Around 11:45 on a weekday, the parking lot off Campbell Road starts filling up. Office workers from the nearby tech corridor, a table of retirees who seem to come every week, a couple of nurses in scrubs — Zenna Thai & Japanese draws a steady midday crowd that knows exactly what it wants and doesn’t want to wait long for it.
The restaurant sits in a low-key strip center on Campbell Road in west Richardson, easy to miss if nobody’s pointed it out. Inside, the space is clean and calm: a few Asian-themed wall panels, light wood tones, booths along the wall and standard tables filling the middle. Nothing dramatic, nothing trying too hard. The focus is on the food.
The menu covers Thai and Japanese ground, which might sound like a hedge, but Zenna handles both sides without letting either one slide. On the Thai end, the pad see ew is the move — wide rice noodles with a good char, not greasy, with enough wok breath to remind you this isn’t takeout-chain food. The green curry runs genuinely spicy at level three or four if you ask for it, not just warm. The massaman, on the other hand, is mild and rich, built on slow-cooked potato and tender beef, the kind of dish that eats like a meal in a bowl.
The Japanese half leans on sushi and bento combinations. The lunch bento boxes are the practical choice: miso soup, salad, a California roll, and a main — teriyaki chicken, salmon, or tofu — for somewhere around eleven to thirteen dollars. It’s one of the more reasonable lunch deals in the area for what you get. The sushi rolls themselves are solid without being ambitious; the spicy tuna and the crunch roll move quickly on weekday afternoons, and the fish quality holds up.
Dinner slows down compared to lunch, but that’s when the kitchen has more room to run. The drunken noodles with shrimp come out better in the evening — wider portions, a little more care in the seasoning. The tempura is consistently good, light batter, properly drained. Skip the pad thai, which tends toward sweet; the pad see ew is the stronger call in the noodle category.
Service is efficient rather than warm, which suits the lunch-crowd pace. Staff are attentive without hovering, orders come out quickly, and nobody rushes a table unnecessarily. On busy days there may be a short wait for a table, but the line moves.
Pricing lands in the approachable middle: lunch dishes from $10 to $14, dinner entrees from $13 to $22, sushi rolls from $8 to $16. The lunch specials are the clearest value. Parking is straightforward — the strip center lot is adequate even at peak hours.
Zenna doesn’t have a flashy social presence or a long press clip file. What it has is a reliable kitchen, a menu that doesn’t overpromise, and a regulars base that’s been showing up for years. For anyone working or living in the western stretch of Richardson who wants a sit-down lunch that doesn’t burn the whole hour, it’s the kind of place that earns its spot on the rotation.
