zen garden

i've been craving a delicious yum cha session for ages, and since my cantonese grandfather is in town he suggested we visit zen garden on sunday. the restaurant is typically chinese, from the kitsch forest wallpaper to the moody orange lighting, and a standard fish tank housing some strange looking creature in the front. the ladies helping barely speak english so it was nice having some relatives there to order the tasty dishes.

you order from a lady by a stand housing ornate little steamers filled with delicacies ranging from char siu bao tochickenfeet. we picked a few dishes from there and also ordered two bowls of chook (my childhood favourite, thick rice soup which is perfect comfort food). the chook could have done with a bit more flavour and i'm not a fan of the cooked lettuce, but it was still good. the lady also mentioned one of my other favourite childhood dishes, cheong fan, which is flat rice flour pancakes filled with prawn or pork in a sweetish sauce, so we ordered two portions of those. they were delicious. the pork ribs were full of flavour, and there isn't much meat on them so every bit counts. thechickenfeet, bao and beef noodle dishes were all very good as well.

i don't know if it was all the nostalgia of having authentic chinese food again, but i thoroughly enjoyed the experience and i would go back for the yum cha anytime.

* we came again for sunday yum cha last week, and i got to try my favourite dish: the beef flank hot pot. delicious flavour but the meat was a bit too chewy.

this past weekend was my in laws' annual party. they chose zen garden to visit. with them being taiwanese, i have to trust their choices when it comes to any chinese restaurants. my boyfriend had been there before and told me that the food was nice so i naturally trusted him. i can honestly say that the food was lovely. we had your usual banquet styled meal with loads of dishes constantly coming out. it started off with somechickenand mussels. being vegetarian, i obviously didn't eat that but seeing how much everyone seemed to enjoy it, i reckon it was lovely. this was then followed by some prawns (which were apparently to die for... and based on the smell, i reckon they were). finally a vegetable dish came- chinese cucumber with carrot and seaweed. i am a huge fan of chinese cucumber so needless to say, i was happy when i saw this dish come. the duck soon made its way to the table too as well as a phenomenal tofu dish, rice  and fish. we all ate to the point where our bellies were nearly full. but a part of me knew more food would come and it did... taro soup with red bean... i am an avid lover of taro, so having the soup made my night. 

between having some amazing company and lovely food, it was a ball of a time. the food was slightly bland but still lovely and the food is really authentic, which i love.

very authentic chinese cuisine that settled the craving for chinese food! went with my partner for a slightly late dinner over a weekend. the service can improve but the food was decent, bland, but decent. as i lovechickensweet corn soup, i decided to have this for my starter. my partner ordered the dumplings but was told it would take 20 minutes which we agreed to. the problem however was that they brought our mains before i had even finished my soup and before the dumplings even arrived. rather disappointing but we were quite hungry and wolfed down our food nonetheless. i opted for thechickenand cashew nuts with noodles while my partner got the chillichickenand fried rice. as we were too full we did not have dessert. will maybe visit again when the chinese food craving hits...but it won't be anytime soon.

we weren't sure what to expect when we walked into here. it seems to be a more traditional chinese restaurant withchickenfeet on the menu. the service was particularly slow.

we had dumplings to start and then some crispy beef. both were lovely. thechickenstir fry had very littlechickenwhich was a bit disappointing. i wouldn't be in a rush to go back.