Sushi Zo

Recommends

benjamin kross

Joined 2 years ago

Best food in town. Food is amazing. Every time I come here, I feel like I never want to leave. Very chic atmosphere with a relaxing mood.

The service is great and the staff really does a terrific job at taking care of you.

The appetizers are delicious.

Theres plenty of places to park: theres a parking lot across the street and a parkin garage up the street within walking distance.

Most of the time I find myself looking at my watch waiting for the food to come, but here I was so entertained with the fun atmosphere that I was pleasantly surprised when my food arrived

Doesn't Recommend

suken

Joined 2 years ago

sushi at a price. the place reminded me of a "subway" chain. fish is of quality as at R23 , but not as good as at Nozawa,but with a price premium of almost +35%. the Omakase is as basic as it comes,nothing to compare to what you'll get at Matsuhisa, but you'll still pay the same prices as Matsuhisa . The ambiance is cold and sterile. tables wobble on the tiled floor and need to be adjusted every time you touch the edge of your table top. Waitresses are not well informed/versed in little talk,they rather serve you as if they were "robots". Sake selection is very limited and insignificant . All in all it is a place to "forget about"...

Recommends

foodieanh

Joined 2 years ago

Mouth watering sushi for sushi purists. If you like your standard sushi selections, large pieces of fish, and putting as much soy sauce on your sushi as you like, don't go here.

If you are family with children, don't go here.

If you only like sushi rolls, tempura, or chicken teriyaki, don't go here.

However, if you are a sushi purist, are adventurous, and like mouth watering morsels of fresh fish that melt in your mouth, go to Sushi Zo and trust Kazo-San with your ultimate dining experience.

What to expect when you get there:

* You will be asked to turn off your cell phones while you dine there.

* If you sit at the sushi bar, and it is a busy night, chef/owner Kazo-san will likely not speak much to you since he prepares almost every piece of fish that goes out to his customers. If you go on a slower night however, he can be quite friendly. We've been going there for years and he always remembers us.

* They only serve Omakase (chef selection) and you will not be given a menu. You can tell them if you have any dietary constraints, or don't like particular types of fish. I personally don't like Octopus so I always ask them to leave it off the menu.

* For each selection, you will get one small mouth-watering bite of food (mostly raw). Each piece they serve you is prepared exquisitely by the owner/sushi chef and is intended to be savored in and of itself. They will tell you whether or not to use soy sauce on the fish since some of the selections are already seasoned with special sauces or salt.

* They will serve you fish in a very specific order. You'll likely start with oyster, maybe an uni/squid dish, and sashimi, then move onto lighter sushi, sushi with textures (i.e. sweet shrimp, giant clam), a couple of cooked selections (butterfish, unagi) and finally the crab hand roll.

* You will be able to try 20-25 different types of food, and many fish that you never encounter in other sushi bars. For example, they will sometimes serve you pompono, ono, needle fish, a few variations of mackeral, and all of them will be good.

* You will need to tell them when you want to stop eating. Make sure to save some room for the blue crab hand roll when you are done eating sushi. It is a heavenly ending to top off the rest of the sushi.

* When you are done, they typically serve you a small mouth-cleansing dessert drink that tastes a bit like yuzu. It's a perfect way to finish your meal.

Your total bill will typically vary between $70 to $120 per person depending on when you tell them to stop feeding you. If you drink sake, your bill will be more than that. This place is definitely a splurge and caters to a specific type of clientele, but everything we eat here is head and shoulders better than any other sushi place I've ever been to, including Sasabune which has a very similar model.

I once sent two of my co-workers here for a splurge while they were in town for one night, and they could not stop thinking about the food for a week. It's that good.

Recommends

pyram

Joined 3 years ago

Great. who thought you'd get premium sushi in a strip mall

Doesn't Recommend

ZOOT

Joined 3 years ago

RUN AWAY!!!. some of these rave reviews posted below MUST be planted by interested parties.

don't fall for this "it's tradition, don't disrespect the chefs"! that's bull. I have lived in Japan and it's THEY who show mutual respect to the customer, he and she who keep the business alive.

