Zen Japanese Food Fast

Austin, United States

3.7

Open now

20 reviews

Accepts Credit Cards
Free Wi-Fi

Contacts

QR code, vCard

Telephone:
+1 512-451-4811
Website:
www.eatzen.com
Address:
2900 W Anderson Ln, Austin, TX, 78757
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
0.9 mi7400 Wood Hollow/Greystone
1 mi7200 Wood Hollow/Greystone
1.1 miHart/Far West
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Bussiness info

Takes Reservations
No
Delivery
No
Take-out
Yes
Accepts Credit Cards
Yes
Good For
Lunch
Parking
Private Lot
Bike Parking
Yes
Wheelchair Accessible
Yes
Good for Kids
Yes
Good for Groups
Yes
Attire
Casual
Ambience
Casual
Noise Level
Average
Alcohol
Beer & Wine Only
Outdoor Seating
Yes
Wi-Fi
Free
Has TV
Yes
Waiter Service
No
Caters
Yes

Today

Today 11:00 am – 9:30 pm
Open now
Local time (Austin) 14:48 Monday, 2 June 2025

Business hours

Monday 11:00 am – 9:30 pm
Tuesday 11:00 am – 9:30 pm
Wednesday 11:00 am – 9:30 pm
Thursday 11:00 am – 9:30 pm
Friday 11:00 am – 9:30 pm
Saturday 11:00 am – 9:30 pm
Sunday 11:30 am – 8:30 pm

Description

Specialties

Zen is redefining fast food, making Japanese-​inspired cuisine affordable, healthy and fun. Unlike the other guys, we bring healthy fast food at a remarkable price. We are a community-​driven company with a commitment to helping people lead a healthier life.

Our sushi is rolled fresh at the front counter throughout the day, and we wok sauté your order fresh in just 5 to 7 minutes. Our bowls are prepared with filet mignon, all-​natural chicken breast, atlantic salmon, or black tiger shrimp in one of our homemade sauces. From ginger-​lime, 7 samurai bbq, sesame mustard or teriyaki to shiro miso, dynamite and our spicy sauce, there’s something for everyone at Zen. We even have gluten, dairy, wheat and sugar-​free menus, as well as nutritional information and diabetic exchanges on most of our items. Everything is made from the finest ingredients and cooked fresh on-​site, so you know you’re getting fresh, healthy food in every bite. A to-​go fork is plastic… your food shouldn’t be.

History

Established in 1999.

Whether you’re looking for a unique alternative to traditional fast-​casual dining or you are trying to eat healthier, Zen Japanese Food Fast provides the perfect option. The inspiration behind Zen was simple — to create fresh, inexpensive food that is both healthy and delicious. The hip, high-​energy atmosphere and the combination of natural and unexpected elements at the restaurants help create an experience that can’t be matched. Zen has grown from a single restaurant to four since 1999, with plans to grow more throughout Texas, so get your chopsticks — there’s a revolution going on.

Meet the Business Owner

Adam W.

Business Owner

As Owner of Zen, Adam is excited to provide a fresh, healthy alternative to the fast food world. He still remembers trying teriyaki for the first time as a kid. Looking back, it’s easy to see the seeds of Zen in his first teriyaki bowls shared with his father. His inspiration was simple — to create fresh, affordable and healthy Japanese food in a fast-​casual environment. Adam and the rest of the Zen team look forward to serving you!

Zen Japanese Food Fast also recommends

Lucky Robot

432

reviews

Japanese

,

Sushi Bars

,

Breakfast & Brunch

Adam W. says,

«More great Japanese food, and with a full bar!»

