Let us see what people make of all this healthy food-- Definitely mixed--had to run a lot of reviews because the first batch here are negative and the better ones come later ( later ones are still from 2013 so it is not a question of going downhill over the years or something)
Again, negative comparison with another location
I am not surprised, vegetarians are picky eaters by definition ( though the burger fanatics are just as hard to please I have noticed)
Zen Palate
Categories:
Chinese,
Vegan,
Vegetarian
[Edit]
516 3rd AveManhattan, NY 10036
Neighborhoods: Midtown East, Murray Hill
(212) 685-6888
- Nearest Transit Station:
- 33 St. (4, 6, 6X)Grand Central - 42 St. (7, 7X)28 St. (4, 6, 6X)
- Hours:
- Mon-Thu 11:30 am - 11 pmFri 11:30 am - 11:30 pmSat 11 am - 11:30 pmSun 12 pm - 11 pm
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Price Range:
- $$
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Noise Level:
- Quiet
- Ambience:
- Intimate, Classy
- Has TV:
- Yes
36 reviews for Zen Palate
Review Highlights What's this?
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"I had a zen burger and yam fries - I was all about the fries (who..." In 2 reviews -
"...but I've also tried the sesame medallions (awesome nuggets of wheat..." In 4 reviews
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"We've tried their other locations, and the food is consistently good." In 6 reviews
Rating Distribution | Trend
36 reviews in English
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Review from Yon L.
New York, NYWould have gotten 4 stars but my main entree (Peking style duck wrap) was sub-par. Not only was it served cold, the "duck" was tasteless, was lacking in texture and soggy. I was very disappointed considering the great faux duck I've had before (I'm not a vegetarian).
Kale and Seaweed salad was out of control. SO tasty and fresh. I will go back just for this.
Sapporo's on tap!
Service was alright. I just wish they could serve food in courses (my dining partner was served both her app and dinner before my app came out). -
Review from Jessica D.
Brooklyn, NYWay back in the 1990's we thought that wads of wheat gluten fried in sweet sauces to emulate meat was a really exciting healthy food and Zen Palate was a hot spot for this healthy fusion cuisine. Back then Zen Palate was the place to bump into attractive like-minded veggie people. Now it is really dated style of cooking and very out of fashion. But the first week this place opened near my office I felt nostalgic I saw they had a lunch special so I came around to order some of the things I used to love. I brought a colleague.
The expression on her face was priceless and perfectly captured my realization: soggy wads of wheat gluten swimming in orange sauce are not yummy now, and not healthy either... and I'm thinking, they never were yummy or healthy. we were trippin' in the 90s when we thought this was good? did this ever taste good or did I imagine it? -
Review from XiaoHwa N.
Long Island City, NYGirlfriends lunch at Zen Palate today. Never been. Even though I'm not a vegetarian, I do search out meat alternatives.
For $8.95 Lunch Special you get 2 spring rolls, brown/red rice and your choice of entree which, from the looks of it, is the majority of their dinner menu.
I ordered the Curry Supreme - soy protein, potatoes and carrots in a light and spicy curry sauce. It was pretty good. Big portion that I couldn't finish. I was hoping for something more curry soup heavy like a bowl of Massaman but it was more like a watery sauce.
My friend ordered the Eggplant Zentastic and she seemed extremely pleased. Eggplant in a sweet and tangy sauce and bok choy. I tried it and it was tasty. I usually despise grilled eggplant but it wasn't slimy or oily at all.
The service was very friendly. We hung out for a good amount of time and weren't rushed.
I prefer Red Bamboo down on West 4th but this place was in the neighborhood. Considering my friend enjoyed it so much, I wouldn't mind trying it again but this time ordering something else. -
Review from Kamal K.
Jamaica, NYThe food was great but the service was a little lacking the lady seemed like she had a lot on her mind & the bartender just git up and left for some reason so we couldnt get mixed drinks, but we did get plum wine & it was Delicious and strong enough to give me a good buzz without being drunk. Beware For some reason they automatically added a 18% gratuity-
Don't remember exactly what this was I ordered but it was g… -
This was my fiancés meal i ate a little it was ok she enjoy… -
The Plum wine is a very good choice strong enough to give y…
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Review from H S.
