Zen Gardens - London

A really big variety of amazing tasting Foods, even meat eaters will drool for their meatless chicken and tofu.

Great selection of Chinese dishes.

A cute little restaurant with nice staff. Good food but served slightly different then our go to Ben Than. A little over the price point I would normal spend for the portion size.

Amazing place to sit down and achieve a true state of Zen. It is a peaceful little Japanese style restaurant. Everything on the menu is Vegetarian with a lot of Vegan options to choose from.

My staples to order are:

Soy Drumsticks, Soy Nuggets, Crispy Soy Fritters, Assorted Seitan Platter and lastly my most favourite new addition: Honey BBQ Pork which is a Seitan style meat alternative with Maple Syrup used to mimic the Honey sauce with a side of broccoli or Boy Choy as I've had once before.

Inexpensive, filling and delicious food with fantastic service and environment. I will never be able to satisfy my taste for Zen Gardens. I'll return here for the rest of my life quite happily.
Updated from previous review on Saturday March 14, 2015

I have never had a negative experience at this restaurant. The staff are always welcoming and kind. The portions are large and inexpensive. The time and care put into the food is very obvious.
I absolutely recommend everyone to visit this restaurant, whether you are vegan or eat meat. There are incredible options suitable for everyone.

Mmmm!
I love Zen Gardens! Delicious soups, and entrees. And the fried "chicken" meals taste just like the real thing! Portions are really huge.

One of the few veggie places I can take my boyfriend where he truly enjoys his meal!
Love all the food, they have amazing variety!
the Chicken drumsticks are amazing!

Very helpful staff who had good recommendations. The vegetable steamed buns are delicious!

I really enjoyed my dinner at Zen Gardens. While I'd prefer to see more vegan choices available, what I was able to eat was delicious and reasonably priced. Yummy dumplings, solid seitan and a lovely box set option which comes with tons of food. The tom yum soup was the only thing I didn't enjoy. Very nice setting and a super London option.

Have eaten here many times since. always solid, but few of the dishes are great. Do love the maple fish and purple rice though.
Updated from previous review on Saturday January 15, 2011

In town for a few hours and the doctor recommended. It's decent. My parents (meat eaters) disliked it. They are usually 70/30 liking vegan food. It's standard fair for this Torontonian, but it's a real good option for veg heads in London... (and yes, beware the fake meats that contain egg or whey!)

Easy to find, easy to order, nice ambience, well-informed staff, and well-prepared food. Good value for money also. Recommended.

I have been going to Zen Gardens for years and am always very pleased. The food is delicious and arrives quickly. The staff is knowledgeable and friendly. The decor and atmosphere is really impressive (although the chairs feel a bit stiff). All the dishes can be changed to suit your personal preferences and vegan items are clearly marked. The extensive menu means there is something for everyone. Some favourites include pan fried dumplings, thai steak, pineapple veggie chicken fried rice, kung po soy chicken and teriyaki mushroom cutlets. My only complaint would be that the combination dinner only comes with oolong tea, it would be nice to pick your own tea.

Had a great lunch here. The place was very peaceful, the food plentiful and well priced. I'm neither vegetarian or vegan but do like a great healthy meal. I will certainly come back to explore the menu more. Lunch seems to be the better deal over dinner.

We went to zen garden while visiting a relative in London recently and we really enjoyed the experience. Very nice decor and excellent food. Everything was delicious. If you're vegan and concerned about whey or other ingredients - just tell the server, they will be more than happy to help you choose vegan items.

I'm writing this because I think any vegans who want to eat at Zen Gardens should know that the 'chicken' patties (in dishes such as the Sun kissed Chicken and Black Pepper Chicken) contain Whey Protein. A valid source who would like to remain anonymous has informed me as they have seen the ingredients for that product. We are not sure if other dishes also contain Whey Protein, so if you want to go, please ask to see the ingredients before you order.

I recently went with my aunt to Zen Gardens. I was very exited as it would be her first vegetarian restaurant since she moved to London. The place is very nice and the enoki mushrooms were delicious.
Unfortunately the waitress was very busy and I had to go for the menu, and stand up to ask some things I didn't understand about the menu. I told her that we were new and she told me that normally she would explain to us but that in the moment she was very busy. We decided to wait until the restaurant was almost empty but she didn't come back. Other girl attended us but I really felt uncomfortable. It was kind of strange and sadly I ended up ordering too much food I couldn't even finish, which made the bill very expensive. I would recommend asking about the portion size and what to mix and what not to if you don't know. In our case there was too much noodles and tempeh.

I am sure this is not very common, as in the entrance a really nice lady told us she really loved the place.

Even though my experience was not very nice it defintly is one of the nicest vegetarians I have ever been in.

Delicius almond cookie!

I'd heard a lot of very good things about this restaurant from a friend of mine and finaly decided to try it out for lunch with some people from work last friday. We were all VERY impressed and agreed that we would all be going back again soon. One of the main reasons we decided to go was because one member of our group suffers from Celiacs disease (gluten allergy) making it very difficult for her to at most restaurants. The staff at Zen Garden were very knowledgable and suggested options that were gluten free quickly, enthusiastically and confidently (most restaurants require her to first explain the disease and then begin to look very nervous about suggesting anything other than a salad... and even then don't know what's in the dressings).
On all accounts we were all very impressed and will be going back.
*** As a side note, none of us are strict vegetarians, Zen Garden is great no matter what you're life-style ***

We have eaten at Zen Gardens many times. It is a family favorite. The atmosphere is calming and relaxing. No loud music! The food is delicious and plentiful. The servers are knowledgable and friendly. The chefs take pride in serving a great meal. A wonderful experience everytime.

Ok, I'll admit that at first I didn't want to try it. Chinese is not my thing usually. I expected some greasy spoon operation hawking veggies chicken balls out the back. Ok, so I was expecting the worst. Thankfully I was dead wrong. It's a charming restaurant with a cozy atmosphere. It's already vegetarian to begin with and the menu specifies what's vegan and what's hot with verying degres of spice. The servers are very warm and very friendly. And the food is delicious. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone veg or non. Try the lappa (sp?). It is by far the most delicious thing I've ever had in a veggie restaurant.