Zendo Bistro

My girlfriend and I have gone here several times and we like it. The good — the bar is a good size and we love how there’s a wall of wine, makes it feel almost like a wine cellar or wine bar which is nice. I like the rainbow sushi, seems fresh and always tastes good. The bad — prices are high, probably because of the location (hingham). My girlfriend had the house spicy chicken and when she cut it open it seemed to be more breading than chicken. If the prices weren’t so high we probably would come more often. For the area we think it’s the best Chinese food around, but again prices are kinda high.

Place is the worst. I have never, not once, been able to pick up take out here in a timely manner. I give them 45 minutes every time and every time I show up and they are clueless as to where my order is. It’s honestly laughable.
If there was another sushi place in Hingham I would have stopped coming a long time ago. Please contact me if you want to start a sushi place to compete with this clown show. I will invest.
Note: I’m writing this while I wait for my order that was (at the time of writing) submitted 50 minutes ago. No ones seem to give two %##%‘s.

Delicious and fresh! We got the sesame chicken, curry chicken, and crab rangoons. Well worth the price. We will be coming back again!

The place and the foods is good but the servers is bad. They are treating us different from the other people maybe we are Chinese.

Walked in on a Thursday night, no reservation. We were quickly sat at a hi-​top in the bar area (our choice, there were plenty of dining room tables had we wanted to sit in the more formal space). The menu isn’t too expansive, but you can find typical fan favorites there. I like that you can find both Chinese and Japanese inspired dishes, including sushi.
We decided to start with the crab rangoon and the pan fried dumplings. Both were really great. We had no complaints (other than we really filled up on appetizers).
We then split some sushi and our eyes were definitely bigger than our collective stomachs, for sure.
We had the California Roll, Spicy Lobster Roll and the Yellow Jacket. The Yellow Jacket, while good, is probably one I won’t order again (too heavy given that it’s actually deep fried).
Server was kind and attentive. The drinks were a little heavy-​handed and strong, but all in all, a solid experience. I have no doubt we will come back when we want our rangoon fix!

Good service, sushi was average but appetizers were good. Nice environment, but I thought I’d be enjoying much fresher fish at a restaurant in Boston.

Great food & great service! Best place in the shipyard! Try the Thai Curry Chicken or the Zendo Spicy Crunch! Amazing tvs behind the bar and a great view from the patio, has a great atmosphere with nice tablecloths and candles.

I love this place. The food is very tasty. I almost always eat the Pad Thai but I have tried other dishes and they are all great. The people are friendly and remember people and their likes and that adds a very personal touch. Movie theatre is right next door, perfect for a dinner and movie night too.

Indifferent bartenders and the wine bottles are dusty on the shelves, but the food keeps bringing me back.

my first impression was very positive! cool location, nice interior, and friendly staff.
let me inform you that i like variety and tend to always do things family style requesting that everything be brought out together. it was 2:30 on a sunday and the place was dead so i didnt think i was being a pain in the ass. so i ordered pork n shrimp rolls, chicken wings, salt n pepper shrimp, the dinosaur with brown rice, and after noticing the entrees did not come with a starch, an order of the house fried rice.
each dish was brought out one by one, rice was last. there was two of us and we ate almost everything.
portions were small. spring rolls were okay, but only got 2. if i wanted wing dings, i would have gone to any sub shop within a 2 mile radius, but thats what we got. salt n pepper shrimp was boring n the fried rice was okay. i’ve had better for half the price. the brown rice sushi was overpriced and not as good as i had at gourmet garden in hingham. We each had 2 drinks and it all came to 100 bucks.
would i go back… probably not. good service but the food was overpriced and low quality.
zendo… more like zendon’t!

Went with a friend and had Tom as a waiter. He was one of the BEST waiters we’ve ever had! So kind and even suggested ginger tea after hearing one of us was sick. The sushi was also REALLY good!

This is as good as both sushi and vietnamese food gets! How they do not have a 5 star overall score, is mind-​boggling from somebody who takes food very seriously. Everything off the sushi menu not only competes but usually beats the best options in Boston. Truly creative and inspired sushi options here, give the Torched Salmon and Fire Island ones a try on your next visit. On the cooked menu side, the beef bulgogi is always a fav. The house salad, wings and the lemongrass chicken are fantastic options as well. Staff and ownership have always treated us super warmly and it is our #1 pick by far and away of all south shore dining options.

