Sushi Zanmai — Restaurant in George Town

Recently renovated so the place looks nicer and more spacious than previous. The food is still good regardless so good job. However, I ordered Karasu Karei Don, crispy fried Atlantic Flounder, the fish itself is pretty much tasteless. The batter for the fish was tasteless, and the fish meat itself was tasteless so I had to put shoyu on top of it. They could've put some salt and pepper into the batter mix at least the fish wouldn't taste so bland.

Service wise, the manager was great but the waitress was a bit unprofessional. The restaurant was not very busy at the time of the visit but the two times that I get ahold of the waitress, she came up to the table with a frown and looked unhappy to be there. The only reason why I had to get ahold of her twice was that she left before I could finish putting in my request. So, she came up to the table frowning twice and like she wasn't happy at all. She also served food on my table like she wasn't willing to work as well.

My table's call bell, unfortunately, did not work, resulting in me popping my head looking out for the servers constantly. When my food arrived, I opened the chopstick box to get myself a pair of chopsticks just to find out that there were no chopsticks and due to the absence of the servers, I had to communicate with the kitchen and request chopsticks since their layout allowed me an opportunity to communicate with them and the chef noticed me. Thank you chef, for your attentiveness.

Atmosphere almost full star but because aircon was like so hot, it's hard to give full star. Sushi Zanmai management really need to talk to Gurney Paragon's management to find out what is the problem with the aircon. It has been hot for many years in the restaurant.

One waitress was walking while dragging her feet on the floor so it...

I've been to this restaurant a few times now, and while I can't call it my favorite Japanese restaurant, I respect what they are trying to do here; to serve their customers affordable Japanese food. Their menu is unique with a choice of small or large sizes for a majority of their rice and noodle entrees. These start from as low as RM9 for a small cold soba which I personally think is a wonderful deal because it gives one choices, and choices are good to have.

We ordered the Gyuniku Tataki appetizer (seared thinly sliced Angus striploin), Special Oyako Don (simmered chicken with egg on rice), small Tenzaru (cold chasoba noodle with tempura) and Hourai Sushi (6 pieces sushi). The striploin was excellent; tender pieces of beef contrasting brilliantly with browned, crispy garlic slices and a savory dipping sauce. The chicken with egg on rice was also enjoyable with the runny yolk and generous sauce bringing the chicken and rice together. Tenzaru was decent; the tempura was fried expertly with crispy batter, but unfortunately the soba was slightly overdone resulting in a texture that's too soft for my liking. The assorted sushi was decent as well. I paid less than RM70 including taxes and service charges for all this food and 2 green teas.

I think if one were to approach this restaurant with the right expectations, there's little to nothing to complaint about. Food is decent with some standout dishes, service is good, and the atmosphere is OK as well. I deducted 1 star from the atmosphere because they do have 1 serving robot that zips around the place playing the Doraemon theme song on repeat. The tune is staying rent-free in my brain as I'm typing this review. I wouldn't mind coming back to this place for a bite the next time I'm in Gurney Paragon, and I feel like having...

I wish I could give this place a better review as it is kind of our back up plan whenever we want sushi as it's next door to where we live when we are in Penang but unfortunately despite the fact that the sashimi is actually decent and the agedashi, and the rest of the food is actually good too the service is soooooooo slow even for Malaysia. We have been here twice this trip and our drinks always come way after our food. We literally have to hunt down people to ask for something. They have this electronic ordering which is supposed to make things more efficient. Also a very loud obnoxious bell at the table if you need a server. I don't know what to say. So many annoying little things that seem like it would be easy to fix. They gave us a complimentary beer last time because we had to wait so long for our food. This time we tried to order dessert but they ran out. Hmmm. If there is another place that is better close by I think we would stop coming here. We will try Ippudo to see if...