The chopsticks are curious—Thai food is normally eaten with a fork and spoon. But then again, there is scarcely a Thai dish on the menu, other than crepes, which few Americans think of as Thai, even though the menu is written in both English and, well, Thai.
If you’re confused, just go with it. Zen Me (9250 Watson) is one of those quirky little places that’s not at all what you might suspect. What was once Zen Thai & Japanese Cuisine (that restaurant is now moved down the road, to 403 Watson Plaza) is now renamed Zen Me. It’s strip-mall informal, smaller than your average Taco Bell.
Customers order via a pad with a scrolling screen of the menu. Ordering via a kiosk is manageable when you’re in a place without a lot of business, but trying to decipher all of the screens when there’s an office-load of workers behind you is challenging. Fortunately, on our visit, it was quiet enough to hear the Beatles music playing softly, and we had time to decipher the menu’s offerings. If you’re there when it’s busy and you don’t have a lot of experience ordering a meal as if you’re on the dining deck of the Starship Enterprise, however, there’s a stack of menus on the counter.
Noodles—lots of ’em, Chinese, Japanese, and Thai—are the specialty here. This is a place that needs more than one visit to get a grasp on the fare. A lovely place to start is with the barbecued pork noodle bowl. Most people are familiar with that smoky, fragrant tenderness of marinated and roasted pork char siu. It’s prepared in house, with thick slices of meat tinged red as a candy apple, almost sweet. It’s stacked in a bowl with crunchy bok choy, a plump chicken wonton, and chubby yellow egg noodles in a fine, chicken-style broth.
Tempura udon uses thicker wheat noodles in a Japanese classic, along with fingers of batter-dipped shrimp. The broth here is too thin; it lacks the supple richness of a good udon broth, and the battering of the shrimp is too thick and bready to deserve the title of tempura. If you’re in the mood for Japanese noodles, go with the curry udon, a creditable version of Japanese curry, silky, loaded with potatoes, peas, carrots, and a choice of meat over a generous mess of swirled udon, which holds the sauce nicely. It has that unmistakable aroma of curry and the luxurious texture that absolutely overwhelms the palate.
Two noodle preparations stand out. Kuai tiao nuea, or Thai beef noodle soup, is authentic and delicious. The broth is cloudy, with dissolved collagen from the beef stock and fragrant with coriander root, garlic, and peppercorns in a liquor that’s intoxicating. The beef is sliced thin—flank steak, ribeye, and tendon, all cooking instantly in the steamy broth. A drizzle of fried garlic oil pools on top; it mixes in with every bite adding a satisfying depth. The bowl is as fine of a rendition as any in local Thai eateries.
The other bowl that will bring you back to Zen Me is the Hakka-style noodles. The Hakka, an ethnic group from southeastern China, developed a unique cuisine that still hasn’t received the attention it deserves in much of the West. The cuisine is filling, salty, with simple flavors. The quintessential Hakka dish is a dry stir-fry of slivered pork, dried squid, and Chinese celery. (If you want a premiere version, try the one at Kitchen 95 in Overland.) At Zen Me, Hakka’s contribution to cuisine is in a noodle dish: a clear, delicate broth that’s thick with spongy balls of fish paste, shrimp, tofu stuffed with ground chicken, and big leaves of fried wonton skin, flavored with cilantro and chopped scallions. It’s hard to imagine a better way to warm up on a cold day.
If you’re thinking of the soft, pancake-like crepes of French fame, you’re close. Thai Kanam buang, however, are a crispier cousin, folded into cones after being slathered with fillings. It’s a stretch to imagine a crepe filled with chili paste, but it works. Nam prik pao is to Thai cuisine what pimento cheese spread is to the Southern table. This staple is a slurry of ground dried chilies, shrimp paste, fish sauce, and tamarind that’s sweet and spicy, smooth and biting at the same time. Mixed in house with a homemade mayo, a big dollop of it is wrapped in that crispy crepe. It’s savory and bright. The other crepes here are filled with jam, Nutella, and—best of all—a pistachio crème. The last option has an intoxicating flavor that will seem familiar yet exotic. It’s kadayif, finely shredded filo dough that’s also an ingredient in the wildly popular Dubai chocolates.
Drinks are worth noting. You might settle for a Coke or Dr. Pepper, but check out a whole refrigerator full of drinks such as Melon Ramune, Thai tea, white gourd drink, coconut juice, and the ever-popular grass jelly drink. (And the name, by the way, is a pun—a reference to a Thai word for noodles.)
Beatle hits, Thai crepes, a trio of noodle bowls—it’s definitely not the same ol’, same ol.’ That’s for sure.
Zen Me
📍 9250 Watson, Crestwood
📞 314-270-3139
⏰ 11 a.m.–8 p.m. Mon–Sat
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