Never was i treated the way that i now know is the usual for this uppity WAY WAY overpriced strip mall sushi pit.

Like the rest of the REAL reviews, the sort of ok, but sort of unpleasant waiter asked us what we didn't like. We said we liked everything

So, he started bring these micro mini pieces of fish with a little rice stuck underneath...one slow and plodding piece at a time. And that ridiculous "soy sauce, no soy sauce" bull. At first we thought it was funny...but it got old fast. I know how much soy sauce i like. And believe me, when it was all said and done, i paid for every drop of soy that i used 1-thousand fold!

We ate what was put in front of us and it was "ok". nothing special.

Since the waiter didn't have the courtesy to explain their system...when we thought we were done and would pay for our pieces...we said so and they brought us a seaweed roll to finish up. We had no clue that these little pieces they were offering us were more than $100 per person!

When the $225.00 bill was presented to us, i was so shocked that I blurted it out loud! "2-hundred and twenty five dollars??"

I was thinking based on what we had..MAYBE $75...and that's stretching it. Again, there was no explanation...no "oh you ordered a pre fix menu". just a snitty little waiter with his snitty little turned up nose. blah.

I have been to many a sushi place and have never felt ripped off like this. they have a horrible attitude and serve "just ok" WILDLY overpriced food. how a place like th is stays in business...i'll never know. I should have figured something was up when he insisted on knowing if we had a reservation...when there was only 3 other people in the entire place!

DON"T GO THERE!!

Another "reviewer" says..."bring a fat wallet"? I say take your wallet to a place that appreciates your business and gives you something for your money.

I can understand stumbling backwards into this and feeling forced to pay the price...but go there again? NEVER!

And tell everyone what a collosal rip off it is? YES!! Anyone who will listen.

If I had wanted to treat my friend to the meal of his life...it certainly would not have been at that rat hole.

So, I give this restaurant a NEGATIVE 225...because that's all i was left with! Fortunately there were left overs from another meal at home, becasue thats what I ate when i got there!

As a former waiter, i have never tipped below 20%...never really had to...i've received decent service in my dining experiences. the ONLY good thing turns out to be that since this waiter left such a bad taste...although I felt compelled to tip him SOMETHING...i didn't feel that i needed to him anymore than 10%. Saved 20-bucks there...that was the highlight of the evening.

Recommends

SMAlan

Joined 3 years ago

Low Key Fast Incredible Sushi. This chef is nice if you follow his rules: Let the staff know what things you don't like and he'll send everything else. He sticks to sushi and sashimi.

One piece comes out at a time so that the rice is warm and the fish cool. You are supposed to eat the sushi within a minute of serving so that the temperature stays perfect. There are a number of types of fish I've never had anywhere else. All of them are the best I've tried. I've been there 20 times and the quality never varies.

If you're looking for a california roll, stay away. Same goes for crispy deep fried shrimp rolls. If you're truly into great sushi, this place is a Los Angeles treasure. You won't be dining more than 90 minutes. Probably 45 minutes, so find a bar nearby!

Recommends

vbprof

Joined 4 years ago

If you cannot handle it, don't go there.. I have been a regular customer of the restaurant for several years. They don't serve American sushi, fusion sushi, Chinese sushi, Korean sushi... The only thing they serve is Japanese sushi. If you pretend to be a sushi eater, that is not a place for you. We don't go there a lot, but we go there for special occasions. We also take our best friends from out of town there to show off LA. I would love to go there everyday, but I don't think I can afford it. Typically, dinner for two people will cost you over $300 without drinks. Well, of course you can say you are "full," but we usually finish the entire round. The fish they serve are absolutely DIFFERENT and delicious! I know some people hate the place because of the rude chef. Let me tell you, he is not rude, just very blunt. He protects his art, which is his sushi. If you respect him, he also shows his respect to you. Come on, if you cannot handle it, nobody has invited you there. Just bring a fat wallet and an OPEN MIND, you will not regret. Don't be an "American" when you go to have sushi. If you cannot help, go to McD. Oh, this place is for enjoying the food (sushi), not a place for romance or nice environment. In this sense, it is not a typical garden variety restaurant. Actually, I like the place that is very selective, as you don't have to wait a long time for a seat (another plus for this restaurant).

