This page is for the 2008 reviews for Zen Toro.
2008-01-26 17:15:56 Does the light look like its off from E street? I've passed by two friday nights now and I'm convinced it must be closed. ? —TheStomach
2008-01-26 20:51:55 Mmmm Mmmmm Mmmm Mmm good. Had dinner the other night- a simple california roll- and loved it. My friend's food all looked and tasted good too. bit pricey compared to mcdonalds, but worth it. —KenichiSan
2008-02-02 02:50:26 I've been here twice. The first time was right before closing time for lunch. So only me, my girlfriend, and maybe one or two other tables. We get our ZT Crunch Roll first. Awesomeness. We also both ordered the udon and sushi combo I believe. I get mines, and the waiter apologizes and says, "Sorry, her's is still on the way." We wait like 20 minutes and my girlfriend's dish finally comes out, when my dish is already cold and soggy. I enjoyed the food enough, however, to chalk it up to one incident and I say I'll come back.
So tonight my girlfriend and I come for dinner. Crowded, as usual. We sit down and get our main dishes fast. Only problem is, it took them an hour and a half since we sat down before our ZT Crunch Roll finally came. By this time, we were already full and wondered why it took so long to get our roll.
The food here is great, I'm sure a lot of people have had good experiences exclusively (and some have had a bad one here and there like myself), but ultimately, I don't think the quality of the food (which is great, by the way), is going to justify me or my girlfriend spending another $50 on dinner and not get good service. An hour and a half for a sushi roll is fucking ridiculous, and yes, I asked the waitress a couple times where our roll was and she said "it was coming."
I'd rather go to Osaka or Moshi Moshi, where it seems like the staff is more coordinated. —BlackHamster
2008-02-12 13:42:16 The food here is geat, it is my favorite sushi restaurant. The sushi rolls are awesome, not too much rice and sauce, more sashimi. I like the presentation, the food is all very aesthetically pleasing on the plate. I went here with my wife on a Friday night and we got fine service, no complaints. I hear the women's restroom has a fancy Japanese toilet with a heated seat and duvet water spray. —DagonJones
2008-02-29 10:55:43 Came here a couple times. One Friday night my boyfriend and I ordered two meals and one roll. Our regular food came out pretty quickly. However, after we finished eating our meals, we still waited a half an hour for our one roll. Since it was taking so long I was eating my food slowly. The waitress look annoyed and asked twice if I was finished, and the second time we asked her where our roll was. She then looked surprised and said she would check on it. Basically I think she forgot about our roll. The food is really good, but sometimes the restaurant gets so packed the service goes downhill. —RiyoKwong
2008-04-15 23:14:45 In recently moving to Davis I was afraid I would not find a decent sushi restaurant, our standards for being gaijin are extremely high. My partner and I frequent Zen Toro about twice a week. The primary sushi chef and owner makes better rolls than his understudies. As rolls from most sushi restaurants are disgusting, we stopped ordering them until going to Zen Toro. They use high quality ingredients, perfectly combined with the right embellishments and garnishing. If you prefer nigiri, I would suggest evening dining. They have fish deliveries on Tuesdays and Fridays, plan your nigiri days around the delivery days. We regularly frequent this restaurant and the service has not been an issue for us. The level of business goes up and down, can you blame them for not wanting to pay an extra hand. I highly recommend Zen Toro. It is unlikely I will go to any other sushi restaurant in Davis (unless Kan Sha in Escondido decides to move to Davis). —unipeg39
2008-05-14 23:10:09 good food, but every time i've been here i feel like leaving zero tip...although i always leave 20%, something about the service here makes me feel like they dont even want tips...over all...i'd give this place a C+ only because the service is horrible, otherwise it would get a A- —foodexpert
2008-05-16 23:04:16 I've never noticed the "no substitutions please" request anywhere. I just ate there tonight and they very kindly gave me my citrus roll with no cream cheese. Oddly though, they made a change and covered the top of the roll with a gooey sauce instead of the lemon slices mentioned in the menu. They were very nice and corrected it. I don't eat there as often as I'd like because they are a bit pricey, but two of us ate until we were full tonight and our bill was just over $30, about $37 with tax and tip. The trick is to split things, because their rolls and dinner plates are huge. —HopeBravo
2008-06-09 17:31:44 It took us about 10 minutes just to get our name on the list. The wait after that wasn't too bad, though they almost seated someone else in my name. After we were seated, it took about another 10 minutes for the waitress to ask us what we wanted to order. It was another 20 or so minutes before the waitress came back to fill up my water. Ridiculously slow.
