Zen Sushi

09/29/08

Zen Sushi should not exist!

by emi1130 at Citysearch

I also worked here for the past 3 owners until last year, and I have to agree this place slowly got worse and worse.

And even at it's best it was never what it should or could have been.

I was forced off the schedule after the most recent owner brought in all family members (with absolutely no experience) to take over all the serving and bartending positions, along with the rest who either walked off due to the awful conditions or were fired for no good reason.

These owners had no experience running a restaurant or a bar, and the place was full of health violations.

They also brought in their family members to hang out and eat and drink for free, and they never tipped us either. Cheap and greedy was what they lived for.

Oh, and they never sent me my W2 either, and when I called and called and called, I never had one call returned.

The owner prior to them were another couple who seemed okay, but they booked such horrible shows, there were 2 shootings as well as vadalism in the area because of the horrible hip-hop nights there.

It also turns out they never renewed their license so the place was operating illegally.

The first owner I worked for was not the sweetest, but seems like a god now looking back.

I worked for another bar of his for 2.5 years and build a great clientel. I brought in pretty good money for them, but the new owner who came to that place let me go because he wanted people who would put up with his cheap ways...

So sad these places go under due to bad ownership and management.

Can't wait for Zen to die and return as a good neighborhood hang like it was always meant to be. (or just get torn down!)

• Pros: Nothing
• Cons: Bad owners, bad staff, bad music, and bad health standards!!!

07/30/08

THIS PLACE IS NOT RISING FROM THE ASHES IT'S IN THE FINAL STAGES OF BEING CLOSED DOWN

by silverlakeartist at Citysearch

THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN WRITING GOOD REVIEWS ETHIER WORK THERE OR HAVE FRIENDS WHO ARE TRYING TO HELP OUT. THE REALITY IS I WORKED THERE FOR 3 DIFFERENT OWNERS AND THE PLACE HAS BAD PROBLEMS. NO LEGAL PERMITS FOR ENTERTAINMENT UPSTAIRS OR SELLER'S LICENCE,THE SOUND QUALITY IS STILL HORRIBLE !!! THE FOOD IS EXTREMLY UN-CLEAN !!! THE NEW OWNERS ARE FASCIST !!! THEY HAVE HIGH PRICES FOR BAD DRINKS !!! THE BARTENDERS ARE SLOW AND UN-FRIENDLY !!! THE SECURITY ARE RUDE !!! THE OWNER DOESN'T CARE ABOUT THE COMMUNITY !!! ALL THEY REALLY CARE ABOUT IS YOUR WALLET AND HOW MUCH THEY CAN TAKE FROM YOU AND THEN TREAT YOU LIKE DOGS TO GET YOU OUT AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. I'VE SEEN IT HAPPEN ALL THE TIME !! THE PLACE IS GREAT BUT THE PLACE IS CURSED WITH "OUTSIDERS" WHO COME TO SILVERLAKE AND TREAT IT LIKE A GREEDY BIZNESS.THE LAST COUPLE OF OWNERS WITH THE EXCEPTION OF ONE, BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE,BAD FOOD,HIGH PRICES,RUDE STAFF AND GREED !!! I QUIT BECAUSE OF THE NEW OWNERS AND I WOULDN'T SPEN A SINGLE CENT FOR A BAD NIGHT.KEEP IT SMALL AND LOCAL !!! SUPPORT THE POEPLE THAT TREAT YOU RIGHT AND MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT HAVING FUN !!!

THEY STILL DO RAP MUSIC WITH UNDERAGE KIDS DRUNK ON THE STREETS AND TAGGING UP THE COMMUNITY.THEY STILL TREAT PEOPLE VERY RUDE AND THEY ONLY SEE YOUR WALLET ! NOT YOU !

CALL ABC @ THE 800 NUMBER.ILLEGAL USE OF EXPIRED PERMITS !!!

• Pros: IT WILL CLOSE SOON !
• Cons: IT HAS TO CLOSE NOW !

07/19/08

Grand opening of Silverlakes best Indie ,Punk ,experimental live music club VAmped

by sashlisachristine at Citysearch

GREAT ROCK CLUB AND SUSHI.Silverlake finest venue for Indie ,punk and experimental music .Los Angeles's finest club in the heart of Silverlake is Club Vamped!

The food,service, and bands are great

Club Vamped @ Zen Sushi in Silverlake 2609 Hyperion Ave 90027 Saturday July 26th 7pm-2am

Former promoters of Hot Pants at Mr Ts Bowl 1995-2001 after Fuzzyland and before Mike TV comes back with a BITE! This will be a 21 and over show with full bar 10 bands or More on 2 stages all for $5

Lineup so far with more to come TBA

the Urinals

The Kids Of Widney High

Artichocke

Indio Bait

THE LONELY DUCK

The Human Value

The Deep Sea Goes

Horrors Of Toledo

Biblical Proof Of UFOS

Special Guest DJ Richard Presley (Breeders/Fear guitar)

Sash and Lisa Christine from Vamped Records

spins everything from The Carter Family, Virgin Prunes , Tracy and The Hindenburgh Ground Crew , AutoLux , The Fall, Birthday Party, Crime , US Maple, Pavement, Pink Mountain Tops , Neutral Milk Hotel, Yeah Yeah Yeahs ,Interpol, Tex Ritter , Sesame Street Soundtracks , Red Foxx ,Deadly Syndrome , The Cramps, Soft Cell,Marc and the Mambas, Joy Division , Faust , Ugly Cassanova ,The Germs,Stereolab,The Gorries,Hot Snakes,Can, X, The Black Lips,Deer Hunter,ENO,The Frogs,Tall Dwarfs, Leaving Trains TRex,Stooges,minutemen and the best in experimental ,goth ,real industrial, garage,punk indie, and weird soundtracks and comedy..

