Zushi

Korean-​pretending-​to-​be-​Japanese place. I like Korean food. I like Japanese food. What I hate is Koreans trying to pretend they are Japanese. If you know what I’m talking about, you’ll understand. When Japchae and kalbi are on the menu, you know it’s not a Japanese restaurant. You also know they are kinda trying to hide their «Korean-​ness» when they call Japchae «glass noodles» and kalbi «BBQ beef».
Nothing was particularly «bad» but nothing tasted «right». Very VERY bland. Did not taste like Japanese food. At all. Ordered 2 sushi rolls, both «spicy». No flavor. Hard rice. Plain. Blah.
You know that feeling, when you put a fresh cut piece of sushi in your mouth, and the rice is just slightly warm and soft, and the flavors burst through your mouth, and you really didn’t need to dip it in soy sauce because it is just so flavorful by itself?
Well you don’t get that here.
Udon did not taste Japanese. Very bland. Broth was wrong. Tempura shrimp batter was not correct. Again no flavor
Service was quick for lunch. But it’s strip mall sushi.

Zushi is not a fancy sushi restaurant, but it is a favorite with locals. The owner and servers are pleasant and welcoming. We highly recommend the tuna crunch appetizer, shrimp teppanyaki, the sautéed mushrooms, crunchy roll, soft-​shell crab roll. Our family who visit from out-​of-​town always want to visit Zushi while they’re here. The music is good too. Not too loud.

Bento box was great, along with spider-​roll.
Price wasn’t as expensive as i thought.

Excellent Sushi, always fresh; efficient and friendly service. I eat there regularly and never get tired of it. Also, parking is never a problem.

Small hole in the wall sushi restaurant in a shopping center. I have been eating sushi for over 35 years. My test is the albacore. If I can bite it in half like butter they pass. Fresh sushi. All the normal sushi a la carte orders and plenty of tasty rolls. The Baked Salmon Roll is decadent along with the Golden Dragon Roll. The yellowtail sushi was fresh. The green tea ice cream is not your commercial ice cream. It has a yellow tint and probably has been the best I’ve had. Don’t judge a restaurant by it’s size or where it’s located.

Big selection of fusion-​y sushi rolls — hand rolls are served with soy paper I believe. Husband tried the truffle oil one with salmon and thought it a strange pairing. Good sashimi prepared at the bar with quiet and polite sushi chefs. Aburi Sashimi (salmon), very nicely done and tasty. The $ 2 hot green tea was served with a Kirkland tea bag that I steeped myself — not very fresh or fragrant. Nice deal with the happy hour beers though.

A pleasant surprise and a delicious lunch. Another hidden gem in a shopping center. Good sized portions of fresh and flavorful fish without breaking the bank! Chill, casual atmosphere and fast service. Will definitely be coming back!

Gooooood Sushi good prices

While it is a small restaurant with six tables inside and two outside, it doesn’t feel claustrophobic, and we can talk comfortably, at least during lunch. The pork cutlets were a bit dry but the California roll with the imitation crab had the typical flavor. The complimentary edamame AND miso soup were unexpected and welcomed.

Small place, but great sushi! The albacore is awesome. Service is super! Wish I lived closer to this place!

A sushi place located in a strip mall in Pasadena. That is my 10 word review. It conjures up everything that you would expect it to based on that sentence. The food is not bad, we ordered a spicy tuna roll, a cucumber wrapped roll, some edamame, some iced green tea and some ikura (salmon egg sushi)
Everything was fresh enough, the spicy tuna was pretty good but they just dumped some sriracha in the mix instead of the usual kewpie and chili oil most places do. The roll wrapped in cucumber was so plain tasting, the white fish inside had no flavor. They edamame was ok, I think it was steamed a bit long. The iced green tea was delicious, I had a few glasses of that. My wife got the ikura because it is something that she absolutely loves, I tried just a small piece of it and I think it was old because it was especially fishy which is a little weird. We also tried some salmon sashimi, that was by far the best thing. The cut of salmon was so buttery and delicious.
The service was fine. Overall not a bad experience just nothing mind blowing.

Disappointed.
The sushi wasnt cold and didnt have much flavor at all, I kept thinking it was going to get better with every bite but nope :/​
I also ordered the vegi gyoza pan fried. took 15 mins to come out, i had already finished my roll. it also came out soggy so I figured they steamed it since those are the two options. I hate sending food back but I ordered the pan fried so I asked them to fix that. When it came back it was just thrown onto the pan and taken off. I was going to try to stomach it but couldnt handle, it was still very soggy! The texture of the soggyness wasn’t going to sit well so I sent it back and asked the women what was advertised in the picture and she said gyoza on the menu. I ordered gyoza but it wasnt fully fried like the picture. She said they didnt offer it cooked like that… ummmm. why advertise it like that then? She offered to take it off the bill so I accepted and ordered shrimp tempura. which was deep fried… I dont understand, how can they offer deep fried tempura but not gyoza? I think they didny wanna waste the order. The tempura didnt have much flavor either. and jeez, for the price it was noooot worth, im actually a little mad about how much a roll and tempura costed me. 20 bucks! I could have have gotten alot more for that price somewhere else with incredible flavor. This place just so happens to be right away the corner from where i work so decided to try it but Im not coming back again, im not satisfied at all.

