Sushi-Zen Downtown

I have recently viewed a sushi documentary on Netflix so when we came to savannah from hinesville, I knew I had to get my sushi fix! Sushi zen was near my final destination so we decided quickly that it was going to be our dinner spot!
We were kindly greeted by a young gentleman who quickly sat us and asked our drink orders. The table had a few streaks on it and there were a few crumbs near the sou sauce container, otherwise clean. The server explained the sushi ordering process to us and we were excited to explore the different options.
We ordered a plethora of items to sample and share with one another. California roll was good. Rainbow roll was delicious and most of the seafood tasted fresh, with the exception of the darker red fish eggs which seemed a bit fisher than we expected. Eel roll was good tasting and the eel was yummy but perhaps too much sauce on top. The mixed tempura was amazing, it included two shrimp, okra, carrot, mushroom, and what we think was bamboo (the server was unsure and did not offer to find out for us). The tempura was crisp, airy, the veggies were firm, and the dipping sauce was on point. Soft shell crab was the largest I’ve had and it was so good. The dipping sauce was good and had a nice tanginess to it. Dessert was fried green ice cream with azuki beans, fruits, and whipped cream. It was the first time I had seen green tea ice cream done this way and it was pretty good. The novelty of it was enough to make me happy :) The ice cream was a bit icy and I didn’t like it together with the fruits.
We paid about $ 60 for two people including tip and that’s about what we expected. Te serving staff was patient, helpful, and had great customer service and the sushi chef was friendly! Overall we had a great experience here and will be returning for our next sushi fix when we are in the area!

OMG
Best sushi east of the Mississippi.
The Saki makes me frisky. Alien and spider rolls are a must.
Awesome shirts.
Fell in love with the waitress.
Throwing food on the floor is acceptable. It’s part of the cultural experience.
I was unpleasantly surprised that there were no happy endings.
Late night sushi is a must. Sounds gross. But so am I.
One hot guy. One hot girl.

Hard to believe that this place has been in business as long as it has! SO overpriced! Just spent $ 40 + and I’m still hungry. Pass

The place is nice, kind of overdone for Japan, but super pretty. The food is not as amazing as alot of people think. Nice try with the food, but as long as you keep convincing folks what they’re eating is authentic, good going! You know better than that, Japanese are the most prideful people on earth! Improve on it please, the guys at the grocery stores make better sushi rolls. Just alittle disappointed is all. Domo! Oh and the pickled ginger was spoiled!

Lovely restaurant with good sushi and good prices. We were craving sushi and this place hit the spot! A must try if in the area!

Ummmmm not impressed. This place was recommended by some locals and rated highly on google and decently on here but did nothing for me. The service was very hospitable but I expect nothing less almost anywhere in the south. What got me was the sushi itself. A spicy tuna roll is pretty basic and hard to mess up. Was it just not fresh fish? I can’t be sure but I wasn’t happy. Nice ambience and cute space. Maybe it’s just a lack of options in the area hag make this place rated fairly highly.

Shit food = shit review
I felt so bad for our waitress. Great service. But the food was so bad, I had to ask if it was real chicken. I give my cats better food than this slop. My wife got the tuna «special». It was dry and tasteless. I’m local and would suggest you turn away fast. Get a slice of pizza at Vinnie Van Go go’s. Restaurants get pissed when they get unwarranted reviews. But what pissed me off is when I drop $ 60 of my hard earned money on food that would have been better if I heated in my microwave. Stay away folks. Shush zen, you should be ashamed.

If your looking for a great sushi experience in Savannah then you can’t miss this place. The sushi here is amazing. The service is great. They cater to your every need pretty much and if you have any questions at they are very helpful and nice. The server I had recommended great selection of rolls, especially the pink panther and Havana roll. Those by far are my two favorite rolls there. The quality of the ingredients were great. Everything tasted fresh. We got toro which is fatty tuna and that was spectacular. The food from the kitchen also did not disappoint. The takoyaki and tempura udon were delicious. Definitely worth trying if your in the Savannah area craving some good sushi and Japanese cuisine

Great! Dining area small but clean. Good variety of rolls and dinners. Not many parking options. Server did a great job with assisting with explaining menu.

