Zen Wok Fusion

We went for dinner before a concert at the Saroyan, because someone recommended we try this restaurant as a replacement for Joy Luck, which had closed. We found it tucked away in the Tower District; a tiny little place that included a full bar in front. To start, we ordered the tempura green beans with hot tea, and let me just say, this was worth the price of admission alone. The crunch-​covered beans were presented in a towering stack like a game of Jenga with a tangy sauce for dipping… incredibly delicious. Our tea was served in a heavy, beautifully carved tea pot which did not spill the tea everywhere when poured. I also ordered a glass of pinot noir from the wine list, which was not available that evening. An alternate was offered in its place, which was a better choice than what I selected. For entrees, we ordered Mongolian beef and sweet and sour chicken to share with coconut rice. Each of these tasty dishes were prepared to order without a lot of oil, grease, and no MSG. We were given large, full bottles of soy sauce, Sriracha sauce, and hot oil on the table. Someone else’s review complained about this, but I loved that we weren’t given a packet or tiny dish with a teaspoon of sauce in it; we had as much as we wanted. Also, the soy sauce was light, flavorful, not loaded with salt, and over the coconut rice, an incredible flavor match. Our food was delicious, the service was perfect, and to top it all off, at the end of our meal, we were presented a small carved box. Tucked inside was our bill and two fortune cookies for dessert. My husband and I both loved this delightful dinner experience, and will definitely return. We are also going to try their other location, as well.

Omg!!! After a long weekend of work we stop by here on the first Sunday they are now open! And boy oh boy was i happy! Their food is always on point! The taste of each item especially their shrimp omg!!! Its flavor that is soooo indescribable! I know… heaven!!! Served with a glass of chardonnay their best kind of course opened from a fresh bottle! The service is awsome! If they were open everyday i would go everyday! We drop about 50 – 65 $ for two people but thats for like 6 items served very large i might add… my complements to the chef that again i say has food served on point each and everytime we go!

Food was OK. Over priced. Waiter knocked rice off my boyfriends plate with her hand while serving us and didnt say anything. Not somewhere I’ll ever crave.

Oily and overcooked meal that was too salty. Hope they can focus more on fresh ingredients and spices and grow to be the place that everyone wants for Tower take-​out.

First Impression — Came here for lunch around 11:45. Dead silent, not a customer in sight. Awkwardly stranded in the doorway for a spell before being helped.
Environment — the place looked nice enough. Could use a window covering during high sun hours. The sun was glaring off all the metal in the room making it distracting to read.
Wait staff — In a word: unprofessional. I walked in and they were rolling napkin rolls at the bar chatting amongst themselves. The place is small enough that any real estate reserved for seating should stay that way. Roll those in the back and continue your conversation in peace. We don’t want to hear how your grandad’s tooth fell out eating stuffing at Christmas. When they greeted me, it was not with a smile, almost as if they were sad to see me. Moping around. Otherwise, the food came out quickly and they took my order in a timely manner. Seems like an odd place to drop the ball. Show a little enthusiasm! :)
Menu — I about walked out when I saw $ 6 for hot tea. That better be tea fit for the queen of England, guys… Stir fry combos served over various rices and noodles. Nothing to write home about, nothing ground breaking. They offered a phở, but I wasn’t convinced on it. They do offer a vegetarian selection, and I thought that was a nice change of pace. Here’s hoping they don’t cook it on the same materials /​oil.
Food — I ordered the orange chicken lunch plate. Comes with a spring roll and a cup of rice for about $ 10. The chicken itself was pretty good, and not «chicken nugget» style so that was refreshing. However it was branded as a spicy dish and it was not. Three whole peppers in the mix, does not a spicy dish make. I don’t care either way, but it’s misleading. Cut em up and mix, or take them out. The rice was absolute mush. Since I went in close to opening, it was either leftover rice from the day before they had reheated, or they seriously need to recheck their water-​rice ratio. The egg roll was overlooked and as a result was drenched in oil from the deep fryer. Likely frozen.
Misc — They handed me some sauce dispensers when they served my food. Soy, Siracha and hot oil. The soy sauce tasted cheap. For a place that seemed nice, it seems an odd place to cut corners. The Siracha came in the retail bottle. Not that it’s a bad thing, it just doesn’t make sense. Again, you go through the trouble of getting a nice looking place, stainless steel chopsticks and fancy plates, then place a sticky retail Siracha dispenser on my table. Get smaller squeeze bottles or containers and decant them yourselves. It will look much more the part. The hot oil I did not try, but was served in a quantity that could be used for an entire province of China. They plopped a 750ml bottle with pour nozzle attached to the end of it on my table. Again, this is odd, off putting and ruins all the atmosphere you went through the trouble of creating. The beauty is in the details, and I’m not talking about the mandolin-​cut cucumber in my water. Stainless steel chopsticks, I like the idea of, but not sure how I feel about the taste of metal accompanying my meal.
Final Thoughts — I likely won’t be returning unless they can figure out what they want to be. Upscale fusion joint, or sticky hole-​in-​the-​wall Asian place. You have the hard things right and the easy things wrong. 2 locations is a mistake if your formula isn’t down first. Advertising was effective but oh so cheesy. Sub-​par food and not enough focus on what makes the dining experience. I want you guys to succeed, I truly do. I just don’t see it with the current game-​plan.
Good luck! :)

