Yu Zen

If you are tired of none sense ridiculous prices of GOOD sushi. .this is your place… delicious rice. .Amazing fish… and friendly staff, (if you become a regular. .a TOON of freebies :))

2015… Place has gone down hill. Customer service sucked. They need some help not the same chefs/​waitress. They were overwhelmed. Mis-​managed?

The food and the service are always great everytime I’m here. The people are very warm and friendly. It’s my go to for convenient, quality sushi. The spicy crunch roll and the croquette are two of my favorites!

This will be my 3^rd visit to Yu Zen. The quality and service was great. Masa (chef) and Kiki (waitress) were very accommodating. Happy Hour menu starts from 17:00 — 18:00 hours. There were a variety of apps, rolls, beer and sake to chose from, but I did not partake. I opted for the following: hirami fin (flame seared), Aji (flame seared), big eye tuna, negitoro w/​ikura hand roll and uni/​unagi hand roll. The fish was super fresh/​delicious. Thank you Masa san for your precision knife skills and Kiki’s for her impeccable service. Looking forward to my next visit

Not the best ramen out here, but perhaps their sushi is better. They only have one choice of ramen, which was pretty salty. However, the portion was pretty good, and the toppings were great and the charsui is really, really good! Just wish the broth was more flavorful. This place has excellent service, and a nice quiet atmosphere.

Service was great. The waitress politely answered all our questions, recommendations, and kept my green tea filled. We ordered a bowl of udon, octopus, spider roll and dragon roll. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Ming, Kiki and Sushi Chef are all great. They’re always warm and welcoming!
Our meals here have always been good, am surprised about the poor reviews but at least they’re the minority.
Had the chirashi deluxe, miso and agedashi recently. Including tax and tip, $ 38 for one person!
All tasty. I think they have one of the best chirashi bowls – fish fresh and rice was perfectly cooked… I didn’t plan on eating all the rice but it was so good that I did. Uni was perfect.
Dishes we’ve had in the past have all been delicious, too. We’ve never had to wait long as others have mentioned, that’s just surprising.
Price though is a tad high (noted above) for the location and size for some dishes. Happy hour is great but more variety in the items offered during that time would be fantastic!

The waitress that served us was AMAZING! Quick and cute conversation, just all around very enjoyable. Not from this area but we’ll definitely be back again!

Nice neighborhood spot, authentic sushi, family oriented and low key, great place for a low key eat out!

Fast service, great food.
We had the black cod, tempura, and chefs deluxe nigiri special. I loved that he included some uni with my order. The tempura appetizer portion was slightly smaller than what I would’ve liked, but it was still tasty. Additional bonus — tea is comes at no additional charge!

Come here if you/you’re:
— Care about the food more than the décor
— Care about consistency that most non-​Japanese sushi chefs can’t provide
— Care about proportion and not fancy ass lego sized nigiri and paper thin curled up sashimi
— Care about sushi rice
— Pissed off at fancy hipster sushi joints that leave you still feeling hungry after a $ 100-​$ 150/​pp meal
— Care about reasonable prices and not being ripped off by these new fancy, hipster, Jiro wannabe sushi joints popping up all over the city, all of them ready to rip your wallet a new asshole (Seriously, most of those places are for stupid people who don’t know any better and think that anything flown in from Japan/​Tsukiji is «exotic», «exquisite», «special». The only thing exquisite is the owner laughing all the way to the bank at your dumbass who spent $ 200 per person on his omakase performance. If you ever spend $ 200/​pp on omakase it better be on a date and you better be getting some «action» afterwards). I care more about freshness than where it’s flown in from. In all honestly, in a blind taste test, can anyone tell the difference between Hokkaido Uni, Sicilian Uni, Mendocino Uni, Santa Barbara Uni, Peruvian Uni, Russian Uni? LoL, that reminds me of Gintei’s asshole ripping $ 25 Hokkaido Uni, I probably would’ve found it more satisfying if I used $ 25 to wrap the Uni and ate it.
Nobu-​san (not sure if owner) prepared my to-​go order (to-​go because I lost my voice):
Aji, Hamachi toro, Ohyou and Saba sashimi (their sashimi is FIVE, 5 pieces! and it’s not the bs razor thin sashimi). 2x of each — Uni, Ikura and Ama-​ebi nigiri, all for a little over $ 100, it would’ve cost twice as much or more at those Jiro wannabe sushi joints.
If you enjoy a no-​frills, quality focused, proportionally cut, reasonably priced sushi Yu Zen is one of those rare places that still exist in SF. Enjoy it while it lasts people!

