Zen Asian BBQ

Great food!

Another great night. Service and food were top of the line.
If you haven’t been here yet, then get here. Truly a great place to eat and experience.

The sushi was fresh and delicious. My boyfriend doesn’t like sushi and he ate all of our roll and ordered another one. We decided to share the house special Ramen and the broth was full of flavor and the in house made noodles were perfect! For dessert we ordered the chocolate cake and it was decadent. I’m making reservations to go back next week!

Not great service. Food pretty good. Small portions. Order a few things and share! We were slightly disappointed to be honest –thought it would be a lot better than it was … Maybe we just hit them on a bad night. The Food was better than the service that’s for sure.

Great place. Every dish we had was great. Serving is innovative. Service is fast and friendly. Great place! Will definitely be coming here again! Liked the ambience, one of a very few places in Naples that does not have the hideous Armstrong ceilings!!! That alone goes a long way :) Try it, you will not regret it!

Another great meal at zen! Cool atmosphere especially with live music on the patio tonight. Ended the night with the delicious hot lava cake — will definitely get that again!

4.5 STARS
I was skeptical of coming here since the prices seem a little high compared to Northern VA, where I can get Korean BBQ for at least a third of the price as here.
I ordered bibimbap with a side of kim chi. I didn’t really like having to pay for the kim chi since, unlike most Korean restaurants that serve a bunch of side dishes, this place has no such thing unless you order the Korean BBQ which requires an order minimum of two meats. I understand that this is not a purely Korean restaurant though, so it’s acceptable.
That said, my bibimbap was by far the best Korean food I’ve had in my eight years of living in Florida! It came out sizzling in a mock-​stone bowl with the egg cooked just enough to let me mix it all together. I asked for a side of chili sauce and it was brought out immediately.
Afterwards, I got the Zen ice cream, which is their mochi ice cream special. It had the most beautiful and adorable presentation as a flowerpot. The top was layered with cocoa powder, and the ice cream was stuffed full of surprises! It consisted of vanilla mochi (?) ice cream, chunks of green tea flavored chips, strips of mochi (?), and those little liquid filled boba. There might have been some chocolate chunks in there as well. Not what I was expecting for mochi ice cream, but a pleasant surprise nonetheless.
The only reason this review is not five stars is because it took awhile to get seated. There is no host, and it appears as if you need to wait for a server to notice you in order to be seated. Once seated, there seemed to be some confusion as to who was serving me. Once all of this got ironed out, though, the service was great.
This is still a new restaurant and these are just a few small kinks in an otherwise charming restaurant with outstanding food. My server, Alex, was very charming and professional, and the Chef and guys behind the bar were very friendly. My only wish is that they served soju, but I know I can’t have everything. =]

Went there for dinner a 3^rd time and I strongly stand by my prior 5 Star review and seriously recommend this place!
It has a nice laid back pace so don’t expect a «fast pushy meal» but it’s not slow either so don’t worry. Relax, enjoy, have a «Drunken Watermelon» and laugh a little
See the pictures! The flavors are so authentic and refreshingly, the prices are lower then you would expect for food of this quality in Naples!
Please call way ahead for reservations for the Korean BBQ tables and expect a little wait during peak dinner hours. Just remember you can’t rush perfection and thank me later
PS Try the tuna tacos!

Since they open we ate here many times, never disappointed. The services is amazing (Alex of course the best) the food is a home run always it doesn’t matter if you order from happy hour or full menu everything is been made with care and love.
They stay open very late, my husband and I work in the hotel business and we are always looking for food after work, (thanks for understand this small target necessity).
The owner is always engaged with the guest and making sure you are full satisfied. Chef Koko is always around checking all the plates to make sure are up to the standards.
The ambience is also immaculate, so clean and well decorated such a great taste and amazing art work.
Thanks for decided to open this place in Naples, We really need it; if you never been here give it a try you won’t be disappointed.

