Zen Restaurant
31 St Marks Pl
(between 2nd Ave & 3rd Ave)
New York, NY 10003 (212) 533-6855
- Nearest Transit:
Astor Place (6)
8th St-Broadway (R, W)
3rd Ave-14th St (L)
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: No
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Dinner
100 reviews
Neighborhood: Manhattan/West Village
"There is so much good Japanese food beyond sushi, and it's too bad most people don't explore outside that range. EN Japanese Brasserie is a…" read more »
50 Reviews for Zen Restaurant
I don't ask for much. All I ask is that they give us the right order, and to refill our hot green tea when it's empty. But no, they didn't do any of that. I was quite disappointed with the food as well. The texture of the shrimp tempura was the worst I've ever had, and the thin slivers of sashimi did not satisfy me at all. Yes, I was full, but my taste buds weren't satisfied. There are better places for 50% off sushi.
I lived in NYC for 2 years, and this was my favorite restaurant. I haven't been back in a couple years, but I still think about Zen all the time. I even joke around with my friends that still live there, and tell them to bring me some sushi.
Whenever I went there, I would order the shoyu ramen, zen roll, and a california roll. If I ever do go back to New York, this will be the first place I would visit!
Zen is the perfect place to take people who 1) like sushi and 2) don't have a lot of money to spend on it or liquor. Go after 10 pm for their happy hour special (half off Kirin draft and Chuuhai drinks); sushi is half menu price all day (and no, they don't inflate to begin with). Sure, it's not high Japanese cuisine, but the bang for your buck (as long as you meet the $8/person minimum) really is too good to pass up.
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When it comes to me and sushi, quantity pwns quality. This is a nice place to load up on raw fish that won't kill you.
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Actually... more like 3.5 stars.
But I'm a sucker for half-priced anything.
Hell, put a 50% sticker on a pair of dirty socks and I seriously might consider buying them.
So when my sister and I chowed down on 5 rolls for less than $30 (inc. tip), you know the owners were appealing to our cheap Asian sensibilities.
And we're still alive to tell the story today (check back with us tomorrow).
But the fish was surprisingly fresh. And their slices of avocado fatty!
Oh, but stay away from their spider roll. Deep-fried imitation crab is not the same as panko-crusted soft-shell crab.
All the other rolls were tasty though... fatty naruto, dragon roll, and I forget the others.
Major downside, though:
We waited ages (and then some) for our food. The sickeningly cute-ish (white!) couple next to us go their sushi way before us and were 90% done by the time our plate even arrived.
[Note to couple: cooked chicken in a roll is NOT sushi. And to the guy: if you're not dumping her for wearing a PINK CARDIGAN on the date, then dump her for not knowing what a Philadelphia roll is]
But I digress. The bad service... My sister had to get up and get the pitcher of water to refill our cups. The waitress barely spoke English. She left one of our rolls off the order. (We decided not to get it and not be complete gluttons).
And YET, despite all my Chinese instincts yelling at me to tip even less, I still gave her a fair amount.
... I guess they forgot to mention on the service was half-off too.
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ahh everything here is so cheap and good, keeps me coming back. but are they renovating now? hope they come back soon, and when they do.. I'll be there!
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Half-off sushi that's not of such dubious quality -- I mean, it's half-off, it's on Saint Mark's... it's not for sushi purists, that's for sure, but it's certainly more than "just edible." But can you really argue with 50% off? Good lunch specials too. Waitresses can be rude from time to time, although service overall isn't too spotty, but be warned that it tends to get packed on the weekends, so come early.
Half price sushi usually makes me turn away, like. immediately. But my fiancee was choosing, and he picked this place.
I got the miso ramen combo, I think it was ramen and a salad, and a few slices of sashimi on the side. The miso ramen which was meh... just ok, edible, but not great. He had the chirashi, which was half price of course, but we didn't realize the magnitude of the "half price" thing until the check came and his chirashi cost less than my ramen combo! For the best bang for your buck, order sushi, not noodles.
