Zen All-You-Can-Eat Sushi & Grill

I’m really torn between giving Zen 3 or 4 stars. I often wish that a half star could be awarded.
My partner and I headed here after a long hard day. We reasoned that good food is the cure for any ailment. After calling to double check that we could get a table we headed down.
This place is just off Calgary Trail and at first glance, it is very run down. The inside is nice enough but the bathrooms need work. Also, several of the plates that our food came out on were broken or chipped. A little goes a long way in a situation like this. Just invest a little and improve the overall appearance of the restaurant.
I was surprised and delighted to find the sheer number of options included in the $ 29.95 dinner price. It wasn’t just sushi or rolls but included cones, tempura and soup as well. Be careful how much you order, because there is a fee for having too many leftovers. However, if you’re feeling that food baby kicking, you can cancel an in progress order. Also, keep in mind there is a two hour time limit, but the kitchen does put out food a reasonable pace.
For the most part, the food was great! The Ponzu Oysters were scrumptious. The rolls were nice, and the fish was fresh. The problem came in when rolls we had ordered didn’t arrive, or came in a lesser quantity than what we had requested. We never did get our softshell crab or fruity rolls.
Our sever was reasonably attentive and pleasant, but never refilled our water, despite being asked. I will also point out, that when I had told her we had never been to Zen before, she didn’t really make an effort to tell us how the ordering process worked or what we should try. A little more effort there would’ve been nice as ordering is a touch confusing. They give you a piece of paper and you’re supposed to write the number of that item that you want, but that wasn’t immeadiately clear.
If you’re looking for good bang for you buck, give this place a try. Go hungry and don’t over order and you should enjoy yourself. Don’t expect high class sushi like you would get at Japonais or you will be disappointed. Overall, I wasn’t blown away, but it was good.

The lunch is good. The price and food are impressive. We ordered a lot and all food has been served pretty quick. Kinda of busy place at Friday noon.

So much goodness!
My girlfriend and I love sushi and when we want to enjoy a wide variety at a reasonable price (and haven’t eaten much that day), Zen is usually our choice to spend a couple hours thoroughly enjoying each bite. From the perfectly flavoured tentacles to the tasty ice cream finishing touch it’s all good.
Their service is friendly and almost always quick unless they are full but you just have to plan for that and savour the dishes you currently have and relax. It’s all you can eat after all– not as fast as you can eat.
Try them!

I would say this is a okay restaurant. It is all you can eat. Food service and customer service are good. It is just that the sashimi is really not fresh. So I would recommend some other restaurants. I think the downtown Watari is just three or four dollars more expensive than this one but the sashimi is much more fresher. So I would say I’d rather give out three or more bucks to have something that is fresher

Awesome. I went in just when it opens for dinner (5pm), just after an hour it’s still not busy and my food came in pretty quick and hot! I was hesitant due to bad reviews but I was craving Japanese food and my food was great. Red snapper sashimi was too rubbery for me, so I liked their salmon sashimi better.

This place is OK. It’s all you can eat, you get a piece of paper and fill out this form and they bring out sushi for you. The service is good and the food comes out fast. You get miso soup at the beginning free of charge.
The sushi is just OK, it wasn’t the best I’ve ever had. The sashimi was kind of gross to be honest. I didn’t finish the order of tuna sashimi. The spicy tuna roll was not what I expected, I am used to a different type of roll? It didn’t look the same as other sushi places I’ve been to and it tasted completely different. The California roll wasn’t very good either. I’ve straight up had better California rolls bought from Safeway (sorry).
The tempua veggies were good so I was happy with that. I guess all I can say is that maybe the tuna was old or something? All the veggie rolls we had were really good, and anything that had tuna in it tasted really weird.
So I guess it was ok ³⁄₅ but I doubt I’ll be back here.

