Zen Restaurant

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.

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.

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.