Zen Bowl brings Shanghai soup dumplings and pan-fried buns to Centretown
Jenny and Philip Wang opened their Gladstone Avenue takeout in late July, outsourcing dim sum but making Shanghainese specialties in-house — particularly exceptional buns that rival the city's best.
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Ottawa's dim sum landscape has thinned in recent years. Hung Sum and Yangtze left Chinatown; Palais Imperial and 99 VIP Seafood closed in the ByWard Market; Mandarin Ogilvie shuttered in the east end. A new Yangtze has reportedly opened this fall, and Cafe Orient still makes solid dim sum on a small scale, but the city's craving for Southern Chinese dumplings has gone largely unsatisfied.
Zen Bowl, which opened in late July on Gladstone Avenue, may help fill that void—at least for one crucial style: Shanghainese.
Owned and operated by siblings Jenny and Philip Wang, both of whom came to Ottawa from Shanghai years ago for higher education, the takeout offers both straightforward dim sum and more ambitious house-made specialties. Jenny, 31, studied economics at university and worked for a federal department before taking voluntary leave. Philip studied computer science at Algonquin College before AI derailed those ambitions. Their frustration outside food work led them here.
The dim sum is solid and affordable. Steamed shrimp dumplings (har gow) run $6.29 for four, with chunky plump fillings and proper thin skins. Their shrimp-and-scallop variant costs $6.79 for four. Steamed pork dumplings ($4.59 for four) and shrimp-pork ($4.99 for four) surpass what's available elsewhere in the city. Barbecue pork buns ($5.99 for two) are well-made. The Wangs bring this line in frozen from an external supplier—a practical choice given their bare-bones staffing and modest space (a former Indian takeout restaurant)—but the quality is there.
What matters most, though, is what they make themselves. The Shanghainese pan-fried buns ($6.79 for four) filled with pork are exceptional—possibly the best in the city. They're so juicy you need to carefully nip an opening in the dough to drink the broth; careless eating results in a mess on your clothes. The care is worth it. "The recipe is from my mom," Jenny says. The steamed soup dumplings ($7.99 for eight) are nearly as impressive, with admirably thin skins that hold their filling. If you've ordered pan-fried buns at Bite & Bite on Merivale Road before, Zen Bowl's are better still.
Good to know
Where is Zen Bowl located?
Zen Bowl is located on Gladstone Avenue in Centretown.
What are Zen Bowl's pan-fried buns like?
Zen Bowl's Shanghainese pan-fried buns filled with pork are exceptionally juicy and cost $6.79 for four. They're filled with broth and require careful eating to avoid spilling.
What are the prices for steamed dumplings at Zen Bowl?
Shrimp dumplings cost $6.29 for four, shrimp-and-scallop cost $6.79 for four, pork dumplings cost $4.59 for four, and steamed soup dumplings cost $7.99 for eight.
