Restaurant China Garden

Being Chinese, I’m always skeptical of Chinese restaurants that don’t seem legit, especially ‘fancy’ ones in places like Zermatt where it feels like it only exists because they needed the token Chinese place to make it more ‘international’. I was pleasantly surprised. Despite the ‘chinoiserie’ style décor (red and gold pillars like you’d see in Chinese courtyards, water feature with bamboo plants, etc) the food’s 80% authentic. They definitely cater to a western palate –the flavours are less pungent than what I’m used to– but it’s still tasty. Anddd, the chefs are Chinese! Major plus.
The waiters were mostly attentive and friendly and they also seemed quite knowledgeable about the menu/​Chinese food in general. Mum asked for chili to have with the noodles and our waitress replied ‘we have sambal’, which was really surprising because sambal chili is very south-​east asian and if I didn’t grow up in Singapore I probably wouldn’t even know that there are different types of chili paste! We even overheard the waitress explaining ‘century egg’ to a Russian family, which isn’t on the menu, so I wonder how that came up. Props to them!
Overall, an enjoyable experience, would come back.
— - — - -
Some quick comments on the dishes we tried.
STARTERS:
Hot and sour soup: great texture, all the right ingredients. Could do with more vinegar & pepper but each table has their rack of condiments so that’s no problem. /​‘Hun Tun’ soup: Not bad. Meat dumplings with lots of seaweed. /​Seaweed soup with egg flowers: The egg didn’t have the right texture (though it did come close) and the ‘hun tun’ soup had more seaweed than this had. Still not bad though.
MAINS:
Noodles with vegetables: blah and uninteresting, I’d give it a miss next time. /​Chicken ‘Gong Bao’: Spicy but would’ve liked it spicier (again the western palate thing). Chicken was very tender and juicy but it seems like they used peanuts instead of the usual cashew nuts. /​Sliced venison with black pepper sauce: The meat was very very tender. Usually this dish has a thicker sauce with lots of crushed black pepper, but they used black pepper powder which wasn’t as tasty. Still good. /​Fried courgettes with garlic sauce: This was the one dish we probably shouldn’t have ordered. The courgettes were pretty greasy (since they soak up the oil) and you only got a garlicky aftertaste. /​We also ordered an asparagus dish with oyster sauce, which whilst definitely not traditionally Chinese, went quite well together.

This was an OK experience overall. It’s an upscale place on a side street off the Bahnhofstrasse. It is next door, I think, to a sister restaurant that is a traditional fondue place.
The service was good here and we appreciated that the server was very honest about the menu. We were told, when asking about several different dishes, which ones were better, which ones good for kids, etc. She also lit our tableside warmers early and brought our plates out to heat them up (nice touch).
For drinks, we got an Apelor spritz (Apelor and prossecco and soda, I think) and a gin and tonic. Both OK.
We ordered a spring roll app and it came with a trio of dipping sauces… soy with wasabi, soy with vinaigrette and a sweet and sour duck sauce. They wee good and we saved them for later. I mixed them into the rice… pretty good combo. Spring rolls were OK… not the best or worst I’d ever had but definitely fresh-​made.
For mains, my daughters split the duck and the pork dumplings. I got the spicy shrimp (kind of like kung pao shrimp for those of you familiar with that dish) and my wife got a vegetable and tofu dish in a mild white sauce.
My shrimp dish was excellent. It was the best dish we had. The duck was dry. The dumplings were fine except my daughter just decided (as 6 year-​olds do) that she just didn’t like them. The tofu and veggie dish tasted fine but was a little uninspiring. Plain white rice tasted just like plain white rice and we also got a veggie and egg rice that was good.
The pricing wasn’t too bad for Zermatt. Four of us ate for 133CHF which seems like a bargain in a place where a cocktail can cost 20CHF. I might go back here for the shrimp dish and to try something new. But, what really sticks in my mind is that the server really wanted to steer us away from certain dishes (thanks!!!) and that makes me think it is a bit hit or miss at China Garden. I think a good approach here is to ask about the best dishes. It would be a good place for a group as well.

Das Restaurant hat nicht nur seine 13 Punkte diskussionslos verdient sondern bald auch 13 Besuche von uns erhalten!
Beste chinesische Küche in angenehm ruhiger Atmosphäre serviert. Aufmerksame Bedienung.