Sushi Zen Bistro

Called in an order at lunch for pickup. It was ready quickly, but I was rather underwhelmed with what I got. The Shrimp Tempura Roll was good. However the Spicy Tuna Roll could only be described as mushy. I did NOT like that roll at all. I am not sure I will be going back, especially with the $ 16+ bill for two rolls.

The food was pretty good and the happy hour prices are great but there is currently construction going on in a near by parking lot and that brought one thing… SAND FLYS!!!
We literally saw no less than 20 sand flys during our meal, no less than 15 of these were crawling around IN AND AROUND OUR FOOD!!! It was disgusting!
We were lucky because the health inspector was there so they were trying to keep all of our complaints quiet so replacing our food was a priority.
At one stage we actually gave them the salad we ordered back telling them that there were bugs crawling on it and we didn’t want it anymore. They seemed fine with that but when we got the bill. THEY HAD THE AUDACITY TO CHARGE US FOR IT! They did however change the bill when we complained about that too.
Some advice… DEFINITELY DO NOT GO THERE FOR THE NEXT FEW MONTHS. They passed their health inspection but its a pity because they are destroying their reputation with sub standard health standards and FLYS. The shouldn’t have passed. We were literally about to chase down the health inspector so they could give them the great big fail they deserve.

I’ve been coming to Sushi Zen for a while and, honestly it’s the best sushi place I go.
Prices for sushi, beers and specialty rolls for happy hour are fantastic.
The value for the price compared to other places I’ve been, is unmatched.
The service and professionalism makes you feel like your dining in style.
Great place to take a date.

Not the highest quality of sushi but still decent, some pieces are surprisingly good, their Uni is one of the best I’ve had. I’d also recommend the blue crab stuffed shitake mushroom, delightful stuff! The service was good too, polite, and fast servers.
Now why the three stars? Because I felt like I was tricked into going in here. We decided to try this place out because they advertise their sushi at 50%, but in reality, they jacked up their price just to discount it. Their «premium» sushi which were not discounted are around $ 5.50 — $ 7.50 per order while their «regular» stuff like the salmon, tamago, or tuna are around $ 7.50 and up. Now why would their premium sushi be cheaper than their regular sushi? The discounted prices come out at about $ 3.50 — $ 4.00 per order which are the regular prices for most sushi place.
It could have been a satisfying late night dinner.

Love their happy hour! $ 1 for a bottle of sake?! AMAZING. This probably isn’t the highest quality sushi, but I still felt like everything was reasonably priced, especially on their happy hour menu. The location is in a pretty good place, since there’s lots of parking and other things to do around the area. I’ll definitely be coming back.
Also, try their tempura ice cream! Yumm

Came here with very low expectations. I was craving sushi like a pregnant lady and unfortunately there isn’t a great selection of sushi restaurants open past 2:30pm.
Lunch special with 5 piece nigiri and spicy albacore roll ($ 9.95): Fish lacked in freshness. and appearance. It looked dull and OLD. (I wish I remembered to take a picture.) The spicy albacore roll had drops of sriracha sauce on each piece. Enough said.
Cucumber sunomono with octopus ($ 4.95): Tasted like it’s been sitting in the fridge for a few days.
My boyfriend and I wasted more than half of our food. Felt bad when the server asked us if we liked our meal, but there was no way we could force ourselves to finish everything.
Overall verdict? Will not return for their sushi.

My boyfriend and I frequently go here. Aside from the convenience of their location, we like their happy hour. Definitely worth a try. They’re probably going for the more romantic ambience with dim lights and quiet atmosphere. Other customers are dressed up but there are a few who are very casual (like us) especially during lunch.
So far, I liked everything we’ve ordered (both happy hour and regular priced food) except for the Philadelphia Roll.
I would recommend trying their baked unagi roll and baked salmon roll. I also like their California roll and crunch roll better than the ones served at RA Sushi at The District.
Would definitely go back to try other rolls & meals. ;-)

