Zen's Noodles — Restaurant in Naperville

This place was disappointing. I was really hungry and looking for a good place to get some Chinese take out so I went by Hmart which usually never disappoints. I decided to try something new and ordered from Zens Noodles, which ended up being a mistake. When I opened my bag of food the Mongolian Chicken and Kung Pao chicken looked and tasted the same so I’ll never know which was which. Even worse all the food had no flavor, they all were super oily and watery too. I was surprised to find pickled jalapeños in two dishes because from my experience with any Chinese food they NEVER use pickled vegetables. As a hungry person looking for something tasty to eat I felt utterly disappointed. If you’re thinking of eating here DON’T. I’d recommend going to another restaurant which is ten times better than this. The disappointed of stir fried soup that I got is not worth the money spent, trust me the pictures are deceiving when it comes to the actual food served. The fried rice was criminal and was so bland and empty of flavor, and the Thai basil chow fun was a rip off of just oil and carbs. Take my word for it and don’t waste your money here. Just a tip to the restaurants chef, if you’re gonna stay open at least add some salt and pepper...

First of all, Zen Noodles is by no means a fancy place, but a "eatery" inside the H-Mart supermarket food court, so we cannot expect much from the atmosphere and the decor. However, it serves very authentic and delicious southern Chinese food (Guangdong style) as the chefs all came from the Guangdong province originally. It also serves a few southeast Asian dishes, such as Vietnamese Pho noodles, Thai Basil Chicken, etc, and those aren't bad at all but definitely not the most authentic.

I eat here at least once a week and I enjoy their traditional homestyle plates such as Chinese broccoli w/ meat, bitter melon w/ beef in black bean sauce, as well as their BBQ pork (char siu), roast duck, or steamed cut chicken w/ ginger sauce. Everything is cooked fresh to your order so it's not your typical Chinese fast food place. You can also have your dish "customized" a bit (i.e. the chefs are quite flexible and you just have to ask).

Their service could be better as I do observe that the lady at the counter may not always be very courteous, but she can also be nice at times and brings the tray of food to your table. So, that really depends on her mood...

A wide variety of noodles to choose from, and from the noodles of Vietnam, Taiwan, to Hong Kong.

We had the Pho, Beef noodle, and fried kway teow and they were all tasty, big in portion and full of flavors.

Each of the noodles were all good and flavorful, but they lack the distinctive local flavors of each noodles, such as the Pho broth is not as light and with a hint of zest that brings you to Vietnam. Theirs is more of a Canton burst of flavors version. This pretty much describes most of theirs dishes. I guess that's the down side of trying to provide everything to everyone.

That said, we really enjoy this restaurant and their noodles and wide selections. A solid 3.5 performer but I cannot...