Your experience will vary based on what you order. I liked the Peking duck and crab rangoon here. The duck was quite fresh and the skin was crispy. There were a lot of pancakes (probably not the right name) but we still had to ask for more because there were a lot of duck! The crab rangoon was sweet and crispy. It tastes pretty unique actually. I highly recommend both dishes.We also ordered fried lotus roots with some vege but they were out of most vege as we went there quite late at night. It tasted quite good but also a good amount of spice. I have a feeling that most of the other dishes will taste good too.The decor is quite okay. Imagine an up-scale Chinese restaurant with rich owners. It's too far of a drive for me to frequent this place but if I'm ever in the area, I'd eat here again.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Peking Duck, Duck
Christine Walls
Updated post! BEWARE This place is a hit or miss. Today was a huge disappointment and an opposite experience than my first visit. This was my second visit to pickup the takeout I ordered online. The service was good and consistent but the food was absolutely awful! Again, I had the shrimp lo mein but paid more this time because of an online convenience fee. The spring rolls were hot on the ends and ice cold in the middle. The shrimp was not fresh ? and the noodles were oily and old. To add insult to injury the portion was less than the last time I ordered this dish. I ultimately ended up throwing my food away and will not be going back.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 3
Recommended dishes: Beef with Veg Noodles
Joe Haupt
This was our first visit to the Zen Garden Restaurant, and we loved our lunch there on Saturday afternoon. The food and service were great, and the prices were not high. We had the Sesame Chicken and Hunan Beef lunch specials. We are looking forward to our next visit.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Random__ girl
Waited 30 minutes for an appetizer and then another 15min for more entrees that were all incredibly salty. The wait time and price did not reflect well upon the already mid food.
Uri Yoo
Ugh. Less than mediocre food. Won't be returning.I wanted to like the food, I really did, because I haven't found a go-to Chinese place in this area yet. But I ordered take out and the food was meh.Sesame chicken was so hard and dry that it almost broke the provided plastic fork. Couldn't even chew some of it. My kids, who love all Chinese fried chicken dishes, couldn't even get past a couple of bites. They loved the sauce - it was just too tough to chew! Tasted like it's been sitting in the refrigerator and was just reheated.Pad thai was limp and lifeless. Flavor was off too. Again, it seems like it was sitting for hours after being made - noodles were unrecognizable as noodles because they fell apart as soon as you tried to pick them up. Nothing worse than old, limp noodles, imo. My fault for ordering a Thai dish at a Chinese place, right?The three stars are for the braised pork bellies and garlic eggplant. Pork bellies were tender and flavorful. Eggplant was amazing (my son who says he hates eggplant insisted it wasn't eggplant before he polished off his portion).
Food: 2
Service: 3
David F
Okay. Good service, but food was just okay.Came here on a whim after seeing they had Szechuan food.It's on the upstairs portion of the shopping center. The space was rather nice and the staff were friendly.I ended up getting Chicken Drypot (it was marked with a 7, which was the highest spicy rating I saw on the menu) and I asked for extra mala. It was neither spicy nor numbing. I also saw very few szechuan peppercorns in the dish, though that isn't the end all be all.Also got some basic sushi and spicy crispy cucumber salad. The cucumber salad was actually quite tasty. It could have been spicier. The sushi was just okay.This area isn't close to me. I most likely will end up going to pepper house for my Szechuan fix, but I may give some of their other dishes another try at some point.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 3
Service: 3
Dave F.
Okay. Good service, but food was just okay.Came here on a whim after seeing they had Szechuan food. It's on the upstairs portion of the shopping center. The space was rather nice and the staff were friendly.I ended up getting Chicken Drypot (it was marked with a 7, which was the highest spicy rating I saw on the menu) and I asked for extra mala. It was neither spicy nor numbing. I also saw very few szechuan peppercorns in the dish, though that isn't the end all be all.Also got some basic sushi and spicy crispy cucumber salad. The cucumber salad was actually quite tasty. It could have been spicier. The sushi was just okay.This area isn't close to me. I most likely will end up going to pepper house for my Szechuan fix, but I may give some of their other dishes another try at some point.
Mary Ann Nocella
Animals and anything that comes from them is not food! Eat plants, not beings.
