Zen West

Zen West
5916 York Rd.
Belvedere Square, Baltimore
410-323-3368
Tex-Mex
Cost: $$
Reservations: Not Needed
Date of meal: Friday August 3, 2007
National Price-Quality Frontier: Inside It
Baltimore Price-Quality Frontier: Inside It


The decor at Zen West is Tex-Mex meets bar's bar. You sort of expect the floor to be sticky with beer and there is tons of space around the bar or in the center of rooms for standing or dancing. With that in mind, you would expect it to be frat boy central with lousy food. This is not the case.

When we went on a Friday night, the place had plenty of empty tables. It wasn't loud. In fact, we took my parents who wears a hearing aid. The volume wasn't a problem for him, which tells you it was pretty subdued. Maybe we were lucky enough to hit an off night.

Our server was excellent: helpful, friendly, knowledgeable. The menu was considerably more interesting than you might expect. One plus of Tex-Mex is you have both Tex (ribs, which were quite good) and Mex (an outstanding fish taco). Flavors and ingredients were really outstanding. I liked this place quite a bit.

While a bit more expensive than Holy Frijoles, it definitely has better food (decor is comparable though Holy Frijoles probably has a more fun bar). At the same price point, I think Arcos is probably superior in terms of authenticity and far superior on decor. I would be happy to go to Zen West if I was grocery shopping or seeing a movie across the street, though I think Arcos probably dominates it under most circumstances.

As an aside, it is odd to note that Zen West is owned by the same folks as Cafe Zen. Actually, when you note that they are next to each other and have Zen in their names, it isn't so surprising. Still, aside from solid if not mind-blowing food, they have almost nothing in common.