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Zen Japanese Grill & Sushi Bar
Categories: Restaurants Japanese Restaurants Sushi Bars Japanese, Sushi Bars [Edit]
21 A Beacon StBoston, MA 02108
Neighborhoods: Downtown, Beacon Hill
(617) 371-1230
- Nearest Transit:
-
Beacon St @ Park St (43, 55)
Tremont St @ Beacon St (191, 192, 193)
Tremont St Opp Winter St (191, 192, 193, 277, 43, 55)
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Ambience:
- Casual
- Has TV:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- No
156 reviews for Zen Japanese Grill & Sushi Bar
Review Highlights
"The miso soup was great and the service great as well."
(in 23 reviews)
"The spicy tuna is perfectly spicy and is nice and smooth."
(in 24 reviews)
"Crazy Maki, Spider Roll, Uni-Avo, Futo Maki, and tempura..."
(in 5 reviews)
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156 reviews in English
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Review from Helen M.
Boston, MA
1/23/2012
I work down the street from Zen and will sometimes pick up takeout for dinner when it's a late night in the office so this is strictly a review on their takeout services.
The food is hot and ready when I go to pick it up. I've had their unagi roll and a soft shell crab roll. Delish for both! They definitely don't skimp out on the food. Another plus is that they are wonderful with substitutions. I have a lot of food allergies and they always get my changes correct!
Their udon noodles were good (my coworker ordered this) and their rice plate with unagi was wonderful! (Side note: I love that you can sub for brown rice)
All in all, I will continue to order from them and hopefully be able to have a sit down dinner there soon! -
Review from Jenelle J.
Boston, MA
1/22/2012 4 Check-ins Here
Fun little joint for some sushi after work, if you're in the area and don't want it whole foods style. Great for takeout too - ordered the sushi dinner for two to go which was a nice variety of fish.
I've only sat on the first floor though when I've gotten a sit down dinner- next time I think I'll venture up the stairs! -
Review from Candice W.
Boston, MA
10/7/2011
Zen has become my regular Wednesday night dinner spot as of Fall semester. I work in the South End until 5:45pm, drive over to downtown, call into zen for a pick-up while sitting in traffic, and in 15 minutes I will be eating delicious sushi at the Suffolk Business School cafeteria.
Zen has some fresh sushi. I love their Rainbow rolls, Chirashi and Boston roll. I also like their fried pork gyoza. I haven't had a chance to dine in at Zen, seeing I'm always in a hurry to get to class, but I will definitely make plans to eat there on a non-school night. -
Review from Camille H.
Boston, MA
1/29/2012
Always very fresh fish and consistently good sushi. It's our favorite place for takeout sushi. We've gone for dinner once and the service was good--it's a nice, low-key place to eat.
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Review from Joanne C.
Boston, MA
12/14/2011
I am definitely a fan. This is the sushi go to place in Boston for me. It is affordable, in downtown Boston and has a cozy Japanese wooden decor. Not a fancy place but it always does the job for me. The makis are great!
The service is not fantastic, but it is definitely the go to place for some sushi without breaking your budget. -
Review from Vanessa L.
Pasadena, CA
11/13/2011
Craving some sushi in Boston while on a day trip, we used Yelp to find this place. I still am in disbelief that this place garnered 4 stars since they did not deliver the kind of food that the reviews led me to expect. Chinese-run Japanese restaurant - that alone compromises the authenticity of its food.
Wait staff was friendly, but they were not very knowledgeable of their own menu. Food was slow to come out.
Hiyayakko tofu: they used red pickled ginger (like you get when you eat curry or bentos) instead of minced fresh ginger. Usually, it is supposed to be served with green onions, but it was not here.
Sashimi sampler was decent.
Spicy seafood soup: tasted more like hot and sour soup than anything Japanese. Strangely sweet and randomly tangy. A bust.
Vegetable udon soup: the broth again was sweeter than it should have been, but it was a decent portion of chewy udon + vegetables.
We got some other random sushi-esque items, nothing which was memorable or particularly tasty. Maybe we didn't order the right things, but the hiyayakko tofu is pretty hard to mess up. -
Review from Umut K.