Came back for Valentine’s Day lunch and after immediately sitting down our server comes along and rudely tells us to rush our order because they were closing in half an hour so we were only allowed to get 1 order in.
Keep in mind, their service is either decent or really poor. It was definitely the latter today. Not even 10 minutes into receiving our order, they had us pay before we even got to get through be ¼ of our food because they wanted to close. Working in a restaurant myself, rule is that even if we’re closing we are never supposed to tell guests to hurry out. We felt very unwelcome and as if they couldn’t care that we were rushed.

This restaurant is so amazing! Very good service and very fast! Everything is DELICIOUS! I really recommend It’s really cheap for the quality of their food.
The miso soup is the best that l’ve ever tried !!! And I will not even talk about the sushis!!! Fantastic! Great for bringing all the family in!

I’ve always really enjoyed this place, and don’t really have any complaints.
I would say the food is a little better at Sushi Gardens, but that’s by a sliver of a margin. Service here at Zen is fantastic. Everything from the food to the refills arrived quickly with bright smiles.
I can highly recommend the sashimi and the hot beef dishes like teriyaki beef, ribs and New York steak.

I’ll admit to never having been to a sushi restaurant before, but this kinda blew my mind. For around $ 30 you get a TON of sushi/​sashimi choices. They staggered the order so you didn’t get too too overwhelmed, but kept the table full. I went with an AYCE sushi pro, and even she was quite pleased at the service.
Placed 2 big orders, and we were stuffed. The restaurant itself is a bit dingy. Beers are pricey. But overall, would go again for a cheap night out when I’m dying for a ton of sushi.
Menu is loaded with non sushi items as well.
Protip: Fruit sushi. Strawberries, melon, raisins. Strangely delicious. Get one.

Quantity over quality. Never a good idea if its raw fish you are consuming. Splurge the extra coins and eat real sushi. Or if you want to save money but still want the type of «sushi» that is served here, just douse a bowl of rice with soy sauce and add some canned fish on top.

This is a good value for people who are starved for sushi but don’t want to spend a lot of cash.
At $ 65 for 2 people for a stomach bursting amount of food, you cannot complain.
The problem with AYCE in Edmonton is that it’s gotten a bad reputation for poor service and crappy quality food.
I can honestly say that Zen is both good value, and solid quality. It’s not the best for sushi lovers, but if you have a friend who hasn’t eaten a lot of sushi or japanese food you can easily take them here.
Lots of cooked items for non raw fish eaters, complimented by insanely quick service makes Zen well worth going to.
Pros
Great service
Good Value
Free Parking
Cons
Atmosphere is odd. Their music choice literally plays broadway musicals, michael jackson and KPop

Time virtually stops when you walk in; That’s fantastic because there’s a two hour limit, the bulk of which is spent waiting for food. The waitress was rushed, impolite and masterfully spoke broken English. The food was comparable to ⁷⁄₁₁ sushi, a personal favorite.
We entered with no standards and high hopes, and have left with low standards and no hope. Coming off a 4 week buffet-​bender, our standards and hopes may have been misaligned.
Food 3.5÷5
Staff 1.5÷5
Coming up on the two hour limit, I’m beginning to feel they’re trying to run the clock out on us. Still waiting for our iced teas we ordered when we sat down. If the food wasn’t cheap, today would have been a write-​off.
It hurts to admit but I will be back.
Side note: the man beside us released an audible fart for about 20 solid seconds, unless he was on a strict all sushi diet it was odourless.

I would say this is a very decent all-​you-​can-​eat sushi place. I would definitely not come here for anything other than all-​you-​can-​eat (AYCE). Obviously it’s not fair to compare the quality of sushi to a non-​AYCE joint, so despite the lesser quality sushi, their options are good and quite tasty. Portions are kind of small though and my dinner companions didn’t like any of the more creative, non-​traditional sushi rolls like canadian roll (bacon), and fruity roll (fruits inside), and Mexican cone. The green tea ice cream is good but avoid the frozen cheese cake. I would go back next time, the service wasn’t too slow, but it also wasn’t too busy on a Wednesday night.

