Zenna Noodle Bar, Brookline

By Guest Blogger

Timothy Cormier

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I had the pleasure of joining Flower at the highly-recommended Zenna Noodle Bar in Brookline for a square meal yesterday evening. 


For some reason, I've never liked the atmosphere in Thai or Vietnamese haunts because everyone is whispering and no one is allowed to laugh. Depressing, right? Zenna was much the same but we ignored everyone else and brought the funk. Our server chuckled at my pronunciation of Singha Beer and throughout the meal, Flower bellowed albeit mostly at me. The service made me feel like I was the King of Zamunda and came with smiles aplenty. 


For starters, we ordered the chicken crepe, which I took one bite out of and then couldn't stop eating it until I devoured the whole thing. Oh yeah, Flower had a few bites too ;) Then came the noodle session. Flower ordered the steamed tofu spicy drunken noodle and I chose the other noodle dish (with shrimp) that Flower originally had her eyes on. 

When the steaming dishes came out 10 minutes later, Flower immediately had what I like to call post-order regret because mine was better looking and inevitably better tasting. There was little talking and mostly just scarfing noodles that took place over the next 15 minutes. Pretty damn good. I was content, but Flower had to take it to the next level and order the fat kid supreme: coconut fried ice cream dessert. One small taste let to an all-out assault and the next thing I know I'm spoon-scraping every last drop of that goodness. Check PLEASE!

On the way out, the motherly hostess motioned me over to ensure that our meal was good. Nice touch, tranquil old woman. Notwithstanding the awkward church silence, the fare at Zenna was delicious and the service warm. Until my next blog spash, thanks Flower!