Zen Ramen and Sushi Burrito — Restaurant in Gainesville

The first time I came, the food was actually pretty great. I can’t remember exactly what I got but it was one of the ramen dishes. Since then, I cannot say the same. Two visits ago, i ordered a boba that had some type of fruit in the name and I don’t like the jellies so I specifically asked if it came with them and I was told no because it was just “the brand” so I expressed my gratitude at that fact and asked for the tapioca instead. When I got home, I opened the bag and not only was there no tapioca, but there were jellies. There were also ingredients missing from the food I purchased. Last night, I ordered the bulgogi steak cheese roll. The roll arrived cold, the steak was dry and hard, there was barely any eel sauce, and literally not a single piece of the roll kept its shape when I picked them up with the chopsticks. The rice was super mushy and yet somehow the individual pieces of the roll were almost all also stuck to the bottom of the foil to the point that I had to scrape the majority of the bottom of each piece off the foil with the chopsticks. The server also left the trash from the straws, chopsticks, etc., which we had pushed to the very edge of the table nearest the aisle, on the table the entire meal, despite that when he came to pick up one of the empty plates from our appetizer, I picked up one of the straw papers and placed it on the plate. My partner and I were celebrating her birthday after she had an extremely long day at work. This was definitely not the experience we had been looking forward to all day. Mission accomplished and message received, we will not be...

Zen Ramen has always been in my Top 3 for Ramen. I LOVED their Tonkatsu Spicy Shrimp. I haven't been in several months and decided to go today for lunch. I don't know what happened, if it's new ownership or something, but it was overall a negative experience. We were seated with no wait, which was nice. The waitress got our drink order and when she returned, she asked if we were ready to order food. We wanted spring rolls and ramen. I told her we wanted the spring rolls and then she just walked away. She didn't ask if that was it or anything - just left. But whatever, not a big deal. She didn't come back until she brought out the appetizer and that was when she took the rest of our order. We didn't have to wait long so that was nice. However, we both were disappointment by our meal. The boiled egg was frozen in the middle. The crispy shrimp was so bland and stale. It was like it had been reheated when every time in the past it has been freshly fried. The worst part was that the noodles had an awful smell. I have probably eaten ramen here at least 15 times and I have never experienced smelly noodles. The taste wasn't terrible, but the smell made it to where I couldn't eat it. We didn't complain, we paid the bill and left. It was a bummer because this one bad experience will make me hesitant to ever go back when it has always been one of my favorites. Giving 2 stars because the spring rolls were honestly great and deserve some recognition! And the dipping sauce...

3 stars all around. The best part about the meal & experience was the appetizers... We both got a "sushi burrito" and it took over FORTY minutes to get to us. The server didn't come check on us hardly at all & after I called him over, he got the manager to comp us an appetizer of dumplings while we waited. Those were very tasty but by then, we were already hangry. When the burritos finally arrived, they were pretty difficult to eat. The pics in the menu weren't detailed enough for us to know what we were getting into. I got the bulgogi burrito & she got the salmon crunch burrito. The bulgogi burrito was wrapped in seaweed paper & the salmon was too but had a layer of sushi rice around the outside, which helped hold it together. Mine wasn't closed up all the way around & made the thing really hard to enjoy eating because every bite would just force all the filling out the crack in the seaweed wrapper. I gave up after half and asked for a to-go box. I'll be unwrapping it into a bowl myself at home so I can actually eat it without a fight. Hers was much better and a lot more flavorful than the bulgogi. It was still really messy by the end but it held its shape slightly better. The ONLY reason we'd ever go back is because the price is reasonable.... But I'd imagine it'll still be a while before we convince ourselves to...