Restaurant Review: Zen Garden

This blog will be changing a bit in the new year to include a couple of my other interests; running, traveling and discovering great but frugal eating places. Let me know what you think about the changes by leaving a comment. Today, we start with my first restaurant review.

Ever had a “mythical restaurant” that came highly recommended, and you planned to go to for years and somehow never got to? Well, Zen Garden was it for me. So many friends recommended it, and I guess that raised my expectations. When I finally got to go there for lunch yesterday, it was a mix of the good, the not so Zen, and the definitely terrible.

Let’s start with the good…

The food service was excellent. We opted for the Chinese menu (they have a “fast foodish” Jade Menu too), and the waiter was really helpful in helping us select the right portions. I was a little disappointed they didn’t have cashew rice on the menu (I’ve noted fewer and fewer Chinese restaurants are stocking it these days). The menu said they had two Teppanyaki tables, one indoor and another one outdoors. We would have loved to sit there, but we were told the outdoor one didn’t exist, and the chef wasn’t available for the indoor one 🙁

For starters we had sushi, barbecued prawns with calamari and some chicken wings. They were perfectly done and sufficient.

My sushi serving. Loved it!

For drinks I opted for a mocha iced vanilla shake, whose recipe I must copy because it was excellent. The drinks waiter was outstanding, he took every opportunity to steer us away from the usual drink choices, tempting us to try something new. The main courses were typical Chinese food (sweet and sour chicken, pork, vegetable fried rice etc). Very filling and satisfying. The food was served in good time too and was fresh.

The not so Zen…

When my friend recommended Zen Garden a couple of years back, it was a restaurant with a lot of garden (hence the name), today, there wasn’t much garden, and it wasn’t so Zen. I am told that as the place got popular, they expanded, put up shade sails to accommodate more people, and it has killed the appeal. It seems they have diversified into conferencing, and as we ate, there was a lot of activity going on around us, conference chairs and tables being moved across the outdoor restaurant etc…

This was disappointing.

The shade sails are too much

The definitely terrible…

We had quite a bit of time to spare and wanted to spend the afternoon at the restaurant. The outdoor restaurant closed at 2pm, and by the time we ordered our desert at around 5:30pm, they’d started setting up for dinner. Our simple deserts took forever to arrive, we requested for takeaway, and it didn’t seem too coordinated. Coffee cups with no spoons to stir in the sugar, juice packed into coffee cups, and the worst bit, my tiramisu came in a coffee cup! I honestly can’t even tell you if it was any good, half the enjoyment of a meal is in the presentation. Here, Zen Garden failed completely.

My recommendation

On frugality: This isn’t on our list if you want value for money. There are cheaper Chinese places that serve better food. For a meal for 2, drinks and desert, you will spend about Kshs 4,000. It’s funny though, the Chinese menu has a lot of Japanese aspects (noodles and sushi).

Ambiance: I wish they didn’t ruin the gardens by expanding. However, the drive there is very scenic, and relaxed, makes for a good occasional afternoon off, if you don’t mind eating your tiramisu off a coffee cup. They however have a playground and a trampoline so if you have kids they can play and enjoy it.

Service: Save for the desert debacle, service was excellent. I wish the waiters had name tags, I would have mentioned the waiters who served us food and drinks by name.