Here for some drinks on a Friday night. Ken, the bartender, was awesome! Very friendly and gave great drink suggestions. White sangria is good. He helped me remember: beer before liquor, never been sicker. Thanks!

Came here twice and after the second time visiting I finally decided to write a review.
First time going, we arrived around 8:45 on a Saturday. The place wasn’t really too packed which surprised me. The service was good, food was delicious and the drinks knocked my socks off. The place entirely cleared out by 11:00 and we both felt obligated to take our service elsewhere.
Second time going was awful. I called ahead because I didn’t want to «be that guy» and arrive as they were closing to order a few maki rolls and a scorpion bowl. Got there at 10:30 and there were only two other customers in the restaurant. We felt extremely rushed through out the experience because the waitress literally sat with the sushi chef waiting for the food and kept peering back at us. When we got our food it was awful. The rice for my cold avocado rolls were hot, and the seaweed tasted old. My friend had the same problem with their sushi; Luke warm rice and no-​so-​fresh fish. Maybe it was because it was the end of the chefs shift? Not sure, don’t really care, don’t plan on coming back.

I came here for lunch on a rainy Hingham afternoon with my husband, sister, and three year old son. The place was totally empty (not sure if that’s a casualty of it being Winter on a marina), so we were a little skeptical at first but ended up having a pretty pleasant meal.
We ordered a combo of Chinese dishes and some sushi. We discovered that the Chinese dishes were much better than most of the sushi rolls. I got the sizzling Mongolian beef and sizzling it was! It was tender beef drenched in yummy brown sauce with veggies. So yummy, that plate was totally empty by the time we left. We also got lo mein which came with chicken and shrimp in it. Also super yummy, my son lapped that up like crazy.
For the sushi orders my sister got some kind of lunch special that was spicy salmon and tuna and then a couple orders of nagiri. For any sushi restaurant the spicy tuna roll is always my barometer of how good/​bad the place is, and I HATE when there is red pepper used to make it spicy instead of spicy mayo. Zendo used red pepper… it could have been so much more, but I just dislike it so much :(Sad.
Service/​ambience/​etc wise it was great. Our waitress was very attentive (we were also her only table), and she was so great with our son (also something that I now look heavily when going out to eat).

Been here once with my bf and his friends. The food were pretty good. But they legit only gave us one taco chip per tuna tartare. Overall, if I can get drunk from just one scorpion bowl, this place is aightttt

I have been here twice — once for lunch and once for dinner. Both times were non-​peak hours/​days, so there was not much of a vibe. Regardless, I dine for the food!
What I LOVE about Zendo is that it offers a variety of Asian dishes — Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese. But that’s not all! It also has a vegan menu with MANY thoughtful options, which is unheard of on the south shore apparently. They serve fresh, high quality food.
For my first meal there (months ago), to be safe I ordered the sesame chicken. The chicken (white meat) was lightly battered. The sauce was, of course, sweet, but it had tremendous flavor and was not oily. With so many Chinese restaurants around, it’s difficult for a restaurant or single dish to stand out. The sesame chicken at Zendo was a good portion and it simply tasted fresh.
Last night I ordered the Tom Yum with Coconut Milk (soup), a Hamachi roll (small 6-​piece), and the Blazing Salmon (8-​piece sushi entrée with seaweed salad). Don’t judge me — I was starving! There wasn’t much coconut milk in the Tom Yum to make a difference, BUT it was delicious and not too spicy — I strongly recommend it with or without coconut milk. The hamachi roll was more like seaweed-​wrapped rice — absolutely no flavor. I couldn’t even see any scallions. Finally, if you love salmon, crabstick and seaweed salad, you will enjoy the Blazing Salmon entrée. I like crabstick, just not so much of it all at once. Each piece of sushi in the entrée consists of 3 pieces of crabstick rolled in seaweed and rice and topped with a thin slice of salmon. The crabstick was the center of the sushi roll, not the salmon, which was a disappointment. The seaweed salad was tasty.
Non-​food pluses: It’s a large restaurant (great for groups!) with a bar area (and you can dine at the bar, too!). Ample parking (free). Friendly, timely service.
Zendo is certainly more expensive than your average Asian restaurant, but you’re paying for freshness and quality, variety, a little creativity, aaaaand most likely its Hingham Shipyard location. It’s not a venue that I would dine at regularly, but if I have out of town visitors, it’s certainly a place I consider.
Serious kudos though for the extensive vegan menu!