The best sushi place in Savannah! Our server Mimi was the bomb! She made great suggestions of apps and rolls. The green mussels and take yaki are my favorite! The chefs are actually Japanese which is ironically rare in Savannah. I’ll definitely be coming back!

The overall experience I had here this past weekend was excellent! I went downtown with some friends, so we each ordered various sushi rolls and dishes and shared. We had the upstairs outside balcony all to ourselves, so we were able to enjoy outside dining privately. The server was very attentive and friendly and the manager visited us after the meal to thank us for dining with them. There are other less expensive sushi restaurants in town, however, this location stays open until 4 am, so it’s a great place to dine after last call.

We were in town for the night and ordered takeout. We were so excited to get to the hotel and see the huge portions – we had been shocked when we were charged $ 80 for what usually costs $ 30-​$ 40 at other restaurants. Digging into the grilled salmon (which they kindly made special for us, it’s not on the menu), our mouths were on fire with salt. It almost hurt. So I grabbed the piece of raw broccoli on the side for relief – but that was also covered in salt! Ripping open the avocado roll we had ordered (I call it an avocado roll, but really it was a huge log of white rice with a little bit of avocado in the middle), we hoped to escape from the salt. But no! Even that was salty! Don’t get me wrong, I like salty food. But I don’t even know what the beautiful looking food was supposed to taste like, because all we could taste was salt. We went to bed hungry, bloated, and with pounding salt-​headaches.

Speechless, just try it. Fresh fish. Great service. The chefs work as if this was their last masterpiece. Order & they will not disappoint.

Disappointed. Ordered California roll and tuna nigri to go service was fine. Opened order and had a strange smell. Avoided the raw tuna at that point. Cal roll was meh. Better choices nearby

Staff is nice. They kind of hover and watch you eat. The intention is to be there for you if you need them but it can get annoying. The chicken teriyaki is yummy. The oyster rolls and shrimp rolls are delish. Love the Japanese décor. Makes me feel like I’m back in the Japan. Its a little pricey compared to similar restaurants which is the reason for the 2 star deduction. A pro for many is that it stays open very late.

Came here on a whim and it was a mistake. Some horrible music was playing and kept cutting in and out the whole time we were eating which was SO annoying. There is a 10 $ card minimum so you can’t just get sushi. No one was in here at all which should have warned us. The sushi itself was okay but overall the experience was unpleasant.
When we tried to pay there was problem with the machine and we were left sitting for 10 minutes waiting for our cards…
Will not return.

Did not like it. They were out of 3 or 4 items we wanted to order and service was meh.
I’d maybe give it one more try, given that i know Savannah isn’t probably known for killer sushi. We’ll see on my next visit.

I just ordered take out from this place and after this one and only experience, I surely will not order from here next time I’m in Savannah.
I ordered vegetable teriyaki with miso soup.
It took them at least 20 minutes to prepare it even though they had three tables of customers and I observed that everyone was eating sushi and not a cooked meal so and unless there were a lot of deliveries this evening (none that I saw), this meal should have been prepared quickly.
After I paid and received the order, I made it one block before I realized they forgot to include the miso soup so had to return for a tiny soup in an ill fitting container.
Made it to my hotel and realized they didn’t give me vegetable teriyaki. It was steamed vegetable with salt and pepper.
Called them and made my displeasure known and received an apology. How about you make what I ordered and deliver it to me, all for free?
Do not waste your time or money on this place.

We just got home with our takeout order, and I feel like we just got prison-​raped. My husband ordered the steak & shrimp grill for $ 19.95. Medium rare please. What he got was 4 small shrimp and maybe 4 oz. of well-​done low quality beef, a scoop of rice, and carrot strings. This would have been $ 7.95 at Seasons of Japan and better prepared. Beware! These are not people who want to please their customers. They are trying to get away with as little as possible while charging a fortune. Stay away.

