Wesley’s Kitchen

Klein aber fein! Sehr gute asiatische Küche. Ich empfehle die Fleischdumplings. Das Restaurant ist ziemlich klein, reservieren lohnt sich.

Xiao Long Bao in Zurich, along with red piggy and Shanghai bao, both with pork and veggies. Very authentic, rivals places in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Staff is super friendly. Seating is a little tight, I was seated at a table with two Chinese ladies who enjoyed the food as well, half of their meal was to go (and it was a big bag!). Will definitely be back when I come to Zurich!

Five stars for their outstanding Xiao Long Bao soup dumplings, their spicy salmon sashimi and their veal okonomiyaki omlet — at Wesley’s they really know their way around some of the best Asian dishes. However, some dishes do not live up to the excellent standard of the above dishes, which is sad: the scallops were very greasy and the garlic shrimp rather flavorless as such but covered in a heap of fried garlic, which added some crispiness and a little garlic flavor, but mainly a lot of greasy stuff. I love the place, adore some of their dishes and choices on the menu but would wish for the team to raise the bar on some of their dishes.

Every time I come to Zürich, I eat Wesley’s Kitchen, no doubt about it. The Xiao Long Bao takes me back to my days in Shanghai. To me, Wesley’s Kitchen is good on a global standard for Asian food, not just only the Swiss standard for Asian food (sorry, but true). Finding good Asian food to eat in Switzerland can be a challenge, and I’m glad Swiss people are able to find such a haven in Zurich. The Sheng Jian Bao (crunchy on the bottom) is my absolute favorite. If I’m not too hungry, I’ll just order those to-​go and be on my way.

Prices seemed ok for this area, about 90 $ for 2 people without drinks. Food was good but not great. The soup dumplings had a nice flavor but thick skin and we are always chasing the din tai fung dream. Other dishes were just ok but also not bad. Service was very nice but very slow and they seemed pretty understaffed. Our last dish we ordered and 20 min later asked if it was being prepared? Yes it is coming. 40 min later we flagged down our server and asked again and without missing a beat she said ‘so sorry, the kitchen forgot about it’. Huh. When was she going to tell us that? Overall not bad for Switzerland but I’m also dreaming about the great food back home for half the price.

Ich kämpfe ein bisschen mit mir, ob die 3 nicht etwas gar hart ist. Das Essen bei Wesley’s– das wusste ich schon bei der Einkehr dank Streetfood Festival und den Markt am Bahnhof — verdient locker die 5 Sterne. Leider mussten wir dann eine Dreiviertelstunde auf’s Essen warten. Wir hatten Dumplings, Ente und Beef bestellt. Die Grösse der einzelnen Portionen entspricht etwa der von den Tellerchen auf Sushi Kaitens. Ohne den sättigenden Reis. Und teurer, als der rohe Fisch. Als wir zu zweit die drei Tellerchen verspeist haben, waren wir noch derart hungrig, dass ein Warten auf eine weitere Bestellung unaushaltbar erschien. Wir sind am Anschluss noch schnell zu Burger King. Sorry, not sorry. Wenn ihr also Hunger und genug Geld habt: Niemand hält euch zurück, die ganze Speisekarte zu bestellen. ;)

Ich bin sehr enttäuscht mit Essen. Bedingung ist nicht freundlich. Das Essen war nicht besonders. Die Qualität die Bao ist sehr schlecht, wenn man das Originale in China probiert hat. Nicht Empfehlungswert.

Finally came to to try out the restaurant after repeated visits to their weekly baozi stall at the Zurich main station.
Basically:
Food quality/​authenticity: 4 stars, fresh ingredients, good variety of tapas, getting close to what you’d find in a typical restaurant in China… impressive for Zurich.
Service: 3 stars, friendly and pleasant but amateurish and a bit on the slow side (we were served by Joseph, who was really just a kid than a waiter)
Price: 2.5 stars, given that each dish is (~two) bite-​sized, 14 – 16 Chf per dish is a bit hard to swallow. Okay, so yes, you can make above average Chinese tapas. But do you really have to charge a premium like that… I guess given the Zurich factor, I should give 3 stars for the price. But, sigh, it is just disappointing because they really could charge less and be outstanding given the completely normal ingredients.
Okay, if you decide to come for thr first time, think small…
— The sitting area really is kitchen-​size (I’d say 20 people can be packed in, maximum) so it will be packed most of the time. Should go for takeout or have a reservation.
— Dinners dishes are not typical Chinese dish sizes, rather bite-​sized tapas. Come for a light evening meal (for 50 Chf, you can taste 3 – 4 decent tapas dishes)
— Come with a small group. If you come with a group of more than 4, it’s likely you won’t have your own table and will need to order the tapas dishes in double or triple. Also, it’s not so comfortable conversing with a larger group in this rather crowded kitchen.

Ich liebe dieses Restaurant! Tolle Gerichte und wirklich sehr, sehr lecker!

Typisches (und authentisches) Shanghai-​Essen.
Super fein gsi

Really tasty dim sum (bao with meat)… Hand made and fresh… Price a bit steep (2 CFH).

Disappointed to have to be revising my review for what was my favourite place to visit in Zurich. The last two times I have been back to Wesley’s (taking friends with me) I have been left sorely disappointed.
Firstly, the new regular waitresses are very vague and don’t seem to know what they are doing or have any interest in providing good customer service. It seemed to be an inconvenience to the staff that we wanted to eat there.
Secondly, rice is now no longer available. Given how delicious many of the sauces are on the ‘tapas’ dishes, we used to order a small serving of rice so we could enjoy the sauces left in the dishes, rather than wasting it. We are now told that rice is not available because it is not traditionally eaten in China and ‘not tapas’ (go figure).
Last but certainly not least, we were charged 2 CHF per glass of (tap!) water last time we went. In a city where you can get clean drinking water from fountains around every corner, this is very hard to get my head around.
The dumplings are still delicious but it’s hard to ignore these other things.