Sushi Zen

Ever get tired of the same place you always go for sushi? Wonder if the salmon is pinker on the other side of the hill? Sure you have, don’t lie! While not the first time I felt this way I decided to coincide my first visit to Sushi Zen with a concert later in the evening at M15 Concert Bar down the 15.
Unilocal reviews seemed promising. Someone complained about noise during birthday celebrations but the food is what I wanted to know about. Good pictures make good ambassadors for an establishment. My first realization is that despite being after hours for 95% of the businesses in the Plaza, parking was a challenge. I can only attribute this to the two or three restaurants located near the sushi spot.
I was greeted immediately by a nice lady who sat me at the end of the sushi bar away from the crowd, which was nice. The menu, as shown below, has a lot of creative and atypical rolls to choose from, and I was also happy to see a sizeable appetizer menu for AYCE. The sushi selection was also impressive.
Presentation and Taste: my first round shown below revealed they slice smaller portions than my usual haunts, but the rice is balanced in proportion. Similarly, the cut rolls are skinnier than most, not quite like pinner joints, but at six pieces I was kind of happy knowing that I probably had capacity to sample at least two, maybe three. My immediate favorite was the Cajun spiced tuna and salmon, followed by the Baja Roll. I ordered Saba (mackerel) twice but never received it. I’m not sure if it was a communication thing with the chef (orders are called, not written) or if they were out and he didn’t tell me. However, I did get regular salmon (sake) twice so go figure.
The spicy rolls are the way to go and round two featured the Stacy Roll and my sushi favorites from the first round. Oh yeah, I tried to order Ono twice but failed there as well. I think they should implement forms like the tables get. Finally, I ordered a spicy tuna hand roll for round three (can you say Oink?). The portion size is the only reason I went that far, but it sat very light and I was comfortable standing for over 3.5 hours at the show.
I’d consider coming here again if I was nearby.

I come every Friday with my family for happy hour and even though the service is HORRIBLE, we still come back because the sushi is very good. Every time we come they never get our order right and they mess up on our bill by not adding the happy hour special every single time. The manager or owner, I’m not sure what she is, is very rude and we ignore it because we come to eat and have a nice family dinner.
So I’m sitting here today because this is the LAST time I step foot in this restaurant. My coworker and I came in after a long day at work and we get the AYCE menu. We order our first round and we got the edamame to share. As I’m eating the edamame I am about to eat one when I notice the tip of it is a little brown and looked dirty. I open it and there are 2 little worms in there. So disgusting! I let the waiter know and before I can snap a picture to show, he takes it so I was unable to get a photo. He takes it to the manager and they stand over it and I just see them talking and then smiling and for a while nobody come to address the issue with me. I understand things like this happen so I just didn’t really care just kept eating. Well the manager comes over and tells me «Did you eat it? Are you sure they didn’t come out of your mouth? It’s not our fault» seriously lady! I am mad, a simple «I’m sorry» would have been suffice. But it’s really low of the person in charge to handle a situation like this so badly. I completely understand things like this happen and you can’t check every single thing you serve but the way she addressed the problem was simply unprofessional. Yes, the sushi is great but the it does not make up for the horrible service this place offers. I’d rather drive across town and pay a little extra at sushi Asahi than come here ever again. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone unless you enjoy crappy service and rude managers.

Wow, I’ve been coming here since 2013, and now it’s 2016 and this place STILL rocks! Going when it’s someone’s birthday is a real treat! The food is the
as usual!

Been coming here for about six months now. Sushi has been very good for AYCE. I like the smaller portions as this gives you more variety without filling up.
The reason for the one star is the rudeness of the new sushi chef and the manager (owner?).
When I asked to speak to the owner he said he was too busy to talk with me. Even though I could see him peeking around the corner in the kitchen.
Will not be coming back, you just lost a weekly customer, for not having enough courtesy to speak with me.
Bruce at Marui Sushi is a more personable and accommodating owner.

Our favorite sushi spot! We drive from Riverside just to come to Sushi Zen. We wait over an hour+ at some local sushi places. And every time we make the trip to Sushi Zen, we are seated and enjoying a cold beer within minutes! Well worth the drive. Large dining area, sushi is fresh and their All you can Eat menu has a great selection! Service is always great and it’s fun to come here for birthdays! Sushi Zen is out go-​to Sushi spot!

