Zencu Sushi & Grill

This place used to be my go-​to sushi spot in DTLA, but in the past year, their prices have increased significantly and their service quality has decreased significantly. This is now the second time I had to wait over 40 minutes… FOR SUSHI, but that’s not the worst of it. No, the worst of it is that I could see, right next to my booth, the sushi chef stuck watching a basketball game on the TV. He apparently wouldn’t even start my sushi until the game was over. Then, when I complained he seemed to get upset with me and the server for rushing him. Also, the green tea was super watered down and I never did get my Wasabi. — Really sucks that I can’t come here anymore, for fear of hurting friends’ dining experiences.

Great staff. Foods good. Come for the 10 anniversary sushi you wont regret it. ⁹⁄₁₀ There are a couple of tvs around so if small talk gets stale you watch a game when its on. Dim lighting. Great for first dates and social gatherings. Place is clean. No rats running around. There are cool kawaii local stores around so you can kill time after a great meal. I ended up getting crab and yellowtail and soy mustard salmon. The crab was meaty yellowtail was exquisite and the salmon was superb. Our waiter Sam was friendly and accommodating.

The only place I like going for sushi, usually empty and they have good prices on sushi.

don’t come here, the worst service i have ever experienced. there was a sign outside of the business doors as well as little flyers inside by the door. it doesn’t state ANYWHERE that there is a limit on the validations. the waitress and sushi chef both refused to even let me talk to the boss as well kept saying how its my fault, i don’t appreciate this nor do i think this is fair at all.

This place sucks. Sushi and rolls are ok but definitely not worth the price. Portions were way too small. The green tea ice cream was awful. I don’t get how you can screw up on ice cream like that. Service was lackluster but nothing too terrible. The tvs here are hilariously small too. I don’t get how this place gets customers. You are in little tokyo where you can go to any different sushi restaurants and this place is bottom tier. Go elsewhere. This is the one sushi restaurant where I had to ask for soy sauce because it wasn’t on the table. That speaks for itself.
Edit/​/​oh yeah their $ 1 sushi deal is a piece of sushi for $ 1 and the minimum order is for 2 pieces LMAO THIS PLACE IS HILARIOUS

The chicken BBQ was great! And so was the BBQ ribs. Just sucks the rice portion is small. The sushi is good too. The only thing I wouldn’t suggest is the fried calamari.

HORRIBLE SERVICE!!! One star is too much, first off the server gave our food to another table, so we had to wait additional for our order. In addition to that, we waited over 45 minutes for them to bring the bill, only to realize our server went home without even bothering to close us out! We literally sat there while everyone else got served, apparently we were invisible. Stay far away from this place. You have been warned!

Upon years of experiencing sushi elsewhere in L.A., it has come to my attention that Zencu is not that great. We haven’t been here in more than a year because our friend hasn’t come to visit, but just this month, we decided to give it a go. On our first occurrence, we found that they were celebrating an anniversary so they advertised $ 1 sushi. We inquired about it and they said it’s $ 1 per piece so it’s $ 2 per order, which is still a great price. Everything was alright until the end when we were paying and asked to get our parking ticket validated. They wouldn’t validate our parking ticket because he said the minimum amount was $ 20. I totally wish they had said something earlier because our bill was $ 18 and change. I could have ordered a few more pieces of sushi instead we paid four or five bucks for parking. Two weeks later, we came back to Zencu to take advantage of their anniversary special. This time around, the quality of the food reflected the cheap cost; sushi was very thinly sliced. In addition, the gentleman that took our bill and parking validation returned and said that he let the validation «slide this time» because the minimum amount for free parking is $ 40. I inquired about our first time being only $ 20, and his reply was that the minimum for lunch is twenty and the minimum for dinner is forty. This is quite curious because we came for dinner the first time. It bothers me when businesses don’t value their customers and change rules as they feel fit. There is no consistency here so I will not be back.

First time trying this place the sushi rolls were delicious. The food came out super quick. The service was also excellent and quick. The servers were quick to filling our cups with water. The interior of the restaurant was pretty clean and nice. I will definitely try the other foods that they have to offer next time. The price for lunch was not bad either they had a good menu for lunch combination plates! I recommend coming for lunch it’s a nice place to go with friends or coworkers.

This restaurant looks nice with clean features, but the quality of service is so horrendous that its mediocre food could not save it. If I could give this place no-​stars, I would. We waited about 15 minutes to be served water, another 15 minutes to order our meals, and about 40 minutes for the actual entrees to arrive. I was starting to get so impatient that I felt tempted to shout for some service. Most Asian restaurants are generally short-​staffed. I tried my best to be considerate because they had very, very large parties that were overly drunk and loud.
I’m not a raw sushi/​sashimi fan. I cannot speak on them. I ordered a California roll which is was not terrible, but the tempura green-​tea icecream was horrendous. I’ve had my fair share of tempura icecream. It is suppose to be crunchy on the outside, warm on the inside, and cold when you got to the icecream. Zencu served me something that was soggy, frost bitten, and thawed.
I stopped eating after the first bite. I waited another 10 minutes for the girl to come around. After I told her about my experience with the dessert and requested for a fresh one, she told me that I didn’t understand the dessert and that she would have to charge me extra. Another waiter came by to check-​up on us. He was very timid, but tried his best to salvage the horror we just experienced. He apologized because the girl I spoke to previously was the assistant manager and that there was nothing he could do. He suggested that the food was probably poor quality because of the huge number of drunken parties that were there.
Bless his heart because whether that is true or not, that is NO excuse to make me PAY FULL PRICE for anything LESS than what is expected.
I refused to pay for the check. I walked halfway to that exit until I walked back and paid to the exact dollar amount. I will never, ever come back.
Shame on you, Zencu.
Quality of food: ⁰⁄₅
Quality of customer service: ⁰⁄₅
Cleanliness of facility: ³⁄₅