Newton, MA
11/30/2011 1 Check-in Here
Not bad sushi but not great.
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Review from Sarah S.
7/25/2011
I ordered a rainbow roll and a spicy tuna roll during a recent lunch visit. Both were very fresh, and Zen certainly makes some of the best sushi I've had. The prices are on the high side, but that's to be expected, given its location. Service was very attentive, and lunch came out pretty quickly.
On the downside, it appears that Zen needs to get its climate control situation under control. It always seems a little too warm there, and on this most recent visit, it was very hot. -
Review from Maureen K.
Allston, MA
11/20/2011
Lovely little sushi place on Beacon Hill. The sushi/sashimi was pretty good. We only ordered one maki roll but now we want to go back for more - the tuna/avocado was excellent.
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Review from Rani G.
Boston, MA
8/2/2011
When i'm walking home from a long day/night working at the hospital and realize i have no food in my refrigerator, I end up at Zen. They have a great selection of appetizers, sushi and entrees. However, I always find myself going back to my sushi staple, spicy tuna. It's fresh and satisfying. The yakitori/sea bass don are filling and full of flavor.
The service is always fast and friendly too.
However on a recent dine-in experience, my boyfriend and I opted to eat outside on their patio. We decided to order 3 rolls we never had before and left unimpressed, thus the 4 stars. -
Review from Ben J.
Natick, MA
4/7/2011
Boy, do I hate sushi. I mean, really, really hate it. I would rather eat uncooked Mike Huckabee than fishy seaweed roll. Sushi is not only flavorfully offensive to me, it is existentially offensive.
Also, I just plain don't like it.
And yet, Zen is good. There is plenty of stuff for the non-fish eater. Their katsu is crisp and cooked just right, their miso is flavorful. Their beef udon was a tad salty, but not too badly so. The service tends to be quite good, and they usually offer to split checks for large lunchtime groups which makes life easier.
Occasionally can be difficult to get in during rush hours, but worth the struggle.Listed in: For the Dating
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Review from Jon K.
Davis, CA
7/10/2011
The sushi was nothing special, and I've had quite a lot of quality fish as I live in California. So the prices are quite high for what you get.
The service was sub-par as well. It was difficult communicating with the hostess and our waitress. Plus, I ordered a roll that did not state that the scallops were "torched," while other rolls did explicitly state this for scallops. Yet my roll came with cooked scallops, AND imitation crab which was not mentioned in the description... Granted, the roll was OK (but not worth $12-$14), and when I brought this up with the waitress, she merely shrugged and said, "OK"...
Fail. -
Review from Michael D.
Boston, MA
7/23/2011
This place is solid but I'm not in love with it. Good service, nice atmosphere. The gyoza were good and the maki were tasty, but the nigiri I got were not too fresh (on a Friday night). Prices were also high, which is fine & expected for the neighborhood, but I thought I'd be getting better fish.
You could do worse though. -
Review from Edgar P.
5/17/2011
This was my favorite sushi place in Boston and I was never disappointed with the food, service, or cost at any time. There are so many places to get sushi in the city but for some reason, Zen has always been my favorite. I can't say that the others are bad (because they're not) but I will say that it had a very comfortable feel to it and everything was delicious. I don't like sitting on the lower level because there is a draft that comes in during the winter time but in no way does that diminish the experience or the food itself. Two Forks Up for this small little place on Beacon Hill!
-Papa Bear -
Review from Christopher H.
Austin, TX
10/19/2011
Needed something close to hotel. Service was good, cute space, and the food was good and fresh.
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Review from Aaron B.
10/26/2011 1 Check-in Here
This place was rather weak. I wouldn't waste your time. Sushi wasn't great and it was expensive. It is basically on capital hill where people love spending more and getting less
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Review from Dawn S.
Needham, MA
7/5/2011
I was pretty disappointed with the food and sushi here but a friend got some decent chicken and the waitresses were so nice that I can't give them 1 star.
My bf and i split the seared tuna don and agreed that it was pretty awful. The tuna didn't taste fresh and the dish was really bland. It came with a few pieces of cucumber and scallions and that's about it - we asked for some sauce and the waitresses brought out a great sweet one, but I don't think anything could have masked that old-fishy taste.
