Eating Edmonton: Zen Sushi and Grill

All-you-can-eat-sushi restaurants can be a gamble — I often worry that restaurants will sacrifice the quality of the sushi for the quantity and speed needed for this type of set-up. However, Zen Sushi and Grill managed to deliver quality all-you-can-eat sushi for a decent price.

Before I begin, I should say that I’m not a sushi connoisseur, so I might not be the best person to comment on the exact quality of the fish. But as someone who doesn’t necessarily search out high-quality sushi experiences, I was pretty satisfied with my experience. 

Dinner was $33 per person and Zen offers a cheaper lunch rate till 2:30 p.m. The menu offers both a selection of sushi as well as a selection of hot dishes. Since this is a-la-carte all-you-can-eat, you begin by marking down how many orders of a dish you want on a slip of paper. After that, the servers check back periodically to see if you want to order more. 

In terms of sushi, my companion and I ordered quite an array of sushi, including salmon nigiri, a dynamite maki roll, tempura fried maki rolls, and an unconventional buffalo chicken maki roll. From the hot dishes, we ordered shrimp and vegetable tempura and spring rolls. 

The salmon nigiri was quite good and was comparable to any other sushi restaurant in the city. The dynamite maki roll, which consisted of tempura shrimp and tuna, was also pretty good and also reminded me of any other basic sushi restaurant in the city. The tempura-fried dragon eye maki rolls were very good and had a creamy, spicy mayo sauce drizzled on it. 

Zen offers an interesting set of “Canadian” inspired maki rolls, such as the buffalo chicken or cheese and bacon rolls. Since this was all-you-can-eat, my companion and I had to try one of these Canadian creations. The buffalo chicken roll was not good, as you probably could have guessed from its name. It consisted of super dry chicken bits, lettuce, and buffalo hot sauce smeared on top of the rolls. As my companion phrased it, it wasn’t necessarily horrible, but the world would be a better place without it.

The tempura was pretty standard and the vegetable mix consisted of yam, zucchini, broccoli, and onions. The spring rolls were made from bland cabbage and carrots, making for a skippable dish that just takes up stomach room that could otherwise be dedicated to eating sushi. 

Though the sushi was good, some of the rolls weren’t tightly wrapped, leading them to fall apart once they hit the pool of soy sauce. I also noticed that the server only came to check on us around two times, but it could be because it was a slow Sunday night with only two parties (including us). The server, however, was pretty friendly by the end of our meal and wished us a happy new year. 

For all-you-can-eat sushi, the quality was comparable to other sushi joints in the city. For about ten dollars more, you can stuff your face with as much sushi as you want for two hours. The sushi isn’t remarkable, but honestly, there aren’t a lot of affordable sushi joints in Edmonton that necessarily stand out. If you have a basic palate for sushi or just really want to eat your weight in sushi, I would definitely recommend Zen Sushi and Grill.