"zen" news and stories

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.

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