Westhouse Kitchen & Bar 西屋

Article By Mike Leaner

A6-1-10105, Da tang bu ye cheng, Southeast corner of pagoda south squre.
大雁塔南广场东南角大唐不夜城新乐汇A6-1-10105
(029) 8983 3943
11:00am – Midnight

Average Price per Person /人均消费: 56RMB

PROS: Good food, drinks and service

CONS: I overate, and with heavy food like this you’ll feel really weighed down after if you also overeat


It would appear that the name is no accident—Westhouse is a new restaurant/bar in the Dayanta South Square area with its eye on a more authentic western culinary experience. It’s filled with comfy booths and tables, a proper bar counter and lots of fun decorations, all soundtracked with a playlist of low-key western music. So far so good!

The big challenge for anyone operating a western restaurant, however, is whether their offerings can live up to the carefully assembled western kitsch decorating their establishment. On that count, Westhouse is doing more than alright. A friend and I went in for an early-evening meal and ordered one of each of their specialties—Alaskan cod fish and chips, the Westhouse cheeseburger and the butter chicken pizza.

The highlight of the meal was definitely the burger. A juicy all-beef patty with all the fixings and a little bit of special sauce was just what the doctor ordered on that hot afternoon, and it compares favorably to any of the really good hamburgers I’ve had in town. Next was the butter chicken pizza. Combing pizza and Indian cuisine is a bold gambit, and one that I think succeeded here. It perhaps wasn’t as strikingly flavorful as I hoped, but the slightly spicy green paste they serve it with added a nice little zing to it. Finally came the fish and chips, which was delicious and made with phenomenal imported fish, but very heavy, perhaps a bit too much after the pizza and burger. My companion washed everything down with a couple of modestly priced bottled German dunkel, while I turned to the cocktail menu for a very well mixed Old Fashioned.

Westhouse has been getting a lot of buzz in the foreign community lately, and after a dinner there I would have to say that buzz seems justified. They do a variety of things very well, both food and drinks, but not so much that it’s unfocused and half-assed. It definitely passes muster for a nice casual meal, and I’d imagine it would be wonderful for just a snack and a couple of drinks as well. This young restaurant already has a few changes in mind, adding tap beer and overhauling the menu a bit, so your experience may vary by the time this review comes out. But with the care and attention to detail they’ve already displayed in their infancy, I’d imagine these changes are something to be excited about and reason enough for me to come back to Westhouse and see what comes next.

Mike Leaner likes to get dirty but not for free. He can be reached at reviews@xianease.com

12-1

12-2

12-3

12-4