Can't believe I didn't try this place sooner, since it seems that the kids and I are risking death in this crazy parking lot a few times a day. Gosh, it just gets busier and busier there, but so many good businesses and not enough land; what are you going to do? The staff at Sushi Zen is super nice. I went there with my 4 year old daughter, not expecting that she'd eat a thing. (in fact, we arrived with a full bowl of Tutti Frutti for her). They were very nice about her bringing in outside food and also brought her paper to color. I got salmon teriyaki and it was delicious. Teriyaki can sometimes be too sweet, but this was just a marvelous, well-balanced sauce and a good sized portion of fresh salmon too. A very nice neighborhood sushi place, well worth consideration if you have not tried it. read more

I really appreciate the gluten free options and how clearly they are listed in the al a cart menu!

Great sushi and fast service! As always, the kids and parents enjoyed the dining experience. Food came out fast but also staggered well. We had time to enjoy the miso and salad before sushi rolls hit the table. In addition to the already attentive waitstaff, the management came over to check on us and make sure we were happy and enjoying dinner. We will be back for sure. read more

My most favorite Sushi place in Virginia!! They are busy especially over weekend but their service is great, Sushis are all so fresh, and the variety of Sake is amazing!! I would definitely recommend this place when you feel like having Sushi :) read more

Such a great spot in Arlington! We went there on a Friday night for date night and we had so much fun! The sushi was great, service was attentive and quick and the restaurant was intimate! We can't wait to go back next time we get sushi! read more

We visit Sushi-Zen at least twice a month, usually once a week. We always sit at the sushi bar, where Carlos takes care of us. He really takes pride in the craft of making sushi and spends a lot of time on making the presentations beautiful. The sushi is always good to excellent and the other Japanese dishes are solid as well. But the service is really what makes this top notch. The staff recognizes you and takes care of you; you feel like part of the family. Our favorite Arlington sushi spot! read more

I was in Arlington this past weekend. My friends were raving about this local sushi restaurant that's mom and pop owned. I love the ambience. I love the food. Their miso soup is outstanding and their sushi is fresh and delicious. This isn't one of those franchise sushi restaurants. This is a local family owned business. I even got to meet the father. Very chill and laid back. I highly recommend people visit this place for the amazing sushi. read more

Sushi-Zen is our neighborhood go-to spot for sushi! We enjoy sitting at the bar and watching the chefs prepare elaborate platters and slice fresh fish. Great food and friendly people. We're excited to join their newly offered loyalty rewards program! read more

Was hungry and craving sushi zen specifically, the doors were opened when we walked in (3:30pm). But they were "closed" until 5pm. Big thumbs down to you!!! Not my fave place anymore. If you are closed until a specific hour, then stay closed! read more

So the sushi at this place is great.. actually maybe the best i've had in Arlington and i've been here for 4 years now.. the only reason I didnt give it more stars is because of the service.. my friends and I did go towards closing but they were rude the second we walked in the door. The girl had the worst attitude I was beyond offended but the sushi came out and was so good that I overlooked it. I will be getting sushi from then from now on but probably for take out. read more

Sushi-Zen is one of the best sushi places in Arlington! I discovered it about it a year and go at least once a month. The service is always very good. Brian (one of the owners, I think) is always extremely friendly and goes out of his way to talk to you and make sure everything is ok. I always sit at the bar and enjoy watching the chefs make the sushi. Carlos, one the chefs, is also very friendly and will chat with you while he makes different items. Most importantly, the sushi is really good and fresh. The presentation is always great. Having recently visited Japan, I can honestly say that Sushi-Zen makes me feel like I never left. Keep up the great work! read more

Always enjoyed the food here but tonight the service was beyond horrible. It was more than 15 minutes after my daughter and I were seated before we saw a menu. The server was overly rushed and inattentive at all times. Mistakes were made at every turn. A meal that should have taken 45 minutes took two hours. When the first words out of the servers' mouths to everyone around you (and you) are "so sorry," yo know there's something wrong. Very disappointing. Will have to be convinced to go there again. read more

One of my favorite places for sushi. The staff is always really great. Definitely a cozy Arlington sushi place to go for. Low key and not noisy. Does take out. Not overly expensive. Have classic rolls and trendier rolls. Again, one of my favorite sushi places. read more

The food is good but the staff is incredibly rude. I feel rushed to leave as soon as I walk through the door. They also charge extra for almost everything. I usually just take my food to go so I don't have to deal with the people who work there. read more

