Zen Noodle Bar — Restaurant in San Mateo

Temp closed until 4/6.

Pro: Great service. Fully bilingual waitress so no language barrier issues.

Con: Filthy. Found hair in food just like other reviews noted. Many cockroaches and flies in the restroom and a couple gnats in the dining room. The restroom location requires you to walk all the way through the back area which is dark and cluttered with boxes (did you know cockroaches like cardboard?) even where food is being prepped or held at room temperature. No automatic lights, so I had to scarily grope in the darkness for the filthy light switch on the equally filthy bathroom wall. The restroom has dish soap instead of hand soap, one of the sink handles is ripped off (leaving a rusty exposed screw sticking out the top), the toilet seat covers were unsanitarily just left out on a table, and the underside of the toilet seat looks like it was used for target practice every day for years.*

*I have no idea why that woman objected so much to Jessica Lau's daughter using it. While I think both parties could have handled it better, her kid couldn't possibly make that bathroom any worse.

Food is not bad but not great.

Happy to see they had sweet bean paste buns, though the ratio of bun to filling was off, and of course for some reason I can only find red bean and not black bean filling on this coast, if I can find dau saa bao at all.

Rice cakes were okay but too white pepper-heavy, though as with the dau saa bao it's getting harder and harder to find on menus in California. No shiitake mushrooms, as per usual for this dish in CA for some reason, and chicken was the protein instead of the traditional pork. It was interesting that there was bamboo in it; I've never seen that before (though I'd still rather have shiitakes).

The spicy beef soup tasted like it was flavored with Chinese BBQ dry rub rather than the normal niu rou mian flavor profile. The noodles were overcooked and not even handmade which was disappointing given the name of the restaurant has the word "noodle" in it. (Granted it also has the word "zen" in it which is Japanese, not Chinese, let alone Shanghainese. Makes me wonder if it used to be a ramen joint and they were too cheap - or, thrifty to change the sign and file a new DBA).

Soup dumplings (siu/xiao long bao) and pan-fried soup buns (san jin/shenjian bao) were middling, with somewhat mushy filling, but at least they weren't sweet (another quirk of Asian cuisine on this coast). They give you some kind of brown vinegar instead of black vinegar with julienned ginger to go with. I do like the thicker skins on the XLB and appreciate them being steamed in a larger basket, both of which keep them from popping and losing all their broth. The huge SJB seem to be the most popular thing to order here but I found them too hard on the outside and too mushy on the inside bottom. Size isn't everything, people. They are also the type with thin tops instead of being fluffy and bread-y all over.

Finally, the beef roll is oddly deep fried, slathered with way too much hoisin sauce, is made with shredded beef instead of the usual thinly sliced beef, and it only has cucumber and not cilantro (which YMMV on whether that's a plus or a minus).

Tastier renditions of a large portion of their menu can be had at 4th Sister (4 Sisters?) Special Noodle restaurants around the Bay area.

It wasn't bad and our waitress was great, but the experience was not worth the inconvenience of that tiny, ill-designed parking lot. Unfortunate, as I wanted to try other dishes in the future, like the fish noodles from the anime Chuuka Ichiban (Chinese Cuisine #1), but you can get those from Special Noodle Soup (no relation to the Sisters...

I understand that you're running a business and need to cover operating costs, and you don't want people using your facilities without making a purchase. However, continuously doubting and questioning your customers is incredibly disrespectful and uncomfortable. It made me feel like I was being treated as a liar, which is unacceptable, especially when we had genuinely patronized your restaurant. This kind of behavior can significantly harm your business, as it creates a very negative impression and discourages future visits.

So here comes our experience visiting this place: Last week, my mother-in-law and I took my two kids out for a trip. By lunchtime, the kids had already fallen asleep in the car. Worried that my mother-in-law might be hungry, I suggested she go ahead to the restaurant to eat while I stayed in the car with the kids. Our plan was that when the kids woke up, I would take them inside to eat.

After my mother-in-law finished her meal and came back to the car, the elder child woke up shortly (about 10 minutes later) and urgently needed to use the restroom. I understand that restrooms in restaurants are typically for customers only, but since my mother-in-law had just dined there, I thought it would be okay. If the elder child was still hungry after using the restroom, we would eat first while my mother-in-law stayed in the car with the still-sleeping younger child.

When I entered the restaurant with my elder child, I noticed a sign at the entrance saying that restrooms were for customers only. So, I explained to the first person who greeted us that my mother-in-law had just eaten there and my child needed to use the restroom. The first person didn't say anything, so we proceeded.

On our way there, an older lady approached us and asked again. I explained the situation once more. When my daughter finished using the restroom and we hadn't yet reached the dining area, the same older lady came up and asked, "Are you sure you just ate here, I have asked everyone and I got a negative answer" I told her that my mother-in-law had just eaten there. She then asked who my mother-in-law was. I described her attire and I mentioned that I still had the receipt from her meal. She asked, "Really?" I said, "Of course, I just threw it in the trash in your restroom. Do you want me to get it for you?" Her skeptical tone and expression really got under my skin. So, I retrieved the receipt from the trash and showed it to her.

This experience was really unpleasant and upsetting. We left after the younger child woke up, without following our original plan...

I was craving black bean noodles and decided to stop by this local shop while I was in the area. You seat yourself and use a dry erase marker to mark the menu.

Shanghai Style Ja Jang Noodle: DO NOT expect a lot of sauce... This is a pretty dry noodle dish. It honestly didn't taste like black bean sauce at all. It tasted more like a simple spicy minced meat sauce. I wish there was a lot more sauce. This dish wasn't for me honestly.

Shenjian Bao: I was in awe of how large these were! The biggest pan fried soup dumplings I have ever seen in my life. They looked like cha siu bao!!!! I enjoyed the flavor of the broth, but the quality of the meat was mediocre. The dumpling wrapper was also way too thick and doughy. Not very enjoyable.

Braised Beef Noodle Soup: Was not a fan. The broth just tasted like tangy five spice powder. The noodles also stuck together and not very enjoyable. Weird enough, they put a hard boiled egg in there? The best part was the braised beef. Very...