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20 reviews of Zen Japanese Food Fast

No registration required
Place rating: 3
Austin, TX
My family comes here often. My kids love the Build Your Own Bowl. The food is fresh. But I will not be here near as often now that the Prawn Star is off the menu. This taco will be very missed.
Place rating: 4
Austin, TX
Haven’t been here??? Go ahead and get in your car NOW & get there. It is very tasty and fresh! They have many different items to choose from, including a B.Y.O.B option (build your own bowl.) Yup, you choose everything that goes into the bowl. My favorite consists of shrimp with Udon noodles, the Ninja Veggie mix all tossed with the chili-​garlic sauce. Bomb! Try it. The vibe here is chill, the place looks clean and best of all, the price is right. This one is a keeper ;)
Place rating: 5
Austin, TX
I was surprised how much I liked this place. I have a lot of food allergies and the cashier helping me was really really informative and pretty much chose what I ordered. Great staff and surprisingly good food!
Place rating: 1
Austin, TX
I love the food, but numerous cashiers are not customer friendly and today was enough. This guy that took our order, was sweeping the floor and wiping down tables, and then delivered our food without washing his hands. If you want me to come back, do something about it and hire employees that care about customer service and wash their hands. I have half a mind to report this to the BBB.
Place rating: 3
Austin, TX
I will start by saying I love how health conscious Zen is. No matter what diet or allergy you have you can always find the nutritional info.
This place is a healthy alternative to fast food.
However for the price the portions are underwhelming.
The containers are also really flimsy and usually soggy by the time I get home.
Place rating: 2
Austin, TX
For the price and portion size, meh. Used to go a lot back in 2006 – 2008 before they changed the bowls to the small sizes. Went in today to give it another try after years and got a to go order that took 25 minutes to be ready of the steak bowl. When they called my number I went and got it and the to go container was quite small. Once I opened it there were 4 pieces of meat and a ton of rice. Very disappointed for the price.
Place rating: 5
Georgetown, TX
I don’t know of a better deal in Austin for price, quality and taste. Had the BYOB with salmon, yellow dragon sauce and brown rice — delicious! And the spicy salmon roll (4 pieces for under $ 3) was a great appetizer! We’ll be going back regularly.
Place rating: 4
Austin, TX
(Pssst. Can you get a little closer to the screen? I don’t want everyone to hear this. Okay, real fast:
1. Don’t confuse this place with «How Do You Roll.»
2. The whole concept of Zen is being cheap & good. What makes these guys special is they have achieved being cheap & good.
3. Hipster Unilocalers will look at the sushi rolls here and think, «What do you expect for three bucks?» Cool Unilocalers will look at the sushi rolls here and think, «You get all that for three bucks?»
4. The reason I’m not here more often is because this is exactly the kind of stuff I make for myself when I’m not going out, so after I order something I’ll start thinking, «How could I tweak this?» And then I’ll go home and get all involved and wind up with another entire meal. It’s complicated. But that’s my bad. Zen is always a good thing.)
Place rating: 4
Euless, TX
Continuing our healthy eating phase, we decided to check Zen out and knew we had made a good decision when we saw signs saying ‘Under 500 calories’ as well as advertisements for many local gyms and fitness clubs.
The prices are right too. $ 3 – 5 sushi rolls, plenty of entrees and bowls for under $ 10 and that’s including if you ask for double meat. What I really love is how easy their website is to research. I opened the nutritional information page and clearly printed was a list of each menu item and whether or not it is sugar free, gluten free, vegan, vegetarian, nut free, and even how many weight watcher points it is! That’s awesome, especially for everyone out there counting calories or those with food sensitivities.
