Zen Durham Reviews 

The food was very tasty, and the chicken lovely. Portion size was great and ordered too much again. Staff all excellent. Highly recommended.

Visited Zen, walk in. Seating poor, uncomfortable for back, I on higher seat husband on lower seat.
Lighting very poor, could not see food well, seeing the food knowing what your selecting is part of the experience.
Food ok but not great, only two prawns in millionaire noodles.
Overall not ZEN at all

Party of 4 booked sun evening, arrived early and was shown to our table no issues, comprehensive menu, 2 ordered same and 2 different all food was excellent inc shared starters, what made this experience extra special was the staff that served us, both young ladies a credit to the restaurant. We were on an overnight stay in Durham from Yorkshire and this just finished a great weekend off.

I was staying at the Indigo, Old Elvet and decided to have a takeaway in my room. Which I collected.
£21 for prawn crackers and a mush of fried rice a number of prawns and a few slivers of coloured fried pork, topped with an overcooked fried egg. This was encapsulated in a plastic tray with a clear lid.

Never got to eat here due to inebriated front of house manager claiming no reservation in our name.

Manager was confontational, unprofessional and even put his hands on my son as we were leaving.

Zen Group have much higher standards of behaviour than this.

Its dangerous for a 5 star hospitality venue, charging premium +prices to have a liability like this on duty.

Customers of 10 years + will never return.

Visited Zen on many occasions over the years and unfortunately will not be returning or recommending. This restaurant is extremely tired after many years of use. For example chairs have zero padding left and are extremely uncomfortable. I tried to swap mine from an empty table with zero improvement. Our table host was unfriendly and this is not a one off either (same lady). Menu is now dated and needs a revamp, rabbit hole has implemented. Food was fine but overall this restaurant is now poor value for money until issues are actioned. I have given an honest assessment of our visit and still paid the service charge. Although I did not want to but my family didn't want the fuss!!!

I’ve eaten at Zen a number of times and always had a generally good experience. The food is tasty but the service is a little patchy. It often seems they suffer from thinking they can treat people badly due to their popularity. On this occasion we used the online booking system to reserve a table for my mother’s 84th birthday - I booked a slot for 2 hours from 12 until 2. I used my mobile phone to do this. On leaving my mother fell which delayed us and meant we arrived at 20 past only to be told it table has been given away by a smug little man because we were over 15 minutes late. I said that I thought I’d booked the table from 12 until 2 but was rudely told this wasn’t the case. Absolutely no attempt was made to accommodate us - let me see what we can do, have a drink and we’ll fit you in... instead we were told we could sit outside or leave. Not wanting to disappoint my mother after making the journey we took the table outside. In November... My mother froze throughout her meal and left with blue fingers. I asked the manager if the policy was made clear while booking and he said it was. So I went through the booking process again on my phone and… nothing at all about the table being given away if your over 15 minutes late! I mentioned this only for the manager to take my phone and attempt to show me. He couldn’t. At this point no apology. Nothing. Only an angry “well I can see it on my laptop”. I stated that I hadn’t made the booking on my laptop so felt this was clearly and issue. Again nothing, no apology given. I asked to see the manager and was told I was speaking to him. So in effect I was blamed by the manager for their own booking system being misleading - booking a 2 hour slot - and missing important information on the mobile version. Horrendous customer service and disgusting treatment of an elderly woman by a manager without conscience.

Went with my family. Service was appalling!!! Waited ages for food and had to keep catching staff to ask for drinks. Then added 10.46 onto the bill service charge !!!!
Won’t be returning .

Food and service wonderful as usual. But the online booking system is a pain, and the £2.50 surcharge for using a corporate card means that I can't use my work credit card to guarantee a booking.

I have ate at Zen restaurant on a number of occasions and thoroughly enjoyed each and every meal. Having had such a pleasant dine in experience me and my husband decided to use Zen as a take out option... WOW what a total let down!!!

Firstly the food was presented horrendously! I’ve never in my life received prawn crackers direct out of a plastic carrier bag without the paper inner protective layer! It baffled me completely! Secondly we ordered a katsu
Curry with an additional side of the katsu curry sauce! Both of the sauce containers were smaller than the size of my thumb and added absolutely nothing to the already cold chicken and vermicelli noodles that we ordered! The chips were another factor completely!! It is the first time in my life I have had the experience of eating cold and chewy potatoes and that is not something I would ever like to experience again! The entire take out was the worst take out I have ever had. I’ve never felt the need to leave a review before, However I felt I had no choice but to let everyone know how disappointing Zen take out service was!

My review of Zen is as below:
Dine In = Delicious
Dine Out = Disaster