Zen Ramen Lounge — Restaurant in Madison

I rarely want to speak on bad experiences I have with restaurants, but this has just left too much of a bad taste for me to completely ignore. I decided it was just one of those nights to want to grab some type of dinner with my family after my son's sport practice, which resulted in us skipping the true white and blue (Culver's), and heading to Zen Ramen to try it as we rarely say no to Asian food. The only highlight of our whole experience as a family was being able to pick a table to sit at as we first walked in but from there it went downhill so very quickly. As we seated ourselves, our server came out with plastic kids plates and cups (which one cup was dirty my husband noticed and got our waiter to kindly take it back, asking for a new cup). The restaurant was in no way, shape and or form was busy at all. With only our family and a couple who was seated two tables away, it just us all in the restaurant. But so much time was spent at the restaurant with us waiting for periods on end. Our server came back with the cup and walked away quickly with no water was served for any one of us. I tried to ignore it and as soon as our waiter came back, we quickly put in our whole order (drinks, apps, and main dishes), with my husband asking for our appetizer of Gyozas and his order of sushi to be brought out early before our main dishes, so we had something to pick at. Again we sat for a long while, waiting. It came to our server bringing out our soup first (that was included with our main dishes), which during this my husband spoke up asking for water which our server finally got us water and left the pitcher at our table. A handful of minutes later we were served our gyozas and sushi, which to be totally honest was a complete letdown. Presentation and taste if graded was a F. The gyozas were burnt to a crisp with seeming as if it were microwaved beforehand and then pan fried on both sides, and the sushi looked just as bad as other reviewers photos on other reviews on here. Definitely underwhelming to say the least. With a few bites into the appetizer/sushi our food (main dishes) came out within minutes after. We felt so overwhelmed and disappointed at the same time, it all led to just feeling like corners kept being cut. My husband's food was not like the picture, whatever egg was in his food was ice cold. My son's kids meal of the fried rice was bland and tasteless, and my steak fried rice tasted only of black pepper. I was juggling my baby on my lap while trying to eat which he kept putting his hands near the food, which resulted in him dipping his hand into my soup by accident. It was then we finally got asked if we would like a highchair which we refused (because honrstly what was the point at this point of time), but our server brought one out anyway after everything. I was so upset at this point with every single thing, my husband wasn't feeling good, that I wanted out so bad. I tried to maintain peace and remain calm for my son and baby, but I was aggravated at the point of terrible service, terrible food and overall terrible experience that I asked for boxes and the check. With still tipping despite all this, bill was $80. In no way, do I feel this was deserving at all for this whole thing, as it left not only me but my whole family and I still feeling hungry but sick at the same time, upset and me wishing I listened to my husband who said he was fine with Culver's. For this price, Niji near East Towne would have been better. A word of advice from someone who just had their first and last experience here (Monday, July 7th, 2025 around 7:20pm), proceed...

Sigh...

This past Sunday 02/16/2025 was our first time in Zen Ramen Lounge, we were craving some boba an wanted to try a new place, we live all the way on the west side and went all the way to this place that is 25 min away from home, to this restaurant with 4.6 star rating that we thought was going to be amazing. IT WAS NOT! We got there super excited to try their boba but the experience there was unpleasant, nobody acknowledge us, nobody greeted us, the only person that was there didn't even take a moment to at least inform us that it was going to take a WHILE. After 20 min, they guy finally comes to the register but still doesn't acknowledge us, doesn't welcome us, the phone rings, he grabs the call, the phone rings again and grabs the call again and FINALLY he asks us what would we like, without any friendliness, without any eye contact, no great costumer service AT ALL. I told him my order the clearest and calmest way, he didn't get it the first time so he asked for clarification which is okay, repeated the order to him and we thought that he was going to make our drinks right away for all that time he had us waiting but no, there he goes again to the area were they prepared the drinks, this place had no organization, we waited 20 MINUTES to get our boba drinks, but wait, it gets worse. During those 20 min, they guy whom I believe his name is Zach J, at least that's what my receipt says, barely had milk tea for our boba milk teas, tells us after being charged $2 dollars for cheese top that he "just checked and doesn't have enough cheese top and it will mean that he needs to make more (which he didn't) but will see what I can do" which was really frustrating because if he knew he didn't have enough he could've said that before he charged us or at least offer a refund. He did not apologize one time for all the time we were waiting just for two simple milk teas. He finally gets to the part of the cheese top and when I tell you we were getting sprinkles of cheese top that's exaggerating, at this point my wife and I are upset at the fact that that was clearly not the regular amount you get for cheese top, especially when we payed $2 extra for cheese top, ARE YOU KIDDING me!!! We thought that maybe the guy was going to at least have a gesture of giving us a coupon or something for all the time waiting and not getting an actual cheese top toping but he DID NOT. This guy was SO DISRESPECTFULL when he had the audacity to throw both of the straws at us, UNACCEPTABLE. A caucasian lady came during those 15 min for a pick up order and she actually had a boba drink, he gently handed of the straw and drink to her, he did not throw the straw at her like he did to us. This did not make me feel welcome as a Latina and LGTBQI+ women, that gesture of him spoke a lot. We did not mentioned one thing those whole 15 min that we were just observing him for him to act that way towards us. We were there 40 min for 2 drink only! INSANE!!!! First and last time there, do not recommend this place if you're looking for a great customer service experience DO NOT GO TO ZEN...

UPDATE: I'm including photos - once again Takarajima prepared a beautiful order.

Original post: We have ordered twice from here since we found out about the restaurant two weeks ago and both times the food was delicious. Very excited to have this place in the neighborhood! Everything tasted extremely fresh. We sampled the shumai, spring rolls and a couple of different salads - everything tasted amazing. Portion size was good and sauces were fresh and clearly prepared in house. The sushi rolls were all delicious as well featuring fresh ingredients and the picked ginger and wasabi was high quality with a bold flavor. I especially enjoyed the fact that they used real crab rather than imitation in their California roll. We also tried the teriyaki chicken which was equally delicious - we appreciated the sauce which was neither too thick nor too sweet and the perfectly grilled and tasty chicken. In addition, the chicken teriyaki came with a side of miso soup and house salad with a super fresh dressing which was a nice complement to the meal. Our last pickup order one of the bags was left behind and we had an issue with our car on the way home. It was late but the owner called me and then when I told him about the car actually came to deliver the bag to us! It was very kind and great service. I highly recommend this place and we will...