Location: Hamby, on Hamby street, south of Araha beach. The restaurant is on the second floor of a white concrete two-storey building, across the street from Misty clothing store.
Hours: 11:30a-evening, lunch until 3p; closed Tues
Zen boasts a lovely 180 degree view of the water, a nice outdoor eating area, whitewashed walls, and dark wood plank tables. We sampled their lunch special (M-Sat), which is 800Y for salad, soup, main, dessert, bread or rice, and tea/coffee. Yet again, the rule holds true that a restaurant's view and food quality are inversely related.
The soup was comprised of the typical creamy vegetable proprietary base, with corn kernels added for interest. The salad was mixed lettuce with yellow bell pepper and pickled radish in a mild dressing. The mains include choice of 4 pastas (roe&seaweed, tomato&bacon, eggplant&tomato, and meat sauce) or fish, pork, beef, or chicken in sauce of your choosing (white, tomato, ethnic...). The roe and seaweed spaghetti offered interesting fusion flavours, but was not memorable. The fish with ethnic sauce was done lightly battered and pan-fried, in a creamy slightly spicy sauce that again had a proprietary (from a prepackaged mix) taste. The garlic bread was reminiscent of the type you buy at the grocery store and put in the broiler. To finish, you are served a small cup of thin drip coffee with a single package of creamer to accompany, and a little scoop of ice cream. We got chocolate swirl, which had the faintest touch of freezer burn. Thus, while this is an inexpensive lunch in a beautiful setting, the food is just not on par with other local cafes.