I had some of his fish, and it was surprisingly fresh and good. I think it ended up being around $20 for both of us. The service was ok, the waitresses kept our water glasses filled. Overall, a good deal for decent food. Not quite solid, but decent. For this reason, I must round my 3.5 stars down to a 3.
I used to come here all the time-they do have great specials!
Good Ramen combo (Ramen with salmon sushi) and great prices!
The salmon used to be so fresh that it melts delectably in your mouth.
But now, I don't know what happened-it's no longer as good as I remembered.
Perhaps it's the mice infestation?
One time when I came here to meet up my friends-one of my friend asked if I ever seen a mice fetus?
I, naturally said No!
We were sitting on the street patio and they pointed to the two mice fetus that were squirming near the floor drain near the restaurant's window.
I don't know what this says about the restaurant but I'd became pretty skittish on wanting to come back here.
If you're wondering what happened to the mice fetus (the girl who discovered the fetus is studying to be a vet), she couldn't bare seeing the two mice fetus suffering-she used a chopstick to pick them up and discard them into the floor drain.
Hmm not sure if they were suffering or suffering more by getting dropped into the bottom of the drain.
I also do not know if the drain goes down to the restaurant's basement (if they did, now they are king sized rats or mice)or does it go somewhere down the sewer?
Another thing-don't try the UME CHO YU unless you like straight up vodka. The Ume = plum drink--OMG it's just one shiesty little preserved (dried up) plum that's trying to flavor the whole cup of vodka.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I would like to pass on the alcohol poisoning!
They are also a bit fickled when it comes to delivery-sometimes they deliver to my place and sometimes they don't!
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Half price sushi is always tasty sushi to me. Super reasonable, though the wait was a bit long for a Thursday night.
Good food. Slow service if you go there for dinner. We waited for like 30-40 minutes to get our food. 50% off is a good deal. You have to order minimum of 16 dollars to get the 50% off deal though (so you actually pay 8 dollars). For $16 you can get about 3 ~ 4 normal sushi rolls (ie, boston, shrimp tempura, california, tuna, salmon, etc). If you go for the really fancy rolls, then you can get about 2 rolls. The sushi rolls are of moderate size but good. Definitely worth your money and your time wait.
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Half off everything? Alright. I got a california roll here last night for $1.88, which is ridiculous. And supposedly everything is just half off all the time. That kind of scares me, but whatever it's the next day and I'm still alive. I also had some sort of roll with raw salmon in it and the salmon looked and tasted really good. This place is pretty dingy though; I don't know what people are talking about when they say the atmosphere is good. I also didn't have the problem with portions; the portions were pretty big.
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The cheap-as-hell sushi is a big draw for Zen, as is the great location in the center of St. Marks. The atmosphere is nice- not frilly or over-the-top, but still enough to make for an enjoyable meal. The bathrooms are clean, but that's not really saying much.
We used to make a trip to Zen a regular thing when in the city, but after my date had an allergic reaction to the chicken ramen, we haven't gone back. It just never made sense why the chicken ramen would trigger a shellfish allergy, but I guess stranger things have happened...it is a fish place, after all.
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My favorite place for decently good cheap sushi. There is often a short wait, but the service is quick and good. The sushi quality is fairly good, and the rolls are yummy. I've been to almost all the other Sushi places around St. Marks, and Zen is the best for its quality and price. The dishes are pretty good as well (Salads, Age Tofu, Katsu, Udon).
If this one seems busy, I recommend walking one block east to St Marks and Ave A, and you'll see the same chain. Usually it's easier to get a table for a bigger group here.
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I'm just starting to like sushi, so I'm not at all adventurous, but I do like their spicy tuna, inside out roll with avocado and salmon. It's also cheap, which is kind of scary, because I always thought you should avoid cheap sushi places, but like another reviewer mentioned, I'm still alive.
50% off sushi and 50% off beer at 10pm = good deal.
