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Zen serves fine French-Asian cuisine.
Food: Of the dishes in the set dinner I only liked ONE thing and that was the fried tofu which I could eat anywhere. The rest of the dishes were small portions and not very good. The salad dressing was way too sour. The fish after cutting with a knife we found to be a bit undercooked as the flesh was still stuck to the bone. We asked the waitress to check on it for us and she returned with the dish saying that the chefs insisted it was fully cooked. Eating it I felt the fish was slimy and definitely undercooked. They wouldn't accept our complaint. The food wasn't anything special that you can't find at other Chinese restaurants.
Service: Poor, the food came extremely slowly. Approximately 15 minutes at least between each course being served. We brought a birthday cake there and it was in the shape of a cartoon character's face, the waiter placed the candle RIGHT in the middle of the face where the nose was supposed to be. That ruined the whole face shape of the cake. I don't understand why they didn't think of putting the candle on the hat part of the face.
Value: Perhaps the worst is the pricing. For the food and service it was extremely overpriced. At $80 per person I was not even full after the meal. I was still hungry.
Overall I would never come again and definitely will discourage friends from trying it in the future. For the price there are many good restaurants in Vancouver.
Food:
Some dishes were delicious, some weren't, and some were in the middle. Their lobster was one of the best lobster dishes I have eaten, and I LOVE lobster. The lobster was cooked to perfection.
The appetizer was good. it was a smoked salmon with a green foam surrounding it.
The other 3 dishes in the set dinner was basically chinese food dishes that I could have eaten at a fine dining chinese restaurant at a lower price.
So, the food rating averages to about 3.
Service:
From the best of my knowledge, they sent our dishes to another table, and had to cook our dishes again. The total time from the beginning to the end was approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes. It was totally absurd. The restaurant was packed, and there were enough servers, so I did not understand how they could make mistakes and provide slow service. AND, they overcharged the bill by 10%, which we found out after we paid the bill and went home. I think that they overcharged us purposely, because they probably figured we would not go back to the restaurant.
There was a lot of discrepancies on what the "group set courses" offered and what was actually given to us on the table. So, if you do try this restaurant, you should make sure you get what the menu says.
Value:
We paid $95 per person. The dinner, as detailed on the fax they sent to us, was suppose to be $88. In addition, the dishes that were served were not worth $88. It was a SHARED lobster dish with 6 small lobsters (for 6 people), an appetizer of smoked salmon with a green foam, a chicken soup, white chicken meat (something like Hainan chicken), passion fruit mousse (sp) for dessert, a starch dish (which I forgot what it was)... for $88 per person.
From my personal opinion, the worth of the dishes was around $20 to $30, not the $88 that was agreed upon, and definitely not the $95 per person they over charged us on.
I could have had a better dinner for 20% less at other fine-dining restuarants: West, Crocodile, Market, C Restaurant, to name a few. It was basically a rip off at Zen.
Ambiance:
The restaurant itself is clean and quite new. The location in Steveston village is charming. Parking is plenty, but I had to walk 3 minutes to the restaurant.
Conclusion:
Food was okay, but not worth price.
Value is extremely poor.
Service was poor because of the multitude of mistakes that the servers made.
They overcharged us deliberately, knowing that we would not go to the restaurant again.
Location is good, and the restaurant is clean.
We were quite excited when we found out that Zen, which was once hailed as the 'best chinese restaurant outside of china' by a certain North American food critic, has reopened in Steveston Village just recently. However, after dining there we all left a bit disappointed and vowed not to return, at least not in the near future.
Before we made our reservation we checked out their website and decided on the $55 set menu which supposedly includes dishes such as stir-fried lobster and crispy chicken. Sounds good eh? So when we went there and were seated we didn't even check out the details on the menu and ordered rightaway. WHAT A MAJOR MISTAKE WE HAD MADE! We were served a stir-fried crab dish instead of lobster and cold salty chicken instead of a crispy hot one. Even though they tasted alright, we all felt a bit 'cheated', to say the least. And just in case you're wondering, the rest of the dishes are OK, but some of them are just carried over from their old menu when they were still on Alexandra Road.
If you're in the mood for Chinese fusion-type cuisine, I'd have to say Hakkasan, which is also in Richmond, is a better choice. They are both 'private pantries' but Hakkasan seems to have better overall food and service. It's in an odd location that's for sure but Zen's not much better cos despite its 'seaside' location there's no view whatsoever. Plus the value's just not there. We do understand right now it's still in its 'soft-opening' phase so maybe they need some time to settle down. But first thing they need to do is to make sure they are offering the same thing both on their website and in the restaurant. Misleading diners is a just a lame thing to do.
| 1. | KFC (127 m) | |
| 2. | Little Caesars Pizza (127 m) | |
| 3. | Takeya Sushi (168 m) |  |
| 4. | Subway (221 m) | |
| 5. | A & W (221 m) | |
| 6. | McDonald's (300 m) | |
| 7. | Blundell Pizza (1.1 km) | |
| 8. | Subway (1.1 km) |
