Zen Vegetarian Restaurant

I don’t like this place and I’m never coming back. The flavor is very off. I’m not a picky eater but this isn’t great. I’ve tried and tried my very best but this doesn’t suit me.

I hate, hate, hate giving 1-​star reviews, especially to plant-​based establishments (since I own one and love to support them). However, this meal and the service was pretty awful all around, and had all of the hallmarks of horrible employer training.
To start, I brought my mother-​in-​law here on a Sunday afternoon. We were the only individuals in the place on a scorching hot day (no A/​C in here), so we sat near one of the only available fans. It took 5 minutes for us to be helped and given waters. I chose to order a Strawberry Thai Iced Tea, which I’d never gotten before and sounded interesting — it turned out to be a Thai Iced Tea with really, really bad strawberry flavoring in it that made it too sweet and undrinkable. I asked the waitress to take it back, which she did.
Now, from an employer’s perspective, when a customer tells you that something is really bad — this is when you say, «I’m sorry, can we recommend something else, or would you like another drink on the house?» Customers aren’t coming in and pretending not to enjoy things, you guys — if something’s bad, you do what it takes to make them happy and leave knowing that the business did everything they could to give you a pleasant experience. In this situation, the waitress just took the drink without any other thought and left it at that.
On to the meal — I ordered a fried rice with ginger «chicken» and vegetables. This may be the worst thing I’ve ever had in a vegetarian establishment, if only because it tasted like something I could have bought from Trader Joe’s. The peas and carrots were obviously frozen (come on, you guys — how bout you charge a buck more and just chop up some fresh veggies? trust me, it’s not that hard), and the rice was soggy and oversalted. I’m an individual who prides himself on not wasting food — however, I ate about 3 bites and immediately stopped. This was depressing.
Once again, this is a circumstance in which an employer should encourage their staff to make things right — heck, if you see that the customer left a plate full of food on the table, then it’s easy to see that something went wrong. However, the waitress just dutifully picked up the plate without asking any questions and went about her day. Keep in mind again that we are the ONLY PEOPLE IN THE PLACE. Also, keep in mind that my mother-​in-​law is an insatiable carnivore, and the fact that she was willing to go to a vegetarian restaurant in the first place was a tiny miracle… and she got THIS. (she ordered the vegetable phở — it was oversalted and horrible as well).
At one point, the waitress came out again, not to ask us how everything was or to see if we needed anything, but to stand in front of the only fan in the restaurant for 2 minutes (effectively blocking air from us… let’s not forget it’s sweltering in here). At this point, I’d had enough and lost any desire I still had to support another vegetarian establishment.
Would not recommend.

Called ahead to confirm they honor their Groupon offer on Sunday and was told yes. I get there and before placing the order mentioned Groupon, they immediately pulled a bait & switch by saying no dessert /​appetizers available yet was included in Groupon. We immediately walked out and I promptly notified Groupon to refund my purchase.

warning warning warning!
do not waste your time or money on this place. it is absolutely disgusting.

Had a Groupon to this place, and was pleasantly surprised.
It looks very dingy, and for some reason when we went on a Sunday afternoon, the lights were off and we kinda ate in the dark — but the food is a good value for the price paid, and great for vegan Vietnamese food!

I love this place. The fried rice noodle and clay pot rice were so delicous. The restaurant is clean, nice and quiet. The foods were so yummy. Much better than the place at beach/​mc fadden. Try it, you will love it.

What a complete waste of time! Bought a Groupon for this place and the address was wrong. Then looked up the phone number and called. I asked if it was Zen Vegetarian and they hung up on me! Called two more times and same thing. I have never had such poor customer service in my life. The lady who answered the phone did not speak English too well either. This will be my last second I spend even thinking about dining or suggesting this place to anyone.

The restaurant its self was kind of small. Looks like they have live music probably at night. We went with a Groupon type deal and was surprised that they didn’t treat us differently.
Wait staff was a young girl very helpful with giving suggestions as to what to order and very attentive.
Food had tons of flavor and really quite enjoyable. I got a spicy fried rice dish, I think it had a couple of soy meats in it. Very yummy and just the right about of spice to make it a little spicy but very tasty. He had a duck soup. Had noodles, green veggie, and lots of broth. That also had lots of flavor.
Will prob go again.
Getting out of parking lot was a bit of a challenge as it is a busy intersection.

My aunt and I braved the streets of Little Saigon to try out a mom n’ pop vegan Vietnamese restaurant called Zen. It was both of our first times here. We tried the phở ap chao gion which happens to be one of my fav Vietnamese dishes and Zen’s version was pretty tasty! The only thing missing (in my fat kid opinion) is king trumpet mushrooms. Otherwise, this may be my 2^nd fav phở ap chao in County. FYI: I don’t have the Vietnamese font in my phone to do all the accent marks, but ‘Gion’ means crispy. If you want it soft, it’s called «Phở Ap Chao Mem». ‘Mem’ means soft.

There was only one person work on so the service was slow.
I ordered the steamed chicken with ginger and tomato rice. It took a while for the food to come out (apparently there’s only one chef). The tomato rice was fresh and very red (food coloring) but the flavor was very slight and could’ve used a bit more tomoto flavor. I was a bit irked that the chicken was half cold. I’m assuming that they made the chicken before the rice and let it just sit. The vegetables the chicken was served on was kinda bitter. The soup the dish came with was okay.
The other people in my party didn’t have any problems though. They charge $ 0.50 for iced water.
Overall, the restaurant was okay. Food was decent (if including my dish).

The service was a bit slow… They only had one girl cashing, hosting, making beverages, and taking orders; that’s a lot of work for 1 person. There were also 2 other parties of 4 that ordered a lot of food & one large to-​go order, so my tufo phở order took 30 mins.
The fried tufo phở was yummy :) I might come back next time to try something different.

Very bad and rude servive the little gal with the dark glasses if that helps. Nobody seems to care that your a customer. No tip and no return.

Terrible!!! I came here with my sister. I would give this place zero stars if I could. The spring rolls were pretty much burned, but the fresh herbs/​greens helped a bit. The mung bean smoothie tasted like dirty water. We told the waitress it wasn’t good and she told us she «made us what we ordered and that next time we should be more careful of what we order». So next time I won’t order the dirty water, actually I will never come back here again. Then we asked for two waters without ice and were never given any. We asked again and she brought us one small ice water. We ordered the vermicelli noodle with peanuts and soy beef. It was ok but the soy beef felt like a sponge and my sis thought it tasted like dog food. We were hoping to enjoy a nice dinner together, but not this time unfortunately.

I got the $ 22 groupon for a 3 course meal and I left very full. Food was good but I asked what was vegan & she said everything. When we got the crepes, (on a separate menu), im pretty sure that it was real ice cream and Nutella served.

I went here for lunch with a coworker the other day. I found it through a Unilocal search for «vegetarian phở,» and was excited because it was advertised as «zen» and «vegetarian.» I called in advance to confirm they used vegetarian broth in their veggie phở and was made to feel stupid for asking by the tone of the girl’s voice when she responded yes.
When we arrived there were 3 other lunch parties and we were given hot tea and wished a happy new year, which was nice. After ordering, it took well over half an hour to get our lunch. Two other lunch parties arrived after us and received their meals way before we did (they all appeared to be Vietnamese) even though they arrived after we had ordered and had similarly ordered phở.
The phở was pretty good, however there was possibly meat in mine. It is possible that it was soy meat because they had a lot of soy meat options on the menu, however the girl server was confused when I asked her and couldn’t answer my question about what the «meat» was.
None of the servers came to check on us and I had to work to get someone’s attention for service.
I believe this place has authentic Vietnamese food that is really tasty, however the terrible, discriminatory service will keep me from going back.

I actually came here on a Tuesday evening even though they are usually closed on Tuesdays. This is a great business decision because of the high populations of Vietnamese Buddhists in the surrounding area who tend to be Vegetarian for the New Moon and the Full Moon (which correlates to be the 1^st and the 15^th on the Lunar Calendar).
It was a quaint little restaurant and it was surprisingly empty when I came in. I was their only customer up until I was nearly leaving two teenage girls came in for crepes. Should have known it was a red flag if this place wasn’t packed on a Veggie Day!
The damp stench filled the air and the tables were sticky. I assume they wipe their tables down w a damp cold clothes? Not very appetizing, but I was hungry so I browsed through their menu. I believe my waitress only knew Vietnamese. She was quiet and confused, I’m assuming she recently came over from Vietnam. She kept standing there I felt pretty rushed to make a quick decision.
I ended up getting the Bun Bi Cha Gio Thit Nuong ($ 7.50) which is Vermicelli with Soy Shredded Pork, Vegetarian Egg Rolls and Soy BBQ Pork. It’s not that cheap considering the area… The bowl was mainly vegetable fillers and vermicelli noodles that were a bit dry. I really didn’t like their veggie eggroll. The soy shredded pork was decent and the soy bbq pork was actually tasty but there wasn’t much of it.
If I wasn’t so hungry I probably would have followed my instincts and left sooner. This was my first meal of the day and I only ate half of the bowl. I think that says it all…

We were the ONLY customer dinning at Zen Vegetarian.
It seemed like that just hired a new girl because they kept coming back and forth during the ordering process.
Regardless we had 4 entrée and 2 appetizer and though the entrée were just Okay to me.
The Eggroll with the peanut sauce was delicious!
Everything after that was as mentioned EH.
Our desserts were suppose to be a crêpe and a waffle but they ran of waffle so one of the crêpe came out very bland and almost not edible. It was hard to cut or even chew because the skin they use were like Asian tortilla skin.
Even with a couple of mishaps customer service was a bit slow but they were super courtesy and the drinks we order was pretty yummy!