Manhattan, NYThey have lost me as a customer!
I have ordered from them a number of times on Seelmess web, even though they claim 60-75 minutes by default the food is always here within the hour.
Today was a different story altogether. I order the curry supreme and wanton soup and requested 2 hot sauces on the side. What I recieved was a real mess. It first started with the deliver. When I called them I was told the guys had already left and my food should be here shortly.
Another 45 minutes passed no food, then I got a call and was told its in the lobby. I headed down ( 1.25 minutes since my order). I looked everywhere in the lobby the guy was missing, My building has 2 enterances and 1 lobby. Now i searched all the entranced and asked the lobby desk, n-one had see the guy. I was about to go back upstairs and I see a delivery guy standing in a remote corner. I waked over and asked Are you Zen pallate he saus YES.. moron.
Then he says to me I have been calling your cellphone. It says look at the instruction it clearly says call my desk in the delivery instructions. Also why are you standing here and not at the reception, he says sorry.... I pickup my food and head upstairs.
The food is tone cold the soup is un-eatable as its had soaked into the wantons and athe wantons are breaking up to a gooey mess. thats not all, my curry supreme is now a pool of curry in the borrom of the bag where the containers are flotilla in the delivery.
I open the box there is no curry just try tofu, carrots and potatoes in my curry.... I need 5 napkins to clean the box to lift it out of the bag. I called Zen pallate to complain, as any asian place they don't give a flying F&^%, we will remember next time! --- Ya I will also remeber next time you arn't getting a DIME from me!
So dissapointed, I dumped the lunpy food and went out to get a slice and eat it warm! and 18$ hard earned money wasted ! -
Review from J N.
Manhattan, NYDo not patronize this restaurant.
The food is not so good considering the price. One other reviewer called it outdated, and I think that's just a start, add hastily prepared, cold, and bland.
The server added automatic gratuity of 18.5% on a party of two. He was terribly arrogant when we complained.
There's also several menus each with different prices for the same plates. What's up with that?
Lastly, no ambiance, no character. Simply, Zen Palate is less than nothing special. -
Review from Richard C.
Neshanic Station, NJWe today ordered the Peking Duck (accurate! and the herbs are so so perfect), Thai Sea Bass (tasted like real sea bass, no easy feat in vegetarian world; even the skin smell & texture were accurate), Hot & Sour Soup (deserves special mention as it's my critical lifelong favorite Chinese soup), Tex-Mex Moo Shu & Tofu Cheesecake (thicker and grainier than smooth cheesecake, but the taste was, again, dead-on; bravo). Included are 2 sides of brown rice. Every single dish was superb. It's a vegetarian (though not necessarily vegan) restaurant & all the meats are so impressed with the accurate & thoughtful design of every dish. The service by the 2 skilled hosts was very courteous & thoughtful as the details are what count. The 6pm crowd was very light before the 7:30p crush, so we thoroughly enjoyed the spaciousness. 5/5 -
Review from Mimi N.
New York, NYHorrible experience. The waiter was extremely rude and told us he will not accept our yelp coupon without printing it (even though the coupon specifically says we can just show it via our mobile device). He made us walk far to print it (we think he was just scheming so we would just give up on the coupon and pay the whole price). He added 18 percent gratuity without telling us or asking us claiming that he will not acceptthe coupon if we do not pay the automatic gratuity. HORRIBLE HORRIBLE SERVICE. mediocre food (not salty enough, without flavor), the WORST SAKE I have ever had (8 usd for a small one). Nothing Zen about this place. -
Review from Melissa G.
Rockville Centre, NYI placed an order for pick-up at this location this afternoon, and had a frustrating and disappointing experience. Needless to say, I will never go back to Zen Palate again.
