Restaurant review: Yu, Causeway Bay - spicy Sichuan fare

It is difficult to decide whether we like Yu. When we crave spicy food, we tend to go back to the restaurant - but after the meal, when we're feeling sweaty and our stomachs are burning, we vow never to return.

Although you get to choose the degree of spiciness for each dish, the cook isn't stingy with the chillies. The Chongqing hot and sour potato noodles (HK$30) we had on our first visit had layers of flavour from the fragrant herbs. But it was so spicy that we had to stop eating halfway through the bowl. The slimy and chewy potato noodles didn't help.

But we do like its chilled Sichuan spicy chicken (HK$62), so we returned. The pieces of boneless, tender meat topped with peanut and spring onion were not too fierce, and were good eaten alone or with noodles. The Sichuan beef noodles in soup (HK$46) was simple yet flavourful.

But we took a wrong turn when we chose the "married couple's slices of lung" (HK$62).

Despite the translation, it is basically the famed dish fuqi feipian - thin slices of beef and offal bathed in a Sichuan spicy sauce. Way too much Sichuan peppercorn left our lips and throats numb and tingling, and ruined the meal.