An authentic Chinese Restaurant serving tasty Chinese food has quietly opened in Mall of Emirates on Sheikh Zayed Road. A friend had told me about it, otherwise I’d never have found it. The large food orientated expansion on the ground floor isn’t the newest bit of the Mall. Head upstairs to the first floor at the Carrefour side and look for the Marina Home Furnishings store, take the passage way between here and Sharief Luggage shop to Chi’Zen, a proper Chinese restaurant serving good food in a calm and peaceful environment. It’s a franchise of the well established Zen restaurant in Hong Kong.

The salt and pepper calamari was among the best I’ve had in Dubai, tender and tasty with just the right amount of spice,  similarly the Schezuan long beans were well cooked and flavoursome. Our children enjoyed the Peking Crispy duck with pancakes and we were glad we only ordered a quarter duck as portions are generous. While the mango Crème brulee was a slight misnomer (it was more of a fresh mango mousse with a caramelised topping) it was fresh, tasty and generous in size, just not what I was expecting.

We drank Jasmine tea and mineral water with our meal but I understand an alcohol licence is on it’s way, I’ll update you when it arrives. We tried a vegetarian dim sum and again were impressed, they have a selection of dim sum as part of the main menu, but the restaurant doesn’t open till 12pm lunch time so no dim sum breakfasts just yet. The restaurant nestles between a soon to open Jamie Oliver Cafe and a Sugar Nails Bar nearby. It’s also just a few steps away from the Mall entrance of the Pullman Hotel.

They have a special lunch time menu, 2 courses for Dhs 59 or 3 courses for Dhs 69 and a good children’s menu for Dhs 25.00 per head. Connie, the knowledgeable and very competent manageress informed me that it was possible to mix and match some of the dishes on the set menu, so do go for the salt and pepper calamari if you can. The head chef is from Malaysia while the sous chefs are all Chinese, all of which contributes the authenticity of the restaurant, try it before it gets too busy.

Review courtesy of Monica Kapila of  Do In Dubai.