Sushi Zen: Costa Mesa Sushi

As a long time sushi fan, I am always on the lookout for new sushi places to try out. Recently, on a trip to Southern California, I was in the beach town of Costa Mesa (near the popular college hangout of Newport Beach) and came across Sushi Zen. Located in a trendy center right on Harbor Blvd, it was very convenient for dinner after an afternoon in the sand and surf.

Parking is either on the street side (watch for no-parking zones and be sure to pay the meter!) or handily located in the underground parking lot beneath the complex. We used the latter and found plenty of open spots on a Thursday evening. It's probably considerably more crowded on weekends or holidays, so be sure to plan ahead.

We entered the restaurant and were seated fairly quickly by the polite staff. The menu choices were fairly interesting, but were considerably on the higher side, for a sushi place. Of course, being SoCal, little ritzy places like this are almost always more expensive, so it comes with the territory. I went with a salmon roll dish (6 pieces) and a teriyaki bento meal (needed something to fill me up after the long day on the beach). The service took a little longer than I would like but sushi places often are a bit slower. We received miso soup first, quite hot but very good and refreshing. My friends had a bit of a mix up when it came to the sushi rolls-they had asked to change their order, the waitress misunderstood, they ended up with tuna rolls instead of salmon rolls and were rather put off by it. However, I did receive my salmon rolls without an issue and thoroughly enjoyed them. Finally, the bento boxes came with teriyaki chicken. The chicken was pretty crummy as far as I was concerned, not even on par with some of the teriyaki chicken I had eaten at cheaper places. It was pretty dry, not chopped or sliced very well and a little bit tough. We were in quite a rush to leave, given our time constraints, but we did take time to try out the mochi on the menu. It turned out to be pretty good, a lovely little dessert and certainly one I would recommend.

Overall, Sushi Zen is an ok place. It's clear that their sushi is pretty decent, if not a little pricey. I would urge visitors to not order other dishes, given my experience with the teriyaki chicken. California has many different sushi spots, and Sushi Zen is nothing too extraordinary, certainly not the Zen of SoCal sushi.