The out of town boyfriend is in NY again and he wanted cheap sushi so this was the place according to yelpers. At least this was the place, near my home.
We ordered several rolls, I had some ramen. It was good. Actually surprising yummy, because I was a little iffy about the whole 50% off - I mean how good can it be? Sounded sketchy to me. But i'm home and so far, we're both ok :p I guess we'll have to wait till tomorrow huh?
Decent, half-off sushi. The times I went they tended to have the wider, shorter cuts for their rolls, which can be a small hassle for those with smaller mouths. As with any place on St. Mark's there can be a lot of just crappy people around so be careful not to punch someone next to you for being a pretentious douche. The service is a little slow, but its fine for a saturday afternoon late lunch for cheap.
Sushi Park down the street around the corner is slightly better.
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come on guys... what do you expect? they do discount 50%..I am a great fan of zen. sushi is delicious and cheap. Waitresses were very rude in the past..looks ok now. last time, one waiter came to me and took my order before seated,and serve immediately.me and my boy friend was soooooooo happy. one thing I dont like...restroommmm.
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So it's not Nobu or anything and I'm not a sushi aficionado by any means, but who can say no to 50% off sushi? The place is really busy since it caters to college students, but consider how much fish they'd have to go through in a day. The result? Fresh cheap sushi. The more expensive rolls are about $10 which come about 6/roll, so half off of that. There is an $8 minimum, but you can easily make that with just one roll and a smaller roll ($4.50).
Yes, the bathrooms are nasty so only go if you MUST. And don't order winer there, it's Carlos Rossi Jug Wine.
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So I had made a proclamation to myself that I would quit this 50% off sushi nonsense, for the sake of not giving myself ulcers after eating potentially suspect raw fish. Well, so much for will power, because I caved in to my simultaneous desire for sushi and cheap eats, past midnight, no less. But to Zen's credit, it is the best of the 50% off sushi bunch that I've tried. It was fresh enough, pretty decent-sized portions, and the avocado wasn't crunchy.
I only got take-out, which was quick enough. And they were nice enough to give us water while we waited (granted, I had to request it, but still).
Well, this makes me feel like a broken record, but I'll say it anyway - good sushi, considering how much (or little) you pay for it. And open late, so you can satisfy your sushi/cheap eats cravings at all hours.
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great cheap sushi! i am definitely a fan of their power salad combo thing. if you've spent all your money at some overpriced st. mark's joint, i recommend going here to recharge & get spend your remaining monies on some sushi.
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Pretty good place to eat in or take-out Sushi. Here's my beef (no pun intended) with their "50% off" sushi deal. It's only 50% off if you actually receive a full order of Sushi. The last time we ordered from here, we ordered 3 rolls and though it was 50% off, we only received about one and half rolls worth of sushi. Ummm....that's no deal.
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Yes, it can get a bit sketchy, but they have fresh sushi on the cheap. It was surprisingly fresh even later on in the evening. It's great for late-night hunger, and although we've had pretty good sushi in between club/bar stops here, you might still feel safer ordering a non-raw-fish offering just in case.
The beer mugs are HUGE if you're into that, and I'd avoid the bathroom if you can help it. It tastes better if you're intoxicated and ravenous, but is a good place for an inexpensive, yummy bite nevertheless.
this is probably my favorite cheap sushi place in new york. 50% off sushi all the time..and the fish is actually fresh. i also like the fact that their happy hour starts after 10 pm. i usually go and order way more food than i can actually eat but leave satisfied knowing that i didn't spend nearly as much money as i would have at any other sushi place.
the worse part of this place is the service. man it can really suck. sometimes we will order and the food will take like 30 minutes to get there. it just depends on how busy they are.
UPDATED INFO
I recently tried their ramen and I thought it was excellent. I don't have the highest standards, so I'm not sure if it means anything. The soup was just the right flavor, not too salty (as it is in a lot of other ramen places) and the noodles were just the right consistency for me.