We also had the spicy tuna roll which is usually a safe bet but that too was really disappointing. Bland and the tuna was uncharacteristically dark (almost brown).
My friend got the honey sesame chicken don which was pretty good except that there was much more batter than chicken. The sauce was good but seemed like typical american-asian sauce (thick, super sweet, sticky brown sauce). -
Review from Steve S.
2/26/2011 1 Check-in Here
A concierge recommend this place to me. I went with my girlfriend and another couple. When we arrived, we ordered some Saki and some edamame. The Saki was good, but the edamame was just OK. Then we got down to business with rolls and sashimi.
The rolls were decent. I would certainly get them again if I were there. The sashimi was great!!! The tuna and salmon were so fresh. The tuna was a really deep read and the salmon melted like butter in your mouth. We also got the sashimi whitefish. It was also good. I could have easily just eaten sashimi and been set there. It was fantastic. I highly recommend it. The food took a while to get to the table, but it was well worth the wait. -
Review from Marilynn L.
Chicago, IL
5/25/2011
The sushi here was pretty good and way above average. We had the crazy sushi roll (I think) and it was quite delicious. The service was good and they had the baseball game on their TV which is always a plus! It was quite noisy, however, the decoration was very neat and the fake sushi on a boat upstairs made me very hungry. I'm a big sushi fan and I've had my fair share of the good and the bad of sushi. This place is definitely on the good one.
Everyone at my table (6 of us) ordered different sushi and they were all impressed with their selections. I even ordered again because I was left full but with the need the taste more than one. -
Review from Monica F.
Zen is an okay place to dine in... Tucked in a narrow street of Beacon Hill, it's still right on, easy to find.
We came here, via our yelp searches as we wanted to eat some carbs. to spell it out...we specifically wanted to eat RICE.
Got here around 2:15 on a Monday and they were closed. We called the number and thankfully, they opened at 2:30. So there we were, browsing their menu outside, salivating on their deliciously listed items and already deciding on what to get....
As soon as the door sign flipped to Open, we walked in... we were greeted right away and obviously seated right away...
The server took our drink orders, which were just glasses of water with lemon, and i wanted miso soup so bad- because of the cold weather; so i ordered that in the same time too.
It took her 5 years to get our waters to our table and my miso soup. Once again, we were the only customers at that time. I was a bit frustrated already, because we had a long walk.and i was already on the verge of semi-dehydration.
Our items:
*Spicy Tuna Maki with cucumber: Came with 6 mini pieces. I had to include the word "mini" because it's literally a little roll, compared to what I'm used to, in SF Bay area. Although...The fish tasted really fresh, and it turned out really good. I think it's because the fish to rice ratio is almost the same..so it works. However, I'm not really impressed with the amount of tuna they put in this roll. Seems like a spread, more than a chunk of tuna.
*Crazy Maki: Large shrimp tempura, cucmber, avocado and roe with spicy mayo. This one seemed to be a bigger roll compared to the spicy tuna. But if this is huge for Zen, it's actually a normal size for me. The batter on the tempura was way too strong that it overpowered the entire taste of the roll. So, my plan of action was to load up on wasabi on this one.
*Zen Tekka Don: Fresh Yellow Tail fin tuna seared lightly and sliced thin.
I ordered this, and I'm glad i did. I was actually happy with it. They put a whole lot of slices of seared tuna, and a lot of rice too. The tuna was really fresh and sliced right.
*Karaage Don: Japanese style fried chicken in sesame honey sauce.
My friend didn't really read the description on the menu, so we sort of expected the real karaage without the sauce. However, it turned out to be really tasty. The portion is huge, she had half of it boxed to go. The sesame honey sauce tasted really good..however, it seemed to be more of a Chinese dish more than a Jap style dish. Kinda like Orange chicken level from Panda Express.
The Donburi bowls came with miso soup and salad. The miso soup was nothing extra-ordinary. it was way too watery for me. But the salad with the house sesame dressing was awesome. The lettuce was fresh and crisp, but sliced too big. It came with tomatoes and cucumber.
In our long weekend in Boston, We tried Douzo and Zen for our Jap meals. I am honestly more impressed with Zen because they had more selection of rolls with Raw fish. However...it wasn't enough for me to say it's as good as the ones in CA.
