Saturday, May 22, 2010

ZEN Japanese Vegetarian Restaurant

So sad....
due to its venue being enbloc & difficulties in finding alternative space with reasonable rental, Zen Jap ceases its operation for time being from 1 Jun 2012 til further notice...
One will have to move to Herbivores at Fortune centre to try signatory dishes of Zen Jap Vegetarian in future~
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Much had been talked about the new ZEN Japanese Vegetarian Restaurant among the Vegetarian bloggers. Finally, visited it this weekend with non-vegetarian folks.


The vegetarian Salmon Sashimi! What a look alike & what a taste alike! Had not touched it for years but with testimonial from non-vegetarian Japanese food lover folks, they too were surprised with the taste. Still defrosting when served to us, the coolness & freshness with the bite & taste of salmon slowly savouring in one's mouth. Even without the wasabi & soy sauce, it already tasted like the real version & was told it was made from beancurb, which one couldn't guess from the taste. (However, request from them to serve you in half derfrost stage as if they are being served to you in complete defrost mode, they won't taste as nice & you could easily guess the ingredients, best eaten when still in process of defrosting :P) Next, the vegetarian Unagi Don set. The refreshing salad and pickles with non-saltish soup and the vegetarian Unagi which also made of beancurb were complimented by the non-vegetarians. So, it is the sweet sauce that made the dish, not the poor eel~, leave it alone from now on...
For me, I preferred the vegetarian Katsu Curry Udon set. Finally, I could eat heartily the Japanese style Curry as the non-vegetarian version usually contains onion & beef extract. Well cooked udon goes well with more liquid style of curry with good portion of carrots, vege & mushroom. The Katsu or deep-fried pork cutlet well coated & fried had the right thickness of "meat" texture tasted so far of mock meat. The pickles and the small portion of strawberries, water-melon & honey-dew made the sets a complete satisfying meal, value for money with prices comparable to non-vegetarian Japanese restaurants.
Their alacarte side dishes, however, may be slightly more expensive in comparison but some specialty like the salmon sashimi is worth trying.

It is a small shop, so on a weekend, calling in advance for reservation is recommended.

Address: 122 Middle Road, #02-02, Midlink Plaza, S'pore 188973 (Opp Fortune Centre, towards Bugis direction)
Opening hours: 11.30am-10pm.

Tel: 6883 1586

8 comments:

Persocom said...

Oh this place sounds great! I've never been to a vegetarian Japanese style restaurant. I wish something like this would open up near me.

Hungry Ang Mo said...

We will be heading down to this place this week, as I will be reviewing this place for HAM, as well as VegVibe. Just curious, what were the prices of these dishes that you tried? In particular, the sashimi?

Good review Sunny!

Luke

Sunny said...

Hi Luke,
The set meals cost around range of $14-$20.
The side dishes like tofu pieces & chawatmushi are generally abt $6, but the salmon sashimi costs $8.
Hmm, for the salmon, depending on whether one had tried the non-vegetarian salmon before & like it, otherwise it is just another unique dish. But we were really amazed with the resemblence.
Hope you enjoy your food there too.

Cheers:-)

Anonymous said...

This new eatery should be make known to Tourist (veg or non-veg), as it is in the Tourist Hotspot.

It is so near to Grace Court and Veg Restaurant beside the Temple at Waterloo Street.

Cheers :)

Laura Ng said...

Hi sunny, I just ate there a few nights ago...nice food & nice ambience..maybe because I was there after 8pm where there's less crowd..amazingly no GST and service charge so it's good to try it out now before they start charging these 2 :-)

Shaheen said...

I live in the U.K and look forward to the day there is a Japanese vegetarian restaurant. I can see it being very popular.

Anonymous said...

Hi Sunny,

i love jap food so i got real excited finding out theres veg version of it.is the place is still open and at the same place?wld like to go down some time soon:)

Val

Sunny said...

Hi Val,
It's still there and with more variety of set meals too.
However, I understand they started to charge 10% service charge...:P
But still worth trying...:-)

Cheers,
Sunny :-)