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Zen is a wonderful little sushi shop and while it might not have that air of "oh, we serve sushi" I think it's cute. It's basically what you'd expect walking into a corner sushi spot in Osaka. They're not too concerned with asserting that "we're asian here, guys!"
A lot of people seem to freak out over it being dingy and mice infested but whatever. I hate to break it to you, but mice are in every restaurant in this city. I've also eaten here probably 30-40 times in the past two years and no one I've eaten with has gotten sick. It's not dingy, it's just not super up-scale that tends to be associated with sushi. It has more of a pub atmosphere.
That said, the sushi itself is delicious. And they have enough non-sushi on their menu that you can go here with your sushi-hating friends. Their chicken curry rice has a number of fans among my own sushi-hating friends. Even sushi-snarfing boyfriend has been known to take some of their ramen bowls in favor on occasion. They have some damn good but simple miso soup too. I'd argue it some of the best in New York City.
Do not be afraid to ask for more water. You won't be getting any more if you don't ask for it. And if you're too shy to ask for the check yourself, you won't be leaving anytime soon. Besides these two points, service is pretty good. There was some grossness on a spoon they gave me once and they replaced it speedy quick with a clean one.
Tasty and inexpensive. Not great, but not bad. Had ramen, pork chops, gyoza and cold noodles. It was typical Japanese fare.
It was one of the few Japanese places on St. Marks that was open for lunch.
My date and I were one of very few groups of people eating at this small but comfortable St. Mark's restaurant. However, within a minute of being seated, I could tell our waitress was eager to get us out as quickly as possible so that she could read her newspaper behind the bar in peace. Furthermore, when asked for recommendations for appetizers and rolls, she responded with a quizzical look and by saying that "all of the rolls are good." Thanks for narrowing that one down.
We ordered an appetizer of hijiki, which had a pleasant sesame flavor, and followed that with three different rolls, two of which contained eel. Both were very good, though not as large as I had hoped; the inclusion of mango was a refreshing addition to the oily eel, however. Still a tad hungry, we ordered a spider roll, which was very tasty; my first experience with soft shell crab.
As stated before though, service was at an all time low, and despite the fact that there was a huge ratio of empty tables to occupied ones, and no sign of them filling up, my date and I still felt rushed by our waitress, who had our check ready to be delivered before we had even finished ordering.
Might I suggest takeout?
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The sushi is cheap and fine, nothing mind blowing. The atmosphere is warm and quiet with a nice, but slow wait staff. Weeknights are usually when it's at its most crowded so be warned. But a Saturday afternoon is a perfect time to go. The menu is not incredibly extensive, but they do have decent lunch box specials.
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Man, I love this place. The sushi is 50% off ALL THE TIME. The service is really quick, so it's a good palce to come in for a quick bite to eat. I haven't tried much of their other cuisine since I love sushi and it's so cheap. Their soups are good and the bento boxes look very tasty, but I've never tried them.
After 10 p.m., the beer is cheaper and if you want to eat there late-night but the tables are all filled up, I reccomend sitting at the bar. You can order whatever you like and it'll come to you faster. And there will still be a bunch of chumps waiting to be seated, and you'll be done with your meal already.
No one has seemed to capture the true essence of this little gem, So I will do my best...
First off, it has a small exterior seating area that is not that appealing. On the inside it is a good old Sushi spot, nothing quite interesting about the decor.
I went to lunch with my co-worker, we were hunting for anything to eat, and not any particular craving, i knew there was a Sushi joint down on St. Mark's that just closed down, so I was looking for an alternative. I did not notice the 50% off sushi, it probably would have stopped me from entering, the assumption is "cheap sushi = bad sushi".
Nevertheless I jumped in, I ordered three "safe" rolls, that nay Sushi joint should make well: A Spider Roll - 9.95, Boston Roll and an Alaskan roll I think like 6.95 or so each. With two pieces of Salmon Sashimi. I was told that if I spend $16 the Sashimi is half price, so two pieces of Sashimi for 2.75 is not bad.