However the food was delicious. We ordered the mixed sashimi with tempura, ZT crunch, and the Citrus Breeze rolls. The salmon and tuna sashimi were delicious, melts in your mouth. The ZT crunch was delicious, with a satisfying crunch to add to the texture - highly recommended. The Citrus Breeze was a bit strong on the lemon, but for those who like the cream cheese in their rolls, it's pretty good. Tempura was standard, nothing special. For dessert we tried their mango ice cream, which was way too strong on the mango; it would have done very well if it were mixed with vanilla ice cream.
All of this came out to be about 45 bucks for dinner for two. Considering the quality of the sushi, the price isn't terrible, but such a tab calls for a better setting (it's too crowded!) and better service (I felt neglected). If the service weren't so bad, I would come here again. I would suggest sitting at the sushi bar if you ever plan on coming here. —BrandonWong
2008-06-19 01:56:35 The Zen Tofu rolls with asparagus tempura are a very yummy vegetarian option. The service was slow both times I was there, but the restaurant has a relaxing atmosphere which made it easier to deal with (the plum wine I was sipping on helped a bit, too). —AprilAries
2008-07-05 19:33:11 The best Japanese food in Davis. Bar none. Everyother place in Davis is a JOKE. However, this place is really expensive. And the service can be god awful. I've left many a cheap tip at this place. They really gotta get it together. This is unacceptable for a Japanese establishment. It's all the more shocking because Japanese people actually work here instead of the typical Chinese. —JimBob
2008-07-20 01:18:08 Best quality sushi I've had so far! —cnk.midori
2008-07-25 20:25:46 Of my experience, it's the best sushi restaurant in Sacramento area. Though, I think the quality is kinda slipping. I always ordered the momiji or the chirashi. Momiji is suppposed to have uni sushi, but it wasn't there when I ordered it. But the waitress was helpful and gave my lovely uni sushi. They have many special toro like tuni toro, salmon toro .....Those are really good. I haven't really tried the rolls here since those rolls are Americanized. You will get better off by not visiting the restaurant at peak hours because the chief would put speed on their priority over quality like they will cut the sashami really big..I tried that once.
Service is bad as many people have commented and I agree with them —KelvinCheng
2008-10-21 00:58:56 My girlfriend and I just ate here the other night. I was pleasently surprised with the quality of the food and service. My experience with Japanese restaraunts has not been very good in the past but this place was different. We both loved it and plan to go again soon. —smittyhoy
2008-11-20 20:00:48 I've been here twice and both times were bad experiences. The first time I ordered teriyaki steak, and it was horrible! The meat was mostly fat and was way overcooked to the point where it was difficult to chew. The second time I went I had one of their lunch specials. These specials come with coleslaw, soup, and rice. They ran out of coleslaw and soup and still charged us for it!! The food was okay, but the service was very slow. One of the guys in our party was served ten minutes after the rest of us got our food. —MAlexa
2008-11-30 19:03:21 If I were to star in 'The Sound of Music', one of my favorite things would be Zen Toro. Or, more specifically, their 'Surf and Turf' sushi roll. It is delicious, and topped with a layer of uber tasty tempura onions. The staff is so nice and the environment is way better than most nasty Davis establishments. It is owned by the cutest couple ever. ALSO, for the quality of their food, the prices are SO LOW. In SF, you'd be paying about $10 more. I usually go with a friend and we split a $35 bill, which includes a TON of great food/sushi. yum yum yum —AliciaEdelman
2008-12-18 02:20:53 Ate lunch here with a few of my friends a few days ago. I loved the atmosphere; very cute but clean but. I ordered beef udon and the Tuna Lover's Dream roll, and found both to be very yummy and fresh. The only gripe I have is that my friends and I had to wait about 30 minutes for our orders, although it was the lunch rush... I'll come back again for the sushi. —kthrnngo
2008-12-18 05:34:55 Best sushi in Davis, no doubt. This place was a gem when my wife and I discovered it. So glad we did. We were beginning to think we couldn't find quality sushi in Davis after frequenting the other places in town. —condemned2bfree
