Zento Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Alexandria

Zento was not a bad time, to be honest. It was a busy place and during Happy hour we were lucky to sit at the bar and not wait for a table. Happy hour was by far the most affordable I have seen in the area with an offering of various rolls, including several insert fish here and avocado rolls, 2 for 10$ as well as discounted sake of a fair quality. They also offer gluten free soy sauce, which was not of amazing quality I'm sorry to say. The staff seemed to be aware of gluten in food and offered me a gluten free version of a roll that sounded safe to begin with, a picked ginger roll of some sort. Now, the server said "I will put it in gluten free," but seemed dismissive and in a rush. This was not of the greatest concern to me initially, but was later paired with a scoff and a laugh from the wait staff and the sushi chef; both of whom were immediately in front of me at the bar. This made me nervous about how seriously they took it, but I understand everyone makes fun of people they serve at work. The overall atmosphere was busy but generally friendly. I would go again, but would only have the rolls I knew to be gluten free without bothering to take a chance on something new. To be fair: I did not get sick, the rolls were good, and the price ended up pretty decent. However, to be perfectly honest Momo is only a few blocks away and that is my preference between the two.

tl;dr - good happy hour, busy but comfortable happy hour, seem to be aware of gluten and allergies even if they joke about, would visit again (if the wait at Momo was too long and Bilbo Baggins had no room to...

Best sushi HAPPY HOUR in the area!! Sad that I just recently discovered this area and will be moving away. Stopped by on a Monday night with a friend to enjoy HH. Monday nights HH is from 5-10 PM. For appetizers we ordered the Yakitori, fried calamari, Karage chicken. For sushi we had the salmon, white tuna, albacore, spicy salmon, spicy white tuna, Mexican, and Alaskan roll.

All of the appetizers are delicious. Yakitori was lightly grilled, well seasoned and moist. Calamari was delicious with their spicy mayo sauce. Even though they smothered it with the sauce the calamari did not become soggy. The Karage chicken is a MUST order. Lightly fried chicken with their house sauce and honey. For around $5, the order came with plenty of pieces so you do get great value. The rolls themselves tasted very fresh, but I do wish they would take it easy with the spicy mayo sauce. I feel like the Chef just blasted the rolls with as much sauce as he wanted.

Service here is great. Waiters are very attentive and well aware of all the specials. Food comes out rather quickly even on a busy Monday evening. This is the best place in the area for fresh happy hour sushi. We ordered around 35 pieces, 2 apps 2 beers and bill came to around $65. Can't beat this price in the area. I'll be back to try some of their other rolls...

This place is usually a top choice for me for sushi. It's not the best sushi spot in Old Town, but it's one of the top places, and a great location for me.

There are two main reasons for giving low stars. 1) no delivery. There are other good sushi restaurants that deliver to the area. It's not worth the slightly better sushi to get pick-up when I decide to eat in. And if I go out, like I said, there is a better sushi spot in Old Town. 2) when I do order take-out, I'll typically order what I think is called the Sushi Special (?) which comes with sushi, sashimi, miso soup, salad, and a California roll. In the past, I've swapped the California roll for a tuna roll with at most a $0.50 extra charge. Today, however, after I ordered and paid online, they charged me $3 extra to swap the rolls! I asked if a tuna roll is always $3 more than a California roll, and she said yes. I didn't want to argue because it's not worth the aggravation - I just won't order take-out there again because that was a clear lie. Plus, the $3 was before tax, so I never paid the tax on the extra charge, which adds to the scetchyness of this all.

Zento, you just lost a loyal customer.

ETA: Zento has apologized and offered compensation for this issue, which is very much appreciated. Now they just need to...