Had a nice lunch here with my husband . Delicious food and nice atmosphere :) .
Wonderful food.
Nice service.
Pretty inside.
Big TV's for sports viewing.
Bad part is obnoxious loud music.
I had a very pleasant experience. The occasion was monday night all you can eat Sushi rolls. The wait staff was great, and very friendly. A select list of all you can eat Sushi rolls to choose from... Definitely took care of my Sushi fix, along with Sake, and some monday night football. Look forward to going back, and having friends meet up.
We had the pineapple fried rice with jumbo shrimp. It came in a hollowed out pineapple boat with a red pepper flower for garnish. Beautiful presentation and just as delectable! Would highly recommend Zen Culinary.
Great food and live music. Service is awful. I think our server was in high school.
Very friendly, food very tasty and healthy. Nice atmosphere
Absolutely excellent- the staff, food, ambiance , and music all contributed to a perfect night out. Fresh, spiced right generous dishes left us anxious to return. Zen is a wonder!
The food was very good and portions sizable but a lot needs to be done about their service. We made reservations two weeks prior for a party of 10. It was also for a time when it was not crowded (415 pm on a Sunday) They had plenty of time to ensure appropriate staff were available to serve us. Instead, they put a new server to take care of us and gave her no help. Then they added 20 percent automatic gratuity which is high even for large groups. 9 of 10 of us had never been there so it was a great opportunity for them to showcase the restaurant for future guests. Instead, they were a huge disappointment for all of us.
Best kept Scottsdale Secret:
Zen is my favorite new place. They have one of the best Happy Hour menus in the city. I can't wait to go back for dinner and lunch and another happy Hour. It's a little out of the way but totally worth the drive. What I loved most was how welcoming they were to my husband and I. You can just tell that they value every customer.
Literally one of the worst experiences I've had. I had to get up to get my own beer, the server came by one time to take our order and never came back, it took 45 minutes for the first round of sushi to come out and that was AFTER waiting 30 minutes for a server to greet our table. I had to get up again because we were not given soy sauce dishes and stood by the front desk for ten minutes before finally asking for a manager. When the second round of sushi came out, my entire roll fell apart. It was an awful experience- I would never come back.
Great place all around! I loved it and will be back.
I really wanted to like this place but it fell very short. We came on a quiet Sunday. There were 6 tables total including us. the decor of this place is nice which is good considering you will have to be in there a longggggg time. Once we put our order in it took 35 minutes just for the appetizer hot wings to come out. They were cooked fine but again way too long. After the hot wings it took another 25 minutes for our entrees to come out.
This is an hour AFTER ordering. We even told our server to just send things out as they are ready. I got the chicken soup and my fiance got the spicy chicken noodle. The soup was okay but not warm enough. The spicy noodle was just okay as well. It did have some heat to it though and for that the wait staff should be attentive. My fiance drank all of his beer, and both of our waters and no one came around to refill. He also wanted hoisin sauce but could never flag down anyone to get us the waters or the sauce. He was not able to finish his meal because we didn't have anything to drink with it.
The server never came back after dropping off the entrees. We had to ask him for the check twice, he never brought it so we finally asked the hostess to bring it to us. I would have liked to order dessert but decided it wasn't worth waiting another 30 minutes for. Overall this was not a good dining experience. Ticket times were atrociously long (again there were only 6 tables in there) and the service was terrible. For the price of the food we expected more. This place sure does have their advertising down, maybe now it is time to focus on the kitchen and staff.
Good food, friendly, little slow
Sushi was dry, service was even dryer!! Only thing satisfying about this restaurant was leaving! Better sushi at Fry's grocery store, even better customer service!
Good service, good live music and great food. Ambience was lively but no too loud
Food was great server was great just a glitch with a computer being down delayed our service but no none was aware until after we were waiting for some time.
Fantastic is experience! The food is authentic especially the Thai Dishes - Boat noodles , Pad Thai , curries are best here ; not at all oily nor salty . Their sushi also taste excellently fresh and creative. LIVE Music band accompanies and service is fantastic.
Party of 14
Dinners arrived over a 15 minute span(?)
Attentive staff, which was the highlite.
Food quality ok.
I made an Open Table reservation for a 7th date with one person. But they sat us in the bar area next to the kitchen. It was so loud, we had trouble hearing each other speak. Yet behind us was a dining room that was almost completely empty with Foods. I understand this but I will give it one more try, and if we reach sit in the bar area again with the reservation then I can't recommend this to anyone.
Do not go on Monday for all you can eat sushi as the service and experience is a complete disaster to say the least. I had gone several times previously on other nights when there were no specials and had a great time, but they either simply no longer care or do not know how to operate on evenings they run specials. After reaching out to them to inform them of my experience multiple times and getting no response I find myself even more disappointed. I reached out voicing my concerns and simply looking for an apology but their lack of guest service and desire to keep business is concerning.
To sum up a horrible experience they quoted me an hour long wait when the restaurant was half full. I informed them I had made a reservation, which they then proceeded to seat us. After waiting a while for a server we got one. We told him we were there for the all you can eat sushi and his immediate response was do not do it they are backed up and the wait will be over 40 minutes for each roll. He stated if we order an entree from the kitchen the wait would only be much quicker.
After about 25 minutes a gentlemen comes out with only one dish. He states they had issues cooking the seabass and did not feel comfortable serving it. My girlfriend then selects the duck.The gentlemen responded back as to appear like he did not even know duck medallions was on the menu. He asked if she wanted something besides that as well or to see a menu. At this point we simply ordered the salmon. In the meantime we attempt to share my meal. The dish was served room temperature at best as if it has been sitting around for a long time. The taste was definitely off as well. When the salmon finally came ouit was burnt on the outside and extra rare on the inside. I am assuming because they were rushing to get it out to her, but we would have gladly waited longer for something that was edible. Combined the two of us picked on whatever we could manage as we were hungry and that was it.