I love this place! The owner is super nice and takes care of you. There are some pretty interesting and creative rolls! I liked the hot night roll — it was recommend to me by the outstanding waitress.
I will definitely be back!

The food was excellent and the service was quite good. I would highly recommend this to folks.
I got the tempura California roll. It was amazing.

oh Zushi, I’ve tried to love you or at least enjoy you on quite a few occasions. Each and every time I continually get let down. Today was the final straw… creature of habit I order the same thing Crunchy Roll and Crispy Calamari salad. The crunchy roll should have been called the half-​assed lazy stale roll. As I attempted to eat my roll, the entire piece fell apart. It was so poorly wrapped. The «crunchy» topping was stale. Think of eating stale cherrios. ick!
The «crispy» calamari salad was such a sad disappointment. The calamari was all lumped together, soggy and over cooked. Tough calamari is terrible.
I immediately called to complain about my the quality and the woman on the phone was very accommodating and replaced my entire meal. It pleases me that she cares enough to recognize that there was a problem.
My second crunchy roll was spot on perfect! Again, the calamari salad was terrible. My assumption is that the cook breaded the calamari and threw it in oil that was not yet hot enough. It was clumped together and just so unsatisfying.
Anyhow, on a positive anytime I’ve been to the restaurant to eat the food has been delicious.

Came here with a client while waiting for baby to arrive at Huntington Memorial across the street. We only had 30 minutes to eat but it seemed like a great place that you could enjoy a longer meal.
We ordered and asked for it to be a rush and they accommodated with pleasure.
The food was AMAZING and made to perfection. You could tell that the fish was fresh and made with love

Hawaiian roll was not fresh — and I rarely ever send anything back, black dragon roll just so-​so… salmon kama was decent. Not sure why edamame is listed for $ 5.95 on the menu if they give it to you for free. Is it $ 5.95 if you want extra? Severely understaffed for the amount of South Pas families streaming through the doors. For Korean-​owned sushi places you can do better at Kabuki five min away in Old Town or Tokoro down on Fair Oaks.

Decent rolls. They love to use lots of avocado, which sort makes the rolls all taste the same. Lacks uniqueness in dishes. Some avocado were a bit unripe.
Service was pretty good and respectful. Likely to be Korean owned.
I wouldn’t mind coming back for dinner but definitely not a date.

I’d say 3.5 stars, but dropped it to three based on the competition in Pasadena.
The place is very, very small. We just managed to squeeze into the last table of 2. We got:
Soft shell crab: Bf didn’t like the breading, but I thought it was quite delicious, minus the random chunks that were just breading. Juicy and flavorful though!
Salmon sashimi: Fish quality was good and fresh. I got the butteriness of the fish, but we’ve had better. (Oto oto, gin, etc).
Caterpillar roll: Disappointment! It looked awesome at first, due to all the generous avocado on top. However, upon closer inspection, there was a whole bunch of cucumber with only a measly, paper-​thin layer of unagi inside :(Definitely not what we were expecting, nor SHOULD we be expecting! Needless to say, this roll was flavorless and bland.
Yellowtail kama: The first couple bites I had were dry and I was disappointed, but it got better towards the center/​bottom portions and overall it wasn’t too shabby. I don’t think I’d order it again though.
Overall, it’s not a bad place to be… quality is up to par and service is good. However, compared to all the other sushi places in Pasadena, it’s really going to have to step it up, especially with rolls like caterpillar roll. The prices are a bit steep considering its competition and the quality/​quantity they offer. I think I’ll stick with Gin sushi…
PS: Some people are saying they got free edamame… we sure didn’t!

I’m really disappointed at this sushi joint. I bought a Groupon and trusted the good Unilocal reviews, but I found out that it has school cafeteria quality at best. I guess I’m sort of a sushi snob because I’ve been to numerous sushi restaurants, but I have to say this place is at the bottom of the list.
F O O D
We ordered four rolls: Hot Night Roll, Salmon Crunch Roll, Dragon Roll, Vegas Roll. They sound good, right? Um, no. I didn’t know sushi could be so flavorless. The Hot Night Roll especially was disappointing. The «spicy» tuna on top wasn’t even spicy. The fish quality is mediocre. Prices are waaay overpriced for what you’re given. I feel sad for the poor souls who raved about this place… They obviously haven’t had great sushi.
S E R V I C E
I would’ve given this place 1 star, but I added an extra star because they had really good service, and they gave us free miso soup and green tea ice cream.
P A R K I N G
They have a private parking lot (it’s in a plaza), so there should be no problem finding a spot.
Thank goodness I had a Groupon for this ($ 40 worth) or else I would’ve been sad.
Sorry Zushi, but I am never coming back again.