I was pleasantly surprised to find a few different sugar free options. One of which is the miso soup which I had as an appetizer. It’s very light and palate cleansing. Since most of the entrees do have sugar, I went the build your own bowl route so that I could customize it to my liking. I picked veggies instead of a protein along with broccoli, carrots, cabbage, green onions, bean sprouts, ginger lime dressing, and brown rice.
It was a huge portion! The only thing I didn’t like was the overkill amount of sauce. A little of that goes a long way, so next time I will ask them to go easy on it. My husband got a sushi roll as his appetizer and built a bowl too with veggies and shrimp. Everything was fresh and flavorful, not to mention food we felt good about eating.
For my soup, his sushi roll, both our bowls (his had double shrimp), and two drinks we paid $ 25. Yes please! It’s too bad I don’t live closer to this area or I would frequent this place often for lunch.
Place rating: 5
Austin, TX
I love this place!
The food is sooooo good and they have a huge variety of choices. Their menu has a ton of different vegetables to make your own bowl — and even the option to put stir fried meat and veggies on greens instead of rice. I don’t know anywhere else that does that.
I have had the take away sushi many times and delish. Not the same as fresh, but totally beats HEB at pretty much the same price.
Take out has always been really easy and friendly if you dine in.
One of my quick dinner staples.
Place rating: 2
Austin, TX
I wanted to like this place! I came across it while running errands during my lunch break… they had me at «fast and healthy Japanese food». I did their BYOB (build your own bowl) with tofu, soto veggies, ginger-​lime sauce and udon noodles.
It was disappointingly bland. The sauce had zero trace of ginger (tasted like lime juice and soy sauce) and the ratio of carb: protein:veggies was a little off for me. I was thinking the ratio was going to be 1:1:1, but was more like 3:2:1. I would have liked more veggies than the shavings that were present.
I am thinking that maybe my BYOB decisions were not on point. I would definitely try this place again and possibly get an «already built» bowl or get some suggestions from the pros (the sushi also looked pretty good too).
Place rating: 1
Panama City Beach, FL
I wish I could give HALF A STAR! This is so disappointing. I’m a vegetarian who has been to Singapore and Shanghai and the noodles were nothing CLOSE to what I was just served! The noodles were lasagna noodles! No lie these noodles were not noodles underneath the shrimp and veggies was a hidden brick of pasta *gucci la flare voice* also the food was very spicy. My lover ordered salt pepper shrimp with white rice and her food was also very spicy and the rice was extremely sticky. DONT ORDER SINGAPORE NOODLES!
Place rating: 4
Austin, TX
I order take out from this location about once a month. It’s reliably good, especially if you have food allergies. Most Asian places are off limits for me because I can’t have gluten or dairy and I avoid soy. Also, most Asian food makes me sleepy and bloated 1 hour after eating it. Zen’s food is clean. The staff is pretty helpful when you’re making substitutions. Sometimes this location puts me on hold and leaves me on hold and sometimes they are not super courteous on the phone.
Place rating: 5
Austin, TX
I totally agree with everything MISHA said below —
very customizable (I ask for no extra oil, they fry in water), great value, good portions, very pleasant staff. It’s my «go to» place and I’m so grateful it’s so close to my house.
Place rating: 5
Austin, TX
I go to this Zen SO often that it almost seems strange to start to assess it. So I’ll start out by telling you the –reasons– I go to Zen so often
1. It’s healthy —
I went through one of those «clean eating» phases where I attempted to eat «real» food — and I was told that Zen uses no High fructose corn syrup in any of their food. I never feel bloated or gross when I leave, and if you’re avoiding a lot of carbs, the salmon salad is a GREAT option. Salmon + beautiful, green lettuce + light, delicious dressing — what could go wrong?
2. It’s reasonable —
You can reasonably expect to leave Zen no more than 10 dollars poorer — and a lot fuller. My husband and I are huge fans of the salmon, and they REALLY don’t skimp. Plus, for just a few dollars, you can DOUBLE your meet (or veggies!) in any dish, which is a great deal. You can even get some «budget» rice bowl dishes for around 5 dollars, which is a hard «5 dollar lunch» deal to beat, in my opinion.
