Zen Garden

Like many people, I find that Asian cuisine satisfies my desire for vegetarian-friendly meals. Zen Garden came highly recommended to me as a place to check out.

I ordered carry-out recently and was a happy customer. The service was prompt, the meal was savory, and the price was reasonable. The restaurant itself is located in bustling Clifton in an old house. Inside it is simply decorated. Parking is ample.

Overall, a tasty place to grab food from!

Returning from a road trip to Mammoth Cave we lucked upon Zen Garden. Leaving I-65, it was a few twisty, hilly Louisville miles. The restaurant has been making home style vegetarian Asian cuisine for 14 years. Consistent good food explains their success. We enjoyed a green curry vegetable soup, nicely spiced, with chunks of seasonal veggies, yum. My partner is a mushroom fanatic and was very happy with the crispy shiitake entree. She even ordered extra crispy mushrooms to go. We shared the daily special Orange Tofu that included soup, decent egg rolls, rice and the nicely prepared entree. The sweet and sour soup was ok, next time I'd like to try the tomato dill soup. Many wonderful menu items to explore. A few locals stopped in to pick up carryout orders, a good sign. You won't be disappointed.

Zen Garden is on my list for favorite places to eat. Their Roasted Rice veggie soup is the best soup ever!! Love the Pad Thai, Sweet and Sour Tofu, salads, veggie sushi, veggie soup and more! The sweet and sour tofu is too sweet for me but you can ask them to put then sauce on the side. The service is always wonderful and they are super fast. Thank you Zen Garden for an amazing place to eat!

I have been Louisville around 2011.I saw this place reviewed here on Happy Cows and went for lunch with my family on our vacation. I had meant to write review sooner but just got so busy. This is a awesome place in a victorian style home. The service was very good and the food just awesome. My wife does not like Tofu, but the way they cooked it in a veg fried rice, she became a huge fan. very small cube sized tofu with all spices nicely marinated. This also became my son's (around 8yrs) favorite food and now he compares every restaurant food to this one. This place is 5 stars in his opinion(so does my family) and he started rating every place to this one. Whenever he eats chinese he now says it is good, but not like Zen Garden. I love chinese, but not so my wife and son. This place won them over. Do not miss this place if you are in Louisville.

Ate a late lunch here one day and was pleased with my meal. My husband was so-so on his meal but he ate the whole thing so it wasn't too bad!

The food is SO fresh and amazing! We had the stir fry vegetables, the dish had 3-4 different types of veggie meats (beef, pork, chicken...) The brown sauce was delicious! We also had the Undon soup WOW! Best soup full of vegetables and super fat noodles! This is now one of my favorite restaurants I cannot wait to go back! Oh! The chocolate peanut butter pie is insanely good!!

What everyone else said. Nothing to disappoint. ^_^

The Curry Vegetable Soup was absolutely a great mixture of flavor and heat. The Vietnamese Crepe was as good. It had a combination of vegetables and tofu perfectly cooked while maintaining the integrity of delightful flavor. The waiter was attentive without being overbearing. All around great service.

Probably the first all-vegetarian restaurant in Louisville, honestly. Great food; semi-typical Chinese/Asian/fusion fair with lots of tofu and soy options. Not too pricey and they also had some vegan desserts when I was there last weekend. I don't go here too often, though ethically this place is top-notch. If you're into veggie cuisine, particularly with a Chinese-lean, this is the place to be!

I travel frequently and always try to seek out a veg restaurant like Zen Garden. It is by far one f the best places that I enjoyed dining. Actually, I returned several times during my stay in louisville. The quality of food preparation, taste, value, service, atmosphere, etc was beyond excellent. So if you are looking for a place to go then look no further and then you can write your own review to let others know that Zen Garden is wonderful.

The food is fantastic. I had the Crispy Egg Rolls, which are to die for. I also had the Veggie Sandwich and it had the best avocado I've ever tasted. While I live about two hours from Louisville, I am super excited to go back. The Crispy Tofu and Vegetable and Bean Curd Soup have definitely caught my eye for next time.