OK.
Coming from the GTA and having a wide choice of sushi I was a bit shell shocked being limited to so few choices in Edmonton.
Well I tried Zen and talk about terrible (101 location). I am actually writing this now as I sit abandoned at a table with my tablemates.
We arrived 8:20pm. On a not busy Friday night. We placed our order immediately for all the all you can eat menu. The place is at maybe 60−70% capacity.
Our first dish does not arrive until 8:56pm. Wait. Its only 1 dish
It took 36 minutes to deliver sashimi and bean sprout salad.
Over the next 30 minutes our order trickled in. Coming in 10 minute intervals. Most being cold.
Finally the last dish. The squid arrived. We ordered two portions with the idea of sharing. The lonely dish of 2 tentacles… yes 2 tentacles arrived at 9:30.
How do you share two tentacles?
From 9:30 on… no one came to our table avoiding us. As we tried to place a second order.
Why a second order? Well half the items from our first order did not arrive.
Well 10:00pm closing.
Looks like after paying 29.99 a person we are going out for burgers.
Avoid at all costs.
BTW food. Average at best. Kitchen items cold and lack seasoning. Maki rolls heavy on the rice light on the fish.
Probably my worst dining experience ever.

Not even close to real sushi. Menu has some nasty rolls with bacon, etc. for $ 28 a person! Not going to mention the service, dark and shady place.

Two stars because it’s a clean restaurant. As soon as my fiancé and I walked in, I was a little put off by the rude waitress who sat us at a table with just pointing and the seat and saying, «Sit». I could hear her running around the restaurant and talking really loudly with the staff, seemingly in a really bad mood. I had previously been so excited to try this place I’ve read everyone rave about !!! yeah right, Edmonton!!! Get it together!
The fish is edible, as I had the standard salmon nigiri. Everything else I tried was quite terrible. I had the cucumber salad with bits of crab in it, which probably was pre made and refrigerated because the waitress brought it to me immediately after I ordered. I tried some of the rolls, and none of them stood out because they were mediocre except for one that was absolutely horrid: the golden Philadelphia roll. Huge and the beef was covered with rice that was sooo mushy inside the fried exterior. No thanks
Never again

Went for all you can eat sushi at zen and was blown away by the entire experience. For a part of the meal I forgot I was in Edmonton… It felt like a very ‘Vancouver’ sushi experience.
The quality of the sushi was very good. Not quite as good as sushi wasabi or kobe, but for the price it was close enough.
The most astonishing part was that they limit people to 30 pieces if sashimi per person per sitting. I imagined it would be razor thin slices of mid grade fish, but it was beautifully thick chunks of salmon… It was pretty awesome to basically have as much sashimi as I wanted (we didn’t even get 30 pieces each).
If you’re a fan of sushi and like all you can eat then this place is definitely worth checking out.

All you can eat sushi — something I’ve avoided until now. If, like me, you’ve worried about the quality of all you can eat, you don’t have to worry anymore!
Zen on Calgary Trail is a great spot for lunch with friends or dinner out. The best part is that everything comes in small portions so you may feel like stepping out of your box (if you have one) and trying something new.
Look over the easy to read menu (with pics!), mark your selections on your order form, and enjoy as it is promptly delivered to your table.
Golden California is my fav… And I’ll try anything there… I plan on working my way through the menu in time…
Who’s in for lunch? Great price, fast service, good selection = perfect lunch spot (opens at 11:30).

Who says you can’t get good sushi in River City? I had a great time at Zen, and boy oh boy do they feed you! You sit down, sip green tea while you look over the menu and pencil in the items for round one. When they deliver it they drop off the sheet for round two, pick it up 5– 10 minutes in and this cycle continues until you feel as though you are going to pop!
The owners are sweet, old and so funny. I met two of my best girlfriends there, and as girls do, we gabbed nonstop for at least 45minutes before placing our first order. The gentleman whom I assume owns the place pointed to the 3 hour time limit and joked we would end up «pay for air, talk so much, no order!» ha ha, it was funny!
I love the idea of an AYCE, because you don’t feel bad ordering something you have never tried before just to see if you like it. And, I pretty sure I loved about 95% of what came out! I will definitely be back again soon.