New look cafe zen brings out inner child

Sauce is injected into cream puffs at Cafe Zen in Shenzhen. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Cafe Zen, a buffet restaurant at Futian Shangri-La Hotel in Shen-zhen, boasts a new look that's like a sensory journey.

At its modern entrance is the contemporary sculpture of "Mr Zen", the young master chef with a red body and plenty of pots and pans in his hands and on his shoulder.

And then, there's "Ms Zen" sitting on the stairs to the second floor. She is a modern woman with a white body and a decorative trumpet.

According to the story, Mr and Ms Zen met in the cafe many years ago before they fell in love. We can image that the rest of the plot goes like a dream: Around the walls, there is an array of white sculptures. They are kids of the sculptured couple, with red schoolbags on their backs. Cafe Zen has become a paradise to them.

UFO-esque lights shine from the ceiling as the "kids" climb toward them. We feel like we're lunching somewhere out in space.

Such a fresh setting invites breaking some rules - so we start our lunch with dessert.

The "nipple chocolate" takes us back to babyhood immediately, as we dip a bottle's nipple into the chocolate sauce before we slurp. If you do not favor such a sweet taste, the dessert also comes with sauces of matcha, lemon and mulberry.

Next comes the tube milkshake: The delightful container draws all our attention, distracting us from the mango and strawberry flavors.