IF YOU were not looking for the Zenxi restaurant, you may well walk past it. 

Dark tinted windows, a subtly decorated front and the location – off the main High Street down Baddow Road – mean the restaurant is pretty hidden away.

But it is worth taking your time to find Zenxi as it undoubtedly dishes out some of the best oriental food I’ve eaten for a very long time. 

The inside of the restaurant is beautiful, dimly lit and impeccably laid out – there are enough tables that it would be feel busy if they were all full, but not so many as to feel cramped or too close to your neighbours.

There is a bar and waiting area too, which would certainly make a difference if you had to wait for a table - and let me assure you it would be worth the wait.

The vast menu includes a huge variety of dishes, from popular and well-known starters such as satay chicken and seaweed to slices of sashimi, mains including sweet and sour dishes to a whole page of the menu dedicated to seafood.

But first we had to tackle the drinks menu, which was packed with interesting cocktails and beers.

The only issue we had was that my boyfriend accidentally ordered a non-alcoholic beer as it was not clear on the menu – but, having said that, he still enjoyed it.

I tried out a Singapore Sling cocktail, which was deliciously tangy, followed by a Rose cocktail, which was packed with interesting flavours and I will be making a return visit to work my way down the list. 

When ordering our meal, we decided to really go for it and ordered far too much food as it all sounded amazing.

We started with a portion of satay chicken, which was a little spicy but delicious, and a sashimi dish, which had tuna and salon chunks, and soy sauce and wasabi for dipping. 

Both were decent-sized dishes with enough to share and really kick started our tastebuds. 

We then enjoyed a quarter portion of crispy duck, which was served with a generous number of pancakes, cucumber and spring onion. 

We had considered ordering the half duck but were glad we didn’t –there was so much meat I think it would have served three. As it was we finished it anyway, but were pretty full by the time our mains arrived. 

My double soya sauce roast chicken main dish was lovely and had a really thick sauce which meant it was not dry and my partner’s king prawns in Szechuan sauce was perfectly spiced – not too hot, but still full of flavour with a kick. 

We also had a portion of seaweed and lotus root with asparagus – very unusual, but I would recommend it – and one salted fish and chicken fried rice.

The fish in the rice was incredibly strong – almost too much – so we didn’t manage to eat much of it, but great if you are a fan of very strong seafood.

As we had ordered so much, we couldn’t quite finish everything but the kind waiter boxed the leftovers up for us so we could enjoy it at home. 

The whole meal was quite pricey but I will definitely be back for a special occasion.