Service: extremely slow. Being that we were the only ones there, it took them forever to even prep the rolls. Other than slow, it was also... Different. I've never seen a legit Jap place serve miso soup with a soup spoon. Chopsticks...fine..but soup spoon? really? Lift the bowl with hands and scarf it down. that easy.Listed in: My Beantown Experience, I like it RAW
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Review from E. H.
Boston, MA
10/28/2011
I have been to A LOT of Japanese Grills. In fact, I live right next to Basho which is supposedly one of the best Japanese Grill and Sushi bars in Boston. I will say that NOTHING compares to Zen. I went to school at Suffolk University and we used to eat at Zen for lunch. Their Chicken Yaki Ramen is simply the best in this town and nothing compares. The staff is very nice and accommodating and the ambiance is very chique and relaxed. I love this place a lot!
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Review from Pete J.
3/4/2011 2 Check-ins Here
The sashimi is the primadonna in the all-star cast here.
Fresh, bright, vibrant colours and oh so tasty. Rolls were very good.
Service was traditional Japanese - very friendly and super polite.
The sake was reasonably priced, but I thought the Sapporo was expensive ($9-$10 a can)
Atmosphere was nice and calm - [zen-like] :) when we arrived, but soon got rowdy with a couple of folks slamming their sake bombs on their tables. So I probably wouldn't recommend Zen if you were looking for a quiet romantic dinner, but otherwise a solid 4 stars for the food and service. -
Review from Kupkake K.
Westborough, MA
Updated - 5/10/2011
I ordered take out and it was very good.
I ordered Salmon Don which is still my go to choice but the take out, the skimped on the fish and there was plenty of filler like rice, salald and miso soup.
The new item was the Chilean Bass Don and it was very delicous. It was very filling and worth the $13.95 but again the piece of fish was small which is the only downside.
I would recommend dining in because you'll see what you get and this place is about presentation of the meal.1 Previous Review: Show all »
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10/6/2010
I went during lunch with some friends. There are two floors to the restuarant with limited tables… Read more »
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Review from Noah C.
Irvine, CA
7/13/2011 1 Check-in Here
When i walked in to Zen nothing really was out of the ordinary. Traditional decor and furniture were placed around the room like any other Japanese restaurant. Japanese artwork hung on the walls also. There was a sushi bar in the back and the servers were friendly.
However, the main problem i had with this restaurant was the fact that the food did not taste Japanese. Although if you order sushi here you'll probably be fine, but many of their rice bowls tasted distinctly like Chinese food rather than Japanese. The Karaage Fried Chicken tasted like an orange chicken dish from a standard Chinese restaurant and the Terriyaki Chicken tasted like the roasted Chinese meats you can buy. It was also tough and dry, almost impossible to swallow. However, most things (that cannot be messed up) were fine, like the miso soup and the soba noodles. The bowls were $10 each so I found it kind of over priced for what you get.
One thing that i also did not find enjoyable was the warm stuffy temperature of the restaurant. When I get sushi I prefer to have the restaurants colder, but not freezing, because I know for sure that raw fish and warm/hot temperatures don't mix. Zen was a ok experience while on a trip to Boston but there are probably much better places to get your Japanese fix somewhere else. -
Review from Nicole S.
Cambridge, MA
5/3/2011
I'm baffled by the gushing reviews. Zen is okay. It's decent. The soup and the salad were standard. The sauce for the yakigyuudon was too thick and so were the beef slices. However, I took a bite out of someone else's chicken katsu and that was terrific.
Dinner entrees are expensive here. Cafe Sushi in Cambridge offers better food at better prices. -
Review from Arindam P.
Smyrna, GA
9/30/2011 1 Check-in Here
Awesome Miso soup and salmon tempura. Especially the tempura was crunchy and buttery at the same time
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Review from Kevin L.
11/5/2010 1 Check-in Here
The serving staff are extremely sweet and polite, per usual for a traditional Japanese joint. Unfortunately, this may be one instance where extreme authenticity - in the form of native Japanese speakers who don't have an extensive grasp of the English language - is actually a detriment.