Delicious food! Great live music ! This was our 3rd time dining here, and food/service
consistently great!
This place had solid food, but what the F is going on with ambiance... It was half varsity blues meets cocoon and I'm forty. The live music pulled off an impressive David Guetta to Fleetwood Mac transition which left us scratching heads. The food was legit - lobster roll, bahn mi, pad si ew. All good. Cheers peeps
Tough night for the restaurant... We ordered drinks, an appetizer, and two entrees. They served the first entree with shrimp instead of the chicken we requested. When it arrived the second time we were told our other entree was on the way. Half way though sharing the first entree we cancelled the order for second entree that hadn't arrived yet. The bill included the appetizer that was never delivered. It was our first time here. Maybe just a bad night.
Love this restaurant!
Great food, and live music (piano and singer) which was a nice bonus. Not sure if they do that every Friday night but we liked it.
Went there Saturday night to try the restaurant, and watch a supposedly 2nd night performance of Marian Alcordo. Disappointed to say, she wasn't performing the 2nd night but we decided to stay anyway to try the restaurant. We tried to call the Restaurant number of times to confirm if she was in fact performing the 2nd night, but lo and behold, the phone was busy all morning and afternoon, or was just ringing off the hook. So we decided to just go.... We got there at around 645 pm and we got seated, waiter was pleasant. Restaurant had a nice ambience. Sushi Roll we ordered was about $16 for 6 pieces (dynamite), compared to some popular Japanese Restaurant where you would at least get 10- 12 pieces for about $10-$12. Presentation was nice, but it was not worth $16 for 6 pieces. Wonton Noodle Soup for $17, with 6 pcs of Wonton and Ramen Noodles with scallions... really?...Ordered Yellow Curry Chicken, and our order ended up on another table so the waiter apologized for us having to wait for them to make another one. Curry was more of a SOUP than a dish, cause it had a lot of soup with probably 6 little slices of chicken breast with lots of potatoes and some vegetables served on a deep dish, and they gave you a very small portion of white rice with it...Was it worth $15?, I've had better chicken curry DISH on a mom's and pop's Chinese restaurant for under $7. So needless to say, it was a disappointing, expensive date for me and my wife.
I really enjoyed the diverse menu, there were lots of options for all members of our family.
Really enjoyed the design of the restaurant and management and servers were very friendly. The menu was appealing and the food very good. The kitchen was a bit slow in getting things out.
The food is good and tasty. The appetizers, Tuna Mango Poke and Zen Summer Rolls are light and tasty. The entrees are also very good. The Korean Baby Back Ribs and Organic Lemongrass Chicken are delicious. The creme brulee and mango sticky rice are pretty dessert too. While the food was good, our dining experience was dogged by slow services. We waited 15 min for drink, 30 min for appetizers and another 40 min for entrees for a total of 1 hour and 15 min so we would not come back to this restaurant unless their service improves.
My friends and I really enjoyed Zen Culinary, it really had a great mix of Asian cuisines! Very relaxing and we really liked the live music.
What an exceptionally pleasant dining experience. Definitely recommend.
they did a great job with decor, inside and out. We felt very welcomed. A nice selection of options on the menu.
I would return but it won't be first on my list.
The "gong" at the door was fun, a nice touch to the decor but incredibly annoying while dining each time people hit it, it is very loud, it interrupted conversation in the bar area of tables.
When we first arrived there were at least 5 hostess', maybe more. Very welcoming and nice, but far too many, they were tripping over each other. Worse then that, the way they were dressed, so over done on makeup that they looked like street walkers, which set the tone to make us wonder what kind of place this was. Heavily made up, low cut dresses, certainly not the vibe you want to deliver to appeal to the masses. It isn't a night club.
Lastly, the owner or perhaps manager, very nice, help with menu tips, interrupted our girlfriend' night out 3 times, talking at length, by the third time we did not appreciate this.
Food was OK but not very authentic Asian. Service was very good very friendly & attentive hostess just a shame that the food did not live up to the service standard.
While the place was nearly empty, it seemed like it took forever to get our food. My chicken Pad Thai was too spicy for me to eat so I ended up taking most of it in a to-go box to give to someone else. Lastly, my server was running around from table to table and we never were asked about how our food was, if we needed a refill on water, or anything that I would expect from a restaurant with similar prices.
Good stuff. Staff and food was great.
Almost perfect .... the food is exceptional, ambience is comfortable, romantic and enticing... but, the service was ATROCIOUS.
We sat for 40 mins before we were greeted and drink orders were taken, and again sat for 45 minutes waiting for the bill. I finally went to the hostess to ask for help. The restaurant was fairly empty.
Disappointing, but completely fixable. Hire some motivated staff, and I would come back in a heartbeat.
We had a late lunch on a Saturday. The restaurant looks great and we sat in a booth in the bar area. They have a piano in the area where you walk to the reception desk. We were seated close to the piano and it was playing ragtime music... that wasn't very zen for lunch. We are pad thai fans and unfortunately the noodles were one big clump... overcooked.
Great live music and nice outdoor patio. Service was friendly.
Excellent food and am extremely wonderful staff. I wish they stayed open past 10pm! We had a great time!
For the main course I ordered the appetizer avocado and tuna poke. It was 3 halves of an avocado and a teaspoon of tuna poke in each well of the avocado for $16. When I asked the waiter if that would be enough for a light entree he said it would be. My husband ordered the same. Nothing like coming home after paying $60 and make yourself something to eat because you are hungry.