Shinwi

Usually I don’t write reviews, but this restaurant has most certainly provoked me into giving one.
My family and I visited this place at about 6.30pm on a weekday. The restaurant was almost all empty save for one table (an ominous sign which only hit us in retrospect). We ordered three entrees. None of us had lunch for that day, so everyone was hungry, until the dishes materialized.
Their filet de canard laqué à l’orange arrived DRENCHED in a saccharine, sticky sauce that felt like a crude mixture of marmalade and orange sauce. Most duck pieces had some greasy fats that had not been removed. They were further covered with thick round slices of orange — SKIN AND ALL. Taste and appearance aside, at least do the bare minimum like remove the orange skin please? The sickly sweetness of the duck pieces made the mediocre fried rice served with it actually feel like a relief to the taste buds. I struggled for a long time to finish this dish but finally had to concede defeat. My family on the other hand had plat océan sauté à la sauce soja (with soy sauce) and océan sauté à la sauce piquante (spicy). And the two seafood platters arrived with — once again — greasy-​looking fried noodles. While the océan sauté à la sauce piquante was okay apart from that, the océan sauté à la sauce soja lived up all too well to its name and tasted like it had swum in soy sauce.
Suffering from a coarse sugar-​and-​salt onslaught to the tongue, We gasped with relief when the vegetables and chicken soup arrived (way after the entrees were served). But a mouthful later and our facial expressions rearranged themselves. The chicken slices were dry, and the broth tasted like someone had gathered all the salt available on this street and thrown them in. The appearance — well you can see it for yourself from the photo, a picture doth speak a thousand words.
When we asked for the bill, it took three repeated requests (despite the fact only one other couple was present in the entire restaurant). In the end, they not only charged more than 40 € for a meal that had every taste apart from the right one, but EVEN HAD THE CHEEK TO ADD ANOTHER € 6 for THREE SMALL CUPS OF HOT WATER WHICH WE DID NOT TAKE A SIP AT ALL BECAUSE TINY BLACK SPOTS WERE FLOATING IN THEM.
By this time, all we wanted to do was to get out of this place asap and never look back. On our way out, we took a close look at the Asian characters engraved on literally every wall. They consisted of five unrelated words that, when translated, loosely meant «six degrees», «food», «to bear» and «urine» (!!!) (photo attached, see for yourself). It was a baffling and awkward ending to a meal of equally bewildering and embarrassing quality. We left the restaurant thirsty, frustrated, with half-​satisfied stomachs, and a firm consensus to never return.

A cozy place with interesting decorations.
Huge portion of food given the price is extremely low.
We ordered roasted duck (nearly half of a duck) + fried rice + wok for ~12 euros.
Another vege fried noodles for ~7 euros!
The whole meal for two costs less than 25 euros (with free snacks as starter)!
The taste is quite nice (over average Asian restaurants I’ve been to in Europe).
Service was really sweet, a cup of hot water and the waiter was very kind to ask if we need chopsticks in the beginning.
Will probably go there again if I was near by.

Alors Shiwi veut dire Chinois en arabe. Ça m’a fait beaucoup rire. En même temps, en bambara ça se dit «chinwaou» et ça me fait aussi rire.
Donc Shinwi, resto asiatique hallal — ça m’a aussi fait rire au début mais je rigole vraiment pour rien.
J’y suis allée pour une formule spéciale pendant le ramadan :
— Nems et samossas
— Soupe (chorba)
— Plat principal
Pour 12 euros j’ai mangé à peu près 4 repas et demin.
C’était très excellent comme dirait mon petit cousin :
— Un service rapide: on était 12 ou 14 et on a été servis après 10 mn pour chaque service. C’était vraiment bon! Epicé ce qu’il faut, les saveurs qu’on aime bien (le curry par exemple)
— Hygièné très bien
— Excellent rapport qualité prix
— Un staff sympa
On peut emporter si on a trop — A l’américaine
On peut faire livrer si on habite dans le coin et qu’il fait trop froid
Ca va sans dire mais pas de boissons alcoolisées, ni de porc au caramel.
Sur la vie de tata j’y ritourne!

Ce restaurant est en effet difficile d’accès, car il se situe à Lemonnier (et ce n’est pas un secret, trouver une place de parking reste assez difficile). Mais ça né gâche en rien la qualité de ce restaurant, l’accueil y est sympathique, l’hygiéné est (quasi) impeccable, et la décoration est très zen. Un resto parfait entre amis, et autant vous dire que vous né resterez pas sur votre faim, j’ai moi même été surprise de la quantité sur mon assiette. J’y ai testé le riz sauté au poulet caramélisé, un délice !

En suivant toujours le tracé du Boulevard Lemonnier, en se rapprochant de la gare du midi, on trouve Shinwi, ouvert il y a peu. Cette fois, c’est de la nourriture asiatique façon halal (ben ouais, ça arrive).
Le décor est très zen, les tables né sont pas trop collées les unes aux autres et le patron est discret, mais sympa. De là où on s’assied, on peut même voir le cuisinier asiatique derrière son comptoir préparer la nourriture (beaucoup de trucs au wok). Les portions sont généreuses et super bonnes.
Lorsque je suis allée (une fois), j’y ai pris les nouilles sautées au poulet et sauce au curry vert et c’était très bon. En plus, c’est servi dans un gros bol, comme les vrais !