The food here is OK. It’s a little pricier than your average Chinese place, but it’s nicer too. My sea bass was OK, and the steamed Gyozas were OK too. My friend had pan-​seared sea scallops and honestly, they weren’t that good. (I tried one) They were a little tough and were probably over-​cooked.
Our waitress was nice enough but she did not know the size of a large Sapporo can. She ventured a guess– like 40oz! — which was really half of what it was. No biggie. I knew they weren’t serving 40s in the Hingham Shipyard.
Also, I would have liked a breath mint afterwards which I am including because my brother-​in-​law asked if I would Unilocal about it when I couldn’t find one. There you have it, Greig.
I suppose I would go back either to try sushi or one of the Duck dishes.

Get ready…
This place is my new favorite nationwide for sushi.
I’ve been here twice and both times I have been astounded at the deliciousness. I love the twist on old favorites and creativity on new ones. I’ve loved every app I’ve tried (dumplings, rangoons).
The drinks have been perfect. First time, I enjoyed the waiter’s favorite martinis (forgive me, I don’t recall the names.) This second time, we shared a bottle of Malbec ($ 30 for a bottle!).
The portions are huge and priced accordingly. Definitely worth a trip for sushi lovers!

Zendo was briefly called Typhoon Bistro when this restaurant first opened in its now popular Hingham Shipyard location.
It’s apparentlly still owned by at least some of the original people and looks exactly the same inside which is too say quite large. The look is Asian-​modern with a soaring ceiling complete with painted exposed ductwork.
The menus have been somewhat altered from Typhoon days.
The food would be referred to as Asian-​fusion.
I’ve been here several times in both restaurant incarnations with my most recent visit taking place or a late lunch.
Let me start by saying the staff here is top-​notch. Everyone is so pleasant, attentive and kind. Nothing is a bother; the mood is always «all is well» and it’s service with a smile.
During this last visit, after serving us our drinks, our lovely wait person went to great lengths to properly arrange everything on our table in perfect and beautiful symmetry.
She lined up our appetizer plates, our water and other drink glasses with such precision that we were momentarily speechless.
Others might find this fussy but as someone who goes a little crazy internally as I do when things are out of whack or a picture frame is crooked, I understood her sensibilities precisely and appreciated her effort at a perfectly aligned tablescape.
It was a table with the perfect feng shui on which to dine.
While I’ve only eaten a very few things on this newest menu and none of the sushi, I’d have to say that the food has overall been only a 3 star experience.
There have been a few standouts however like their freshly battered and fried calamari which has a really spicy kick to it. I like my eyes to begin to water and to feel a kick at the back and sides of my tongue and then I know the spice is right for me.
I really like the seaweed salad and it’s presentation in a martini glass. I wish the glass was filled entirely with seawood but they put it on a pillow of shredded beet. The red and green colors look lovely together but I love seaweed so much I simply want more of it.
Everything else I’ve had is is adequate but not outstanding. On my most recent visit I had shrimp on top of egg noodles with salad and peanut sauce. I thought this too would be spicy and complex in flavors.
Instead it was disappointingly bland and I wished I’d made another selection. Despite this, the plating was a thing of beauty with, just as one aspect, a carrot cut so gorgeously into a lotus shaped flower that I’m kicking myself for not taking a photograph of it.
The overall blandness of the dishes has been a recurrent theme in my visits to Zendo.
You can tell they’re trying but it may be they are dumbing things down to accommodate what they believe the suburban palate wants. They take too much care in other aspects of the dining experience for me to believe that there isn’t someone in the kitchen who could turn out more flavorful fare.
As they had before, there is still a separate vegan menu. While I’m glad these vegan options remain available, the choices lack enough variation in theme.
Almost every entrée has tofu as the primary protein. While I adore my tofu, there are countless ways to create interesting Asian-​inspired vegan dishes involving a host of other ingredients. So some tofu dishes would be great but come up with some other ideas, please!
And for those who require gluten-​free options, well, they have a menu with those selections as well although I’ve not taken a look at it.
I’ll continue to come here but my most successful visits have been to sit at the bar with a cocktail and an appetizer or two and not a full dinner.
I promise to look into the sushi options on another visit; I hope to be pleasantly surprised.
Do note with the nice weather upon us that there is al fresco dining here on a patio. Everything tastes better eaten outside too.