Went out to dinner with the inlaws here. I was hesitant at first because Chinese is not my first choice in asian cuisine. I have to say that the food was good and fairly priced. The wait staff was attentive and friendly and the owner even gave us fee cookies that she had there for a charity event the next day. I would go again just because the owner was nice, the place was clean and the staff was professional. That goes a long way in my book. Having good food is important too but good food served by nasty people somehow doesn't taste as delicious. They get a thumbs up in my book. They also had vegan desserts.

Amazing food in a relaxed, casual atmosphere. Zen Garden is an all-vegetarian Asian restaurant, and all profits go to charitable causes. Service was very friendly and quick.

My wife and I shared the sweet & sour soup, spring rolls, and the Zen garden (sushi) roll. The soup was thicker than what you usually get at Chinese restaurants, but the flavors were balanced perfectly. The spring rolls were fresh and delicious, but pretty standard - although the peanut sauce they came with was delicious and almost caramel-like in texture. The garden roll was outstanding, with the white radish providing just a little bite of sharper flavor to contrast the cucumber and creamy avocado.

I had the Orange Tofu, as many reviews indicated it as a favorite entree. It's as good as everyone says - the texture of the tofu is perfect, with a lightly crispy outside and a creamy interior. The sauce is excellent, providing just a hint of sourness to go with the bright citrus. My wife's Sesame Soy had the same amazing texture, with a lightly spicy brown sauce that delicately clung to the tofu and broccoli.

Don't forget the tea - both the green tea and jasmine tea were excellent, too.

Being from New York, my husband and I only go to Louisville sometimes to visit family, but whenever we go, we always stop by Zen Garden. If we lived closer we would definitely eat there every week. I used to live in Japan, and so I often miss that type of food. The menu at Zen Garden is Asian Fusion: a mix of Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese.

Everything is so fresh, healthy, and flavorful. My favorite entrees are the Orange Tofu and the Crispy Shiitake Mushroom Stir-fry, but everything on the menu is wonderful! Everyone loves the spring rolls and pot stickers too. My parents who are not vegetarian also love eating at Zen Garden.

Zen Garden is 100% vegetarian, has beautiful Japanese-style interior design, and very friendly wait staff. The owner Coco Tran is such a talented chef and a sweet person too! I heard she recently opened a new Japanese tea house called "Zen Tea House." I'm so jealous that Louisville now has its own tea house, and now I'm really looking forward to my next visit to Louisville.

P.S. Their website is http://www.zengardenrestaurant.org

One of my all time favorite restaurants. Zen Garden provides excellent service and food in a friendly and calming environment. If you love Zen Garden, you will also enjoy Zen Tea House, just two doors away. The owner of Zen Garden opened Zen Tea House recently and offers an excellent selection of teas and vegetarian/vegan cuisine.

This is BY FAR my favorite restaurant in Kentucky. It is fabulous, and I make an effort to eat there at LEAST once per day every time I'm in Louisville. The food is amazing, and most of the items on the menu are vegan. I have never tried a dish at Zen Garden that I was disappointed with. The food is extremely flavorful, they serve nice full portions, and I'm always left excited about my next visit!

The others forgot to mention that the Zen Garden is the only 100% vegetarian restaurant in town. Many restaurants have veggie 'choices', but there are NO dead animals within this building. Oh, and because of this, they consistently score an 'A' on the health code inspection, with a 99% or 100%.

Oh, and also, let them know if you are a diabetic, and they can modify what they cook for you, e.g., use different/no sweeteners, brown rice instead of white rice, etc.

If you go to Louisville, make sure you go there to eat. We have taken many carnivores there, and they loved the food too; they could not tell it was vegetarian.

Vu and Ty are the best vegetarian cooks in Louisville. I cannot get enough of ZG. Everything on the menu is not only delicious but prepared beautifully and served by awesome waitresses. This place is small but really is the only place I would take an out of town vegetarian/vegan to eat!! Great atmosphere, Coco is very nice, and the food is to die for. The prices aren't over the top either. I recommend the Zen Garden roll and Quangs Traditional Noodles. YUM!