Zhouyu - A Chinese Kitchen — Restaurant in Tamil Nadu

After hearing quite a bit of hype about Zhoyu being a promising new Chinese restaurant in town, we decided to try it out for Sunday lunch. It’s located above Pumpkin Tales in Alwarpet, and from the setup, it appears the two might share ownership.

We arrived around 1 PM and were surprised to find the restaurant almost empty. A few more diners trickled in closer to 2:30–3 PM, but even then, it wasn’t full. The ambience was modest—honestly, it didn’t quite match the pricing or the expectations set by the buzz around the place.

We ordered a variety of dishes: chicken wontons, a bao (which turned out to be more momo-shaped than the taco-style ones I usually prefer), a pork dish (likely Singapore-style pork), General Tso’s chicken or something similar (I don’t recall the exact name), and chicken claypot rice as our main course.

The starters were mostly underwhelming. The wontons lacked flavor and were quite bland. The bao was passable in taste, though not what I was expecting in terms of presentation or texture.The saving grace was the pork dish—it had a good balance of spice and flavor, tossed in generous oil with red and amber bell peppers. It was rich and well-prepared, and frankly, the only dish we genuinely enjoyed.

The claypot chicken rice was a mixed bag. The rice had an interesting and enjoyable flavor, with a subtle peanut undertone, and the sauce was well done. However, the chicken itself had a stale smell. I have a sharp sense of taste and smell, and the odor was unmistakable. When I informed the waitress, she checked with the chef and came back saying the same preparation was served to another table and they hadn’t complained. That didn’t sit well with me—just because someone else didn’t notice it doesn’t mean it wasn’t off.

I asked her to remove the dish, clarifying that while the rice and sauce were good, parts of the chicken were clearly not fresh. Thankfully, I caught it before my husband had more than a bite—had he continued, we might have ended up dealing with a stomach issue later.

Given all this, even setting aside the claypot chicken issue, the overall experience didn’t meet expectations. The food was mediocre at best, and certainly not worth the price point. Unfortunately, I won’t be returning to Zhoyu anytime soon.

I just have a few random photos, that weren't taken for the sake of review and hence might not have a...

I discovered this restaurant through my visit to Motel Mamalla. There was a mention of all group restaurants on the Motel Mamalla placemats. And I am glad I discovered this place.

The ambience and the vibe of the restaurant is very neat, clean and bright. The restaurant is very spacious and the music complemented the ambience.

Now to the food. For starters we ordered lotus root salad with a generous sprinkle of soya sauce and vinegar. Healthy, clean starter, with right amount of soya sauce and vinegar. In most places lotus root is fried, and here you get boiled lotus root and even though the lotus root is boiled, it was crispy and very tasty. The dish was perfectly salted and not too heavy on spice.

We also order chicken wontons in chilli oil. Again, the dish was rightly spiced and was very tasty. We also added a bit of the chilli oil to the lotus root salad and it tasted good with the lotus root. Probably a combo the restaurant could try for their lotus root salad.

We also ordered soy milk with ginger and Americano. The ginger enhanced the flavor of soy milk. But I was a little disappointed with Americano. There was hardly any flavor from the coffee and the fragrance of the coffee was also missing.

We Ghuangzhou street noodles for the main course. Perfectly cooked noodles with a generous amount of oyster and shitake mushrooms, and chicken. Again a perfect dish, not too oily, not too spicy.

For desserts we ordered Orange Crème Brûlée and a slice of Tiramisu cake. The crème brûlée had a perfectly crisp top and the sesame cracker with the dish was very tasty. Tiramisu cake was the highlight. Perfect in every way, not too eggy, not too sweet. Very well balanced dish.

Overall, all the dishes have a perfect balance. The savory dishes are perfectly slated and have the right amount of spice and desserts are not overly sweet.

The service is very good and perhaps, an area of improvement would be for the staff to be more knowledgeable about the menu.

The restaurant is located above Pumpkin Tales and has a decent amount of parking space. If you haven’t visited this restaurant yet, I would urge you to try and you won’t be...

Recently tried the Best Chinese in #Chennai . Can you guess where?? . It's the, Zhouyu - A Chinese Kitchen ❤️ . An aesthetic ambience with quality Asian food. It was one of those love-at-first-bite kinda places which serves authentic Chinese food in Chennai. . @zhouyu_chennai is brought to you by the amazing team of ladies who also run @pumpkin.tales!! Need I say any more? . I tried their starters which were phenomenal, their Radish cake was the best! It was made with shredded radish and rice flour steamed with shiitake, onion, green onion and then pan fried. . Vegetable Spring roll made with Shiitake, mushroom, bamboo shoot, cabbage, carrots in a crispy roll was also very delicious! . Lotus root and peanuts with Xian chilli sauce is a standout starter with amazing flavours which has some of the delicious ingredients of Chinese cuisine from sesame seeds, Redchillies to peanuts. . The Xian sauce can be distinguished from the regular stir-fry and it enhances each flavors in the dish. . For main course, I tried their fried rice with vegetable stir fry gravy which literally had the perfect taste. They had the most unique desserts and I tried their vanilla ice cream with lichi & peanuts. . Lovely ambience, Amazing FOOD !! With best in class hospitality. . The cost for two would approximately be 1300-1400₹ and the place is quite spacious & safe. . . The flavours are definitely more intense. I personally enjoy a plate which has different elements where you can mix and match to form something new in every bite you take. . . I highly recommend @zhouyu_chennai for some authentic #chinesefood . So what you are waiting for ???? . If you love asian food, do check this place out...