I placed an order for pick-up and when I arrived I presented a $25 http://restaurant.com gift certificate toward the balance. The waiter was rude about it and said that they automatically add 18% tip for use of this certificate. First of all, the certificate did not specify whatsoever that dining-in is mandatory to use it. Secondly, tip should de discretionary, particularly for an order I am picking up. He said this tip was mandatory and would not listen to me when I explained that nothing on the certificate required dine-in. The food was bland and overpriced. Based on the horrible and incredibly rude customer service plus the disappointing food, I will never go back there again. I have another gift certificate to Zen Palate and I'd rather just not use it than go back there again.
In addition to vastly improving the quality of their customer service, Zen Palate would be wise to specifically add the dine-in requirement to their http://restaurant.com certificate as well as the fact that they add 18% gratuity to take-out orders. -
Review from Eroika T.
Manhattan, NYDisappointing! I went there with a friend, thinking vegan food is usually delicious. I had a hard time finding an item on the three food menus (confusing!) that didn't contain tofu, because Zen Palate tofu is not organic, and therefore genetically modified. I finally settled on a noodle soup; the waitress said it could be made without tofu. Our food arrived in just a few minutes. My friend ordered the kale-kelp salad; the kale was fine, but the kelp was cooked with sugar-- gross! As for my soup, the broth was tasty and the noodles were fine, but the veggies were nearly raw, and the mushrooms were ugly-- not cleaned and merely halfed. We could tell it was the sort of operation where these three components of the soup were prepared ahead ahead of time and thrown together when ordered-- like in a midtown lunch cafeteria-- only for more money. I usually eat even every last grain of rice on my plate, but I wound up leaving maybe half the vegetables in the bowl untouched. I wouldn't go back there again. -
Review from Patricia S.
New York, NYI've only gotten takeout from Zen Palate. I've given it a chance a few times, and I never found something I loved. The restaurant itself has a slick look and they have Sapporo on tap, which gets major points in my book, but overall I've been underwhelmed. -
Review from Tony C.
Manhattan, NYVisited this restaurant for the first time last Friday. May sound cliche, but I honestly never knew vegetarian food could taste SO good. I am about to purchase the $20 for $40 voucher here on Yelp. My only complaint is that I wish they had a location in East Village so my girlfriend and I can go there on a daily (OK weekly) basis :)
Try their Cantonese noodles and the Vegetarian burger with yam fries. The ambience is quite nice -- not too fancy but also not cheap-feeling at all. My gf and I will be back very, very soon (maybe tomorrow haha -- seriously).-
Appetizer with vegetarian ham sandwiched between the wedges. -
Veggie burger with yam fries - order it NOW. -
yam fries - yum (even good the next day as microwaved lefto…
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Review from Jenna K.
What a disappointment on so many levels! I came here with a girlfriend last week. I was SO excited because I've heard about Zen Palate for years, and as a vegetarian, it seemed like the perfect place to have around the corner from my apartment.
We each got the Thai Chopped Salad, which I found quite good, actually. However, my friend requested hers without jicama, and that request was not honored. Not a big deal though, she ate it anyway. After the salad, we split the Grilled Marinated Seitan. I hate to say it, but it was AWFUL. It was the consistency of rubber, and it didn't taste much better. We flagged down our waiter & told him we didn't enjoy the Seitan, and asked him to take it away.
When it came time to pay the check, things got really weird. First of all, the Seitan was still on there. We mentioned this to our waiter, at which time the manager (probably?) came over and very theatrically exclaimed she was going to remove it from our bill, as if she were bestowing some grand favor/honor upon us. I mean... thanks... it wasn't good & we returned it before eating it, ha. Then, their credit card machine was down, which they waited about 30 minutes to tell us, as we were asking and asking what we were waiting for. I am normally NOT annoying in restaurants... at all - but this was just completely ridiculous.
Unfortunately, I don't think I will be returning to Zen Palate anytime soon :-/Comment from Theresa H. of Zen Palate 10/4/2012
Dear Jenna K: thank you for your feedback. We are so sorry… More » -
Review from Michael O.
Manhattan, NYI used to regularly go to the Zen Palate in Union Square where TGIF's now is and really enjoyed it. I tried this location two nights ago and their was nothing Zen about the experience at all. My friends and I now joke this is the Zen Chaos restaurant. The food was delicious and spot on but the service was so abysmal that it sucked all the joy out of the entire experience.
