Zen is Back - With a Szechuan and Hunan Menu

[Jeremy Iggers]

I got an email back in November informing me that Zen was going out of business, so I was pleasantly surprised a few days ago to drive down Lyndale Avenue just south of Lake St. and see the Open sign on in the window and somebody inside. I called this morning and learned that owner Andy Kor had reopened about a week ago after renovating the kitchen, and hiring a new chef, who comes from Hunan province, by way of Oakland, CA.
Zen has a new menu as well - the Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and Thai dishes have been dropped, and the focus is now on the hot and spicy cuisines of Szechuan and Hunan. (I was never completely clear on the difference, but Kor says Szechuan cuisine is oilier (but not in a bad way) and more numbing, while Hunan dishes are drier. )
The lunch specials are a good deal - choice of soup, appetizer and entree with rice for $7.25, with seafood entrees $1 more. I selected the hot and sour soup (lively), a pair of potstickers, and the shredded pork with smoked bean curd, a mildly spicy but intensely flavorful stirfry of shredded meat, tofu, red peppers and green onions.
There is a lot on the menu that I would like to explore, ranging from the spicy beef tendon appetizer ($7.95) and the winter melon and spare rib soup ($9.50) to entrees of Szechuan braised pigs feet ($10.95), fish fillet in spicy Szechuan broth ($12.50) and lamb in cumin flavor ($12.95).

There is a small but interesting wine list, as well as a good selection of domestic and imported beers. Bottles of wine are half-price when you order two entrees Sunday through Thursday, and drinks and some appetizers are half-price during happy hour, 4-6 p.m.

3016 Lyndale Avenue S.,Minneapolis, 612-824-3888.