Zheng — Restaurant in Oxford

On the far end of Walton Street, convenient for students living nearby in the Jericho area. It is a moderate size restaurant with a modern chick atmosphere. Seems to be targeting young audience. The lighting was rather dim, therefore the ambience was wasted on elderly folks trying to work its way through the menu with reading glasses.

The dim sum selection is limited and slightly overpriced in fairness. It's the same quality you can find from any mainstream Asian/Chinese wholesalers. In fact, the local Chinese Supermarket or grocery store nearby, Lung Wah Chong, will have the exactly identical dim sum but frozen available to buy in packets. It is highly likely coming from the same supply chain. Any economists or hardcore savers will find it better off, steaming at home. Just a comparison, GD restaurant chain from Colindale and LDN ChinaTown make their own fresh dim sum for lower prices, prawn dumplings at £3.85 and char siu buns for £3.25 opposing to the price listed in Zheng. Soup wise, we probably seen it many times from any Chinese takeaways, so, nothing really surprise me there. It does not have the glamour despite printed on a glossy menu.

Often I have enjoyed food from many Singaporean and Malaysian restaurants in my travels, but the Mango Chicken I had from Zheng seems different from what I was expecting. It was very similar to Lemon Chicken from a typical Chinese Take Out in Britain. Deep fried chicken breast fillets, sliced up, fruity sauce poured over it with tiny bits of Mango. The food was well presented and tasted fine in its form. Just it's not the half chicken marinated with mango sauce and lightly fried, which I had in mind coming from some SG restaurants.

My advice is Zheng does provide some options that may be intriguing for those adventuring out in Oxford looking for a different taste from South Asia. Under the sub categories of Malay, SG and strangely Shanghai. It appears to be dishes vaguely resembling street food favourites from each respective coastal region.

My visit, food was of acceptable standards, but lacking the authentic feel to what was expected of a Singaporean dish, also the pricey reheated dim sum sides that obviously came from wholesalers did not help at all. I went in with high hopes that it can be refreshing for the local area, but ended up as a cliche. However, the service was indeed good and friendly. It does deserve a re-visit when dining out with friends that is perhaps not a veteran in Asian cuisine or a passionate food critic and simply can get satisfied with the British marketing of Nouveau South Asian cuisine.

Food is 4/5 Service is 4/5 Ambience is 4/5 Overall is 4/5

For its price, expected more, but then again, it is a winner over some of its competitors that is...

Very tasty food indeed and quite authentic too (according to the four Chinese people in our group). We went in a reasonably big party and had booked a table. Unfortunately, it wasn't available on our arrival so we had to wait for 5 minutes or so and then were seated at a different, smaller table that had another one added on to it when the couple next to us left. However, this wasn't a particular problem.

We originally decided to go for the "Chef's Choice" option which would provide a two course banquet for all of us for £27.70 per head. After much deliberation with the serving staff (in Mandarin) it was concluded that it would be much cheaper if we just chose the dishes ourselves. The final price ended up as £17.50 per head including drinks and rice (for a 1 course meal).

After all this had been sorted out, we had a very pleasant evening. The staff were very attentive and friendly and the food was excellent. I'd highly recommend Zheng as a place to get authentic, tasty Chinese food at a reasonable price (if you order...

Service was efficient but slightly impersonal. The food was unfortunately rather bland, which came as a surprise given the focus on fusion and variety that was made in the menu and newspaper reviews displayed in the window. I had aubergine in capital sauce and plain noodles. Weirdly even though I had food in my 'eating bowl' I was asked if I was finished and they made to remove my plates, like they were looking to free up my table. There was no need, the restaurant wasn't even half full. No fault of the restaurant, but on my visit there were 7/8 kids spread across 3 tables whose parents were ignoring their increasingly loud shouting and messing about. It didn't make for a pleasant dining experience. To compound that, even though I seated myself as far away as possible, and with half the restaurant to choose from, a couple with a baby arrived and were seated right next to me! Lol. Obviously family orientated, which is great if you have a family, not so for lone or...