Sushi Zen

2 ½ stars (rounded up)
You know what’s f***ing annoying?
When it’s a rainy night and you’re driving around looking for Sushi Zen, but they’ve changed all the signs outside to Sushi motherf***ing Kan! We must have came here right before the transition was finalized because the menu and receipts still said Sushi Zen. Hopefully they’re better as Sushi Kan, because our trip to Sushi Zen was a little disappointing.
Food:
Miso Soup — 3 stars
— Good, but nothing special
Crazy Horse Roll — 3 stars
— 5 pieces with Tuna, Hamachi, Salmon, Avocado, and Cucumber, and Masago on top
Spicy Crunch Roll — 3 stars
— Not sure if it’s a typo, but this should have been just called the crunch roll, because the only thing spicy about it was the Sriracha I dipped it in
Spicy Creamy Tuna Roll — 2 stars
— Disappointing
Super Rainbow Roll — 2 stars
— What the f*** is this piece of s*** on top that I can’t chew through? Is it the Seared Hamachi? I don’t know, but this roll was a fail
Side of Sriracha — 4 stars
— At least they gave me a big side of Sriracha so I could mask the taste of their disappointing sushi
Service:
— Service was friendly. Hopefully Sushi Kan keeps her on the payroll when they officially take over

EXCELLENT! We found this restaurant more less by accident. We were staying at the Wyndham Hotel as we had tickets for the Navy-​Spartan football game.
We searched the web & settled on a sushi place about 10-​miles south of the hotel. As we departed the hotel we noticed Sushi Zen (N. 1^st. St.) almost across the street. We decided to check it out 1^st., & are we glad we did.
We were greeted by the owner & staff. Restaurant was empty except for 2 diners. We started having reservations, but after striking up a conversation with one of the diners, he said the food was very good. We decided to place our order.
We ordered the Zen platter ($ 54.00) which included sushi, sashimi & deep fried shrimp, & 3 bowls of miso soup, then rushed back to the hotel.
The sashimi was to die for! No fishy taste whatsoever. Fresh, fresh, fresh. That’s the way good sashimi should taste.
The Dragon roll consisted of tempura shrimp & avacado rolled in rice, with Unagi on top then coated with an excellent teriyaky type sauce. Again, excellent.
We would recommend this restaurant without hesitation. We were not disappointed.
Oh, and the miso soup was great too.

Very nice Restaurant, good atmosphere. Been here several times since someone closed them on Unilocal — How do you do that? Where is Unilocal located? Makes Unilocal look fishy — Ha Ha
Great Sushi — excellent presentation and preparation. Perhaps the best Sushi in the country!

Has a very cozy sushi bar with additional window seating. Lots of real crab and original sushi designs.

This place is expensive and the sushi isn’t that great. Went here on a Saturday night with my family for dinner and nobody else was eating in the restaurant. While eating dinner, the background music consisted of theme songs for the following movies: Indiana Jones, E.T., and Star Wars. I felt like I was at Disneyland and Universal Studios… minus the big crowds of people and feelings of pure joy and excitement. This place took a chunk of my family’s money, left us feeling unsatisfied, and made me miss Disneyland and Universal Studios. I don’t plan on going back. :(

Oh wow, the spicy tofu avocado roll tempura is a vegetarian delight!

Came here on a
coupon. It was almost empty on a Friday night. That should have told us something.
What we swallowed:
KAKI FRY: These were very small fried oysters. They had a mild taste to them but the size almost reminded me of popcorn chicken.
SIDE OF WHITE RICE: Much to my surprise, the rice was hard and dry. How old is this rice? I took two bites and didn’t touch the rest.
SIDE SALAD: I really like the dressing but the lettuce chunks were huge and the tips were orange. Could they have at least taken the time to cut the orange tips off?
FRY ME OH BABY ROLL: Really large langoustine chunks in the middle covered with a sauce that was waaaaayyy to sweet. It was almost like I was having dessert with lobster meat. Was it the sweet chili sauce? I wanna say maybe but it was even sweeter than that, just way too sweet. I really liked the huge chunks of lobster too. The roll surrounding the lobster was simple with good crab and big avocado bits but the overpowering sweet sauce just ruined everything after a couple bites.
BENTO BOX: California rolls (decent), fried egg rolls (They had a funny taste to them) and sashimi tuna was a bit on the brown side.
It was a good thing we had a coupon from
. We were so dissatisfied with our entire meal we were thinking of stopping off at McDonald’s on the way home. There are so many sushi restaurants to try out there, we won’t be coming back.