I love the sushi and service here. I’ve been bringing the kids here for 3 years and it is easily their favorite sushi restaurant. And that is saying something considering how much sushi my kids can eat (three of them, 10 and under).
The kids demand to come here for their birthday and they like to get me to take them once a month. Not only is the sushi fresh and really delicious, they love the birthday celebrations, including the big confetti poppers!
This has become a regular stop off for me, too, and everyone from the chefs to the servers is attentive, quick to respond and very friendly.
If you’re in the area I highly recommend you check this place out. You won’t be disappointed.
Lastly, there’s a reason you can find so many comments here about Nika. She’s a phenomenal server and the kids just love her. Say Ted said to say hi if you come in and see her. (You can see her all over the Unilocal pix.)

Best sushi within 50 mile radius. .
A must try…
I did miss Nika? Shes the best. oh and Jin awsome 2!

Took my sis-​n-​law here for her birthday. Awesome service from Nika. She rocked it. Made some suggestions for us and they were A-​MAZING. Absolutely loved the Sexy Woman Roll (not on menu) Baked green mussels were also delicious, gotta try those if you havent. Overall, great experience for us newbees! Thanks again!

What good is the food if your ears are constant ringing? The music is way too loud. Completely inappropriate for a sit down Japanese restaurant. No use going with someone to eat because you can’t hear each other.
No more visits here for my family.

So glad to go into the only sushi place we will eat at to find our favorite waitress! NIKA!!! We’ve been coming to both locations for years now. And we’re never disappointed when she is our server. She is so friendly and gives so much attention to our kiddos! Glad your back sista!

Dare I say it, Sushi Zen might be better then Asahi. Their individual nigiri portions might be smaller but for AYCE that’s probably a good thing as you can try out more variety. The rice could be better but I thought the Nigiri was on point… clam, white tuna and squid were exceptional for an ayce place. I also love that I was able to request my roll not too large which allowed me to try out another. Ian was my chef and definitely was all about the customer.

Where has this place been all my life?
Sitting at the bar is the best place as you can just tell the chef yourself. Definitely don’t skimp out on portions for AYCE. Maine and crazy special are the best! Fresh stuff.
This place is awesome!!!

Untypically a super fun dining atmosphere. Dance club music is played and sometimes the sushi chefs put on clown wigs. Is this Zen? Urban dictionary indicates: Zen is a total state of focus that incorporates a total togetherness of body and mind. Zen is a way of being. What do you think? A way of being full after two rounds of AYCE with music to keep your chewing pace hahaaa — Zen I think is okay yes.
If you love sushi maybe even sake shots, crave the dance club energy, and you actually still celebrate your birthday unshamefully; you’ll want to be here! They’ll play a birthday song for you and shower you with confetti. You have to be up for a tiny fun challenge.
Sushi Zen has comparable AYCE pricing but when eating here, we seem to order more. AYCE menu has more selections than other sushi restaurants we like. Theirs INCLUDES ice cream (yay points!) An available wider variety of sake selections too — check out their shelves! They do not allow unopened take home bottles.
They had a full kitchen and server staff during this visit. All were diligent and attentive; clearing off empty platters as we scarfed down the first round. Then ready for food coma round two. And we were able to still fit in ice cream.
Sushi zombies rock!
We left the restaurant with a crowd of fans waiting outside. They already know the deal ;-)
Recommendations:
Yellow tail hamachi nigiri
Mango lobster roll
Lobster Diablo roll

Our family absolutely loves this place! We are now regulars and the customer service and quality of the food is phenomenal. We highly recommend this place
Aka: The mussel family

There were seven of us with varying tastes. Then, from one of our daughter’s mouths came, «How about AYCE sushi at Sushi Zen?»
Sushi Zen is next door to a Thai restaurant we frequent, so we were always curious what this place was like.
As soon as we walked in, the loud, party music filled our ears. That says a lot, coming from someone who is hearing-​impaired. Just by our first impression, my fiancé and I had a gut feeling the food would not be good. We should have trusted our gut and went to our usual Thai place next door.
Service was slow, drinks were missing, servers kept changing, requests had to be repeated, and our orders kept getting messed up, even when clearly marked on the AYCE checklist. Also, by the consistency and color of the seafood, one could tell immediately that the sushi was definitely not fresh. One doesn’t have to be a sushi connoisseur to know that Yellow tail should not be beige and mushy.
Pay a little extra and drive three or four blocks down to Marui Sushi, where the quality of food, atmosphere, and service is much better.