• Pros: great food service music
• Cons: not open 24 hours

07/11/08

Looks like its comming up from the ashes.

by rigo61 at Citysearch

Where do i start? After reading review after review, I started to notice one thing, how old they are. I recently showed up on a Friday night because they started opening the dance floors for dancing. Heard they had a new manager and promoters trying to change this place to its former glory. The dance floor is big enough for dancing, good crowd, nice staff and well rounded out music (Top 40, Hip Hop, Dance, and some Spanish). The decor looked nice, and the whole place had a good/relaxed vibe to it. Didn't try the sushi (not a raw fish fan), even though people were saying good things about it. Bartenders were nice and very friendly. Overall a good experience, i defenitly would show up next week.

• Pros: Decor, Friendly Staff, Good Music, and Enjoyable.
• Cons: Parking

12/26/07

Not very good fish and a little violent

by rapperd at Citysearch

This place feels like it is about to fall down. There are holes in the heap grey plaster exterior. Left overs from upset stomachs from the hot dog/bacon vendo that stands outside. Oh, did I mention there was a gunfight last night, over 12 shots fired. Class A joint if you ask me. If you don't get fatally ill from the fish just bring tha heater.

• Pros: let me think...
• Cons: bad fish, violent, filthy, broken restrooms

11/22/07

no idea how it stays open

by famousblueraincoat at Citysearch

this place mystifys me. no idea why people still go there. i thought for awhile it was b/c the bands playing upstairs, but i always thought the space was weird and cramped. patio was too loud and the food ... don't even get me started.

• Cons: food not good, parking bad, there are better live music venues in the area

11/06/07

Negative Criticism has Validity

by mrfhills at Citysearch

I doubt the bad reviews are "phony." The restaurant is very poorly run. The bar area is filthy. The food's not bad when you can actually get service. One particularly bad experience: we were seated by the host at about 8 PM, but couldn't get service, finally wandered into the bar area to find out if a waiter could help us and we were told the kitchen was "closed." The host offered no explanation, and appeared not to remember even seating us at a table.

09/06/07

A great venue. Good Sushi and music.

by joewilder at Citysearch

Let me start of by stating I am good friends with the promoter. He had to fire one of his promoters that night for unethical stuff. (Stealing). So that person created a couple of phony reviews. I know the staff as well, because I alway eat their, 2 Saturdays a month. The food was great. Everything went off as schedule. They were 15minutes late. Anyways, the venue has 2 floors. A great upstairs that can hold about 250. The venue had Vic the brick Jacobs from KLAC 570am that place was packed. There are videos on the youtube. Other celebrities were there as well. So as a person that was truthfully there. I thought I would stick up for the promoter and tell people what really happen. A great night of fun, food, dancing and singing in a cool environment.

• Pros: Depends on the night and promoter.
• Cons: Depnds on the night and promoter,

09/02/07

Worst Club Hands Down

by fabuloso_jj at Citysearch

Went here last night to do a show with the band. The club was in total disrepair, horrid service, mediocre food. Performance space had no A/C and it was about 95 degrees. Promoter didn't show up, no sound man, no Manager/Owner present. Bands ran their own sound!! Worst experience ever, it's amazing this place is still in business....won't be for long. It was a Saturday night and I counted about 10 people in the entire place!!! Sad too, used to be a decent spot. Do yourself a favor and skip this joint

08/27/07

Horrible Sushi Restaurant/Good music!!

by drubenr at Citysearch

I've been many times to hear bands play, but this night i thought i'd arrive a bit earlier to try the sushi. So I arrive and pay the cover fee for bands later that evening and sit at an empty/dark sushi bar. A guy tosses two menus a my date and I. I take a look and see everything but sushi. I ask what about the sushi. He say's, "we're not serving sushi til 9pm."

I go to the door guy and ask if we could do an "in and out" since there was no sushi, but their sign out front says, "no in and outs." Door guy complains that he only promotes the bands and was upset that the restaurant was unprepared. He complains to the staff and they have sushi ready by 7:45, but i'm receiving dirty looks by this time from the sushi chef.

So, sushi is out now and i have a seat. I ask, "what kind of sushi specialties do you make (oh, yeah...had to ask since he said there weren't sushi menus)?" He replies, "nothing special! The owner isn't here." So I simply place an order of mackeral, halibut and yellowtail. "No Halibut!!" Okay an order of tuna.

Sushi orders are now sitting in front of us. Large pieces, seems good so far. I eat the Mackeral which is always sweet and tasty, so okay try the tuna. Tuna was pretty mediocre, wait.....now he hands us sushi menus. $5 an order, for this mediocre tuna.....okay...well, i'll try the yellowtail. DISGUSTING!!!! The yellowtail was dry and starchy tasting, can you imagine? So i'm paying $15 for this very bad experience, fine give me the bill. When I ask, sushi chef says, "That's all??" What should he expect. I get the bill (meanwhile the band i'm here to see is already playing) and pull out a $20. I'm waiting and waiting and he's looking over at the $20 and looking away and looking at the $20 and looking away. I ask are you going to cash this for me, he belts out a "sspppgh!!" He expects a $5 tip......no way man!!!!

• Pros: Music is great!!
• Cons: Food is very, very, very bad and extremely overpriced! Service is rude and incompetent!