Zhu's Pan-Asian Vegan Cuisine

Zhu is my favorite Asian restaurant in the Boston area.

The soy skewers are amazing in taste and texture. Everyone in my family loves it... marinated & grilled soy protein makes for the perfect appetizer. I also like Zhu's curry samosas, which are phyllo triangles. Mint chutney dip goes really well with these samosas.

So far, only one dish has been too sweet for my liking -- the BBQ seitan appetizer. It would be a fantastic appetizer with a less sweet BBQ sauce.

For the main course, I highly recommend the orange-flavored seitan. It's crunchy yet chewy, sweet and savory... simply an outstanding dish. I get it every time!

Zhu's chocolate soy ice cream is a decadent treat and the best non-dairy ice cream I've had in the area.

My fiancé and I stopped by here on out way home from the airport. We went for dinner on a Monday night and the place was pretty empty. We were pleasantly surprised by the nice atmosphere in the restaurant. We ordered tea, an appetizer, and our meals and couldn't finish our meals because we were so full. The food all had good presentation and was delicious. I enjoyed this visit very much.

Clean place, peaceful, made my soul happy

I was very disappointed in my meal. I ordered the seitan lo mein and the sauce used tasted like it came from a jar. Nothing like what I'm used to when I special order from local restaurants. The same was true for the orange "chik'n" that my omni friend had. The chick'n and broccoli were ok but the sauce was not good. Sorry to have to write a bad review. I was so excited to be visiting Arlington and actually finding a vegan restaurant. So disappointed. :(

This is a restaurant I take non-vegetarians to without a second thought. The menu has a good combination of straight vegetarian dishes and fake meat dishes; spicy, savory and sweet. Something for everyone.

The decor is pleasant, the plating is elegant, and the service is excellent.

EXTENSIVE vegan options, comparable in menu size to Grasshopper. It's by far the biggest vegan menu within near my home in Medford Square, though I am quite grateful to now have 3 other vegan restaurants nearby (True Bistro, Taco Party and Fruition Vegan Kitchen).

I prefer Zhu to Grasshopper (not just for being closer to me): 1. They serve brown rice by default. 2. They have only tofu, seitan and vegetables, no mysterious mock-meats from china/taiwan which may or may not be 100% vegan. 3. They have a good selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks which is key because my partner strongly prefers wine/beer with dinner. Also, my friend with severe peanut allergies seems to trust them more (Grasshopper had cross-contamination problems for her).

Overall, decor is nice and the staff who seem friendly and the right amount of attentive. I've been eating their food almost every week since they opened (in person or delivery).

I really like the food generally, though not everything I've tried was great. My favorite entrees are the Veggie Curry Noodle Soup and the Kung-Pao Eggplant (which unlike some Asian places, comes with a mix of tofu and several vegetables, not just eggplant) and I like the Crispy Soy Nuggets or Vegetable Tempura for an appetizer.

As one other reviewer mentioned, everything here is on the sweet side. The dipping sauces can be extremely sweet and some of the entrees are on the sweet side as well (e.g., orange seitan), though most are only mildly so. They seem to add some amount sugar to pretty much every food (except the steamed vegetables).

Most entrees come with Miso Soup and brown rice, which is nice. But they're also somewhat more pricey than some places (in between the cost of Taco Party [moderate] and True Bistro [pricey]), at about 14$/entree. The rice portion is stingy, though, about 3/4 of what I'd want to go with the dish. The main entree portions are decent, plenty to fill you up, but not the mega-portions of Grasshopper.

I should mention that my omnivore "foodie" partner really likes this place, so it seems like a good option to bring non-vegans to.

Dessert-wise, it's so-so. I like the rice pudding (with fruit and nuts), but that seems to be the best option. The Fried Ice Cream was interesting, but nothing special & I heard the cake was mediocre. Other places have better.

The excessive sugar in some non-desserts and the lackluster desserts keeps this from being a 5 star rating. But I still highly recommend.

we went 4 adults, only me being a vegan...
everyone found things to eat and liked the food.
The service is very slow and unresponsive to obvious queues and hurt the experience a little bit. but again, the food was very good.

This is rapidly becoming one of my favorite restaurants. Not only do they have amazing food and desserts but they also deliver and are VERY close to where I live.

I highly recommend the summer rolls, General Tso's, sesame tofu, and pad thai. Also the chocolate cake is unbelievable, and give the fried ice cream a go. If you can't decide which type of roll to try, go for the sampler platter. You won't be disappointed.

I have yet to have a bad meal here. Everything I've eaten is amazing.

Checked it out for the first time and I found the food very nice. I had a 3 course meal. I especially liked the appetizer "Vegetable dumplings". The main course "Tofu Teriyaki Sizzling Platter " was also pretty good. The Chocolate cake was okay-ish. The service was nice and the ambiance was relaxing. I will go there again and recommend it to friends.

Yesterday evening I tried this beautiful vegan restaurant. On arrival I ate the steam assorted vegetables. It was A mixture of perfectly cooked vegetables with delicious brown sauce on side. Very tasty! I will come back again for sure!

Excellent experience!! We have a big party here today and ordered a lot appetizers and main course to share, everything was delicious! We love the roll samplers and kimchee, and also the singorpor style rice noodles, pad-thai, Malaysian curry stew and tofu-delight! All the dishes not only tasted good, fresh, but also looked very pretty!:) Anyway, we will definitely be back! Too excited to have a good vegan restaurant around this neighborhood!

I was very excited to have a vegan restaurant come to Arlington and eager to check it out. We ordered three entrees and three appetizers. All were so incredibly sweet it was like Willy Wonka had made candy versions of Pad Thai, Tofu and Seitan! I have a pretty bad sweet tooth but this was completely overwhelming, I felt as though I had eaten cake and not dinner. Even my 7 year old commented on how sugary the food was and only ate a few bites. If you decide to check it out I would suggest specifically asking them to tone down the sweetness. I suspect that this is not a vegan owned restaurant because I can't imagine a vegan cooking with this much added sugar in simple tofu dishes for example. I do like, that unlike many Asian vegan restaurants they do not try and describe the dishes as fake meat. It is disappointing to say it, but we will not go back here. Although I love to support vegan restaurants I can't recommend this one.