Ma La

About

Award-winning chef Zhang Xiaozhong, former head chef of Barshu, joins us in offering you the best in mouth-watering Sichuan cuisine.

Story

Ma La Sichuan, located in the heart of Westminster, offers you the best in authentic Sichuan cuisine. Award-winning chef Zhang Xiaozhong, former head chef of Barshu and The Shard's Hutong, has created an exquisite menu with truly epicurean flavours designed to stimulate and excite the senses.

“Ma la” means the distinctive “numbing and hot” spicy sensation created by pungency of fiery Sichuan peppers and chillies that has made Sichuan food one of the most popular cuisines in the world. Whilst some of our offerings are spicy, our diverse range of traditional banquet dishes to sumptuous street snacks has plenty of subtleties for those with a gentler palette, each artfully crafted to capture the sweet, sour, bitter and aromatic tastes that make Sichuan cuisine so unique.

At Ma La Sichuan, the heart and soul of our cooking is in our intricate alchemy of the complex Sichuan flavours to create a balance of modern, refreshing and irresistible dishes.

About Chef Zhang:
Chef Zhang is a third generation professional chef and was taught by both his uncle and grandfather, the latter having served as personal chef to the late Chinese Premier, Deng Xiaoping 鄧小平.
Chef Zhang was awarded gold from the Fifth International Competition of Eat East Food in Beijing in 2008 and was invited to the USA ‘Worlds of Flavor’ 2011 Summit as the UK's representative of Sichuan cuisine.