David Bonebrake
My wife and I lived in China and love authentic Chinese food. The problem is, nowwe live in the mountains about two hours from any city. I was recommended this restaurant from a native born Chinese coworker. I took my extended family who never had any authentic Chinese food before. We ordered ahead for a meal for ten people. It could not had been any better, dishes were served as they were ready, like in China, and it all was delicious, my cousins were very impressed with the food and service. Thank you Zen for making our meal and introducing authentic Chinese food to our family a wonderful experience. Can not wait to go back again
I didn't think much of it passing by, but my partner was enticed by the menu options and we ventured in. We tried to come in for the lunch special, but they don't honor that special on weekends, so just be aware of that. Seating was immediate, and so was the order taking, but the food did take a bit longer to come out in spite of the relative lack of business -- maybe they didn't have enough hands on deck in the kitchen.Though the place seemed criminally understaffed, service was great. That said, you'll be much better off by having a Mandarin speaker in your party. Your waitress will suggest a more Sichuan style kung pao chicken if you ask for kung pao, and I will too.The Chinese broccoli and garlic, along with the kung pao chicken, cost us a paltry $27 and the taste and quality rival some of the better restaurants in California. Bowls of rice are free the first go-round.I am willing to overlook the problems and return, again and again, because their ridiculously expansive menu yet chill atmosphere make it welcoming to ask for more.Just maybe not when I'm pressed for time.
Kay Lar M.
Didn't expect this place to have good and tasty cuisine. Will definitely go back there again.
Cynthia Leventis
My cousin has been to this restaurant multiple times and recommended their food. We decided to celebrate Easter here and had a reservation for a large party for lunch.We ordered a bunch of different dishes to share (fish, peking duck, noodles). I left the ordering to my family so I'm not sure the exact dishes we got unfortunately, but I know they have a lot of authentic Sichuan dishes at this restaurant. They get a 5/5 for the presentation of their food! They had some cool serving ware.My star deduction was for service. The service was a little slow - it took time to get more pancakes for the peking duck and a long time to try to find someone to get our check. Overall though, we had a great meal here!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 4
Cynthia F.
My cousin has been to this restaurant multiple times and recommended their food. We decided to celebrate Easter here and had a reservation for a large party for lunch.We ordered a bunch of different dishes to share (fish, peking duck, noodles). I left the ordering to my family so I'm not sure the exact dishes we got unfortunately, but I know they have a lot of authentic Sichuan dishes at this restaurant. They get a 5/5 for the presentation of their food! They had some cool serving ware. My star deduction was for service. The service was a little slow - it took time to get more pancakes for the peking duck and a long time to try to find someone to get our check. Overall though, we had a great meal here!
Barbara Warnock
Wonderful Duck. Great sushi. Best service. Glad we had our family Birthday Party here. Not our first time and happy each time we come. Will return
Really good food..lot of
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Your experience will vary based on what you order. I liked the Peking duck and crab rangoon here. The duck was quite fresh and the skin was crispy. There were a lot of pancakes (probably not the right name) but we still had to ask for more because there were a lot of duck! The crab rangoon was sweet and crispy. It tastes pretty unique actually. I highly recommend both dishes.We also ordered fried lotus roots with some vege but they were out of most vege as we went there quite late at night. It tasted quite good but also a good amount of spice. I have a feeling that most of the other dishes will taste good too.The decor is quite okay. Imagine an up-scale Chinese restaurant with rich owners. It's too far of a drive for me to frequent this place but if I'm ever in the area, I'd eat here again.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Peking Duck, Duck
Updated post! BEWARE This place is a hit or miss. Today was a huge disappointment and an opposite experience than my first visit. This was my second visit to pickup the takeout I ordered online. The service was good and consistent but the food was absolutely awful! Again, I had the shrimp lo mein but paid more this time because of an online convenience fee. The spring rolls were hot on the ends and ice cold in the middle. The shrimp was not fresh ? and the noodles were oily and old. To add insult to injury the portion was less than the last time I ordered this dish. I ultimately ended up throwing my food away and will not be going back.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 3
Recommended dishes: Beef with Veg Noodles
This was our first visit to the Zen Garden Restaurant, and we loved our lunch there on Saturday afternoon. The food and service were great, and the prices were not high. We had the Sesame Chicken and Hunan Beef lunch specials. We are looking forward to our next visit.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Waited 30 minutes for an appetizer and then another 15min for more entrees that were all incredibly salty. The wait time and price did not reflect well upon the already mid food.
Ugh. Less than mediocre food. Won't be returning.I wanted to like the food, I really did, because I haven't found a go-to Chinese place in this area yet. But I ordered take out and the food was meh.Sesame chicken was so hard and dry that it almost broke the provided plastic fork. Couldn't even chew some of it. My kids, who love all Chinese fried chicken dishes, couldn't even get past a couple of bites. They loved the sauce - it was just too tough to chew! Tasted like it's been sitting in the refrigerator and was just reheated.Pad thai was limp and lifeless. Flavor was off too. Again, it seems like it was sitting for hours after being made - noodles were unrecognizable as noodles because they fell apart as soon as you tried to pick them up. Nothing worse than old, limp noodles, imo. My fault for ordering a Thai dish at a Chinese place, right?The three stars are for the braised pork bellies and garlic eggplant. Pork bellies were tender and flavorful. Eggplant was amazing (my son who says he hates eggplant insisted it wasn't eggplant before he polished off his portion).
