Yen Sushi & Sake Bar — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I went here two days ago while visiting a friend in the Long Beach area. Yen has several other locations, including the one near my home in Studio City.

The first thing I noticed when I got here was that this was a Korean owned franchise. Oh no. The menu consisted mainly of contemporary fancy rolls, as well as some other basic "Japanese" food that anybody can learn to cook really. Anyways, I gave the food a shot.

I ordered yellowtail, albacore, and spanish mackerel nigiri sushi. Then my friend got a soft shell crab and salmon roll. After having tried a piece of everything, I concluded that the food here is 3 stars. It's not bad sushi like Todai or Sushi Mac. It's even a tad better than Mon, which is another Korean owned sushi franchise. It's just not on the same freshness/taste level as Noshi Sushi, Sushi Gen, Yotsuya, or even Oomasa. The rolls themselves were just okay too.

Sure, the restaurant interior is nice, clean, and good for friendship outings. But if you want something great tasting, don't drive out of your way to eat here. It's not all that spectacular. I guess now I now how the Studio City location probably...

This is the best sushi I have ever had. And compared to other places the all you can eat is the most reasonable. I used to go to another place (who for kindness sake I won't mention the name) who started raising prices like crazy! I know times are tough, but suddenly on top of the expensive all you can eat charge if you ordered uni or shrimp heads -- or which you were only allowed one order -- now you had to pay an extra 2 dollars! Forget it! When I found Yen I found not only better quality, I found lower prices, and I could order what I wanted. They are serious about eating everything though as they are entitled to be. My friend and I ordered too much the first time. We had to pay extra for what we couldn't eat! But they were extremely kind and packed it all up for us to take home. I...

Disappointing. Lived by this place for many years and finally gave it a shot. Everything was ho hum to bleh. The baked muscles were fishy and for our last roll we were served what I've uploaded in my photo. It's like they just gave up. Our spicy salmon roll never came out, but we were done at that point and had the waiter cancel the order. Should of known when the table next to us left a massive amount of uneaten good when they left. I'm sticking with Ahi...