Explore Asian cuisine with no limits at McAllen’s Zen Asian Bistro & Sushi

2 weeks ago 73

McALLEN — Zen Asian Bistro & Sushi offers people a unique way to eat to their hearts desires and the chance to try new things as the restaurant has an extensive menu full of flavor.

The menu is large and has more than 70 options of Asian cuisine ranging from sushi rolls, hibachi, nigiri and more. I might have miscounted, but take a glance at the menu you’ll see what I mean.

Customers can pay for each individual item they choose or do the buffet style “Unlimited Dinner Choice,” which is essentially all you can eat from the huge menu they offer and the main reason why I choose to check it out for South Texas Flavor.

Unlike a normal buffet where the food is in rows upon rows and people can just go up and load their plate up, this restaurant is different.

With the unlimited dinner choice, at about $23.99 for adults, patrons order what they want and the food is prepared right at the moment.

Might seem hard to believe but it is truly all you can eat and considering the vast menu, you’re sure to not have a boring experience by ordering food you know and love or trying new things.

It’s no secret that older Mexican folks love any type of buffet, so it was only right to have my mom join me since she loves going to buffets around the Valley with my Tias.

Located at 4129 W. Expressway 83, the restaurant is small with an ambient feel with its moody lighting and decor.

I read online that the wait time to get a table might take a while depending on the day, but we did not have a problem going on Sunday around 6 p.m.

There was a little hiccup at the beginning, and it was a while to get serviced at our table, but the waiter provided great service and the food came out fairly quickly.

Starting with different appetizers, we ordered the chicken egg rolls, vegetable spring rolls, gyoza pork dumpling and of course, spicy edamame.

I love edamame. It’s my go-to starter at any Asian restaurant and I think it helps see how the quality of the rest of the food will be.

The edamame came out steaming hot. It was good but I did expect a little bit more spice but does have a little kick to it.

The egg and spring rolls were delicious and to our surprise, huge. It had a great ratio of crispness on the outside and the softness of the inside which were very hot.

The sushi aspect of the restaurant is also immense, having classic rolls like the philadelphia roll (GO Birds!) to zen special rolls like the Sexy Roll which is tempura shrimp, cream cheese, tampico paste, avocado, spicy crab, eel sauce, tempura flakes and sesame seeds.

We decided to get two rolls that we would share.

They were the Pink Lady Roll which had tempura, shrimp, tampico avocado, eel sauce in soy paper and the McAllen Roll with tempura, cream cheese, avocado, spicy crab meat inside and on top.

Both rolls really knocked it out of the park for us.

The lady roll’s flavor was great. The shrimp inside the roll is fried which is a good contrast to the soft soy paper.

The McAllen Roll also was packed with flavor with a little kick of spice to it.

They were both so good, my mom couldn’t pick which one she liked more.

We then ordered miso soup, fried rice with shrimp, salmon hibachi and another round of spring rolls. Everything was great.

The salmon hibachi was soft and came with mixed vegetables which all came together nicely with the sauce that is put on.

A benefit to this style of eating is that everything came out very hot which I really appreciated.

Already pretty full, I wanted to try one more thing, something that I’ve never tried before.

I ended up trying out the masago nigiri, which is fish eggs on top of rice wrapped in seaweed. Looking like something from a bougie sushi place, I enjoyed the masago nigiri and would have it again.

My mom found masago nigiri a bit “raro” but tried some of the fish eggs to get a taste.

I could tell by her face and the amount she ate that she enjoyed the restaurant and all the new things she tried.

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I enjoyed everything that we ordered and what I really liked about the restaurant and the unlimited dinner choice is the chance to try new things.

I’m a person that likes to step out of their comfort zone in life and especially when it comes to food and this restaurant serves me a hot plate of curiosity.

Or, if you’re a person that knows exactly what they want and just wants to stuff their face with those choices, this is a great place for that too.

At the price, I think it is worth it in just the sheer amount of food you can order or the experience you have by eating some fish eggs or whatever you decide to try.

Zen Asian Bistro & Sushi is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

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