One of my favorite sushi restaurants in the area! It is always so fresh and the quality of the fish is very high. I like the shrimp shumai to start and always get the glebe roll (salmon and eel topped with yellow tail and eel sauce). I usually get takeout so can't speak to the service for now. But I highly recommend it! read more

Wow... That was awful. Ate 2 pieces of my spicy cali roll, 1 piece of my scallop roll, and 1/2 a piece of my eel sushi. Nothing was fresh, never order a scallop at this place and the eel was cold rubber. Ugh... now I'm walking down the strip mall to taqueria poblano to eat something that won't make me sick. What a waste of $20... ABSOLUTELY DISGUISTING read more

Fresh. Three days later and hubby and I are still talking about our meal. Seared salmon roll was perfect. Lightly seared, still fresh on the inside, just enough tempura flakes to give a slight crunch. Feel like family every time I go there. read more

What a great find for a sushi restaurant in Arlington. Tried many sushi spots in DC and VA and this has been the best so far. Ordered the Virginia Roll & Salmon Avocado. The salad dressing was yummy also! If you join the rewards club, they will give you a coupon for your next visit. read more

Great food and relaxing atmosphere, but you have to go earlier on Friday night and weekend . It's very pack if you get there after 6:30 pm .

I found this to be pretty good although pricey. I got the Udon soup with tempura. The tempura was very good. I liked that a lot. And the soup was not bad, but the broth was a little too salty and a little heavy on the seaweed taste. I also got the salmon nigiri sushi which was good. However, the portions were smaller than other sushi places, and it didn't seem quite as fresh. The service was okay. The waitress was friendly, but I had to ask for silverware and wasaabi, although she fixed both very quickly. Overall, not bad at all, but it's just not something I'm going to seek out frequently due to the price. read more

Alright, so I just moved here from LA and I was on the way home from work and I saw this place and thought I'd give it a shot. And I was BLOWN AWAY. It's some of the best sushi I've ever had, hands down. It was so good that, so richly full of taste, that I had to sit and think about it between bites. It was AMAZING! And the service was top notch. The ladies that were working there were super sweet and knowledgable and sushi chefs are very nice too. Will definitely be coming back, a lot. Thanks! read more

Pretty good sushi, rolls are kind of meagerly sized....good times though. Good service

Great solid place for sushi. Can get busy, so patience is a virtue that you shall be greatly rewarded for. The sushi sashimi combo is fantastic and everything was extremely fresh. They have interesting dishes like the sushi roll lasagna which was fantastic. They even have sushi kids menu. A good solid place for sushi! read more

This was my first time trying this restaurant and I liked a few things. I ordered for pick up and it was ready on time and customer service was nice. Also, the sushi tastes very good. However, for the price I expected the specialty red dragon roll to be bigger. My phili roll was poorly made the salmon looked sloppy and the amount of cream cheese in each roll was drastically uneven. Again the sushi did taste good don't get me wrong but this was my first and last time ordering from here again read more

Best sushi joint in nova always the most attentive service. The sushi is top of the line freshly served in a speedy delivery

This is one of my regular places for sushi. The chefs are great and the sushi is always fresh. Their menu is a little limited and they just increased their prices a little, but it's still very competitive. The staff isn't as attentive as I would like, especially when they get busy, but the service is always professional. I absolutely love their miso soup and salad. And their customer club is great, regularly mailing coupons and deals. read more

Best Sushi in the Arlington area. Always have great experience eating here. The service is excellent and the prices are fair.

My friends took me here for my birthday. The food was good and I honestly don't have anything bad to say about the place. They have other food if you don't want raw fish. I only noticed that because a few of my friends got steak or chicken and not sushi. The staff was super nice and service was good. It was a little difficult to find but otherwise good. The place was packed. read more

Their presentation is great and the sizes are just right. The service was great they made what you wanted work out with their menu. Our food came out fast and it was still great sushi. You should definitely try this place out it is fast condiment and tasty. read more

