Zeal

Love this place!!! So healthy, so affordable, so creative! The cauliflower wings are a great starter and their Slaw Plate is the best in town!!! Way better than any other restaurant in boulder. Nobody is doing what these guys do in the entire country! GMO free, gluten-​free, spiritual awareness. Like no place I have ever seen in Boulder!

There for lunch. It was a walk by choice. Knew nothing about it but gave it a shot, primarily due to its interesting menu and cool dining room. The foregoing is about all the good I can say about the place. My girl and I both had bowls – she had brown rice, tempeh and peanut sauce bowl and I had the same thing except with shrimp as my protein. It was mushy, flavorless and in her case mostly inedible. We suspected that there were no peanuts in our peanut sauce out of deference to those people with allergies to nuts. I ordered a fresh cold-​pressed fruit/​veggie juice called orange. That was not bad but for almost $ 9 I was looking for some booze in it for that price. My girl had a «brass monkey» smoothie. One sip and she was repulsed. It just wasn’t good – none of it was save my fruit juice. And the service was muted, barely attentive and slow. I will not go back even if the owner offered me some thing free. I might go back when the spot is a new restaurant and offers something with a zest or zeal. No, that’s too harsh. I might go back if I heard there were changes in the kitchen and someone was at the helm who knows that healthy can be tasty too.

Food was light and very tasty. Easy to get to, great service, nice and comfortable environment.

I ate here when I was in Boulder a couple weeks ago. I had Vegetable Rainbow Curry bowl. The staff easily accommodated my request to forgo the rice and get roasted sweet potatoes with it instead. The food was top notch. A delicious array of vegetables that were neither greasy or salty, topped with sprouted lentils and a yummy sauce that was flavorful without being too over powering or rich. I left feeling like I had been well nourished and has a meal as healthy as what I make at home. Although not a vegan restaurant, there are a lot of options for people on a whole foods, plant based diet. Highly recommend. I will be returning the next time I visit Boulder.

Loved this place.
Buy their homemade almond milk, so fresh and delicious, take some home.
Great juices, tea.
Kombucha on tap.
Had a coco curry bowl, was very good.
Kimchi was awesome.
Servers all cool.

I ordered the egg sammy and the Kickstarter coffee. It was such a great restaurant — healthy ingredients, friendly staff (who offered me a blanket while eating outside), and great ambiance. I am from Southern California, was visiting Boulder for the first time and Zeal was a great find!

My favorite restaurant on Pearl Street! We stopped by on our first day in Boulder just in time for their Happy Hour. From 4−530pm, you can get a small plate for $ 5 or 3 for $ 13. We ordered the Happy Miso Bowl, Grassfed meatballs and the cauliflower wings. I loved the cauliflower wings! They were roasted to perfection and drenched in a tangy wing sauce. Paired with the house tahini– ah-​mazing. The miso bowl was light and refreshing and the meatballs + zucchini noodles were solid. In regards to size, I think the portions were actually fairly generous. 3 small plates would have been a solid meal with leftovers probably.
We came back the next morning to try their acai bowls. Incredible. The bowl was smaller then other places and pretty pricy at ~$ 9. however the toppings were plentiful and the granola was delicious. We tried another acai bowl in town and it could not even compare.
We will definitely be back.

I can’t say I usually choose the healthier places to eat. I was a little intimated by the menu with all the healthy and organic offerings. Boy! Was I impressed. We ordered the juice sampler which was delicious. Then we had the Brussels sprouts as a starter. Ahhhh so good! For lunch, I had the chicken sandwich and it was amazing. The bun was the best part, fresh baked. I can’t wait to go back!

I really wanted to love his place buuut I just didn’t, we came early during the week and the place was empty, the server was friendly enough however a little curt and tried to hurry us to order when I was still looking at the menu. We decided on a large red juice to share and both got the eggs with steamed greens and sweet potato hash, and added on bacon and avocado. To be honest for a completely empty restaurant you would think the meals would come out quickly but it felt like we waited and waited for them. The red juice was really good perfect flavours. The «steamed greens» was sautéed kale — so the menu may as well say sautéed kale, it tasted good but it had oil and you could see it was cooked in a pan! The poached eggs were perfectly cooked the sweet potato hash was quite nice albeit a little oily. The bacon was a little sweet, I’m from Australia we don’t really have sweet bacon so that might just be me who feels that way. The thing that annoyed me the most though was the avocado (the menu states half an avocado!) The serving would have been lucky to be a quarter of avocado.
With all the options in Boulder this just wasn’t hitting the spot. However everything is pretty much paleo and gluten free so it would be easy to order if you were concerned about those things.