Service is what is to be expected at most Asian restaurant. The only thing is when it’s not at full capacity why did the wait staff keep forgetting to bring what we asked for and why they disappear for so long? This wasn’t AYCE where they stop serving you once they think you ate too much.
Oh yea and they love to charge gratuity on your bill must be because they know service sucks and that’s the only way to get a good tip.
Ate family style with friends we got many baked and a la cart sushi.
The baked peces I thought some were a bit too sweet, like the lobster tail, but it was still good.
The mackerel is my fave and I like it with sprinkles of lemon but they took so long to bring me that lemon wedge I ate it like that. Still nice, I think the chefs did a great job with presentation and preparation.
We also ordered the bbq ribs those were very well done and didn’t need much sauce as the flavor was popping. Yea I hear you, sushi and cooked meats, so what it was good.
This is the only reason 3 stars. Fake ass sign too with 50% off.
There’s much better out there especially in J Town.

I came here for their 15^th year anniversary. They had $ 1 sushi nagiri special that fat which I found very hard to resist since I love salmon nagiri. Normally they already sell them for ½ price which is still good. The quality of rolls and fish is really good. My only let down was the fact that it was hard to get the servers attention when they’re having around by the sushi bar talking to the sushi maker or off somewhere in the back.

It was my first time in Little Tokyo and we decided to give this place a try. Despite having some banners advertising 1 $ sushi for its 10 year anniversary, none of the sushi were actually $ 1, so I wasn’t sure if this was an event we missed or a sales bait.
Anyways, some sushi and sushi rolls were on a 50% discount, and although it is cheap, it is pretty fresh and good. I had a bunch of Nigiri Sushis and my boyfriend had the ‘Blue Crab Roll’.
My boyfriend ordered a Seafood Yakisoba, but was really disappointed as it was watery and just lack of taste. The service was quick but mediocre at best.

Only had teriyaki chicken here and it was alright. Large portions were worth the price (~$ 11). Pretty quick service on a Wednesday evening.

The waiter that was «taking care of us», which he wasn’t, was so rude.
He gave us our bill. My dad gave him the money. Then the waiter comes saying that there was a mistake on the bill, that he forgotten to charge the 18% tip and that he had to charge us because a group of 6 or more has to pay the highest tip percentage. So he said that my dad was short.
My dad told him that he always leaves tip, not like if that was a problem, but it’s ridiculous to be charge for the highest tip percentage, when the tip has to be voluntary. But anyways, he still gave this waiter the tip that HE had forgotten to add to the bill. So this mediocre waiter, snatched the money off from my dad and starts counting it. Then he came back telling my dad with a rude tone that he had to check the bill once more. Apparently the waiter came back for a dollar that my dad didnt put by mistake.
That’s when i got upset and told him that first of all he made the mistake of giving us a bill without the tip charged and him demanding that dollar was just ridiculous. So at the end i told him that we were going to pay what the first bill was, because that’s what he handed out to us at first. He didnt want to until the manager told him, to give it to us. So my dad gave him the money and told him to keep the change (him still giving him tip) and he walked out. But the imbecil, told my sister that he didnt need the change. Which i say he did, because he was coming at my dad demanding for that tip. Wanting to get every penny that he could. So we ended up leaving him the change.
Because of the rudeness of that waiter, we aren’t going back. They lost more than that tip that he was demanding.
We would always go as a group of 5 or more, so now think idiot what you’ve caused. You made the owner loose 100s of bucks.

My daughter and I stopped by during lunch time and were happily surprised to find plenty of seating.
The prices are amazing and portions are great.
It’s slightly hidden, but hunt it down, it’s worth it!

It’s sad to see the lively plaza and then you walk up coming to this… a dead area where no soul wanders.
50% OFF ON SUSHI
And I’m sure it’s because the business here is not going well. But despite the fact, that this restaurant is quite empty, the service is still very quick and friendly. The Sushi is definitely not the best, I’d give it a great mediocre and I had a good time dining here.
Would I come back? I think so.

Oh how I’ve missed you! This is one of my go-​to spots in DTLA. It’s never really crowded for lunch, but service is insanely slow and borderline non-​existent. But I come here because it’s cheap and you can get a 3-​item lunch combo and a beer for under $ 15.
Parking is metered on the streets and runs about $ 4 for 2 hours. I’ve parked in the structure before and it can be pricey.

Mediocre Japanese food.
Mediocre service.
Good prices and deals on drinks though!
Only reason we went here was because most of the other places in the same area had a long wait for a table.
Overall, it was just A-​OK!

3.5 stars — Let me start off by saying since I’ve had my baby, I don’t have time for long lines and long romantic dinners. I just want good food that’s quick and if it’s hot outside, air conditioning. This spot provided that. $ 10 pitchers for beer. The food was reasonably priced. I ordered agedashi tofu and the bbq short rib plate $ 8.95 for lunch. The chirashi was decent and so was the sushi combo. It’s not authentic, meaning it’s not Japanese owned. I knew after about 5 seconds of walking in here, but hey — most Japanese restaurants are Korean owned these days. I was happy bc I asked for boiled sweet potato for my baby and they did it for me.