So, imagine me. Now imagine me at a sushi restaurant. And imagine that I'm speaking with someone who has great rudimentary English, but doesn't comprehend more complex concepts... say, like... sustainable sushi. Finally, imagine me trying to explain in rudimentary English what one -means- by the term "sustainable sushi." Okay, you can stop laughing at me now.
At any rate, our meal was otherwise quite pleasant. The rolls were completely acceptable, though I certainly wouldn't classify them as awe-inspiring. All was made better by a big ol' bottle of Japanese beer.
There are way too many options for truly inspiring dining at a similar price point nearby that I don't foresee coming back.Listed in: Date Night in Boston
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Review from Chris B.
Boston, MA
2/26/2011 3 Check-ins Here
This is my local sushi place. I've tried a few others nearby and haven't been happy, but Zen does alright by me. It's definitely not as good as Japanese restaurants in California, but it holds up well for Boston.
The fish is not too expensive, but at the same time maybe not quite as quality. No albacore (tear!).
They do a "sushi for 2" that costs something like $34 which is good value -- makes great take out, too. -
Review from Kimberly L.
New York, NY
1/1/2011
Dinner menu had so many choices it took longer than usual to pick what I wanted. I asked what the most popular rolls were and they were the dragon the spicy crunchy tuna and the volcano. I chose the dragon because it had eel and shrimp tempura. I also opted for the normal spicy tuna roll. I didn't like the spicy tuna that much because it was the kind that was a chunk of tuna with spicy mayo in the roll not the kind that is all mushy and mashed up.
My friend and I split the spicy avocado salad to start. Which was good but didn't have that much avocado because it was on top of a bed of shredded taro.
Overall the meal was good but I would say a bit pricey for Boston? Being from new York I didn't expect the bill to be $75. We each had 1 drink and my friend ordered a rice bowl dish. -
Review from Laura J.
11/12/2010
Realizing that although I am super fabulous, sometimes, I am not always stocked with a super fabulous bank account and therefore cannot always afford a super fabulous sushi extravaganza, as one would receive from local places such as O-Ya and Oishi. So, in those times when one is stuck craving tasty sushi but doesn't want to break the bank, where do you go? Well, tonight, I discovered Zen, and it's close to home. Bonus on a cold night when you don't feel like hiking it across town.
Zen offers a nice variety of sushi rolls, sashimi, and japanese entrees. The atmosphere is very warm and welcoming. Our servers were all very polite and did not rush us in the least bit. For dinner, we started off with an order of edamame and miso soup, following with 3 sushi rolls, salmon, tuna, and scallop concoctions.Obviously, it's not the best sushi I've ever had, but it's definitely good and now I have a go to sushi spot! Yes! -
Review from Laura K.
Boston, MA
1/29/2011
Zen is my favorite sushi spot and I love sushi. Have lived in Boston for 3 years now and tried every sushi place in Boston. Zen has wonderfully fresh, tasty, affordable sushi, great service and a nice ambiance. We try to go once a week if we can and we don't even live in Beacon Hill.
I can't speak a lot of the fancy rolls. I am a sashimi and nigiri girl. They give you large portions of fresh sashimi and nigiri. The scallops, smoked salmon, salmon, and baby hamachi are the best. But all the sushi is phenomenal. My boyfriend and I always get one or two simple rolls just for something different. Usually a spicy salmon or tuna roll and Alaskan roll. They don't over power it with mayo or avocado and give you a decent portion of fish. We have tried a few of there fancy rolls which are really good, but we prefer spending our money on the real deal fish.
The other great thing about Zen is the friendly service. Sarah, Susan, Yen and Cong (probably spelling her name wrong) are the sweetest women. They remember us every time we come in and they always know what we want to order and take the time to stop and talk to us. The owners are extremely nice and you can tell they care about customer service.
Ambiance is what a sushi place should be. Not glitzy and glamor but authentic.
So if you are looking for fresh sushi, amazing service and authentic decor Zen is the place to go. -
Review from Joanna F.
1/8/2011
Perfectly serviceable sushi that's fresh and cheap. The atmosphere is pretty nice too, although the restaurant is kind of small. It looks like there's an upstairs but I've never been up there.