My co-worker ordered a Meat Udon soup, lo and behold the "meat" was pork - her muslim boyfriend will not be happy. She ate it anyway.
Quality you ask? Well, I have to say I was pleasently surprised, it was pretty good, the green tea was awesome, and everything hit the spot. I was actually stuffed from consuming 15 pieces of Sushi, lol.
The biggest surprise was the check! Everything was half-off! So the 9.95 spider roll, was like $5 bucks... for two of us to gorge ourselves the check was $25, not bad for a belly-stuffing Sushi lunch.
they have a happy hour after 10PM that is half-off beer too. Sushi is 50% off all day. I would have given it 4 stars, but the service got crappy towards the end when i wanted to leave - freaking trying to get the check and then have them take it was like pulling teeth... and it was NOT crowded at lunch. we were attended very well.
They're really cramming people in there. I went and we were right up next to the heat pole. My boyfriend was having to watch himself carefully so as to not get burned. And we were really awkwardly close to several other tables. I get that they're crowded and more tables means seating more people, but it's uncomfortable!
The food's okay. The rolls are too small, though. But otherwise, not bad.
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Great price, great food, great atmosphere! 50% off sushi all day, beer and some drinks 50% from 10pm-1am.
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Review #1:whenever i wanna bring a sushi snob to a non-pretentious sushi restaurant at a great price, i take them to Zen. people dont necessarily come here for the atmosphere-they come here for the food! the fish is super fresh and the bento box is the best deal in town! other non-sushi items are authentic japanese cuisine, like the octopus dumplings (potato and octupus in bbq sauce-trust me, it's good)! try the chicken and cheese bento box! its sooo good! the cheese is melted in a crispy chicken roll with scallions...mmm...
and if you like soju, they have various refreshing summer soju drinks for around $5!
Review #2: okay, so i went here again the other day and i did not have a good experience AT ALL! the service was terrible because the waitress did not understand what 1/2 off sushi meant, my friend found a slug on the bathroom toilet paper, it was like pulling teeth to get our check, and oh! the girl sitting with her dad next to us who was in her late teens, loved to burp like an 8 year old! yes, not a good experience. so i am going reduce this to a three star dining experience.
hought i'd share this with you all...
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Cheap sushi for a quick fix.
Fist off the most important thing about this place is the food and service and i thought both were Perfectly fine. The Service can be a little bit slow but that's because it tends to get very busy the food is terrific the prices are Not bad Especially for a place in the city the drinks are good. The atmosphere is Ok it's not going to win decoration of the year award But i liked it there and i have recommended it to other people So i say this place is a Definite Go!!!
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While previous reviews complained of the roach problems, you have to think.. all these restaurants are on ST MARKS.. probably not the cleanest place to put a restaurant.. just some food for thought.
I think the 50% off deal is great for the quality that you get and the beer is cheap (remember we're talking about quick, cheap and fun not anything high class like megu or nobu or whatever). I think i drank about 30oz. of kirin in one sitting. and i like the funky pictures on the wall. If its not zen for your cheap sushi fix, it would be sushi park nearby.
oh and if its crowded, try to avoid sitting in the back, the smell of the scary bathroom can waft up. oddly enough, last time i was back there, there was a piano .. maybe just waiting for someone to play it
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50% OFF SUSHI
Get the mango wrapped SUSHI!!! It's SO good. Comes with eel, but you can always ask them to sub it with salmon. For 50% off --- great quality!!! The ramen's not bad at all --- but SUPER SPICY!
Maybe I shouda tried the noodles instead of the sushi. Oh yeah...they also need a fly trap. Those things kept coming into the restaurant.
Lame...eh well.
They actually had really good Green Tea.
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I give it 5 stars for how cheap it is and how much you get! Plus the people that work there are ultra friendly. ;)
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Decent sushi. They have a 50% off deal, but it's all the time so the sushi prices are half of what they are listed anyway.
Cheap food, not the best ever, but it's a deal.
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