Zen

Zen offers classic Sichuan cooking in stylish and comfortable surroundings. Sichuanese cooking is one of the great unknown cuisines of the world. It is legendary in China for its sophistication and amazing diversity, but known in the West only by a few famous dishes and its "hot and spicy" reputation. Chinese people say the "China is the place for food, but Sichuan is the place for flavour", and locals claim the region boasts five thousand different dishes. The real Sichuan cuisine is quite unlike the Cantonese, eastern, or northern styles, and quite unlike any other outside China. Outsiders often forget that China is more of a continent than a country: its vast territory encompasses deserts and rain forests, high mountains and fertile plains, salt lakes and rolling grasslands. Sichuan is as large as France, with a population nearly twice the size of Britain's. It has its own dialect, its own operatic style, a unique teahouse culture and, of course, an outstanding culinary tradition.