Citi Zen

Citi Zen Chinese on Urbanspoon

Why did the Chinese restaurant cross the road?

To acquire larger premises, in order to cater to an expanding base of customers.

This was a long established restaurant before it crossed the road. The new place is enormous. Other than giant suburban local hotel mess halls, this is probably the biggest restaurant around. I've only photographed one of the rooms.

It takes me a while to find the place. The door sign is suspiciously not in English.

The menu is a giant book of flexible plastic. It has big pictures, and resembles a children's book. Very professional and expensive.

Steamed Prawn dumplings
6/10

Prawns wrapped with thin rice pastry.

I normally don't order entrees, but I'm hungry. :)

There's really nothing to these. It's just prawns in rice pastry. There's a faint hint of spice in the soy sauce, but other than that, I'm not sure there are any other ingredients.

This simple combination if ingredients is pleasant enough, however.

Citi Zen Crispy Chicken
6/10

Flattened deboned whole chicken marinated with our chef's special spices, golden and crispy, a chicken lover's must try dish. (verbatim)

The waiter is fairly non-committal on recommendations, but eventually recommends this chicken as the thing that's had the best feedback. Sometimes I think staff don't have an answer to my questions, and I end up being recommended the safest thing on the menu.

This is a big feedpile indeed. The spices on the chicken certainly change its flavour, and make it more tasty and interesting. There's no coriander, but I can't pick out any individual spices. This probably means there's at least three different spices in the secret mix.

I like the sweet chilli sauce being in its own little bowl. I can control the spiciness of the fish this way.

As tasty as this chicken was, it's way too much for one person. I don't really want to eat a dish that's 75% one thing.

Galliano banana & ice cream
6/10

Banana fritters lit up with Galliano liqueur.

I'm presented with the dessert, then the flaming Galliano is poured on. The alcohol burns almost colourlessly, but you might be able to see a tinge of blue in the photo.

The fritters have a good banana taste, but the small amount of surviving Galliano is extraordinarily potent.

:(
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