Luo, Stampfenbachstrasse, Zurich

Dumplings mit Schweinefleisch

Knuspriges Rindfleisch

Hotel restaurants have a bad reputation, so the Luo which is part of the Sofitel (separate entrance) didn’t seem like a place of choice. The place was only sparsley filled during lunch, but a chirpy Mr. Luo, the owner welcomed me. After a lot of chit-chat I got a chance to look at the menu. Obviously a Szechuan influence is predominant here and an interesting selection of dishes was listed. Starting of with some pork dumplings, one must pay attention to eat these correctly. Bite off a corner, leat the steam escape, then nibble the rest slowly while ensuring that you taste the sauce inside the dumpling. Stuffing the complete dumpling in your mouth will scorch it, I had a blister and Mr. Luo came running with a napkin… A perfect tasting dish, the dumplings are fried on the bottom giving it a nice crunch at the end. Moving on to the next speciality, crunchy spicy beef. The szechuan influence cleary showed, this dish got fiery. The spiciness took away from the crunchiness of the beef and it wasn’t as good or as refined as the dumplings. But a rather refreshing dish and a nice contrast to all the Suan Long or similar places. Funny thing was that when I told Mr. Luo that I had a day off, he was under the impression I was out of a job and looked at me with a combination of disbelief and shame. It did clear up a bit later and the relief that I was going to pay my bill could clearly be seen on his face. Prices for my a la carte lunch were a bit over the top:

Rechnung