Our favorite go to spot. Love the tempura green beans, coconut rice, phở on a cold night and just about everything else.

Ordered a delivery. Food was to expensive and and quality was terrible. Tried it once and never again.

This was a profoundly disappointing meal. Granted it was delivered to our house, but none of the problems seemed related to that. Simply put, all three dishes we ordered were terrible. The eggplant was firm and undercooked (despite being deep fried), the lettuce cup chicken appeared to simply be chicken puréed with hoisin sauce and served as gelatinous mush. The stir fried veggies were soggy and tasteless.
Yuck!

Very friendly staff and great food. Relaxing ambiance. The beef and broccoli and very tasty as well as the fried green beans. Great place to have dinner and a drink after work.

Disappointed by the poor customer service. Made an online order for the Tower District location and upon pickup was notified that «all online orders go to Herndon and Palm» though I’ve made several online orders here before. They did not have my food though order had been sent to restaurant. I had already paid via app with my credit card ahead of time. Employee stated they would call location but went back in kitchen and never called other location. Won’t be back. Sorry guys. Will be going to Loving Hut instead like I should have in the first place. Be very weary of ordering online.

Good quality food, but small portions. I liked their flavor combos though!

Went here because I was craving fried rice, this place popped up, so I decided to give it a try. The waitress took about 15 mins to acknowledge my husband and I, and when she finally took down our to-​go order she was balancing our check and another tables. She said it’d be about 10 mins, but it was actually more than 20. She had our food all packed up, and since there was only one other table in the entire restaurant, we trusted she had our order down right. We came home to find out that my fried rice was actually noodles. My husbands food was extremely over cooked and he actually refused to finish it because it just wasn’t good at all. I would not recommend this place to people looking to get their Chinese food fix.

Love it every time both dine in and carry out! Everything on the menu is great!!! Must try spot in tower!!!

BLUF: my wife and I had one of the worst take out experiences that I can remember in recent memory.
After finally deciding on Chinese food my wife really wanted fried rice, that was our main reason for coming to this place.
We walked in at 8 at night and the place was virtually empty, there was only one other table there. We asked if they do take out and they gave us a menu, after figuring out what we wanted we looked for anyone to take our order, ANYONE. We waited 19 minutes before the waitress finally came back to us. When the waitress took our order she was uninvolved and had her back to us the entire time, at the same time she was printing off the other guest’s bill. She told us it would take ten minutes, 25 minutes later they gave us our food, all packed up and in a bag.
We drove home, opened up the food, and were promptly disappointed. The beef and broccoli has was completely bland, the meat legitimately tasted old and was very dry. The sauce was also not even a sauce, just a soy liquid.
There were five or six pot stickers that were obviously microwaved and placed on about a pound of radish.
The fried rice? Nope, it was noodles. We called them and had them deliver a correct fried rice and that wasn’t even good.
DONT GO HERE, if you have the time, look at my other reviews and see that I usually only write positive notes, even for things that aren’t that great. Let that be a beacon to the fact that I’ve really got something to get off my chest about this place.

The food here is descent we ordered the fillet mignon beef which was a pretty decent size and very flavorful. We also ordered the Asian chicken salad which was a good size enough for 2 but it was plain not to much flavor but very filling. The food is a little pricey but all in all it is a decent place to eat they also have a full bar.