I’ve been stalling on this review for some time, however seems my concerns are commonplace here. I have found service here to be quite poor. While the food is ok, I’ve not had a stand out dish I’d go back for.
I did reach out to the owner with my concerns following my last visit. The response I received was very blasé and one of someone who really shouldn’t be in the restaurant business, especially a competitive one like Boulder. I was quite put off by his response and, frankly, is the reason I’ve not returned. He confirmed that he doesn’t read the Unilocal reviews (note: bad idea) and that they «will have some days that are less stellar than others. Way less». (update: email was sent to the owner as per the below comment; i’ve not confused the restaurant at all). –soooo, that’s not acceptable to me if I’m a paying customer… and especially not ok without some sort of offer to make the situation better by offering a reason to return.
In summary: mediocre food. Poor service. Owner doesn’t seem vested in creating an amazing restaurant. No need to bother returning with so many other places with stellar service and a «give a you-​know-​what» attitude.

Being on vacation can be very gluttonous… at least, that’s how it is when I go on vacation. So the idea of getting someone thing healthy at Zeal was very appealing.
And the food was great. Exactly what we needed after a week of alcohol and cheese and burgers and ice cream. However, the service left a lot to be desired. After not finding a hostess at the host stand, a server told us to «sit anywhere.» We did, but no one came to get even our drink order for quite some time. After a while, I got up and found the server who’d told us to sit to let her know we were ready. It still took several minutes for someone to come by, and I overheard another patron complaining about the same issue to the manager as we ate.
That being said, it could have just been a fluke — an odd day — and Zeal had a really great menu. I was curious about a lot of items and if we are ever in the area again I’d go back to try more. I also liked that they had a lot of health info and health food products, and even advertised their own cleanse.

I like that every time I go in and ask for a ginger-​lemon shot, they accommodate my off-​menu order. And I like their avocados on the half shell. Fun idea! Their gusto bowl was delicious when I added pork. Can’t go wrong with spinach, apricots, hemp seeds, bacon, and pork all mixed together.

This is a great place to stop in after a workout, study-​break, or breakfast with friends.
Cold pressed juice, smoothies, acai breakfast bowls and more delicious breakfast options. I got the acai bowl with honey, bananas and zeal granola. It was really good, though next time I’ll probably elect for the build your own bowl option because I wanted my bowl to have berries as well. The granola was really good.
I’d also like to try their fresh juice flight and hot breakfast items, like the sour dough sweet potato pancakes.
The place has lots of open seating, though it is on Pearl, so I recommend trying to stop in during non-​peak hours, though the service was fast and accommodating. They also have a wide selection of items «to-​go» if your in a hurry.

I appreciate that Boulder offers a lot of healthy options in terms of restaurants, but this place isn’t one that I would return to.
I think that the prices are way too high for the quality and portions that you receive. I got a large bowl and it was $ 20. I had paid an extra $ 6 for beef, and I was probably given a total of 2 ounces only. The bowl arrived with all of the ingredients mixed together which tells me that they’re trying to hide the lower portion of protein. I’m sorry, $ 20? $ 20 for some cauliflower, vegetables and two bites of beef with some sauce? No thanks.
Not to mention the service was extremely slow, and I had to ask for more water and extra glasses for a drink that I was sharing with someone out of a bottle.
I’ll stick to LEAF.
The only reason I’m not giving this establishment one star is because they have gender-​neutral bathrooms.

You (any of you reading this) can make better tasting food at home with the same organic, local ingredients.
I ordered the beef braise. The beef was 60% visible inedible gristle. The rest of the dish was barely palatable. I wondered if it was gauche to order meat in this restaurant and perhaps I was being punished for it.
My friend ordered the mighty bowl, which came complete with a jagged piece of hard plastic in it. The waitress seemed unconcerned, and my friend had to ask her for a new meal.
To top it off, everything was overpriced.