Food: 2
Service: 3
Okay. Good service, but food was just okay.Came here on a whim after seeing they had Szechuan food.It's on the upstairs portion of the shopping center. The space was rather nice and the staff were friendly.I ended up getting Chicken Drypot (it was marked with a 7, which was the highest spicy rating I saw on the menu) and I asked for extra mala. It was neither spicy nor numbing. I also saw very few szechuan peppercorns in the dish, though that isn't the end all be all.Also got some basic sushi and spicy crispy cucumber salad. The cucumber salad was actually quite tasty. It could have been spicier. The sushi was just okay.This area isn't close to me. I most likely will end up going to pepper house for my Szechuan fix, but I may give some of their other dishes another try at some point.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 3
Service: 3
Okay. Good service, but food was just okay.Came here on a whim after seeing they had Szechuan food. It's on the upstairs portion of the shopping center. The space was rather nice and the staff were friendly.I ended up getting Chicken Drypot (it was marked with a 7, which was the highest spicy rating I saw on the menu) and I asked for extra mala. It was neither spicy nor numbing. I also saw very few szechuan peppercorns in the dish, though that isn't the end all be all.Also got some basic sushi and spicy crispy cucumber salad. The cucumber salad was actually quite tasty. It could have been spicier. The sushi was just okay.This area isn't close to me. I most likely will end up going to pepper house for my Szechuan fix, but I may give some of their other dishes another try at some point.
Animals and anything that comes from them is not food! Eat plants, not beings.
My wife and I lived in China and love authentic Chinese food. The problem is, nowwe live in the mountains about two hours from any city. I was recommended this restaurant from a native born Chinese coworker. I took my extended family who never had any authentic Chinese food before. We ordered ahead for a meal for ten people. It could not had been any better, dishes were served as they were ready, like in China, and it all was delicious, my cousins were very impressed with the food and service. Thank you Zen for making our meal and introducing authentic Chinese food to our family a wonderful experience. Can not wait to go back again
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
I didn't think much of it passing by, but my partner was enticed by the menu options and we ventured in. We tried to come in for the lunch special, but they don't honor that special on weekends, so just be aware of that. Seating was immediate, and so was the order taking, but the food did take a bit longer to come out in spite of the relative lack of business -- maybe they didn't have enough hands on deck in the kitchen.Though the place seemed criminally understaffed, service was great. That said, you'll be much better off by having a Mandarin speaker in your party. Your waitress will suggest a more Sichuan style kung pao chicken if you ask for kung pao, and I will too.The Chinese broccoli and garlic, along with the kung pao chicken, cost us a paltry $27 and the taste and quality rival some of the better restaurants in California. Bowls of rice are free the first go-round.I am willing to overlook the problems and return, again and again, because their ridiculously expansive menu yet chill atmosphere make it welcoming to ask for more.Just maybe not when I'm pressed for time.
Didn't expect this place to have good and tasty cuisine. Will definitely go back there again.
My cousin has been to this restaurant multiple times and recommended their food. We decided to celebrate Easter here and had a reservation for a large party for lunch.We ordered a bunch of different dishes to share (fish, peking duck, noodles). I left the ordering to my family so I'm not sure the exact dishes we got unfortunately, but I know they have a lot of authentic Sichuan dishes at this restaurant. They get a 5/5 for the presentation of their food! They had some cool serving ware.My star deduction was for service. The service was a little slow - it took time to get more pancakes for the peking duck and a long time to try to find someone to get our check. Overall though, we had a great meal here!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 4
My cousin has been to this restaurant multiple times and recommended their food. We decided to celebrate Easter here and had a reservation for a large party for lunch.We ordered a bunch of different dishes to share (fish, peking duck, noodles). I left the ordering to my family so I'm not sure the exact dishes we got unfortunately, but I know they have a lot of authentic Sichuan dishes at this restaurant. They get a 5/5 for the presentation of their food! They had some cool serving ware. My star deduction was for service. The service was a little slow - it took time to get more pancakes for the peking duck and a long time to try to find someone to get our check. Overall though, we had a great meal here!
Wonderful Duck. Great sushi. Best service. Glad we had our family Birthday Party here. Not our first time and happy each time we come. Will return