, was sticky sweet, and was 90% pure grease.

While I know I only visited the restaurant once and tried a small portion of the menu, the lack of skill in every dish is more then enough proof that Tom’s is yet another in a long line of bad to horrible Madison Chinese restaurants. Can’t complain too much though as few cities the size of Madison have so many Thai, Tibetan, Indian, and Japanese restaurants around. In the meantime, I guess its up to Edina’s Great Wall, St Paul’s Little Szechwan, and Richfield’s Red Pepper to feed me every time I come home.

Tom’s Red Pepper, 1019 N Gammon Rd, Madison, WI, 608-831-1221