Came here for dinner after a movie. Since this is located on the first floor of the triagle square cinemas, it was the perfect locale. It is a small little place so if you come when it is packed, there may be a little bit of wait. We settled for a table and were immidately brought some endamme to snack on while we looked over the menu (service is good here).We decided on a dinner special (around $ 18) which came with your choice of terriyaki meat (chicken, beef, salmon), salad, your choice of california roll or tempura veggies/​shrimp, and some battered chicken sweet wings. We also ordered one order of yellowtail (around $ 4) and a rainbow roll (around $ 13).
When the dishes came out, the presentation was very nice. I cannot recall ever seeing such a pretty presentation of the rainbow roll as I did that night. The flavor on the other hand was lackluster. Disappointing. For the price of the dishes, it would have expected it to be at least good. The yellowtail was ok but the rice was terrible. It fell apart right when you pick up the sushi. The rainbow roll was better but maybe it is because the seaweed wrap and everything else masked the fish/​rice. The dinner special, again, was disappointing. The only good thing that I liked were the tempura pices and the salad. The chicken was ok but the chicken wing was horrible. The sauce that it came with was so overpowering that all I could taste was the sauce with every bite. ick.
I may check this place out for happy hour if I am aroudn the area as their sushi prices are half off. Other than that, I won’t be back for a bite here.
total bill: around 45 incl tip/​tax

LOVE THIS PLACE! The happy hour is great, good prices on beer and sake, and half off appetizers and tons of rolls. Highly recommend spicy tuna bites, D-​Mac roll, unagi, and if you ask Ken what fish is good that day, he’ll always hand you something that makes your mouth say wow!
Ken is the best sushi chef there! He is personable, funny, and makes excellent rolls! Don’t forget to share your beer with him! It makes him much more amusing haha!
The one and only complaint I have, is that the owner. He’ll stand there with his arms crossed scowling at the chefs or servers. I don’t get it. But it makes me uncomfortable. Wish he’d back off and smile a bit. Just relax, the environment there is great, so not sure why he’s so sour.

We had our food within minutes of ordering. If you don’t know what to get, the chef is very helpful and will help you out if you can’t figure out anything on your own to eat. The popcorn shrimp is one of the best sushi dishes I have ever had! If you want a good place to eat that’s open semi-​late, this is it.
They were also playing Daft Punk when I walked in which made it ultra awesome.

Overall:
Despite coming here on a Groupon deal ($ 20 for $ 40 dollars worth of food), we shouldn’t have. Everything I tried was mediocre and the only reason I gave a 2 star was because the service was great, but for food, there are better sushi places. Don’t waste your money here.
Food:
We ordered the avocado, sweet potato, oyster tempura, Ak47 (spicy tuna, crab, smelt roe, salmon with «tobasco» sauce — that’s actually how tabasco was written), tuna belly sushi, ikura/​salmon egg sushi, spicy crunch roll, and crunch roll. The rice was dry and hard, the tuna belly was soft, but it had a sour/​fishy taste. The Ak47 sounded good on paper, but when I got it, it taste like cream cheese and crab only with tabasco on top. The tempura were okay, oyster tempura was better than I expected.
Service:
The service was excellent. The waitress refilled my hot green tea 5 – 10 times during the night.
Environment:
Ambiance was a dark romantic environment, but in my opinion, it was a little too dark and eventually you start feeling sluggish and tired. It is located in a nice area near a club and other restaurants like Yard House.

Quality dropped off greatly. Maybe it was always poor and I just never noticed it because I was so into rolls.
Because of the plethora of superior options in the area I probably will not be headed back here.

I wasn’t too impressed with Sushi Zen. It has a very romantic, dimly lit, intimate ambiance but the food just fell short. I started off with a cup of miso soup and it came out just shy of being room temperature. I was expecting a hot comforting bowl of soup, not something that I could have chug without even bothering to stop. I like my soups hot!
After reading all their specialty rolls, nothing popped out at me. It wasn’t like I didn’t come hungry, just nothing seemed appealing. We got a couple of rolls and our baked rolled was pretty unappetizing. It was just a creamy deep fried mess. I had one bite and couldn’t go back in for seconds. It was so rich.
Although initially I thought the service was pretty good, as the dinner progress they seem to get worst and worst. After we were done with our meal, it was a good 15−20mins before we got the check. And considering that we were eating pretty slow throughout our entire meal, adding an addition 20 minutes to wait for the check was annoying.
I doubt I’ll be back.

