Restaurant review: Zen Asian Fusion Lounge
Red velvet ropes on the sidewalk might indicate queues and selective entry, but happy-hour prices, BOGO drink specials and $5 Ladies' Night cocktails are honeyed strategies to pull 'em in.
Windows clustered with paper lanterns and paper parasols upended from the ceiling suggest a Chinese bazaar, but Zen leans closer to Japanese, with bento-box lunches, hibachi, teriyaki, sushi and sashimi menus, and a sushi chef putting out strikingly artistic creations.
Like the enforced late-night dress code — no hats or baggy pants, please — Zen takes its upscale appearance seriously.
[...] drink menus of dubiously flavored martini and mojito concoctions sound college alarm bells.
For the full experience, this required a calculated approach: A Thursday night reservation slap bang between after-work or theater-going diners and the Spandex crowd ready for DJ DirtyDish at the end of his dishwashing shift.
Sesame-bourbon chicken wings are placed unapologetically beside crispy crab rangoons, drunk snacks capable of mopping up booze.
Chicken lettuce wraps ($8) arrive with greens the size of banana leaves, perfect for transporting the neatly diced, soy-laced chicken and the crispy mad tangle of fried glass noodles whose only value is texture and, like all drinking snacks, impossible to leave alone.
Dinner for four — including three starters, four entrées all with soup or salad, and six $5 ladies' night cocktails — came to $165.24 with tax and 20 percent tip.