Zen Garden Vegetarian Cuisine

Closed. The location is now a Thai restaurant. This is a chain so there are still locations in London and Toronto.

I have been to Zen Garden a few times and each time I am reminded of why I don't like the place. While the service and the food itself are adequate, I feel that they are overpriced. The serving size is also very small. My greatest disappointment was how at the end of the meal they provided us with a dessert-- and it was literally a bowl of canned fruit. A fresh apple would have been better.

They have a large selection of teas, so if you want to go for some afternoon tea this would be the ideal place. For meals, however, I would strongly advise against it.

Good food, great tea, nice decor. I liked this place right away.
The food is fresh, tasty and nicely presented. I had the mixed vegetables 'bento box' lunch meal. It included a really nice, light soup. The mixed veg themselves were very good. The box also included some sort of breaded tofu cutlets that were quite good.
They have a large selection of teas, in fact you walk though a tea shop/room to enter the restaurant. We had a teapot of Keemun Panda Organic black tea that was pretty tasty (I'm no tea connoisseur), with a mild nutty taste.
Recommended.

After seeing many good reviews, we decided to try out the Zen after all these years

Parking was not too hard to find, but weekend downtown streets are more difficult yes.

Decoration was very nice and fancy, spacious and sufficient lighting. Waitresses were very accomodating and nice to chat with (in Chinese).

Combo dinners were good value compared to entree prices, all dishes had nice presentation, from soup to appetizer, entree, bubble tea and fruit salad dessert

Total was around $50 for 3 persons (2 combo dinners & 1 noodle), which is not too bad. However value-wise it will be much better if prices are a bit lower, considering the only "vegetarian" parts were the fake meats, everything else you get in a regular restaurant.

Ridiculously overpriced so-so vegetarian food. I'm in K-W on business a lot, am a vegetarian, and though everything I get is expensed, I'll never go here again. Having lived in Boston, Toronto, and Chicago and visited any number of veg restaurants, I find this food only OK, but not great, and I'd probably eat there again if it wasn't for the price. Food of this level should cost half as much as they charge, yet this place, with only so-so food, in an area that's relatively inexpensive relative to big cities has the nerve to charge so much? I actually felt insulted.

Great restaurant! awesome food and service on many occasions. Always enjoy the food and I'm not vegan or vegetarian. Good variety of teas to buy and enjoy with your meal. Unique and interesting menu. ran out of food at buffet but they offered us a great deal on their dinner menu to accommodate us. have visited many times and definitely will visit in the future. This is the right way to run a small business!!

I have read several reviews which state that this restaurant is expensive, but I spent $20 including tax and tip and got a lot of wonderful food with lots of variety. It was well worth it. The restaurant was quite busy when I was there, good to see that business is improving at this great restaurant. The interior of the restaurant is very nice, clean lines and nicely decorated, it has a "zen" feel - aptly named. I really enjoyed my main dish, but my friend who I was dining with had an even better one - the Enoki mushrooms - it was amazing, I wish I had a recipe for that one. The servers were great about asking whether we were vegan. My friend initially was not served her spring roll, however this was promptly fixed when we mentioned it to the server. The soup was excellent, the spring rolls were kind of plain - what you'd get at any restaurant. We loved the purple rice, it was strange, but excellent. The cake was nice, it was small enough that you didn't feel you'd over-eaten, but enough to satify your sweet tooth. As a funny side note, I had a meat-eating friend tell me she'd gone for dinner at Zen Garden recently, she informed me that she'd had steak. I told her that it was a vegetarian restaurant and that what she'd had must have been veggie-simulation steak, she adamently refused to accept that she hadn't had meat. So don't worry about bringing non-vegetarian friends to this restaurant, I guess they won't be able to tell the difference! They also had vegetarian eel - we didn't try it, but that's a new one I haven't seen at other restaurants. I will be returning for more.

Delicious, satisfying vegetarian food. The mixed seitan is to die for, just like I remember getting from Chinese specialty places in Toronto's Chinatown. All of the entrees are wonderful, filling, and flavorful.

I frequent this restaurant often; their food is terrific, and as a vegan it is next to impossible to find restaurants in the Waterloo area that cater to vegans...it is always a delight visiting Zen Gardens!

When we first went into Zen Gardens, in 2005, we were not expecting to fall in love with the place. It is a little pricey for us, but when we feel like great, friendly service, and a delicious, fresh meal we will splurge a little for Zen Gardens. We have never been disappointed at Zen’s, everything is fantastic.