Review Zen Restaurant - Halifax

Great food. Had Orange beef, Shredded Chicken with garlic and steamed rice. Owner/chef was super friendly and helpful. Was sad to see we were the only patrons at the time. Place was nicely decorated and clean. Lots of parking. Lots of choice in menu. Will be back.

Have been here several times, but spaced out over about 20 yrs. Most recent visit was last night about 7pm, a Thursday evening in December. Went in to place a take-out order to bring back to my office with a coworker for a bit of catch-up. There were two tables taken in the dining room. I would guess seating capacity for 80? The atmosphere is what you expect for most Chinese restaurants around here, with the normal decor, carpeting, basic tables. Seems well maintained, clean, and actually noticeably cozy this visit, with lower lighting and the back seating area closed off. It wasn't overly warm, but comfortable. I was greeted within maybe 30 seconds by the owner or manager, who was friendly. I took a take-out menu and explained I was looking for one of the standard "Canadian combos" that we've grown up with in NS. He pointed me right to that section, mentioning that you can add another item to the plate for $5. So I ordered the combination A meal, with an extra. Came to $19 something after tax. It was ready perhaps 11 or 12 mins, as expected. Took it to the office and generally enjoyed chowing down on the sweet & sour chicken balls (5 or 6 of them, a bit hard but still tasty and no complaints), rice ok/good, chow mein good/ok with liquid at the bottom as expected due to gravity of the styrofoam container, egg roll also similar to what you get at many Chinese restaurants locally (crispy, decent shell, with a brown substance inside). Although nothing blew me away here, I wasn't turned off. I'd go back, preferably at night where it seemed, again, very cozy.

The Chinese owner is such a nice man! The food is fresh and delicious as always! I am coming back!

Had not been for quite some time but am I ever glad I did, I ordered the general Tao , it was excellent, crispy and flavourful, and the rice was very tasty as well. Wish more people would remember them , it's local , well worth a visit

Delicious Chinese food, we were served right away. Very friendly staff.

It blows my mind how quickly people forget it was less than a year ago you would have paid good money for Shanghai noodles mixed in an old boot under a bridge in Dartmouth during the pandemic. You were so grateful to anyone willing to stay open as an essential business to make sure you could fill your face when you were too tired to cook after all that doing nothing, because you were home from work collecting CERB. Now you’re right back to complaining about the chicken in your friend rice being lukewarm while a small business like this one tries to crawl it’s way back from what I can only imagine was the worst 2 years of business they’ve experienced. Show some support. This man has always been kind and friendly when we’ve eaten in and the portions are more than generous for the price. Good Canadian Chinese food, we’ll be back for more!

Last weekend was my first time there, and the experience was entirely positive. Their food tasted genuinely traditional. They also had lots of options and abundant portions. The service was outstanding, straight and quick (well, there were no other customers there at the time). The environment is clean and not smelling oil. It's a pity they're not serving dumplings due to staff shortages, but I am planning to go back there.

As a party of 7, they took amazing care of us and were incredibly kind. Made us all happy and the serving sizes are more than expected to give us an amazing time here. Can’t recommend it enough

Despite having suffered through Covid, the food quality here is excellent and the owner is very friendly. Unfortunately, people seem to have forgotten this place exists, abs his business struggles to recover to the point that he cooks, takes cash, and waits all on his own.

Wonderful, Amazing. Even without them having main power, I was able to order, debit didn't work so they allowed me to do an etransfer. Food was still just as great as always.

Eaten here about 40 times. Fast, friendly service in a nicely-appointed dining room. Good portion for the price, good quality. Very quiet atmosphere, good area for large groups like family celebrations. Free parking in the back of Clayton Park Shopping Centre. Great place to take your parents when they come to visit. Nice aquarium for the kids to look at.

I have ordered from Zen for years, however under the new management and kitchen staff, the food here is horrible. Not the same place...not the same food. So they may as well have changed the name. But they instead have the advantage of a previous client base. One that won't exist for long under this new team, lol. The chicken balls are now tough and tasteless. The pink sauce is lacking flavor and is too corn starchy. Egg rolls are totally different, not consistent filling and usually under-cooked. If you can't get these basics right, you shouldn't be in the business. I would have called for a refund but I expect with all the returns, they are at the point where they are simply denying refunds. Don't waste your time here, it's not Zen anymore. Go spend your money where they do canadian-chinese right. What a shame. Years of good business reduce to this crud.

We ordered from your reaturant last night...and I didnt eat my spring roll until today and this is what i found inside it...they are supposed to be shrimp? Shrivelled up black shrimp....And it smelled sour!!

We've been eating at Zen's for at least 15 years. Excellent authentic Chinese cuisine and Dim Sum Our favourite: SP3 - Stuffed Bean curd on hot plate!

If you have any allergies, this place is the worst. We like their food but this is the 3rd time we've had this issue. I understand people make mistakes - the worst part is that they wouldn't refund my purchase unless I brought it back (that will cost about as much as the soup) . I offered to send a picture that clearly showed the mistake - no help.. They told me they actually don't have a manager. An absentee owner and a bunch of employees who don't care/can't help is really poor customer service. Well this is about as good as getting my money back.

We eat there whenever we go to the City love it

I was there today for the 1st time. The food was simply amazing

Had a great time the food was good and the service was excellent we planning our next visit soon

Tonight we bought hot and sour soup for take out and I told them we are extremely allergic to shrimp... We got home across the city and were so excited to eat.... Shrimp floating everywhere in the soup. So we called and asked if we could send a picture and have them refund the $14 which they insisted we bring it in so "they could see it with their own eyes". We told them we couldn't come that far tonight again. So after telling us sometimes they screw up an order and it's pretty much our tough luck... My husband says "okay, I come in", she says "oh, well we are closing and no one is going to wait for you. Bring it back to tomorrow". As if that's any help for our meal tonight!!!! Won't be going back here! The don't care about their customers and she insisted there is only an owner, no manager and he wouldn't be calling because he's always busy. The worst customer service!!!! Glad we noticed the shrimp before my husband ate it and went into anaphylactic shock!

Great Dim Sum

I Don't know who that bitch that works on the phone but what a bitch she should never work with people.