Zencu Sushi & Grill — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Mediocre Japanese food, no parking validation, and FORCED tips.

Are tips obligatory even if the food was okay-ish? Of course not. Tips are an optional add-on to the dining expenses. But not here. (Look pictures) When you are about to pay, you already have included 20% tip on your purchase. We just wanted to give a 10% tip because the food was mediocre and overpriced... The interesting thing is that you CANNOT change or remove the tip, we asked, and they said because they were 5 of us. It is funny that it says "tip suggestion: 15%, 20%, etc." when you can not even change or remove the tip rate! Now we understand why tipping culture is getting out of our hands...

Now the food... Is "meh", you won't be having the "mmm's" when eating here. Tired chicken yakisoba, and the taste is ordinary, chewy chicken, not special at all. