Cafe Zenon

One of the best choices in Eugene. Quality food, carefully prepared. Staff is attentive and knowledgable.

The food is tasty, albeit overpriced. Service was slow the two times we came here. They need more staff.

I love the food, and the service is great, but I do wish that the portions were bigger. The only thing I ever leave thinking, is OH MY HOW I WISH THERE WAS JUST A FEW MORE BITES.
But it is a great place. I also love that they are so service oriented. I am a very decent cook and when I go out to eat, service is one of the main things I am looking for, so I certainly appreciate it, and this is one of the few restaurants in Eugene that actually provides real service.

We’ll bring this from a 1 star to a 2 star… although we probably won’t ever go through the door again… *rueful grin*
They recently ran a Groupon. We had called the restaurant after the last visit, and they were supposed to comp us a drink. *shrug* Okay, sounds to be a good combination.
We got to the restaurant. The hostess (who was also our server… and, I believe, our bartender — I don’t THINK she also cooked the meal *chuckle*) told us that we should have been given a piece of paper to verify the comp on the drink, but when we explained that the waiter before had absolutely NOT been the one to fix the problem, but, rather, had been the problem, she gave us not one, but two drinks. She was quite good, customer service-​wise, throughout the evening.
There was one thing appealing on the dinner menu. A beef curry dish. It was actually excellent, and I would eat it again in a minute.
The thing is, we were seated directly by a window on a cold evening (hard not to be seated by a window here)…and apparently the heat hasn’t worked well in A WHILE (per our server, who was actually, actively rubbing her hands together to keep warm). It was UNCOMFORTABLY cold, even with both of us still wearing outer wear.
Pony Express is now delivering for them. If I want the fabulous beef curry again, I’ll order through them, I think. Even if it does cost a bit more, we’ll be seated in a nice warm environment when we eat… *shrug*

We finally were able to try out Café Zenon! I like this atmosphere of this place. It’s classy, modern, clean and put together really well. My wife, daughter, and I headed down for brunch a few Saturdays ago.
For drinks we treated the princess to a piping hot cup of hot chocolate, wifey had a mimosa and I had a decent bloody mary. The server talked up the bloody mary, but I didn’t find it to be as «saucy» as he explained it to be. Too much ice IMO.
They had a limited, yet intresting menu to choose from. My wife had a really good Benedict dish. I was envious! I decided on a spanish scramble. It had black beans, tortilla strips, avacado, and a few other ingredients I can’t recall at the moment. It was good! Not as tasty as the Benedict, but good none the less. They don’t have a menu for the kiddos, you have to choose from the sides. A side of bacon consists of 1 slice of bacon for $ 2, good thing it was for my daughter. If I ordered a side of bacon and was given 1 strip… I wouldn’t have been to happy.
The experience was good overall. We were treated right, enjoyed our food and our time together. There’s no way in hell I can say they have the best Brunch in Eugene… I have a few more spots to check out before they earn that title.

Not a lot for pescetarians here, but I had a fine grilled cheese sandwich, eschewing the falafel plate. Service was good although it was crowded. It’s a little noisy in there, but the beverages were good (full bar).
The prices aren’t cheap, and you go here to because of location, or the perception of going to a fru-​fru restaurant. It is that, and reminds me vaguely of a Parisian bistro, although not quite as eclectic.

I have been to Café Zenon twice – once in April and once a few days ago. Each time I had a really lovely experience!
This past Friday I went to Zenon with a group of seven. I knew we would have to wait a bit for a table, but we weren’t in a hurry so we didn’t mind. Two different waiters gave us a heads-​up about how our tables were doing, and we decided to wait outside so as not to block up their entryway. Within 20 minutes we were seated, which was great! Our waitress was very sweet and gave us a rundown of the menu.
Although I did not have anything to eat, I did have a yummy cup of tea (Wu Wei, and it was super!). My partner had the caesar salad with chicken, and was pleasantly surprised to find the chicken perfectly moist, rather than cold and hard as in most caesar salads. My friends at the table each had only good things to say about their meals – the calamari was perfectly crisp, not chewy, and the fried risotto dumplings were also yummy, if very rich!
Last April I had the ginger lemon drop cocktail, and this time my partner had it and thought it was superb. Our friend had the cucumber jewel and let my partner try it, and he said it was awesome!
All of the waitstaff were super kind and let us pay individually because the place was a bit slow. We sat around for a while talking and had a great time. I give Café Zenon four stars because the prices are somewhat steep – but for what you are getting, I think it is very worth it. I will definitely be coming back here!

Great food and staff but took stars off because of the interior. Downright drab I thought. It’s called «Café Zenon» and you would think it would be a very colorfully decorated place (or at least that’s how I imaged it to be). Not so!
But as I said, the food/​staff are great and would go back again

Yummm fantastic place! I had the Eggs Santa Barbara (or Santa Cruz? I forget) — anyway it was like eggs benedict but with avocado and bacon. Mouth watering. SO GOOD!!!
Every other person at my table had the pesto chicken sandwich — and for good reason. Super tasty as well.
The staff was extremely friendly and very honest — which made the extreme slowness understandable.
I would absolutely come back if I found myself in Eugene again. Great food.

I know what you’re thinkin, Ben, don’t tell me you are gonna write another review with just one or two words and a bunch of obnoxious exclamation points are you?
BACON WAFFLES! BACON WAFFLES! BACON TO THE MOTHER EFFIN WAFFLES!!!‘
Sorry.

I went into Café Zenon with high expectations, and perhaps my rating is unfair due to those.
I ordered a barbecue pork sandwich, and being from the south, again perhaps I was unfair to do that. I didn’t really enjoy my meal. My dining companions seemed to all enjoy their meals, and in fact, I wished I had ordered the grilled chicken sandwich. That looked amazing.
My lemonade was horribly tart, and I had to put tons of sugar in it (which I don’t normally do with house lemonades). It was all lemon and no «ade.»
Our waiter was awkward. The place was loud (which is a common complaint). While I might go back if someone else REALLY wants to eat there, I probably won’t go back on my own accord.

I was blown away by this place. I had wine and some appetizers. I ordered the manila clams, calamari, and the smoked salmon spread. The clams were amazing! Cooked perfectly and with no seafood taste/​smell! The broth the clams were cooked in was rich and light! You could taste the broth in the clams. The broth was worth dipping your bread into! The calamari was a little salty for my personal taste, but was delicious as well. One of the better ones I have had in Eugene. I was not as impressed with the smoked salmon spread. Salmon is my favorite fish so I kind of have high expectations for it. I will not be ordering that again. I also ordered the Riesling and it went well with the appetizers I ordered.
The service was pretty good. One of the better ones in Eugene. Our server was pretty attentive and friendly.
Café Zenon can be a little pricey, but it’s worth it on those occasions you’re willing to splurge a little bit. I will be back to try the entrees and hopefully it lives up to it’s impressive appetizers!

In a nutshell:
— Great staff ⁵⁄₅
— Located at the corner of a diverse area with a starbucks, a pizza place, thai restaurant, and a bakery near by ⁵⁄₅
— Nice interior but I personally like where Im eating to be lit up instead of being dark ⁴⁄₅
— Bakery is not so great, can get rich to where you have a sugar overload and a diabetes attack ¹⁄₅
— Pricing is on the high side ¹⁄₅
I went to this place twice on different days just to be sure my first experience wasn’t because it was a bad day.
Im not a fan of their salad for sure after their Zenon Curried Chicken Salad. If you asked me, the name sounded SOOOOOOOO much better than the actual dish itself. It was basically $ 11 for a salad that was drenched in their mayo sauce, bite size chicken, apples, nuts, and some herbs and a few fruits in the mix. Mayo and fruits/​nuts? Ehh I think I wasn’t reading the menu carefully enough. The server that day who was helping me was really helpful and kind so I gave them an extra star for that
Another time I went there I had their lemon chocolate tart and their Zenon Chocolate Cake (recommended by the man server helping me who was really nice at helping me describe each of the cakes to full details). Their price was on the pricier side since a slice a cake and a thing of tart was each $ 7 a piece. The tart was really good the first bite but by the time you get half way through, it’s just too rich in tasting that it makes you feel a little overloaded with sugar.
Their chocolate cake was quite decent but it’s not one of those cakes that makes you linger and craving for more. I found it quite interesting how I left my cake at work for 3 days in the refrigerator and when I came back to eat it, it was still good like I just bought it so that should tell you something about the quality.
I think the time I went could be a factor as to why I didn’t like it because I’ve went there both during the afternoon menu.
Overall I think it’s a place where some people might love it and some people will wonder why the hell did I just spend that much money on something I didn’t like and tossed in the trash :)

This is the place my Mother and I eat when I come to town. We have always had good service and very good wine. My Mother usually has the Zenon chicken salad. It is a good combination of salad and fruit. it is always good. Today I had a Thai curry; it was a vegetarian dish that had good heat, but not too hot. it was very satisfying. We each had a nice glass of wine to go with the meal. As usual, the service was great. We will go again.

Since when in America does a restaurant not have Ranch dressing. Well all you ranch haters are in luck here! As I was so delightfully told we don’t have rance dressing for your salad, you must have the dressing we provide, all in all the experience was not bad. The Reuben was quite delicious and their desserts looked fantastic.
I was by far the youngest person in here by about two decades. Not sure where I go from here with this place.

We made an orgy out of brunch at Café Zenon this morning. It was good.
I snatched a slice of Victoria’s waffle, with almonds in the batter and cherry compote & real whipped cream on top. She grabbed some of my Eggs Sardou — like Eggs Benedict but with creamed spinach and artichoke hearts beneath the poached eggs and tomato Hollandaise and parmegan on top. We each nibbled on Nicole’s slice of ham & aspargus quiche, and we each found it to be the best quiche we’d had. Eric ordered Aebleskivers (Danish pancake bites) and we dug into his balls. I stole a piece of his bacon; it was smokey, salty and perfectly-​grilled. Things got very adult and very delicious. I wanted a cigarette when we were done.
Zenon is my vote for best brunch in town.

Dined here 2007 — 2008
This is a great restaurant with concentration on first impression, service and damn good food. I’ve dined here at least 10 times; and had hubby pick up the BEST Carrot Cake I’ve ever had, during my pregnancy, at least 10 times.
We’ve had seafood, meat, salads, breakfast, all of it and can’t recall a bad meal. The mussels were extra special as was the meat and cheese plate.
My only BIG disappointment with this «kid friendly» town restaurant is they have ZERO places where you can change a little ones diaper. Not a changing station to be found on the WHOLE block!
Business owners wake up! People need to change diapers with ease … otherwise we go elsewhere!

Enjoyed a tasty, healthy lunch here in our way from SF to Portland.
Had tomato Rosemary soup, house salad w vinaigrette. Both delicious and fresh. Better half had cordon bleu sandwich. Total was $ 17
Friendly staff. Great service. Clean.

Received a nice note from the current (May 2009 — present) manager and am pleased to report that the charge to 86 onions is no longer en force. To quote:
«During our opening months, we learned a lot from our mistakes. You will never again be charged to omit something from a dish. The substitution charge is meant to be used when a dish is altered in a way that it costs more.»
So, that’s good. I will also note that the price of my veg sandwich was $ 8 ($ 9 with the subst. charge), so the $ 14 I quoted included tip and a tea.
I hope Zenon keeps on truckin’, because we really need good spots downtown and their real estate is primo. Maybe sometime soon, I will venture back for dessert and card-​playing on a warm evening.

I was wavering between 2 and 3 stars, because our experience here was quite a mixed bag. In the end, I gave it 3 stars because I’d come back for the desserts if I was ever in Eugene again, which isn’t likely.
Apparently, the restaurant recently changed its menu (although I think it can’t have been that recent, because the menus look tattered, greasy, and beat up). At least, the pretentious waiter kept insisting it was a new menu, most likely to excuse his ignorance. He read the specials robotically off his notes because he didn’t know them.
When I asked what cheeses were on our cheese plate, he curtly replied that he didn’t know, and blamed it again on the new menu. He did go and find out, but seemed none too happy about it. Then he insisted that one of the cheeses was brie, even though it was hard and sharp, and I know brie to be soft and mild. The cheese plate came with an enjoyable selection of cheeses.
The BF and I split the eggplant fettucine, which was pretty good except for the generous portion of burnt, hard eggplant. And the steep price of $ 16, which it wasn’t worth. The noodles were surprisingly soft, the way I like them. It was decent, but not that great.
After we paid and we were leaving, the dessert case called out to me and I decided to get a slice of cake for later. We waited in front of the dessert case for quite a while before a waiter asked if we needed help. When we said we wanted to get a dessert, he told us to wait and did not come back. Finally, a bartender helped us out. He was the nicest, most knowledgeable man in the joint (which seems to staff only men).
I asked him to tell me about the Vanilla Bavarian and the Tres Leches. He said the first was very light, and the second very rich and dense and soaked in three kinds of milk. I had the Tres Leches and it was delectable, creamy, rich, sweet, and more than big enough to share. Not very affordable at $ 7 a slice, but worth it for special occasions.