Parking: FREE and plentiful. Just park in the parking garage.
Ambiance: When we walked in, the music was going, lighting was dim and it seemed like a pretty full house. Also, all the employees yelled out some Japanese greeting, so it helped kick it off to a good night of sushi and good times!
Recommend:
–BAKED SCALLOP ROLL! It’s a pretty huge portion even with ordering HALF SIZE. Yes! This was a first! They actually give you an option to order half rolls on some items.
–I also liked the BUBBA ROLL… but beware, this roll is more for the healthy individual who is open to trying a sushi roll that’s infused w/​a Mexican flavor. See photos. It came with salsa which I thought added a very fresh flavor.
Got to try the plain tuna sushi. Two pieces of rice topped with slices of fresh tuna. I was really hesitant in trying it because it looked too fishy. But, it was actually pretty good. The fish was fresh, didn’t pull and didn’t have a fishy taste.
Service: It was great! Immediately as we were seated, we were given hot towels to clean our hands. Then a bowl of complimentary edamame came out. Sweet! Who doesn’t like free goodies?! Plus, our server was really friendly. I really liked how they had purse hangers under the Sushi Bar table. So clever! haha The sushi chef was really nice too.
Prices: I do admit the prices are kind of pricey, but aren’t that bad. There were some rolls that were like $ 12.95 and the half order was $ 7.95. Not a huge math person, but it seems like you get more bang for your buck by ordering the full 8 piece order. They also offered some basic rolls for cheaper.
Overall, I thought this was a pretty cute sushi joint. Next time I’m in the area, I look forward to stopping in and getting that Baked Scallop Roll again!

Yummmmm! My bf and i came here for the first time a couple of weeks ago. And i must say, it was amazing!
Before i get started all i want to say is THANK YOU GROUPON! Both my bf and i purchased the groupon for $ 40 worth of food for only $ 20, and let me say it was well spent!
The wait wasn’t too long even though it was on a Sunday night. We sat at the bar near the door, which got pretty breezy at times. The place is really nice and clean. And i guess the lighting is alright too, it made me sorta sleepy.
My bf and i knew exactly what we wanted to try. We ordered:
— Spicy yellow tail hand roll: Yummy and delicious. The fish was extremely fresh. I just wish there was a little bit more fish in it.
— Spicy tuna hand roll: My boyfriend ordered this and he absolutely loved it! He said it was fresh and tasty.
— Salmon skin hand roll: Crunchy and flavorful
— 4 orders of Yellow tail, salmon, and albacore sashimi (a slice of fish attached to a ball of rice): I absolutely LOVE the freshness of the ALBACORE here. I think it was the best piece of albacore i’ve ever had!
NOTE: They claim that their rolls and sashimi are ½ off, WRONG! Yeah, they show us that they cut the prices in half, but before they did so they raised/​doubled it first. Shady…
On another note, the service was okay. Even though we sat at the bar where the serves approach it all the time, the service was not that great. It took us a while for us to get the servers attention. They never came up to us and asked us if we needed anything else.
Overall, the food was great and fresh. Just need more work on the attentiveness and service. Solid 4 for the the food. I will be back to try it again!