This place is a little strange. To be fair, at least the quality of our food was fine, but the service and atmosphere need some tweaking…
There were some deals to be had, but we found the non-​sushi servings sizes to be a little on the skimpy side for the price. The service was very friendly, but somewhat ineffective. The place didn’t look terribly busy when we got there and started ordering (it was later, however), but the waitress attempted the cool trick of memorizing 8 – 10 orders, which would have been impressive, except she had to return later to confirm our orders. We’re all glad she did because she had gotten some of them wrong and also forgot a couple.
Not that every establishment that has Japanese food must have a the same atmosphere, but I felt like I was eating in a club. Having music played is one thing, but it sounded like they were experimenting with a DJ, and the experiment was failing — incredibly loud, clubby music for a sit-​down dinner place. We’re talking so loud that I had to shout and lean in to the people next to me at times. And more than a few times the music randomly cut out. Classy.
Along with the TVs, the loud music and confused service led me wondering what kind of restaurant this place was originally trying to be. If they want customers to be uncomfortable and unsatisfied, then mission accomplished.

Wow! How fun! My kids and I had a blast sitting at the sushi bar! Awesome food, awesome staff, and they go the extra mile! Wish I lived closer.

This place has epically awesome sushi. All you can eat lunch for under $ 20! I must have just ate about $ 50 worth of rolls and they will need to roll me out of here.
Food is pretty. Great presentation. Always tastes fresh too. The service is spectacular. Friendly and nice wait staff. I will be a repeat customer and it’s my birthday wish to eat here over anywhere else.

Visited here with our a good friend and our kids age 5 – 9. We all loved this spot! Excellent service. Welcoming and a fun, lively restaurant. Lots of sports games on their big screens on a Saturday evening around 10pm. Tons of sushi specialty rolls. Loved their tempura udon. Everything we tried was delicious. Our server even gave us a beautifully decorated sushi plate on the house. Courtesy of the sushi chefs. Felt very special and I really appreciated their hospitality. Look forward to returning soon!

I wish there was a 0 star option for Unilocal!Lets start off with walking in…
It is a pretty big establishment with a sushi bar and a lot of tables… which usually means on a crowded Friday night there should be a sufficient amount of workers. HMMM… yeah, not the case tonight. This place was completely and obviously understaffed.
My coworker and I came in and automatically noticed the place was CHAOTIC and packed. A waitress had broken a huge vase of water at the sushi bar in front of a bunch of patrons. There were only a handful (literally) of servers tending to the gazillion customers in the restaurant and those waiting in line by the door. A waitress passed by and told us we can be seated in 5 min… 30 min later. Oh yeah, there are 2 tables to the left of the restaurant that are open and the servers forgot to seat us. Hm. AWESOME –_​_​_​–
We get seated and our server (an older lady asian lady with glasses… or so we assume she is our server bc she only checked in on us ONCE). She brought our water cups and gave us our bottle of sapporo and then BAM she disappeared.
Their AYCE list is very limited!!! There were lots of rolls but only a couple of options in the Nigiri section. Our waitress never came by to pick up our AYCE order… so we flagged down another waitress. I understand that it was a busy Friday night and I could accept the wait. but accepting horrible food quality? Yea. NO!
Our first round came by and we were NOT impressed. The food items we ordered on the first round: fried calamari, poki bowl, baked green mussels, salmon, tuna, white tuna, albacore, nigiri, baked salmon roll… We were waiting for our server to come by to ask for more ginger… she passed us multiple times and we tried flagging her down but she would just ignore us. We had a question about the sushi and attempted to ask our waitress… once again she walked right by us, we tried to flag her down, but she ignored us. This continued for (4+ more time) until we got fed up and asked another waitress who our server was because we are not getting any service.
The fried calamari looked like mini onion rings. It was completely deep fried and dry. The poki bowl (normally has bits of sashimi on a bed of rice) it had a few pieces of sashimi and the rest were tiny chopped up pieces of tomatoes –_​_​-​. The baked green mussels were overly cooked and too chewy and the baked salmon roll had cream cheese. I have never had a baked salmon roll with cream cheese inside. That was my fault for not reading the ingredients. The nigiri pieces, so thinly cut, almost thin like paper on a bed of a huge clump of rice. The fish did not taste fresh. Only ¾ of our ordered foods came out by the way.
They gave us the order form again and when we placed our order for round 2. IT NEVER CAME. We waited for 30−40min and the restaurant was already emptying out yet, our food still never came. We told a waitress about the issue and one, she never addressed or help rectify the issue. Two, our original waitress never checked in on us throughout the entire night. Three, our food never came.
Being so fed up with the service and food here we just got up to pay our bill at the cashier. We hardly ate and it was definitely not worth the price. The manager gave us a small discount but it still did not compensate for the incredibly horrible experience and waste of our 2.5 hours.