Hit up Zen Asian BBQ in North Naples tonight. I’ll start with the pros: atmosphere is cool (if you knew what this place looked like before you would appreciate the transformation), the ramen was tasty and had a nice kick, prices are reasonable and my green tea crème brûlée was amazing. Didn’t order sushi but the people next to me seemed to like theirs and it looked beautiful.
Now the cons: walked in and waited about three minutes for a hostess to show up. I noticed there really isn’t a formal hostess but waiters that take on that responsibility. The place was packed, BUT service left something to be desired… very slow. So much so that what I assume is the manager or assistant manager actually offered to comp my dessert, not because I complained but because he actually noticed how neglected I was and I was sitting in clear view at the sushi counter. The guy next to me ordered his food five minutes after me and got it first and both my appetizer and entrée came to me at almost the same time (pet peeve) which indicates to me that someone forgot to bring my appetizer to me. I had about four different people wait on me. I couldn’t keep track of who to ask and they were all rushing through the restaurant so it was hard to ask for anything… like a fork for my ramen. Yes I sat there for about five minutes with a large spoon trying to scoop noodles… not successful.
I will definitely be back and overall it was a good spot and it doesn’t hurt I live around the corner

This place very awesome!!! A little gems in Naples. There food very fusion and testy. The staff was very nice and helpful. If you would like to hangouts in late night Comes here!!! u will not disappointed.

While the food was amazing, the atmosphere & service was lacking. We had pad Thai, sushi, Korean BBQ with spicy edamame (delicious!) as an app. Extremely boisterous people at the other very close tables made the meal miserable for my husband. I would like to try this place again when the snowbirds leave. I also didn’t like waiting nearly 30 min for our drinks and only getting them
after reminding our waitress. The Coke bottle thing was kind of meh and cliché in addition to being pricy.

So delicious! Fabulous service! What a unique gem in a sea of standard fare of Ceasar salad and steak (blah) Exciting and unique menu that we were told changes weekly. Highly recommend the seafood ramen. Perfect umami flavor broth filled with calamari, mussels and shrimp, with tender ramen noodles and more than enough for 2; we wanted to bathe in the bowl. Steamed lobster buns also fantastic, perfectly crisped hunks of lobster in a pillowy bun with just a hint of heat. Green tea crime brûlée did not disappoint. Also looked around at 9PM and realized place packed with a young crowd! No early bird special crowd here! Open until midnight! Can’t wait to go back!

Came the other night with my family, a group of 7, without a reservation at 5 PM after reading some great reviews on Unilocal.Though it wasn’t a perfect experience, I still it was pretty dang good, especially considering this is Naples, not NYC or something.
We started out with Korean chicken wings ($ 4 at happy hour) which were quite a good deal. We’ll seasoned and nicely crispy. Not as good as the best ones in K-​town, but again, this is Naples. I’d definitely get them again. Crispy Brussels sprouts were a disappointment — they should consider trying Michael Symons much more successful recipe. Edemame was ok, not a generous portion for $ 5.
The owner stopped by and was very friendly. He pumped up the chops of the ramen saying people drove for hours to get some. We love ramen so a bunch of us ordered it. I ordered the cold ramen dish that was a special and the pork belly buns (tasty, but the portion of pork belly was not as large as Ippudo in NYC).
Cold ramen was delicious– nicely flavored peanut sauce, a nice portion of pork belly. But the hot ramen bowls were disappointing at first. Though the broth was well flavored and the noodles were nice and chewy. There was a generous amount of toppings which would cost extra in a specialized ramen shop. The problem with all the bowls was that they came out barely hot. Ramen should be HOT, like enough that you need to blow on the spoon to cool it off. Ours was warm– I suspect from the cold crab being placed in it. We ate the ramen and it was pretty good, but when the manager/​owner stopped by and asked about it, we told him our disappointment at the temperature of our ramen. He apologized for that and later on, one of the waitresses came by to tell us that he had told them to replace our bowls of hot ramen. This was definitely appreciated by us, even though we were already full at that point. We ended up taking the rest home to enjoy later. The ramen definitely tasted better hot.
Overall, I was very pleased with this restaurant. It was definitely worth coming back for more when in the mood for Asian food in Naples. I’ll come back the next time when I’m in town. Wish the parking lot had more spaces in it, but that’s not a huge deal, just come early. Really appreciated the management coming by to check in on us and to make sure they made things right in the end. Good quality place.
-=-
Bump to 5-​stars for having great management :)

Service definitely needs a tune up. Over an hour last night and constantly asking for water, where our food was (I think it wasn’t ordered but the hostess said «the kitchen messed it up» but 30+ min for ramen nachos was way too long).
Food is still good but they really need to fix the service part. Service is way too slow to maintain in this town.

