A NY-dwelling vegetarian friend of mine (shameless plug: he blogs for a few of our sister sites and you should go read his stuff here and here) mentioned that he visited a new veggie fast-food joint the other day. Zenburger, a burgeoning healthy burger restaurant that currently exists in California and New York's Midtown Manhattan (and recently started taking online orders), definitely sounds intriguing. They carry all of your typical fast food fare, but with a twist: it's all vegetarian (though not all vegan). The store is a spin-off of Zen Palate, a NY-based Japanese veggie restaurant.
The only odd-seeming part about the place is that the fact the offerings are all veggie isn't immediately apparent from their menus or the store itself. (Apparently, one is supposed to devise that "zen" actually means "faux," which would make dishes like "ZenBeef Burger" and "ZenChicken Sandwich" more obvious).
Brad ordered the ZenHarvest Burger (a veggie burger with homemade hummus, lettuce and tomato on a whole-grain hoagie) with a side of fries, and said he was pleased, but not overly impressed with the food - it was the clean, uncrowded restaurant with plenty of seating that really appealed to him. The place also offers dairy-free "milk"shakes, and Vegenaise alongside its faux tuna sandwich.
And did it produce a zen-like state? According to Brad, not a bit. "It felt like Burger King, except I could eat everything on the menu," he said.
Duly noted.
May is National BBQ Month and National Hamburger Month
Cupcakes, not for dessert (unless beef is your idea of a treat)
Because eating French Fries in the car is so tough
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-14-2008 @ 3:30PM
dave said...
Same kinda joint, but without the hype and long lines...
www.oreanshealthexpress.com
For some reason, only one location, although it happens to be walking distance from my house!
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3-14-2008 @ 3:48PM
Brian Jones said...
I have to say.
Gross.
It is RIGHT next door to my office.
There were lines out the door for 2 weeks.
One morning, I was needing some breakfast grub.
Went in, made my order, which was messed up and RE-ordered 2 times. There was an older man there who was not in any type of UNIFORM grabs a muffin BAREHANDED and says "here you go" and throws it in a bag for my trouble.
ONE: Don't touch my food "inappropriately" in my presence.
TWO: Hire people that can take more than ONE peramiter at a time.
THREE: Work on FLAVOR. The food not only tastes like NOTHING, but it is BAD nothing.
I give it 2 barehanded muffin grabs DOWN.
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3-14-2008 @ 3:59PM
Harlan said...
The whole Zen chain of restaurants is like that. Interesting vegetarian ingredients prepared in the blandest possible way.
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3-17-2008 @ 8:37PM
love2cook said...
why oh why don't resturants come to Oklahoma? they are always in new york. i want healthy food too even if i live in the heartland of fried food.
http://organicandnaturalmom.blogspot.com/
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