Can we make zero stars an option? This is the worst sushi restaurant I have ever experienced. I chose to ignore the reviews and give it a try. This was a bad idea.
We sat down and ordered a small beer each, the waitress convinced us to share a larger one. She specifically said, get this beer, not that one. The other one is awful. Ok, fine. We agreed. She showed up with the ‘other one’ which she had just described as awful. When I asked for the correct beer, she rolled her eyes and exchanged them.
Upon taking our order, I explained that I couldn’t decide from their decidedly short sushi menu what to get. I asked her what her favorite was of two and she explained that the fruit and veggies for one of the rolls wasn’t ‘at its prime’ which of course instilled a lot of consumer confidence in the freshness of their fish. The second roll I inquired about was topped with smoked eel and a variety of other fish and toppings. I asked for this roll with everything as described except smoked eel (I can’t stand it!) and the server explained that the chef couldn’t do this. The only option was for him to ‘put less smoked eel.’ Ok, we’ll that’s not what I am looking for…
So I settled for my 3^rd choice roll which was described as a spicy tuna roll ‘lightly dusted’ with panko crumbs. Perhaps lightly and dusted mean different things when you step in to Sushi Zen. The roll was 40% rice (which was overcooked and poorly seasoned), 40% panko and 20% Sysco tuna. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the roll was (over)baked. Nowhere on the menu did it even mention that my Sysco grade tuna was going to be warm in my sushi roll.
I hate to be this negative in a review but I work in a sushi restaurant and I know what our customers would say if we served this kind of food and offered this kind of service. Especially for the prices they ask.
You can’t say I didn’t tell you.

Great sushi. Had a great Mother’s Day dinner here. One of my favorite sushi Restaurants.

We told our server that we were vegan and asked what they had for us. He confidently recommended two rolls, and we said sure. When we got them, one looked like it had a mayo type sauce in it. (It’s the garlic roll, if I’m remembering correctly). We asked him if it had mayo in it, and he said he would check. Turns out, it did have mayo. When someone has an egg allergy, this is a big deal.
I wish this restaurant would 1) have more vegan options and 2) label what is vegan or could be made vegan. That way, you don’t have to expect your servers to understand the nuances of dietary restrictions. The edamame was good, but I didn’t feel comfortable trying anything else on the menu given the uncertainty of what had animal products in it.

Sushi Zen has been a downtown institution for over a decade. It has managed to maintain the same close and cozy atmosphere in both its former and current location. The core staff is friendly, though they have a high turnover on staff besides a few. The fish is always good quality and the staff is knowledgable. They also to continue to stay open late night on the weekends. One of the only two good sushi restaurants North of Gaston St.
Downsides: portions are small, prices are on the high side and the teriyaki dishes are super overpriced.

It was love a first bite, when I laid my tummy on Sushi Zen! The late hours caters to my bougie, yet drunken appetite. If you’re looking for a yummy tempera roll, I suggest the spicy «Havannah roll». The fried spicy tuna roll is to die for!
Fellas, if you’re looking for a place to take your special someone I suggest the rooftop patio. Its a quiet space for you to flex and act like you want a committed relationship.
I would of gave Sushi Zen the «5 star treatment» but I couldn’t because as much as I show up they still can’t remember me or my favorite dish. I think it’s because the staff isn’t really consistent. Every time, I go there is someone always new serving me!

Hmmmm. So who wins? Ta Ca or Sushi-​Zen? I might have to try both again! :)
What I liked here was we sat down at the bar (cozy) around 11pm and the service was fast. The one man making sushi for about 5 tables had our order before I knew it. It was super fresh and garnished with care and passion. This guy loves his job.
The service was good and fast as well. I stuck with water to rehydrate from previous libations, so I can’t comment on any of the saki or what-​have-​you.
My recommendation is to get drinks at The Sparetime, right next door and then pig out on a few fabulous sushi rolls at this joint.
I forgot what I ordered here, but it was oooohhhhhh soooo gooooood.