Zest Kitchen and Bar

First of all. YUM! My favorite thing was the zuc and cheese dish with the vegan cheese option. To die for! Boyfriend had the ratatouille- also reeeeally flavorful - the mushrooms on top were amazing! Engyngii mushrooms or something... so good! Service was really nice. Atmosphere also very nice! Can't wait to come back.

It pains me to negatively review a vegetarian restaurant anywhere, much less one brave enough to make a go of it in Salt Lake City. But the food here is bland and lackluster. We had the baked zucchini, baked mushrooms, and grilled cheese. The mushrooms would earn three stars but the other dishes earned two. They lacked robust flavor and the texture wasn't appealing; I think the baked zucchini was under cooked and under seasoned. The carrot cake was the best thing we had. I've eaten at vegetarian restaurants all over the world and typically their creativity and flavor impresses me, but Zest needs to step up its game.

Updated from previous review on 2016-12-28

.. I was very impressed by the sophistication, and quality of the appetizers, entrees, and deserts!

Loved Zest when I visited SLC recently. Everything was fresh and tasty. It was wonderful to have so many vegan options! I really wish there was a restaurant like this in my area.
My sister who is neither vegetarian nor vegan loved the food too. It is great to be able to go to a restaurant that people with any food preference can enjoy.

We were looking for a vegetarian option with a bar in SLC and were concerned with options. After reading Happy Cow reviews gave this place a try. Awesome! Food was interesting and delicious (especially the portabella bacon!) and the drinks well done.

The food was fantastic. I went to this restaurant with my meat eater boyfriend and he even thoroughly enjoyed our meal. We got the hot mushrooms with cashew cheese as an appetizer. We also split the pizza and the tacos. I highly recommend all three. The sauces and the "cheese" on the mushrooms were delicious, the pizza was better than any vegan pizza I've ever had, and the sauce and the vegetables on the tacos were so flavorful. The server we had was really attentive. I really wish I had a Zest back home now.

i adore zest.

Really good food and a fun environment.

Zest is a modem looking hip vegetarian restaurant in which all items can be made vegan. Their vegan cheese plate with 4 kinds of cheeses was wonderful. I also liked the vegan pho. The service was great!

I tried the soup of the day and a zucchini cashew squash dish that was baked in an iron skillet... Yummy... Especially the soup! I am a soup lover. I come here annually when I am in SLC and it's fabulous! Great service too- Jocelyn was awesome

just extravagant, delightful staff, incredible menu and the most friendly bartender around. I will be returning here every time I'm in town from New Jersey.

I have visited this establishment three times and each time I've thoroughly enjoyed the food but experienced inconsistencies in the accuracy of the dishes. The first time, my salad didn't have any dressing on it. The salad is a blend of dark leafy greens and not very palatable dry. Staff did bring dressing when I asked, of course. It was delicious. Just seems like a silly error. The second time my burger didn't have any special sauce, but my dad's did. They just forgot to put it on. Of course, they brought it when asked and it rocked. Just yesterday my partner and I ordered a pizza. It was amazing, but they forgot to put the nut sausage on, which would've been perfect. They couldn't make us a new pizza (cost wise) so they brought us a side of it, but it's not the same. Everything tastes so damn good, and you can tell it's high quality, but I just wish they would be more fastidious in the kitchen.
I enjoy the atmosphere of the restaurant, the music is great, and the cocktails are quality. My other complaint is you have to ask for every discount, don't just expect that because you're there during appy hour or whatever they'll apply the discount themselves.

All vegetarian and all gluten-free food with several vegan options. Three bites in during my first visit and I was already planning more times I could return to try other items on the menu. Portions are good, atmosphere is nice.

Started with Brussels sprouts to share among the table. It was hard to decide what to order but I had the Thai coconut curry stir fry not was delicious! Also sampled my friends manicotti and the Moroccan dish, both were amazing. We shared the chocolate beet cake for dessert. I would really recommend this place!

Went here for a special occasion. It is definitely a place for a date or for something special. It is a bit pricey, nice atmosphere, and the food is different/fancy. We ordered the "artichoke dip" thinking it was going to be a creamy dip with bread - but it was a spicy (like wasabi) dip inside an actual artichoke. It was beautiful, but sort of strange too - the taste was OK. Our main meals were good, fancy, and hit the spot. The stuffed mushrooms appetizer was really good, and the vegan dessert was the absolute best (see pics). Overall, it was expensive, but fun to try. The taste of the food ranged from just OK to amazing, depending on the dish.

Zest offers an eclectic menu of unusual dishes in a cool bar-bistrio setting. Tasty and salubrious food, good tea, and mid-tempo grooves played at volumes that still permit conversation. All of these elements combine to make a good formula for stimulating dining.

The menu is very vegan-friendly, with all non-vegan dishes being marked with an asterisk. The fact that they emphasize organic and local produce and value fair trade is much appreciated, as is the gluten-free kitchen, all of which together earn them the fifth happy cow in our rating.

I was in the SLC area for two weeks. I was able to nourish myself exclusively in 4 area restaurants, with Zest being among the best. I have the added challenge of being lactose intolerant and gluten-free. I didn't have to worry at all here. This establishment boasts a certified gluten-free kitchen!

Great food, live music, and service. Our meals and dessert were delicious. The salted caramel hazelnut tote is amazing!! Although a little expensive, it's well worth it for being able to enjoy a more upscale vegan friendly, vegetarian establishment. We will definitely be going back.