Last time I was in, I tried the baked scallop roll as well as one of my usual sushi orders (Philadelphia Roll). I really liked the baked scallop roll although it was a little heavy on the spicy mayo. However, the scallop was so fresh and I liked the set up of the dish. Baked scallop atop avocado rolls... awesome. I also like that they incorporate fresh chive into their Philadelphia rolls. Delish.
Definitely worth a try and good value for the quality of food. -
Review from Paul M.
7/22/2011
It was really hard for me to make up my mind as to whether to rate Zen 3 or 4 stars. I'd really rate it 3.5, but I don't think rounding up is justified here.
Zen is a cozy little spot right on Beacon Hill. If you blink you might miss it as you walk by, especially as the neighboring restaurant (Scollay Square) seems to dominate the real estate making Zen look like it may just be a part of the same establishment.
Here's the main thing about Zen: if you're at work in downtown Boston, especially Beacon Hill, and you have a sushi craving this is probably your best bet. For that reason, I frequent the place maybe once every month or so. Given that I'm a fairly regular customer, I almost feel obligated to give the place a 4th star, but the thing is whenever I go I tend to find the sushi to be only some place between "average/decent" and "good." It's like some sort of Purgatory for sushi quality- I don't know if it's just not fresh fish or what but as much as I want to really like it, it always just falls a little short of being good/really good sushi. There are times when I think it hits the mark, but strangely those times usually come when I'm not having seafood in my sushi (the tempura sweet potato roll is my favorite thing on the menu) or not having sushi at all (the spicy seafood soup is big enough for a lunch and quite good/reasonably priced at around $6 last I've checked, and the rice bowls tend to be pretty good as well).
The place is definitely better for lunch as the specials generally are the only thing that make the place worth going to. At dinner, with the lack of specials, few items seem to be worth the $$ they're asking. The bento boxes usually seem like a pretty good deal with a miso soup, small ginger-dressing covered salad, sushi/sashimi, and orange slices at around $12.00. Still, $12 is a little expensive to be spending for lunch most days.
The atmosphere is nice, though at times loud, with sake bottles and other things you might expect to find in a Japanese restaurant used as decor pieces (or maybe they're just using the sake bottles for advertising...I haven't figured it out). The servers are always very friendly and usually attentive. Service is generally quick, although it always seems like whenever I'm in a rush that they slow down.
So for all of the above reasons, while it may deserve an extra 1/2 star for being a regular lunch spot, I don't think I can justify giving it given all the other factors. -
Review from Jackie G.
Quincy, MA
8/25/2011
Went here for lunch with a friend one day. I have never been but my friend really was in the mood. We were the only ones there and it was pretty tiny inside. The server was polite and tended to us pretty often (probably because she was bored!). We both got ramen noodles and turns out the size was perfect and it was really yummy. Didn't take quick at all so whenever I'm in the area I probably will go there to grab a quick bite to eat. I wouldn't recommend it for an eventful night out or a date but for lunch with friends, definitely.
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Review from Katy G.
Boston, MA
1/19/2011
Zen Sushi is good. Not bad, not great. The service was good. Not bad, not great. The decor and ambiance was good... not bad, not great. GUESS HOW THE SUSHI WAS? Yup... good... not bad, not great.
I have never felt more comfortable with a 3 star rating before. Would I go out of my way to eat at Zen again? No. Would I avoid going there? No. -
Review from Claude F.
3/27/2011 2 photos
Best Sushi dining experience ever!!! (And I have eaten at more sushi places then Godzilla and Mothra Combined)
In a nut shell: Zen Japanese Grill & Sushi Bar is a high end Beacon Hill restaurant, with high end Beacon Hill quality, with out high end Beacon Hill prices: You just cant beat that!
Firstly, the entire wait staff deserves a Best of Boston award for sheer professionalism, efficiency, and courtesy for being able to put up with a ridiculous perfectionist like me. For Example, we arrived at 5pm. The upstairs does not open until 5:30pm. However, when I asked they happily bent the rules and seated us upstairs. Upon being seated in the very hip and artistically designed upstairs area I immediately asked for a different table (yeah...that's how I roll: gotta be the best) which was even more beautiful and private. The Maître Dee happily obliged to this ridiculous request as well. When our server promptly arrived she was the absolute model of what of what a wait person should be: efficient while still being elegant and friendly with out being familiar. Through out the whole meal we were never rushed and thus were able to fully enjoy the wonderfully warm and intimate ambiance of Zen, perfect for a nice conversation.
