Zen Ramen and Sushi — Restaurant in Berryville

Went for lunch, midweek. Have traveled extensively to Japan, always looking for stateside places that serve a great authentic Ramen. Parking is along the main street outside, you will need change, parking meters take a quarter for an hour time.

Cozy inside, but small, only 3 booths and a Sushi Bar with about 8 seats. Probably can get crowded, we sat at the sushi bar as the booths were full. Quaint atmosphere, extremely polite hostess, offered us a booth after previous customers were finished and had left. The service was excellent.

Menu has a lot of options, actually way more other items than just Ramen. Good selection of appetizers, sushi, rice bowls, and Ramen.

My wife ordered a couple different sushi, but as I was looking for Ramen, decided to go with the Tonkotsu. Have found that you can usually tell a decent Ramen spot from the quality of their Tonkotsu, as it takes a long cook time to get that perfect creamy umami pork broth.

The sushi was excellent, fresh, and with a nice simple presentation. Another thing I have found is you can tell quality sushi not only from the flavor, but also from the extras. Cheap sushi mills often include bland pickled ginger and watered down wasabi, but not here…the sliced ginger and wasabi were excellent…the ginger was fresh, sweet and hot, and the wasabi was fresh and thick!

The Tonkotsu ramen was very good! The size is also perfect, typical Japanese Ramen house size. Others have described the bowls as “huge”, but they are actually not, just a normal size Ramen bowl, which yes, is bigger than a plain bowl of American style soups. If you order more than just one appetizer in addition to Ramen, you will probably have too much food. The broth was flavorful, milky white, and the toppings perfect, fresh and flavorful. Another item I always look for to see the quality of the Ramen is the Tamago egg, which should be just cooked enough to be done yet soft yoke (it was), as well as a flavorful, lightly brown exterior which indicates after cooking, it has been marinated in a flavorful broth (which it was)…very pleased! The Ramen included a piece of Chashu Pork (marinated braised pork belly), which again is another indicator of good Ramen. The pork was very good, flavorful, and perfectly cooked! My only observation about the Ramen was the broth was very thin, which made me question if it was actually a homemade broth that usually takes 10-12 hours to make, or maybe possibly from a pre-made, but good paste. Asked the hostess, she said they make the broth there.

The only dissatisfaction with the experience was my wife went to the restroom and came back and told me about how awkward it was to use. Small, which is normally not an issue, but a full sized sink was located right over the commode…have to be a contortionist or very limber…good luck. Also there were old bolts protruding from the wall where something had been removed, and the paper towel dispenser mounted extremely high on the wall…a child could not reach it. Need to spend a little effort to update the restroom. Unfortunately left an impression on my wife who is normally not picky.

Was very pleased with the outing, other than the women’s bathroom which lowered the overall experience a bit. Will definitely go back to try the other ramen styles.

Would I go back…yes! Would I...

I’ve given this place a try on three different occasions and all were unsatisfactory. The food lacked flavor, the presentation was awful, and our order was wrong all three times. I tried to give this place the benefit of the doubt because I really wanted to enjoy my experience here but that was not the case. I believe for over $80 for a family of three people, I expected more quality than what we received. In my opinion this restaurant was very disappointing, not to mention the service we received was extremely poor customer service, and that’s to say the least when we actually did pick up orders, so that’s saying a lot. Hopefully, if you decide to give this place a try I hope that your food and your service received is much better than ours was. Needless to say, after giving this place multiple tries it’s fair to say that this location isn’t on our recommendation list of places to visit. We heard such good things from our local community but that wasn’t the case with our experience. We were extremely disappointed with the food, the lack of effort in the presentation of our food, and most importantly the bad customer service we received was a dealbreaker for our family. Good luck, if you decide to give this place a try hopefully your experience will be different and your food will be better tasting than ours was. -...

My husband and I were having a date day in Berryville and decided that we HAD to hit Zen after getting lost in the local corn maze for and hour. We had been there before, about two years ago when we first started dating, before they found their amazing sushi chef! Their ramen was enough to bring us back and it didn't disappoint! The sushi was also out of this world! We each had our own bowl of ramen and two rolls. We preceded to take home two more to snack on later since it was an early supper. The helpings were very generous. The environment was very friendly. And the fact that they're small means you don't have to wait too long for large parties' orders to be fulfilled. I also want to highlight the excellent service! So friendly and attentive! Japanese food is my weakness and these guys are truly a hidden gem! We'll be going back as often as we can! I'm not sure why we haven't been back sooner. Some of the best ramen, sushi and service that I've ever experienced! Thank...