*Vegan/​Vegetarian*~! Bolsa Ave.
I never knew there was a vegetarian restaurant here. This place was not here before so when I was looking for the restaurant, I was kind of lost and going in circles. Well it’s not like it’s ice cream or anything so my radar was not strong enough I guess but anyway I finally found it. I do love Vietnamese food and I’ve tried vegan Vietnamese food before and it’s not bad at all. I’ve been to Bo De across the street and I love it there. The owner there is really cool and nice. So I wanted to try this place out. I definitely will be back. I’m not sure if the crepes are by the same owner. It’s a bit confusing. Might be one of those places where two owners rent the same place and share rent. Typically done by Asians by the way to save money.
So I walk in, and it seems pretty decent. The menu has photos which helps a lot but I already know what I want. I either order Bun Bo Hue or Bun Rieu are my two favorite dishes, vegan style of course. So I ordered the Bun Rieu which is a tomato based rice noodle soup and it was yum! Also ordered the egg rolls and that was yum as well. My drink is always Rau Ma, it’s pennywort? Some kind of grass drink. You have to get used to it if you don’t like it. I’m so addicted to that drink now. I always order it in Vietnamese restaurants or at Lee’s Sandwich because there is no way you can make that, it is too hard and too messy. Supposedly that drink is good for the skin. I haven’t been drinking it lately so my skin is not so good anymore. I need to drink more of it.
There are parking in the lot and on the street. I had no problems with parking at all. I definitely want to come back for those crepes. I’m not a crêpe girl but they sure make it look good. I also wanna try to Bun Bo Hue next time. Another reviewer said it was not that great but I wanna see for myself. I keep forgetting about this place. I am not sure if they take credit card but being Little Saigon and all, you should automatically assume any place in the area is cash only just to be safe. After you’re done here, I’d stop by somewhere to get some Nuoc Mia, or Sugar Can juice. I recommend Nuoc Mia Vien Tay on Brookhurst between Westminster and Hazard. Just get the largest size. YUM.
As the Terminator always says, «I’ll be back»
Thanks for reading!
~*kenzie*!~ :)

Mediocre at its best. It’s not that it was inedible and I had to regurgitate my meal, it’s just… I have some REALLY high expectations when I’m eating Vietnamese vegan food. (I apologize for the snobby vibe I’m giving off; I will explain towards the end of this review~)
My boyfriend and I stumbled into here because we couldn’t find parking across the street for Bo De, another Vietnamese vegan place. We ordered:
–Bun bo Hue (spicy «beef» noodle soup)
–Com nuong suon ram and requested mushrooms (clay pot rice with «barbecue ribs»)
–Peach iced tea
–Totaled to $ 20 and some change
My bún tasted nothing like bun bo Hue. I realize this is a vegetarian version, but it *should* be somewhat reminiscent of the original dish, right? Otherwise, it wouldn’t be called bun bo Hue on the menu. Mind you, the dish DID NOT taste bad. It just didn’t live up to my expectations, as snobby as that sounds.
My boyfriend’s clay pot was also okay. It tasted fine, but again, not great. However, the cool thing was that the «bones» on the ribs were made from short sugar cane sticks. Creative!
Okay, the reason I act like a total Vietnamese vegan food aficionado is because of Hoa Sen on Brookhurst and Chapman. I shouldn’t go on too much about that place on Zen’s review, but they never disappoint and that is why my expectations have soared past the roof. Maybe it isn’t Zen’s fault, maybe their food is actually good, but Hoa Sen’s food is just so godly that everything else seems mediocre. Nonetheless, Hoa Sen is the reason behind my snobbiness and I hope you Unilocalers can read this review without rolling your eyes!
Bottom line: decent prices, mediocre food, go to Hoa Sen for Vietnamese vegan

I actually walked in here looking for Crêpe Corner. But then discovered that this place is both Zen Vegetarian and Crêpe Corner.
I may have wandered in here craving crêpe but I figured since I’m dining in, might as well get something more than just dessert. I ordered the Phở Bò (soy beef noodle soup) which totally hit the spot. Flavorful and filling.
The waitress was as adorable as she could be! Super helpful too with informing me on what is vegan. I also gotta give her props for hustling on the service since I was on a time crunch.
Not the flashiest of places but I’d would most likely come back if I was in the area.