Review: Zheng, Oxford

Dare I risk allegations of elitism by presenting Zheng – as was honestly the case – as a lively, flavour-laden two-hour interlude between quails’ eggs at Binsey’s Perch pub and Puligny-Montrachet 2012 at the equally, if differently, delightful Rose and Crown in North Parade Avenue?

You bet I dare.

The sun shone, after all. The bees buzzed, the fledglings twittered, the flowers and grass flung their pollen wide into the air. Was this not a day to savour the best in life, to thank whatever, whoever, was serving it up?

Zheng, at the north end of Walton Street, has been with us rather more than a year, having opened in the long and narrow premises formerly occupied by the Bombay Restaurant, to which many a student party staggered over the decades, bottles clanking, this being a Bring Your Own establishment.

OK, I won’t deny that others did the same, even journalists, except during the years of its mysterious closure – birds nesting, weeds sprouting in its roof – following serious fire damage.

Named for the 15th-century Chinese explorer, Fleet Admiral Zheng, the functionally furnished restaurant is designed to encourage culinary excursions in the same adventurous spirit that he brought to his voyages.

Seven chefs ply their craft in its kitchen, devoted to the various oriental cuisines on offer, including authentic Malaysian and Singaporean, spicy Szechuan, Cantonese stir-fries and Shanghai braises.

The restaurant – an instant hit from the start, at which a table can be hard to secure – is the brainchild of the affable Adam Tan, long-time front man at the excellent Sojo in Hythe Bridge Street.

Its admirers include, as does Sojo’s, The Times restaurant critic Giles Coren whose laudatory review is pasted in the front window. I haven’t read it but guess it will include his trademark outbursts against Oxford and its older university (his alma mater).

Rosemarie and I conducted our test – as seemed advisable with such variety on offer – in the company of pals. These were Joe and Martin, long-time Sojo fans who had yet to visit Adam in his new business, and indeed were prime movers in this trip, for which we owe them our heartiest thanks.

All four of us were impressed by the zingy flavours of the food – though caution is advised over some of the dishes – and the happy atmosphere created by the waiting team. They paid lavish attention to topping up our glasses with wine, a citrussy Chilean sauvignon blanc (Vina Carrasco), ideal for coping with the spiciness of the food.

Adam took a most helpful approach in supervising the orders for this, ensuring that we did not miss out on some of the best dishes and, as important, that we were going to have enough. We certainly did.

The chilli salt and pepper squid starter could not be missed from our order and turned out to be at once crispy, spicy and tender, as Joe said, “historic”, adding that he was speaking in the Michael Winner sense of the word.

There was general approval, too, for the Sen Chai Bau, lettuce leaves stuffed with hoi sin and a mix of chicken, prawns and crunchy vegetables, and the Malaysian satay skewers with cucumber and mild peanut sauce. The seaweed egg dropped soup got the thumbs-up from its one consumer, Rosemarie.

Moving on to the main course dishes, there was uniform agreement concerning the deliciousness of the Rendang beef, big chunks of tender meat slow cooked in the Malaysian manner with lots of coconut, and Godmother’s lamb, a Szechuan dish in which the pieces of meat are cooked with leeks in a chilli sauce. Though the menu warns of “extra hot” chilli, we actually thought it surprisingly mild, and the better for it.

What proved emphatically hot, however, were the dried chillies distributed with “full and unwithdrawing hand”, as Milton might have put it, among the peanuts in the Kung Bao chicken.

This Singaporean dish was agreed to be bordering on the evil, an acquired taste that none of us felt we were likely to acquire (as all of us have, surely, for sweet and sour pork, a classic well delivered here).

There was a certain coolness, as well, about the Chinese leaves with crab meat sauce (too crabby, too soupy) but the other vegetable dish, Gan Ben, stir-fried beans with dry chillies, was precisely the triumph Adam promised it would be.

Zheng
82 Walton Street, Oxford, OX2 6EA, 01865 511188 (takeaway 01865 558888), zhengoxford.co.uk

Opening times: Mon-Friday noon-2.30pm (not Tuesday), 5.30-10.30pm; Sat noon-10.45pm
Parking: Some parking in the street but best by taxi or public transport
Do try: Seaweed egg dropped soup (£4.20), chilli salt and pepper squid (£7.50), king prawn and chicken Sen Chair Bau (£8.50), Rendang beef (£9.90), Godmother’s lamb (£8.90), Gan Ben (£7.90)