We stopped in here after a fantastic evening entertaining the kids along the mall, and were pleasantly surprised at 1) the staff’s willingness to bend over backwards to accommodate us, and 2) the excellent selection and quality of the drinks we enjoyed. The blackberry lemonade was popular with the kids, and I loved the Avery Hawaiian and the ginger beer. Everyone was sweet to a fault and we are eyeing this spot for our next grownups-​only evening out :-)

not a fan. i understand the organic aspect but there was no flavor at all in my dish. i built a bowl with rice noodles, farm egg, and bone broth. i had to add a nice amount of salt to get any flavor. i was not impressed.
also service was a bit under-​enthusiastic. kinda thought getting charged $ 1 for a side of hot sauce was pretty lame on a $ 90 tab.
pretty disappointed. not planning on returning.

We had high hopes for our first restaurant experience in Boulder, and we were not disappointed! One of the people at the house we are staying at recommended the make-​your-​own bowl, both me and my guy were thinking of getting one. He got one with rice noodles, pesto, avocado, and grilled veggies and it was out of this world. I am super indecisive, so our waitress led me to the kale salad — I added avocado — and the Mother Earth smoothie. She totally nailed it!
We were both so satisfied with our meals. Zeal really set the bar high for vegan, gluten-​free dining in Boulder. We are excited to return and try new things.
I highly recommend this restaurant!

Allergy alert! Be SUPER careful here if you have a nut allergy!!!
The good news: their outdoor seating was totally lovely, and the space is really cool. I liked all the food we tried. The falafel was great. I really like the pepitas too, but they were a little awkward to eat as finger food.
Right as I was mulling how one might serve the pepitas in an easier-​to-​eat way, I started getting That Tickle in my throat… getting hard to swallow… I’m severely (and specifically) allergic to Brazil nuts, and have been for my entire life. There were no Brazil nuts listed on anything that we ordered, but I found one on my K&DJ salad from cross-​contamination in the kitchen. Thank god I didn’t actually eat it, but I still had to rush to the hospital.
The staff handled it very well, giving me Benadryl and directions to the nearest ER. They also boxed our untouched food for my friends to pick up later in case they wanted to eat it, and gave us half off the bill.
I really debated whether or not it was relevant to write a review, since I didn’t get to try all the food. What I did try was lovely, and obviously, this is a bizarrely specific situation that few people would worry about. THEN I realized, hey, if someone else had written a Unilocal review about a nut allergy, perhaps I would have read it, steered clear of Zeal, and saved myself a seriously stressful afternoon and ER copay!
So, Zeal: not entirely your fault. You handled it well after the incident happened. I’m grateful to say this was the first time I’ve encountered a Brazil nut out in the wild, so I don’t have a frame of reference for how other places would have done it differently? But please try to be more careful with cross-​contamination in the kitchen for future diners!
***
UPDATE, response to Wayde J (owner): I disagree with the victim-​blaming tone of the owner’s response. When I go to a restaurant and I have no idea what will be on my plate (such as a chef’s menu), I tell them about my Brazil nut allergy. But I had no reason to think a Brazil nut would have ended up in my salad here, when it’s NOT listed as a menu ingredient. I am allergic to one thing. That one thing was not in the dish I ordered. I didn’t read through every single ingredient in every single menu item– why would I? And since it was an accident that it landed on my plate in the first place, what would have been done differently if I noted my allergy? Is the standard sloppy, and you’re careful by request only??? Accidents happen, but your kitchen’s haphazard prep is not my fault.

I really want to love Zeal… I had a lot of anticipation before I came, just by checking out the menu. I wanted to try the cauliflower «rice» and bone broth in «build your own bowl», kelp noodles and collard green wrapped sandwich.
But I was disappointed. Nice to have the idea of cauliflower «rice» was nuance but it was so bland I had to put salt there myself. Bone broth was tasty but when it came out it was luke warm. After I asked them to heat it up the plate, the broth disappeared when it came back! Too bad I was just trying to drink it! Then the collard wraps: not only the portion was so small but it fell apart instantly. My fingers were drenched with the sauce and dressing. Why not wrap it with another round of collard and wrap it tighter? This dish was at least tasty … just really bad postures I had to have when eating. The wine here starts at $ 9… really steep for an organic joint especially I don’t know where it even comes from.
The perks at last: I was happy that they had the Himalayan pink salt when I tried to DIY my food. Service was pretty good and the venue was modern and clean. Still, those don’t matter as much when the FOOD is what you need in a restaurant!