Zen Dumpling — Restaurant in Jacksonville

I really really wanted to love this place and was excited to come here. I was expecting a full service world of dumplings that was going to be explained to me in an enriching experience. Surprisingly it’s very basic like one step above Panda Express. The decor is very stark and I was hoping for more but went with it. then they hand me a menu and a piece of paper like when you order sushi you write it down yourself. Waitress wasn’t very helpful on what is what and we found the QR code on the table which was the most helpful thing with pictures but still lacking descriptions. We knew we wanted to try the assorted soup dumplings we did and also tried the fried Bao. So we arrived at 9:15 and it closes at 10:30 on a Saturday. Well they decided to do their pre-closing cleaning and replacing sauces at 9:15 so the entire time we ate the excess staff was buzzing all over the dining room cleaning everything around us. One waitress was filling up all the sauces in the room right at the table next to us for like 10 minutes. Totally blew the atmosphere and made me feel like we should be leaving. Waitress forgot our set ups so she brings us our dumplings put them on the table and we look at each other like what do we do now and we looked at the other tables and realize we are missing bowls and spoons and everything you need to eat. So we start eating the soup dumplings that I’m all excited for and honestly was underwhelmed by the whole deal. They were actually smaller than I thought they would be and the flavors were not strong. One of them stuck to the paper so all the soup came out. Oh yeah also you make your own sauce instead of like getting the traditional premade dumpling sauce you make your own which I don’t want to be a sauce maker I would like to have good dumpling sauce made for me. But she really enjoyed making her sauce that’s her thing so hers was better so I stole some of hers. So we ate the soup dumplings and we’re like OK, nothing great here. so we eat the fried Bao which was the highlight. They are like a thick skinned dumpling and the bottom is fried so those are really good. But still we’re talking like maybe a half step above your normal fried dumplings or potstickers these things weren’t earth shattering. 5 Bao or 6 Dumplings is $12. My local place does 8 dumplings for $9. By the time we finished the full cleaning crew staff is buzzing around the restaurant. I can’t even get to the bathroom there’s three people in my way it was just not an enjoyable atmosphere whatsoever. So the Bao was good and might come back someday for them but not in any big rush. I guess in my head I had built up that these dumplings were going to be out of this world and they...

First visit - decent! Second visit - very underwhelming. The only thing I forgot to take a picture of was the Mongolian beef last night. I wish I grabbed a pic. That dish was very flavorful and very good except…. 75% of the dish was harsh/potent purple onion with green onion mixed in - very little beef, and comes with a side of white rice. I loved the flavor of this dish so much but I strongly recommend ordering this only if you love onion (which I do thank goodness) but even for me it was way too much onion. I wish there was more protein and less filler for this particular dish.

The steamed pork and shrimp dumplings and the soup pork and shrimp dumplings came in second to the Mongolian beef. These lacked flavor for me. The first time I ordered the pork shrimp soup dumplings, they had way more flavor. Last night’s tasted like they were not freshly steamed , and they did a quick nuke in the microwave to make them steamy again.

The restaurant was very clean and pretty slow for a Saturday night around 8:30pm. Our service was okay. The first dish - the Mongolian beef: was dropped off at the table and the server was gone as soon as it hit. No “how does everything look, can I get you anything else” no check up on how it was once we started trying it, I had to wave my server down to politely ask for a fork and grab her attention. I looked around for other servers to possibly ask for something and they were in the back of the restaurant eating. The only server not eating was our server.

I ordered a fountain drink at the start of my meal. At no point during the entire meal was I offered a refill. When the check was paid and the table was cleared, the server looked in my empty cup of ice and asked if I wanted more. 👍 great timing; as I’m on the way out. My dinner accomplice in crime had one beer. He was never offered another beer the entire meal either. If it were me I’d want to do anything I can to make the check higher as a server so that it shows I’m not only attentive and observant to empty beverages mid meal, but also offers potential for a higher tip but hey; that’s just me. $53 later plus a tip; We left not very full. I’m not rushing to come back here...

My girlfriend and friends came to eat here last night. After waiting for a brief moment we finally got seated and were served our complimentary waters from our waitress. After about 10 minutes another representative different to the one who was serving us told us we had to hurry and order because the kitchen was closing. We were confused as we never had the opportunity to order for all that time due to our waitress ghosting us after we sat down. After waiting some more time our waitress finally appears out of thin air and places our order. As soon as the food arrives the same person who told us to hurry up and order told us to basically hurry up and eat because they close at 10. Keep in mind it’s like 9:35-9:40 at the time our food finally comes out after arriving at close to 9 pm. In total our tables bill was almost over $200 and to spend that much money at a place and basically be rushed out as soon as we walk in does sit well with me. I’ve worked in the sales industry for 3 years and I’ve seen this practice exercised in the food industry as well, but as long as the customer is in store before close they have the right to finish their meal before they leave at the VERY least. They didn’t even give us that opportunity. Everyone at my table left with a Togo box and it was not because we were full. The entire restaraunt staff was staring at us through the entire experience and coupled with the experiences listed prior, this was a VERY VERY terrible and bad experience. It will be a very hard sell to get me to spend money here ever again after that experience. Much better tasting food in town in the same category in my opinion as well And I’ll make the longer drive there to spend my money because at least I will feel like I’m being handled respectfully...