We had to come back! This time we got the:
1.soju roll
2. mama mia roll
3. dragon roll
The soju was awesome. The dragon was ok but somewhat flavorless (from what my coworker said). The mama mia wasn’t something I would order again… there was a really really sweet sauce on it; totally ruined the roll.
Note to self: always order off the «favorites» section; a bit pricey but those really are the best rolls!

My co-​workers and I went here for a birthday celebration. It is a bigger place compared to Izakaya (another sushi place beside it). This place is like quadruple the size of Izakaya and has their own parking lot at the back. Their menu is huge. They have several kinds of sushi rolls which definitely going to make you broke. So, I ordered for their lunch bento. It is more expensive than Izakaya and doesn’t taste any better either. The only good thing about this place is that it is ample with tables and chairs. If only they have the menu and taste of Izakaya… It is a very competitive sushi world in Japan Town, downtown San Jose. And I know I haven’t tried them all yet. So far, they’re all good with plus and minus on the side. It is a pick-​and-​choose kind of thing. Be sure to carry Lady Luck with you when it comes to parking, seating and food.

Yes! It was actually an accident that we came to this place, but in the end it was a pleasant surprise. We had originally intended to go to another sushi place but couldn’t remember the name. We guessed and ended up next door at the ridiculously expensive sushi restaurant located within the House of Genji. We were floored when we saw the prices and literally ran next door to see that we could get double (ok, maybe even triple) the rolls for the same cost.
They had an awesome assortment of specialty rolls to choose from and my friend and I eagerly ordered a few. All came out fresh, delicious, and so plentiful that our original plan to order more was nixed. Service was friendly, the place was packed (it was lunchtime on a weekday), and the food was fantastic. It fulfilled my sushi craving and left me ready to come back for more.

They say good things come to those who wait. Well we waited, and waited, and then waited some more. When our food finally came it was actually really good, but not good enough to make me want to come back.
Waiting 45 minutes for your food to come, not getting the drinks you ordered until the food came out, and never once checking on the table is not exactly top notch service. The food did taste very fresh, but by that point we were all staring at our watches and worrying about being late to court. I’ll leave the two hour lunches for the weekend, this just wasn’t cutting it for a wednesday.

WOW! why have i not tried this place out yet!!! I thought all sushi tastes the same but oh boy was i wrong!
must get sushi rolls:
Fry Me O Baby (Lobster Roll) — MY FAVORITE!
Spicy Crunch Roll
lambada roll
–Lunch special here is also good too!
–the portions are huge!
cons: parking is somewhat hard to find & the location!

Time flies and things do change. Amazing how people always talk about the «good old days» and how they would like for them to come back. That’s my feeling about Sushi Zen.
I remember coming here so often in the past that I would be the taste tester for the sushi chef. I also used to hold business dinners here, breaking the bank and sweating out the approval on the expense account. Those days are gone now.
Somewhere along the line it went from great to just good. It seems like the quality has gone downhill and they also succumbed to the big a$$ stupid name rolls (thanks, Ken K) that the imitation Japanese restaurants are serving.
There are other choices for me, but Sushi Zen is still on my list.

One of the best sushi joints in San jose! Might be on the pricey side, but the quality of the sushi is superb. They have a ton of selections to choose from, and the rolls are huge. You can also use
groupons here which is always a plus.
My first choice when coming to satisfy my sushi cravings!

1 star for the huge selection of rolls
1 star for the service
1 star for the overall experience
Other than that– food was average. I got the Bikini roll (a baked roll) and it wasn’t very good. Tried the tempura and it was a too greasy. Everything else seemed fine though all the rolls were heavy on the mayo which I’m not a big fan of.
Not a big fan of Japanese but came here for a company lunch. Decent size place which can accommodate larger groups which is nice.
When leaving I saw a guy eating a big bowl of spicy looking noodle– if I’m ever back I wanna eat that!

This is the 3^rd time I had Japanese this week. First time was sushi, second time was Tepanyaki, so this time I figured I better get a Bento Box. And since I already had chicken teriyaki, I better try the beef with saba.
The saba was delish. Only it was hella small. Enough to feed Felix the cat and not a normal size human. The beef was not cooked well. What’s the dealie? The rice was a small bowl. Well at least the miso soup was good and the salad was typical – lettuce with barely enough dressing.
Service was excellent tho. The two waitresses did a great job This restaurant shares a common wall with one or two other Japanese restaurants but they seemed to be under construction. Maybe Godzilla came thru here?