Amazing Korean Bbq. Hidden gem!!! Happy hour after 10pm is totally worth it. The Boc Choy app was amazing and we ordered the chicken and mean bbq.

This place was hopping! We showed up at 5 when they opened and they said they were already booked with reservations. They weren’t lyin’- there was a steady stream of patrons the entire time we were there.
The owner was very engaged with the guests, checking in with everyone to make sure they had a good meal and to offer recommendations.
The ramen noodles are hand made and very good. The cold ramen was reminiscent of the Taiwanese cold noodles and were one of the best dishes we had.
The lamb curry was the best dish of the night.
The famous koko ramen was full of fantastic goodies like corn off the cob, perfectly soft boiled egg, mussels, a large meaty piece of sweet king crab, huge shrimp, and that great toothsome noodles. The only flaw was that the broth while rich and flavorful wasn’t my favorite. But that’s a personal preference. I think most ppl would really enjoy it. It was just richer and creamier than I like my ramen.
The pork buns were tasty, and we would order it again.
The crispy Brussels sprouts weren’t crispy at all, but had a good flavor. I wouldn’t order it again though.
The bulgolgi was too soft, the meat almost disintegrated without chewing it. The flavor was also more Chinese then Korean– you couldn’t taste any gochujang.
Overall, I think this place is a great addition to the Naples dining scene. Among Asian joints here, it’s definitely better than anything else I’ve tasted here.

A new gem in North Naples. Chef Koko has some amazing Ramen here!!! I’ve had several items from the menu now and one of my favorites is the Beef Nacho… great flavor but of crunch in the fries noodle. I want to eat it wrapped in a lettuce…
I also really liked the tuna tacos… very unique and very fresh. They are little 2 bite mini tacos. Atmosphere is unlike any restaurant in Naples. Stainless steel tubes abov we the Korean BBQ tables and wooden boards all over. Very warm appearance inside with a big Buddha painted on the wall. Korean BBQ is a ton of fun with friends… you cook the meat at the table and it taste amazing!!! Great little date spot in a tiny strip mall.

I attended a free tasting event here. In not sure if that’s why things were off but I definitely didn’t have the experience other diners seemed to have here.
The garlic edamame beans were good. They had good flavor.
The tuna taco was decent. The shell was fried and thick and you couldn’t really taste the tuna. It was boring.
The tuna pizza was gross. The bread tasted stale and wasn’t crispy at all. I do have to say that the tuna did have a good flavor and wasn’t fishy.
The crispy brussel sprouts with candied walnuts were soft and a bit burnt. There weren’t any candied walnuts in our dish.
There was some sort of seafood stew that was okay. It was really hard to dish among the entire table.
The nacho dish was my favorite flavored dish Until I had a bite that tasted a bit fishy. There weren’t any real nacho chips, instead, they used Asian crunchy noodles. I found that weird. It was hard to eat and didn’t look appealing after you mixed it.
The lamb dish was tender and had a good curry flavor. I think this was the best dish out of all the ones I tried.
The atmosphere on the inside was cute. I ordered a glass of Chardonnay and was brought a glass of Merlot. This did end up being fixed.
I had a hard time deciding between 2 and 3 stars. I went with 3 based on the Edamame, lamb, dessert, taste of fish, and atmosphere. I don’t believe I would go back.

WoW Zen! You did it again. On the mark, the taste was amazing and the food was beautiful! We had another amazing food experience!
You need to try it! They will not disappoint!