i was so excited when i saw a groupon for sushi around OC and when i saw the reviews i saw a ⁴⁄₅ i was even more excited so i purchased it…
but after reading the reviews one by one… i was nervous… i thought «damnit i shouldn’t have ordered the groupon… it doesn’t even work for HH! grrr»
but i bought it so what can i do?! i was holding off for a while lol, but i had to go to south coast plaza this weekend and my BF suggested to eat there since we didn’t use it and i gave in… and honestly i’m glad i did. the sushi was fresh and the rolls were sooooo yummmmmyyyy
we had the spicy tuna roll, spicy salmon roll, triangle square roll, and teriyaki beef roll
spicy tuna roll: SPICY! just the way i like it… it was sooo good mmmmmm i love it when it’s spicy… other places it’s usually bland and not spicy, but this place really kicked it up… it was gooood
spicy salmon roll: big chunks of salmon w/​a little spice (it was perfect because you can still taste the salmon… mmmmm)
triangle square roll: my favorite roll it had spicy tuna, shrimp tempura, veggies and it was covered w/​slicese of salmon and avocado… omg the textures and flavors were amazing! crunchy, soft, chewy, spicy, salty, sweet AHHHHHHHHHHHHH definitely would recommend this to EVERYONE!
teriyaki beef roll: my man is a carnivore… he lives for some red meat lol so this was a definite in our order… it was good… usually i’m not one to like rolls that are cooked and w/​meat but this was GOOD it tasted like a bulgogi (kbbq) roll which makes sense since it’s korean owned lol
the service was also great… they were very attentive and sweet. i’m not sure why people complained about service being slow and food not being good… maybe i was lucky lol… but the other customers seemed to be regulars so that’s always a good sign…
PS they have HH 7 days a week 4−7…½ off sushi, rolls and alcohol :] enjoy!

We went here with a
certificate. Although we kept it on the DL, she spotted it and asked for it right when we sat down. (I like to save those things until the end so you don’t get slighted on service).
This place was not that great. Pricey and the quality wasn’t all there. I got my standard salmon sashimi with ponzu sauce and wasn’t impressed.
She dropped the dessert menu and stood there. Of course, they were out of the one I picked. I couldn’t understand why she didn’t tell me that when she gave me the menu.
Overall, it seemed like they just wanted us out of there even though they weren’t that busy. We wanted a nice, relaxing meal. Instead we got the «hurry up and get out» treatment.

Food — 2.5 stars
Service — 3.5 stars
Ambiance — 4 stars
50% off Happy Hour!!! Service is decent. Is it me or is the room super dark? High risk of poking yourself w/​chopsticks, or putting sushi in ones nose! not good.

Had an incredible experience at Sushi Zen Bistro. Quality food, friendly service, and hip/​trendy/​romantic ambiance. An ideal place to take your date. :)
Service seems a little slower on weekends since the place gets too busy but that’s expected at happening places.
Try the happy hours, the prices are just way too good to be true for what they offer.
My favorite dish is «Spicy Tuna Island.» It’s to die for!!!

Was too exhausted to try and find a Japanese place that was open on a Sunday afternoon. This was, so this was what we ended up with. I was so skeptical regarding what we would get since it sounded like a fusion restaurant and I’m just not a fan of fusion. I thought we should stick with rolls since that’s what they are probably good at.
The young man wanted noodles and since the only kind they had were udon, we got the tempura udon. The young man also wanted tempura, so we opted for tempura udon with another 3 orders of tempura on the side.
The spicy tuna roll and spicy albacore rolls arrived first. Spicy tuna roll was actually quite good — the albacore, not so much… kind of bland and tasteless. However, I still thought it was passable.
Everything went down hill once the other food arrived. The tempura had super thick batter and had a lingering greasiness which was really gross. The batter used was also not the kind found in authentic Japanese restaurants, where it’s light and hardly noticeable.
Udon noodles were just the kind you’d find in a packet you can easily buy from the grocery store — nothing special at all.
Our meal was pricey — around 50 bucks for not much food. They have happy hour which features rolls at a discounted price, so I think that’s the way to go if you want to come to this place.
There was only one server working and the restaurant was starting to get full so obviously the service suffered. Luckily, we were ready to go as more people started coming in.
If you want authentic and traditional sushi, this probably isn’t the place to go to. But if you like rolls and like to eat it in an upbeat and nice looking place, then you’ll love Sushi Zen Bistro.
2.5 stars.