October 13, 2014
Zen Thai and Japanese Cuisine (Sunset Hills/Crestwood)
9250
Watson Rd
St Louis, MO
63126
(314) 842-0307
(314) 842-0307
http://www.zenstl.com/
We visited Zen Thai and Japanese Cuisine, located in
Crestwood/Sunset Hills. The restaurant
is located in a nondescript strip mall on Watson Road. It had a surprisingly high rating on Yelp! which must be due to the Thai food served, because it certainly didn't deserve it for the sushi.
The front portion of interior (where we were seated) resembled a diner rather than a Japanese (or a Thai) restaurant,
with uninspiring décor. The back room had more ambiance:
When we were
first seated, we were given menus for Thai food, and had to request the sushi
menu. Overall, service was slow and often
absent—an odd feat for such a small establishment. Several times we had to get up from our seats
to retrieve items from the service area that should have been on our
table.
We asked for green tea, which was unavailable. Instead, we were given hot water and Jasmine tea in tea bags.
We ordered the following items:
- Miso soup
- Eel Avocado Roll – A California Roll
topped with cooked eel and avocado.
- Red Dragon Roll – spicy tuna on top of
a California Roll
- Rainbow Roll –
- Shrimp Tempura appetizer
Edamame was not
available.
We were first served the miso soup, which had an
overabundance of scallions that ruined its flavor. Next came the three rolls. The Eel Avocado roll was good, but the eel
portions were too small. The Rainbow
Roll contained only tuna and salmon—no whitefish or shrimp. The fish was not fresh, and the California
roll inside it was bland. The Red Dragon
Roll’s “spicy tuna” was mushy and disgusting.
It was as if they had taken a can of tuna fish, mashed it into a paste,
and mixed in red hot sauce.
Finally, after we had eaten the Rolls, our shrimp tempura
appetizer was brought to our table. It
consisted of onion rings and vegetables (yams, broccoli and string beans), and
only three shrimp. It was hot and
greasy, but was actually the most appetizing item we ate.
Overall, on a scale of 1-10, we rate Zen a 4.5. We won’t be back.