Recommends

ach

Joined 6 years ago

Way Too Expensive!. I'm giving this place only a 3 star not because the food wasn't good but because of the overall experience was a 3. I was doing my laundry at a laundromat 2 doors down and simply wanted a beer while waiting for my dry cycle. I walked into this place without knowing what kind of restaurant this was. The hostess warned me that there was no menu and I could not order anything. I thought it was interesting so I sat down and ordered a beer. The chef gave me a piece of sushi and since the posted sign said I should eat my sushi right away, I did. As soon as I ate my sushi, the chef gave me another one, and I felt like I had to eat that one right away. The next thing I knew I've had about 10 pieces of sushi, thinking the most I've spent was around $60. BUT NO!!!!!!! The bill came and my total was $130!!! WTH? right? I mean, I've had really good sushi before but c'mon! $130 for about 10 pieces of sushi? that's just not right.

Doesn't Recommend

foodie4500

Joined 4 years ago

Avoid this place entirely. I've never written a food review but must express my opinion about my experience at a heralded "high-end" Culver City sushi bar.

Sushi Zo's assembly line omakase dining experience would make Toyota proud. Rarely looking up other than to yell "Soy sauce" or "No soy sauce" as each dish was pushed before us, the three sushi chefs worked like automatons cutting fish and preparing each plate. I find this atmosphere forced and pressurized: the "eat and get out so the next suckers can eat and get out" style of dining.

Although much of the fish was indeed excellent? it did not make up for the unpleasant environment. About halfway into our meal, when my date was getting full and wanted to slow things down, we simply could not get anyone's attention. Make no mistake, it's not that the place is big and loud; the staff simply ignored us. We tried and failed repeatedly. Sadly, we only managed to get their attention when we were presented with sweet shrimp?after having initially expressed our allergy to that very item. This second request to avoid sweet shrimp caused such turmoil and agitation behind the sushi bar that what followed was perhaps the most unpleasant dining experience of my life.

The chefs' disrespectful attitude, hostility, and talking about us behind the sushi bar almost provoked me to tell them off and leave without paying. We endured this treatment a few more minutes and asked for the check, which was preposterously expensive?perhaps further punishment to discourage us from returning. I paid the bill and graciously thanked each chef, who glanced our way but never acknowledged our comments. We felt like errant elementary school children leaving the principal's office. An awful experience.

Of course I could go on, but I'll conclude by adding that while the sushi was good, I've had better, and you know where. Even the "Sushi N*z*" offers a more genial dining experience. Sushi Zo? He's the Sushi A**h***. My recommendation? Avoid this place entirely.

Recommends

amberjackdotcom

Joined 5 years ago

Can you say ? Omakostly!. After reading a ton of excellent reviews and hearing from a famous rock star and his Kool-Aid drinking girlfriend that - ?You?ll never want to eat sushi anywhere else again? our only option was to see for ourselves.

Now, we weren?t going to make any quick judgments and let our initial reaction of walking into a restaurant that seemed as bright as the GAP sway our opinion about the freshness of the fish so we continued ? with an open mind of course. We truly believed we were in for the best sushi meal ever but this could not be further from the truth. The Amberjack lacked texture, juice and that special fresh out-of-the-water taste. It was more like Amber ? jack me the hell outa here! The ?home-made? soy sauce was too saucy ? plus every 2 minutes we were being yelled at by the server: ?NO SOY SAUCE? or ?SOY SAUCE?, way too much pressure. While the food was satisfactory, I did not have the same "climax" feeling that some of the regulars seem to have while inhaling the blue crab hand roll and insisting that be the absolute last taste on their palates! Lastly, NO WAKATAKE Sake????? WTF?!?!?! My advice: dim the lights, relax with the soy sauce instructions, give a girl some low sodium soy sauce and definitely, definitely go with a rock star who?s girlfriend is completely on the same page as him. Oh yeah, make sure you back up the Brinks truck, this place is gonna cost ya!

Oh, and - When did your heart and appetite go missing? See ya at Seki bitches!!!!!!