Never been so happy to be wrong.
Let me explain.
Spicy Peppercorn has been around quite some time and years ago i ate there often at the behest of others. I always found the food middling at best and once they move locations i went exactly once. That visit was atrocious with the (since changed) owner openly and loudly berating staff, worse still the food was still middling. That was five plus years ago.
Add years more and i went to one catered event that had a few passable dishes.
This last time though, very nice. I still had an aversion to SP so we had tried a few other locals before, they were all packed, we basicly fell on SP as a last resort. The place had a few couples and one old guy. Several, but not all, tBle showed signs of recent popularion. Walking in to a non-packed shop when everyone else was standing room only made me suspect things had not changed, we stayed.
A quick peek at the menu suprisingly showed many desirable items i never had, quite a few in fact. After wrestling the menu for 20 min we decided on a Royal Hot Pot, almond prawns and .the prerequisite - entire reason we went out - partner was craving them, spring rolls.
We didn't wait long but in that time two more couple came in. The lone hostess did a good job balancing time and customers.
Anyhow, the food doesn't take long, the appetizers show and about 10 minutes later (a good time frame) the main.
The almond prawns were an absolute delight, my preferance was with the chili-oil, but the cherry sauce was decent too. My other was of the mind that the spring rolls we a tad heavy on cabbage, i had no such issue.
We both agreed on the hot pot, very good but lacking something small. I repaired mine with chilioil and some nice dark thick soy sauce hiding in a kikoman bottle. In my estimation it made the dish near perfect. The spice was too much for my co-author, the soy was to much of a flavour change to the dish for them... their sugestion is toasted sesame - thinking on it i whole heartedly concur.
Was it perfect, no. It was, however, very good.
I look forward to my next visit, something i find more suprising than anything else about this outing.