Rolls here are pretty good but the tapas here were not so great.
They have an expansive, possibly overwhelming rolls menu. Fish was fresh and rolls were a pretty good size.
We ordered a rice cake tapa and the beef tongue. The rice cake tapa was not horrible but I would not order it again. The beef tongue was tough, overcooked and very chewy.

My first experience with Sushi Zen kinda traumatized me, but I guess it was my own fault. I was craving sushi for lunch, wanted somewhere good and nearby so I could just do a pick-​up. I blindly ordered rolls based off of Unilocalers’ recommendations and when I got there, found out the total was $ 35! for two rolls. So of course eeek, what an expensive lunch for one =/​I mean the rolls were really good, but the prices scared me away for awhile…
So then when I saw Sushi Zen had a deal on
, I knew this was my opportunity to finally go back! Pretty good deal — receive $ 25 off if you spend at least $ 50 and 18% gratuity is added before the discount.
I recommend the following rolls —
#1 Fry Me O Baby — BEST roll ever! Crispy popcorn lobster pieces over CA rolls drizzled with special sauce
#2 Island Breeze — Spicy tuna roll topped with unagi, masago, crushed macadamia nuts, and a mango, sweet sauce — deliciousness!
#3 Fireball — deep fried spicy tuna? roll drizzled with different special sauce — really good!
#4 Red Rock — deep fried roll with spicy crab, salmon and cream cheese, and avocado and topped with more avocado and masago, and finished off with special sauce — delish and very filling
#5 Godzilla Fry Roll — deep fried CA roll topped with eel, masago and of course special sauce — very good and a mouthful!
I would get all the same rolls again but since Sushi Zen has almost 100 different specialty sushi rolls to choose from, it’ll be hard to stick to the same rolls every visit. Service was also attentive and fast. The staff was good on checking on coke re-​fills for us. So with a huuuuge selection of specialty rolls and all delicious — Sushi Zen is now added to my sushi favs list :)
(And although this is a minor detail but it is something I notice and care about when I eat sushi — the wasabi! Sushi Zen’s wasabi was fresh and pastey. I’ve been to places where it’s been as hard as butter and even harder to mix into the soy sauce. So small kudos to their wasabi!)

Sushi Zen is totally unassuming. Who would have thought that this little place right next to House of Genji on North First Street would be so good? Granted, if you’re looking for top notch, very traditional Japanese food, you’ll be disappointed, but if you’re craving tasty rolls, you’ll leave satisfied.
We had a
coupon for $ 25 off a $ 50 tab which was expiring soon so we went and happily ordered away. The menu is very extensive and includes rolls that have Italian herbs, mango, macadamia nuts, etc. We ordered a couple of things including the Fry Me O Baby roll (CA roll with popcorn lobster pieces — it was good but the meat reminded us of popcorn chicken for some reason), seabass tempura (pretty good) and a few other rolls that I can’t remember (one had the Italian seasonings with a baked sauce which was an interesting combo, and another had soft shell crab — I remember really liking that one). With 95 rolls to choose from, I’m sure you’ll find something to your liking.
Portions are generous, water and tea was always filled, service was efficient. The place itself is very cute and inviting and I like how it really looks like a real Japanese place.
Be sure to check out the specials posted on the whiteboard right when you walk in. They always sound good!

Came back only because sushi coast was already closed.
Had a better experience than last time I might say. When you look through their disastrously long list of sushi rolls you may wonder ‘why are some rolls like $ 18?!’ You’ve got some mighty expensive rolls here. Yet you can still find some cheaper ones from $ 7-​$ 9. The sushi here isn’t very exquisite or high quality that they should be charging such high prices for. If you’re lucky you might pick a decent roll for a low price.
Last night, David L. and I opted for the Fireball, Lion King, and tempura california roll. The fireball was quite decent, I swear when I read it on the menu it had a lot more stuff, but when it came out it was just a spicy albacore roll with cream cheese deep fried… interesting. The lion king here isn’t your usual california roll topped with salmon and creamy spicy mayo sauce. They top the salmon with parmesan cheese. Makes it taste kind of like.pizza. It was okay not the best, and their scallions were all shriveled and dried up. Wut? Lastly, the tempura fried california rolls were nothing to write home about, pretty basic. The fake crab here though, they leave it in sticks rather than shredded to pieces. Makes the fake crab taste sweeter? I’m not sure, but the meal was decent for the price we paid – $ 27 without tax.