We were greeted and seated but not given menus. Not a huge big deal but my first impression was that things are not functioning properly and this meal will take alot of time and effort to get. After we got the menus and were ready to order, then there was another long wait to place the order. The wait to order was long enough that I seriously considered leaving to go to another restaurant. But my dinner friend said let's just stay. Eventually, we placed our orders not with our waitress but with the manager. After waiting 20 minutes for our food and asking the waitress several times can we get our appetizers of soup and scallion pancake, of course the entrees come out without the appetizers and I have to request them. While we are eating our meal, the table of six next to us is complaining to their waiter repeatedly that customers who came after them have already received their food but they didn't get their orders yet. It seems that the waiter either lost the order or didn't place it because we finish our entire meal before their food comes out and we did come after them. The waiter never told them that their order had been botched but just stoically said that their order was coming out soon despite the obviously error. No offer to comp anything or other gestures. If all of that wasn't enough, to cap off the meal, getting the check required a full 15 minute wait!! Basically, my companion and I had to go and stand in front of the cash register with our coats on and just camp out until they belatedly gave us the bill. All in all, a totally sucky experience. While we were there, the restaurant had two waiters and a manager and there were maybe 20 patrons. -
Review from Sean C.
Was surprised and delighted to see a Zen Palate open in our neighborhood. We've tried their other locations, and the food is consistently good. The vegetarian delicacies abound!
I had the wonton soup, followed by the "Ham" and avocado sandwich. The ham was vegetarian ham of course. It was delicious. My wife had the sesame medallions which came with spring rolls, brown rice and broccoli.
Solid food. Good service. Would be 5 stars, except I think they are a little stingy on the portions. I'm all for smaller portions, but the ham sandwich was mostly bread and avocado, and at $13, even for NYC, I'd like a little more meat. Still love the place though. -
Review from Larry G.
Brooklyn, NYhave been going regularly for lunch for several months. consistently pleased and now that they have decent music playing it's a pleasure. Their staff is very nice too although not all of them speak English fluently to answer complicated questions. But someone there can. I highly recommend this place and even non-vegetarians can find food that tastes really good!!
I started the review a few months ago and I am consistently satisfied. I go there about once a week for lunch.1 Previous Review: Show all »
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10/19/2012
Five stars for the food.
I used to go to Zen Palate when they were at Union Square all the time, as I… Read more »
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10/19/2012
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Review from Patricia C.
ASTORIA, NYJust as good as the location on 45th and 9th. On the weekend it's soooo quiet. No crowd, no wait and lots of great vegan grub.-
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My favorite - pan fried noodles.
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Review from Marisa M.
Manhattan, NYThis location's food was not as good as the other NYC location. The service was horrible, the waitress waited 20 minutes between each visit to the table. Dinner for 2 in a retaurant with only one other table with customers took 2hours. They also added an 18% tip automatically without prior notice and without notifying us. Horrible experience. -
Review from Matt G.
Scarsdale, NYGreat vegetarian food, nice atmosphere, great service, reasonably priced. Really no complaints at all, and this place has definitely earned my respect as a creative spot that keeps things interesting.
For some reason it's always empty, but honestly there's no good reason for that. I recommend the "prix fixe" menu, although I've never tried any of the other menus. The "rose petals" (soy crepes with veggies, and a sweet glaze) were my top pick, but I've also tried the sesame medallions (awesome nuggets of wheat protein), shredded heaven (savory shredded tofu and veggies), and the mango halo (also good - kind of like a sweet and sour seitan).
I think the prix fixe menu is the way to go, you get two taro spring rolls and red/brown rice which opened my eyes to the world of red rice (really pleasant nutty taste).
Today we also got veggie dumplings (handmade and delicious) and the basil peanut moo shui rolls (ok but not a lot of filler).
Service has always been really attentive and the servers are patient in explaining what everything is.
I really hope this place sticks around, because it's a real gem in an area where I haven't been particularly happy with any of the Chinese restaurants.
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