Zheng

Modern Malaysian restaurant in Chelsea, London

Zheng Chelsea | Malaysian Restaurant, London

Combining eclectic flavours and spices — the finest that Asia can offer.

Many of our dishes represent what is known as Malaysian Cuisine, supplemented with speciality dishes from other parts of Asia.

http://www.zhengchelsea.co.uk

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review of London Malaysian restaurant Zheng by Andy Hayler in ...

Review analysis
food   drinks   value  

Although mostly serving Malaysian food, the restaurant is actually named after a famous Chinese admiral, the eunuch explorer who led a large Chinese fleet in the 15th century.

The slightly tenuous connection of all this to the restaurant is that Zheng landed five times on the Malacca coast, which is part of modern day Malaysia.

Malaysia has three major ethnic groupings: local Malays, Chinese and Indian, each of whom have contributed to current Malaysian cuisine.

Back in Chelsea, Zheng has a smart dining room, offering a lengthy menu of predominantly Malaysian dishes, with a few Chinese dishes thrown in.

Certainly the standard of cooking here was quite good, and given the remarkable lack of Malaysian restaurants in London, this is certainly a welcome addition to the local dining scene.

Zheng Restaurant, Chelsea review

Review analysis
food   drinks  

Food and drink: Zheng has established itself as one of Oxford’s best and most celebrated Malaysian and pan-Asian establishments for some time; situated in Jericho, it led none other than Giles Coren to announce that it was ‘possibly the best authentic Chinese/Malaysian in the country’.

Graced by the charming owner and maitre’d Adam, who candidly steers diners away from the (not bad) cocktails on the grounds that ‘they’re the only thing we don’t do brilliantly’, there is an à la carte menu at, for the area, very sensible prices – but a more enjoyable experience comes with letting the chefs serve up mystery dishes; a kind of mini-tasting menu, if you like.

A sharing plate of starters included some of the best chicken satay we’ve ever had, although the rest of it verged closer to decent but unexceptional pan-Asian fare; the seaweed was slightly tasteless and the prawn toast no better than you’d have in any number of other places.

There’s a brief but well-chosen wine list, which offers bottles at both accessible and wild prices, and, although desserts are never going to be the main thing here, the mango pudding is a lovely end to the meal, if you’ve the appetite after the previous delights.

Although we’d probably take Adam’s advice and not bother with the cocktails next time.

Fay Maschler reviews Zheng: The food of legend in Chelsea ...

Review analysis
menu   food   staff   desserts  

Reading the legend of the Chinese Admiral Zheng He that prefaces the menu at this new South-East Asian restaurant in South Ken, I am brought up short by the following: “Born in Kunyang, Yunnan, in the late 14th century… when he was just 10 years old his homeland was invaded.

I’ll leave you to go to Zheng the restaurant to read the rest of the story because go you should for Malaysian cooking of this calibre — but just touch on the fact that some historians believe Zheng He discovered America before Christopher Columbus.

It is how salad cream would have ended up had it gone East, a beguiling condiment for British palates and, I suspect, part of the reason we scrap over the last piece of Zheng’s seafood roll.

Here it is simply garnished with eggs, prawns (lots of them) and the green of spring onions and served with sambal (hot sauce) on the side.

Just to be thorough, we also try nasi lemak where the coconut rice, egg, cucumber, fried anchovies and peanuts are accompanied by punchy rendang chicken, a gathering apparently loved by Malaysians for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

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