First off the place is really pretty inside! It has a funky, modern, glam look going on. Large hanging sculpture dangling from wires on the ceiling, bright colors, mosaics of gold beads, funky artwork every which way, Zen is fun and hip without being intimidating (yes, I said hip... deal with it). The furniture is sleek, the actual plates and glasses are unique and all differently shaped, and the vibe is good.
M.E. joined Matt and me on our recent excursion to Zen. Now Matt is not a seafood eater... at all. Ever. It just isn't his thing. Now I know what you're thinking... why on Earth would we come here? Well, because they have amazing non-seafood dishes... and M.E. and I can be very convincing when it comes to getting sushi. We'll lie, cheat, and steal our way to obtain raw fish... we're not proud.
To start off our meal Matt ordered the steamed pork Gyoza while M.E. and I split a crab salad with a sweet vinegar dressing. They were both fantastic. Matt's dumplings were tender but not sticky, and the pork filling was perfectly seasoned.
Our salad was delicious. HUGE pieces of crab were laid out over a bed of perfectly chilled salad greens. Now usually when you think of crab at a sushi place you expect to see that psuedo crab leg stick thing that is typically stuffed into a California roll... not here my friends. This crab was fresh out of the shell; claw meat, leg meat, body meat... if it was once a part of the crab it was now on our plate. The dressing came on the side without our having to ask (thanks, ZEN!) and it was delicious.... sweet and tart all at the same time, it complimented the salty, fresh crab perfectly.
For dinner M.E. and I each went the 'roll route' while Matt stuck to creatures that had lived upon land. I chose the Dynamite roll (tuna, salmon, avocado and flying fish roe topped with spicy sauce) and a (excuse the doofy name) Bon Jovi Roll, which is a spicy tuna roll topped with snapper, tuna, salmon, avocado, and 3 different types of fish roe. M.E. got the 'Three Musketeers' roll (spicy tuna roll topped with alternating strips of white tuna and regular tuna) and the Zen Maki combo roll, which was actually three regular rolls (a tuna, a salmon and a California roll). Matt ordered the Chicken Bibimbap which was described as a sweet and spicy chicken, rice and vegetable dish.
None of us were disappointed. The fish at Zen is so fresh it may as well still be wet. I have eaten at many sushi places in my time, and never have I seen tuna so ruby red or salmon so glistening and pink that it looked almost fake. It falls apart in your mouth and melts like butter on your tongue... I really cannot say enough good things about the sheer quality of the food. My Bon Jovi roll (Gosh that name is SO DUMB) was OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD. There was so much fish stacked atop my generously stuffed roll that I am still shocked that I was able to eat it all. The spicy tuna is NOT that bland paste that most people try to pass off to their customers. This was large chunks of tuna that were coated in just the right amount of spiced sauce... not mousse-y or thin in the least. The Dynamite roll was equally fresh and delicious... a bit heavy handed on the sauce for me, but the fish was still able to shine.
M.E. enjoyed her rolls thoroughly as well. Her Zen Maki combo roll (rolls? there were technically 3 of them....) were all lovely... good fish to rice ratio. A bit boring considering all the option available at Zen (they have over 20 different specialty rolls to choose from) but hey, the chick knows what she likes. Her Three Musketeer roll was great... the white tuna was firm to the touch but buttery in the mouth... YUM
Matt's dish may have been the biggest surprise of all. I had never heard of Bibimbap before that night. I have since learned that it's typically a Korean dish and the name literally translates to 'mixed dish'. It was delicious. The chicken was cooked well.. not dry at all (as I find to usually be the case is Asian cuisines in general... maybe I'm just not going to the right places?) The sauce had a bit of heat to it but with a sweet, almost nutty taste to it. It tasted almost like there were peanuts incorporated into the sauce but after asking our server (and me losing 5 dollars after betting that I could 'name that taste') it turns out it was just lots of sesame. The description of chicken, rice and vegetables was a bit misleading, as the only vegetable to be found in the dish was cabbage, but there were still no complaints. The rice was tucked nicely under the chicken and cabbage and was not used as a plate filler, the way rice often is.
The food was delicious, the server helpful, and the ambiance lovely. Of course, this being said, it came at a price. Zen is what I call a 'special occasion' restaurant. Our bill came to just under$100 (all we ordered is what was listed in this post... the place is BYOB and we were a tap water drinking bunch that night). It was worth every penny and none of us have any regrets about what we ordered, but this is not your every day 'lets just grab a few rolls and some soup' kind of joint. The quality of the food (especially the fish) makes the price well worth the trip, so round up a group of your nearest and dearest and check it out for the next birthday/anniversary/Canadian Flag Day... whatever. Let me know your thoughts!Zen Japanese Cuisine
US Highway 9
Englishtown, NJ 07726
Englishtown, NJ 07726
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