Also, CRAZY cheap pieces of sushi. Sure, «cheap» and «sushi» aren’t words that should necessarily go together — and this is NOT Soto/​Uchi grade sushi — but its never bad, and it satisfies desperate sushi cravings easily.
3. It’s fast —
It’s in the name. Japanese fast food — without the traditional feeling of «fast food» (meat that never decays, etc.) It’s fresh and satisfying! Plus, you can call/​order online ahead, which makes it REALLY easy to pick up and take home.
4. It’s customizable —
hate onions? mushrooms? rice? LOVE lettuce? broccoli? Etc etc — whatever the case may be, you can customize a Zen bowl easily. You can get lettuce, brown rice, white rice, fried rice or noodles — a huge array of food bases, depending on what you need. Also, you can pick meat type, sauce (I HUGELY recommend the Zen Umami sauce. it’s awesome! Sweet, salty, savory, umami — just very well rounded), etc. I imagine this would be great for people with eating restrictions!
Sure, this place doesn’t have the ambiance that a lot of Austin eateries do, and they often run out of potstickers — but its fresh, healthy, fast and convenient. It definitely satisfies a food need I have often.
5 Stars!
Place rating: 3
Austin, TX
For fast, affordable, and healthy Japanese food, you cannot beat this place. I love this seaweed salad, miso soups, and bowls. However, I would stay away from their sushi. Last time I went, I got the bento box of sushi and I was a bit grossed out/​disappointed. The sushi had flavorful but the rice bed was not put together so it fell apart. The Spicy salmon roll wasn’t separated from the rest of the sushi, so the sauce got everywhere. I’ll definitely try the bowls and the appetizers again though.
Place rating: 4
Austin, TX
I work near Zen so from time-​to-​time I’ll run over and pick something up since it’s close and fairly quick.
Personally I like their bowls a lot but my favorite thing there are the tacos. All versions are really ‘stand-​out’ good. Prawn-​Star is crazy with flavors, in a good way.
I recently had a ‘less-​than-​favorable’ take-​out experience and Adam, the manager, reached out and wanted to make sure it was corrected which was genuinely appreciated.
Overall thumbs up on Zen.
Place rating: 4
Kyle, TX
I recently had my first trip to Zen thanks to finding Unilocal reviews while in the area. First and foremost, spot on guys! You led me to a great find.
I went with the B.Y.O.B (Build your Own Bowl) option with Atlantic Salmon, Soto Mix with Ginger-​Lime sauce and brown rice — the best way to treat Salmon in my honest opinion. Pretty great quality and definitely tastebud worthy. I’m not 100% on this but the Atlantic Salmos tasted wild caught and not farm raised which is the whole point that people look for a Salmon option; it retains all of the necessary nutrients.
Great lunch to-​go portions. reasonably priced for the quality and volume of business that they handle. Summarizing that sentence — don’t come here looking for McDonalds prices because they don’t serve that kind of crap. You get what you pay for these days so why not pay a couple extra bucks for something that won’t kill you in a decade.
Friendly staff, always smiling and engaging from order to departure. I’ll return for sure.
They have the concept down 100%. Japanese Food. Fast.
Place rating: 4
Austin, TX
Great lunch option on Anderson. It’s counter service but also really great for take-​out. On a recent visit, I ordered online and my order was ready and waiting while Misha S. ordered via phone and had a small mix-​up. 1 point for team internet!
I got the «budget» chicken teriyaki bowl and the chicken was a little dry but overall it was a good deal for $ 5. I also threw in few maki rolls because they’re so damn cheap. Only three dollars (!!) and it’s just 4 big pieces total but it totally hits the spot. I really like the veggie roll with the miso grilled eggplant and the spicy salmon roll.
Place rating: 5
Cedar Park, TX
Due to the fact that I work from home these days, I just don’t get down near Zen during a meal-​time, so lunch today was a nice treat.
Coworkers and I are over at Link and looking for food, Cover3 was too busy, so we walked over to Zen and I had an awesome tofu bowl (brown rice, ninja veggies and spicy sauce). I also had a Hippie Takko, it was excellent.
I might have to make a point of heading down to Zen on a monthly basis at least.