And then the meal it self came:
Ooooooooooooooohhhh (sound of Claude drooling from just THINKING about it)
We ordered the Golden Fish Maki (Eel, cucumber, roe, covered by shrimp and salmon with spicy mayo and sweet soy sauce for only $12.95!!!) and the Alligator Maki (Shrimp tempura roll covered by eel, crabstick, avocado, roe and scallions for only $14.95!!) It was everything Sushi should be! Brilliantly presented, sparklingly fresh, mouth wateringly tasty, lusciously textured, and with just the right amount of seeds and sauces.
The only problem with the sushi we ordered was that it was sooooooo good it has ruined me from ever being able to eat mediocre sushi ever again. Sort of like after having great north end pizza you can never again set foot in a Dominoes.
And the whole meal, plus soup, was just under $41!!!! Wow!
Overall stars:
Abiance at Zen: 5 stars!
Wait staff at Zen: 5 stars!
Sushi at Zen: 6 stars!
Girl I was with: mueeh...
But over all one of the best dining experiences I have had!
Thank You Zen! You made my Saturday night!Listed in: Places to enable your food…, THIS...IS...BOSTON!!!!!, 5 Stars!!!
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Review from Julie M.
Malden, MA
2/24/2011
Delicious nutty fresh green tea, followed by miso, creamy avocado maki & sweet potato tempura rolls and a green salad with so much spark (makes my mouth water thinking about the zesty vinaigrette)!
Going after work: the service is incredible quick, they are very friendly and timed bringing out each item when the previous was just done. That said I had gone by myself, I'm not certain what it would be like with a group.
In times past during the lunch rush, it does get crowded and is not quite as perky with the service, but still very good. Does that make sense? -
Review from Lisa W.
7/1/2010 2 photos
I was in Boston for a vacation and we wanted to try sushi to see if theres a difference in the fish. I got the spicy crispy tuna, and it looked way to busy, but it tasted pretty good. I wasn't impressed because I thought it would taste better. My friend got the lamp chop and it was tasty, except the sauce. the sauce was a little awkward with the pork chops.
overall it was okay... -
Review from Masha B.
Updated - 4/6/2010
I gave Zen another chance, really only because it was the only Japanese place within walking distance to my job and I was craving sushi on my lunch break.
I steered clear of the lunch specials due to my experience of not so fresh fish last time.
Well, it didn't matter. In fact my experience this time was worse!
First on a good note- our service was quick. That's about it.
The spicy seafood soup had to be the worst I've had. It wasn't even spicy broth, it tasted more like Chinese hot & sour soup- eww. Plus the seafood was just scallops and a few squid. Blah.
Our shrimp tempura appetizer was certainly not even close to the best tempura I've had. It was greasy.
I ordered spicy salmon & spicy tuna maki rolls. They tasted ok.. not great- but the fish had to have been bad because after I was finished I literally felt like I needed to vomit and nearly did as we were leaving. I've never gotten nauseous from eating sushi before.
Plus, it's wayyy over-priced, especially for what awful sushi it is.1 Previous Review: Show all »
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3/19/2010
I went here for a quick lunch with coworkers. We sat outside since finally it was nice weather in… Read more »
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Review from Dasha B.
Boston, MA
7/5/2010
I had a great bowl of brown rice topped with lightly seared tuna, scallions and crunchy shredded white vegetable (always forget what that is!). This dinner entree also came with miso soup (which I took home) and salad, which I switched to seaweed salad for $2 extra. The fish was fresh and melted in my mouth, the brown rice was slightly sweet, and the portion was very generous (price was $15.95 pre-tax). Don't come here for ambiance, as it's a small sushi joint, but do bring the boyfriend on a random night when you're feelin' like raw fish.
Note: they won't put brown rice into the sushi rolls, but can do it for nigiri/sashimi and the bowls. Wish they had more inventive "designer" sushi with mango and such!