Sadly, they really are the best sushi restaurant in town, but their customer service is truly awful when tested. Let me start by saying I have been going to Sushi Zen for 20 years with my family, I grew up always asking to go to Sushi Zen for my birthday to celebrate. Lately I have found that their waitresses have been extremely rude and short when attending to tables, especially if you have to ask them to help you after they have been ignoring your table. Earlier this week, my friend and I went to Sushi Zen for their happy hour menu and were very excited. When we ordered, the waitress gave us the regular a la carte menu and told us to mark our happy hour order there rather than the physical happy hour menu. Now, we thought this was odd because the happy hour menu bases the nigiri orders off of 1 piece per order, while the regular menu is 2 pieces per order. We made sure to label the menu "happy hour" so that they understood the orders were the happy hour orders and checked again with the waitress when we turned in our order that it was the Happy Hour menu we were order, not the normal a la carte menu so that we wouldn't get double our order. When we got our food, it was wrong ... the waitress hadn't communicated to the chefs that it was happy hour orders on our a la carte menu, so there was double everything we ordered. We let her know immediately that this was not what we ordered so that we would not be charged for the double orders, and she nodded and said she understood and would apply the happy hour prices that we ordered. We had our meal, it was delicious as it always is, and asked for the check. When the check came we saw that the total was DOUBLE what it should have been and figured our waitress must have forgotten to adjust it. When we went to tell her that the bill was wrong, she got extremely offended and agitated and started to raise her voice telling us that "we buy what we order" "we pay for what we order" "we pay for all the sushi". It felt like we were being personally attacked for trying to get out of a bill that we never ordered and had gone out of our way to correct when we noticed it was wrong. As if this wasn't enough, ANOTHER WAITRESS came up to me and started yelling at me and giving some serious attitude that I was wrong and that I should have said something when the order was wrong (which I did) and that I had to pay for all this sushi and it wasn't her fault it was mine. Now, I understand conflicts do arise, but it was the way both waitresses spoke to me, looked at me, and then raised their voices and wouldn't let me get any words in that offends me. Even when the manger came up and tried to help the situation, and told his waitresses to back off and let him handle it, they continued to interrupt and yell at me. I felt personally attacked and singled out in the intimate restaurant and it was not only extremely embarrassing, but offensive as well. I do not think it is ever appropriate for waitresses to yell at a customer, to gang up verbally on a customer disregarding their managers orders. It was extremely unprofessional and may have lost them a twenty year customer for I couldn't not dine at this restaurant knowing that they were my servers. I wouldn't trust their behavior as servers to be honest, it seemed very sketchy to me, as if they were either scamming me to pay for double my order, or they were profiling me and singling me out for personal reasons. Regardless, both options are never okay in a customer service setting. read more

The best shumai I've ever had--delicate little pillows of tender deliciousness. And the sushi is outstanding. I'd never had seared salmon before--yummy. Only a 5-minute drive from the hospital. read more

Our go to Sushi place for take out. Consistent quality and reasonable price. Staff is great on pick up. The party trays have been a hit at parties. All good! read more

We were the "Oh No" family with a toddler spilling miso soup and then screaming about it and a tired baby that wasn't crying but certainly prevented us from all sitting down and enjoying a nice meal. the waitresses helped us clean the mess with a super pleasant attitude and even got us a fresh bowl of miso. Class! I ordered some veggie rolls for the 3yr old and boy was I happy when she refused the tempura sweet potato roll because they were very delicious! The salmon & avocado rolls were reasonable portions,quality fish, and well made. Thumbs Up! The special roll (forgot the name) was excellent as well. I used to frequent SZ many years ago but had moved on to fancier/newer/closer places. After this trip.... I think I might be coming here a LOT more because the quality and preparation seem to have improved. Next time, i think my wife would suggest we get a sitter and have a Date Night and enjoy some Sake too! in spite of our kids getting slightly out of control... thanks for the great meal Sushi Zen! read more

Love Sushi Zen - always friendly smiling service and great rolls, sashimi, miso soup and salad for me and my family. Green tea could be hotter but usually very tasty. One of our family favorites and one of the few sushi restaurants that's good for families. Thanks for making my kids like sushi Sushi Zen. read more

Uai was not fresh, Tempura was greasy and sauce was sweet. Service was fine. Screaming kids.

The best sushi in the state, every time I pass though VA I have to eat here. THE BEST! The sashimi was amazing!

I really wanted to like this place. However, after paying $17+ for soggy chiken katsu with virtually no panko, a paltry serving of rice, and bland misoshiru, I struggle to recommend it. While I was pleased by the visual presentation of the food, the dish itself is bland and spiritless. I would have thought they'd have more pride in their work. I have also had their sushi, which while satisfying, was small in portion (thin neta) and thus over-priced. read more

I experienced this restaurant for the first time this past weekend. I was thoroughly impressed with the attentiveness of the waitress and quality of the fish. Id recommend a try to any casual sushi fan like myself as well as the experts. read more

Wow I was so happy with their service and they did a great job putting a lot of meat on the sushi. Price is a little expensive but it is worth it! read more

This is near my house and I visit every couple of months. Never had a bad meal here. I usually do some sashimi and a roll. I do love the eel too....I know, I know but I can't help it. It's not slimy. I love that sweet, smoky flavor. Yum. Very good value for the $$. #arlingtonrestaurant read more