Zen Noodles is another one of those restaurants that strives to be all things to all people, and in so doing, ends up doing nothing well. Here you have a hodgepodge of Asian cuisines thrown together: Filipino, Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese and Japanese, as if the place were not located in a major metropolitan area where plenty of good restaurants specializing in each cuisines can be found. I cannot figure out why anyone would choose to patronize a mish-mash like this rather than a restaurant that prides itself on preparing a certain cuisine well.
To compound things the food at Zen Noodles was uniformly undistinguished. Our appetizer of Filipino Lumpia had all the appeal of a microwave hors d’oeuvre plucked from the frozen food case at Jewel. Crispy fried tubes containing greasy plugs of what looked like sausage, one of which slipped out and fell into our sweet and sour sauce.
The Malaysian Laksa, a large bowl of noodles, lemon grass, chilies, ground nuts and onions with curry, promised more than it delivered. The noodles, pasty and compacted, were arranged in the center with the vegetables arranged in distinct groups around them. Tossing it all together was a chore because the noodles clung together and the curry came in a bowl on the side and had to be ladled on spoonful by spoonful.
The Tiger Shrimp was a little better. The shrimp was cooked nicely and stir fried with lemon grass, tomato, mushroom and green onion in a lemony tom yum sauce, but still nothing to write home about. Overall, the food was mediocre.
The service was adequate except for the fact that we had to stop eating and rearrange everything because they insisted on bringing our main courses before we'd finished with our appetizers. This three-car-pile-up style of service is not uncommon in Asian restaurants but was performed with particular zeal at Zen Noodles.
If the service pressures you and the food fails to inspire, the decor is studiously inoffensive, sporting red walls and Asian prints rising to a level of clean, efficient adequacy like a consultant’s idea of how to avoid offending the greatest number of people. I would call it food court-esque.
I don’t know what it says about cops and the places they like to frequent but Zen Noodles with its reasonable prices, diverse menu and studied inoffensiveness seems to attract them. Two separate pairs of police officers came in and dined while we were there. So if you like discussing crime scene protocol with Chicago’s finest, here’s where you’ll find them. On the other hand, if you’re sporting a tracking bracelet, you might want to steer clear.
Zen Noodles does a lot of different Asian cuisines with consummate mediocrity, which in a neighborhood so rich in quality eateries that are focused on elevating specific cuisines it makes Zen Noodles markedly inferior to most.
Zen Noodles
1852 W. North Ave.
773-276-8300 / Reservations Accepted for Parties of 8 or More
Hours: M-Th 11am-10pm; F-Sa 11am-11pm. Closed Sunday.
Features: Carryout, Delivery
Avg price of a meal for two including drinks and tax $40
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