Best sushi in town! I am VERY particular about sushi… especially here in SF where expectations are risen.
Nobu is the best chef I’ve come across in the USA and parts of Japan. The selection of fish and his preperation are PERFECT.
The uni is always fresh, the fish is amazing, Toro EVERYTHING, fresh scallop, incredible soups, great saki selection, and the service is phenomenal. The vibe here is authentic and welcoming. We keep coming back again and again!

My party and I ordered fairly simple items (a vegetarian roll, unagi and rice, and nigiri) but waited a long time for them to be ready. The vegetarian roll (just avocado and rice) took the longest to arrive. The slow service brought my review down considerably. However, the waitresses were very nice and the restaurant is not very busy, has ample seating, and has a restroom.
The sushi itself was decent quality and the prices were typical. In general, I’d say Yu Zen is a good place to go for sushi on a casual day if you live in the neighborhood. If you’re just visiting, I’d try somewhere else.

This is one of the restaurants I totally don’t get how it got four stars. My family and I went there for dinner this past weekend and I would not go back at all. One star for their foods and add one star for good service.
Foods: we ordered the Nigiri combo, teriyaki chicken, spider roll, salmon handroll, hamachi handroll, and their Teba (chicken wings). Sushi is not fresh and very tasteless. Handrolls are just okay, and you can get a much better teriyaki chicken from the mall food court for half the price.
Service: our waitress is nice and tentative. Add one star for that.
If you really want good fresh sushi, find another place. I think we just wasted $ 75 for a table of two people.

Greater then you can imagine.
Chef Nobu is one of the best sushi chef in San Francisco!

Excellent neighborhood spot — hamachi sashimi was top notch; yaki nasu was light and the cucumber with chili oil and crunchy peppers a surprising treat. Will definitely be back to try more of the menu.
Service was also very good — we got edamame for waiting a few minutes for a table to clear.

I like the narrowly focused menu — a few nigiri options each night, a handful of classic rolls, and a few hot dishes. I didn’t see a long list of rolls with funny names that come smothered in sauces and filled with nuts and fruit.
This is a no-​frills (bordering on drab) dining room, so I wouldn’t go here when I want an elegant dinner. There is nothing hip or adventurous, which is part of the charm. The wait staff is friendly, the prices are good, and the sashimi, rolls and nigiri are delicious.

This place is small and not busy so it is a good spot to hit up if you dont want long lines. Four of us split two deluxe chirashi bowls, a salmon thang, and agedashi tofu and they were all yummy. It was definitely enough to fill us up and they even gave us miso soup for all of us. They were a bit slow to give us sliced up fish but it was good enough. This is a nice local place with ample parking, which is quite rare in SF.

one of my fav when it comes to Sushi. I have special love to their omakase. Although the original old chef retired, his student carries on the good job. Their Uni kept surprising me for many times. If you order omakase, you have a good chance to enjoy two to three types of Uni from different locations. The old chef had a very dedicate skill to peel of meat from very small fish to make sushi, which is a supreme quality you will see in black belt sushi masters. I enjoyed eating in Yu zen a lot over and over and it never disappointed me.

Fried Octopus tentacles
Cucumber salad
Spicy Scallop Roll***and yes this has a good KICK. I love when spicy truly means spicy in the world of sushi.
Add some Asahi and good service, and I was a fat, happy camper.
Parking is «San Francisco tricky» and you’ll need to hover for a spot.
The place is small, but odds are can find a seat at the bar.
The food is fresh and they have daily specials on the wall. The sushi chef and staff are adorable. Super friendly and looks like a quaint family shop that has its share of regulars. We are adding this to our TAKE OUT blast radius, nuff said.