Now, I really wanted to love this place because I need a nearby amazing Chinese Food restaurant that will tantalize my taste buds, but after my first visit, I’m fairly disappointed.
My wife and I went during lunchtime, enticed by the lunch special sign and decided to give it a shot.
She ordered the orange chicken, I ordered the lemon chicken, both with coconut rice, and crab wontons as an appetizer.
The server was very friendly and, after we just asked for water, she came back after placing our order and informed us that we get a free beverage with our meals, so we both got sodas.
Our water glasses were cute with a little slice of cucumber in them, which I found charming and the ambiance was small, yet quite quaint and quite nice. The only negative note on the interior is that the chairs are the kind that you are forced to lean back, which we found very uncomfortable, during our brief 30 minute lunch.
My wife’s Orange chicken left something to be desired. The chicken didn’t have a great flavor, was kind of chewy, and not spicy at all (the menu says it’s spicy). My lemon chicken, on the other hand, was very good, but luke warm. It had a little more sauce than I’d prefer, but otherwise was very tasty. The coconut rice was very good, also, and a treat, as I wouldn’t typically think to have coconut on my rice.
The crab wontons, well… they never came… so we didn’t have them. :(Unfortunately, this is what we were looking forward to the most.
We didn’t remind the server of our long, lost won tons, so I can’t complain too much, but it’s definitely a bummer.
Overall, it was okay. We’ll try it, again, and I’ll update my review accordingly, but neither of us will likely order the same thing, again, and certainly not the orange chicken. :(
I caught glimpses of other peoples’ mongolian beef, phở, and won tons, and we’ll probably try one of those next time.
Onward and upward, Zen Wok! Onward and upward!

What a experience… I’ve ordered food for pick up, and it has always been good. My partner and I came in for a early dinner. It was a slow night; 2 other tables either than us. The food we ordered was excellent. this place has a lot of vegetarian options and I ordered the tofu curry… it was amazing, worth the 14.50. My partner got a mango chicken dish which he enjoyed
The waitress was nice… but incompetent. My partner ordered a diet coke, and I ordered a iced tea drink wise. My partner got his coke, but I never got my tea. The big issue comes down to service. Besides for the drink issue, we never were checked on and it ended up taking a solid half hour for us to get our check. I had to go and ask for it… and wait another 15 minutes. I might order to-​go, but I’ll never order in again.

Really kinda surprised at the hot/​cold reviews on this place this past year but decided to give it a shot this evening with a couple coworkers.
Honestly the food was pretty great and the service ok. Place is definitely not very big, but being a Tue night it was pretty dead (we ended up being the only table there by 8:30 or so). We ordered 3 things to share, of those the best value was by far the pepper beef, I couldn’t stop eating it. We also had the Thai chicken curry which was good, just the right amt of spiciness, and the coconut shrimp & spareribs entrée (the shrimp was awesome).
Would definitely go back when we’re in the area.

I recently moved to Tower and wanted to try some of the local flair, but unfortunately this restaurant did not live up to my expectations.
When we, our three person party, walked in we were greeted by a cheery bartender, a very nice guy. We asked if we could sit on the patio to which he obliged and brought us a couple menus. He took our drink order then disappeared back into the restaurant to make our libations. A few minutes later a female server came out to take our orders. Since we were new to the restaurant she provided a few suggestions and was very courteous too. I’m allergic to mushrooms, so I made sure to request that they be omitted. Like the bartender, after she took our orders she went back inside. This is where our experience took a turn for the worst.
The bartender brought out the drinks within an acceptable amount of time. I had ordered a long island while my girlfriend and her friend ordered two mixed drinks. All came back pretty much as doubles, which is fine when you’re out boozing but not so much when you’re trying to have a nice dinner. He ended up remaking the drinks but again they were still too strong and were sent back a subsequent time.
The food came out within an acceptable time frame however there was one flaw. When I had placed my order I was specific that mushrooms be left out as I am allergic (I hate mushrooms but telling servers your allergic helps). Before I began eating my meal, I noticed lots of mushrooms. I alerted our waitress who seemed indifferent. She said she would take the plate back but by the time the kitchen would have another ready, the other guest in my party would be done. I ended up electing not to order another dish and shared with my friends.
This was our first and last visit to this restaurant. I hope in the future the orders can be taken and prepared as directed so someone doesn’t end up with an allergic reaction.

This is my first review on Unilocal I was hoping it would be a good one but unfortunately my first experience here was not good. I followed the advice from the reviews about ordering the crab wontons with a sweet spicy sauce and they were pretty good. We also ordered a couple of draft beers that weren’t all that great.
For our main meals I ordered the recommended coconut chicken curry and it was horrible. The chicken was rubbery like it had just been boiling all day. I took about two bites and couldn’t eat anymore the rice was bland as well. My boyfriend ordered the mango chicken and his chicken was the same plus his rice was soggy and gross. The service was ok, I think it was just the owner. It felt kind of unprofessional and like everyone was being rushed out. The food was practically inedible and was a complete waste of $ 50. We will not be going back.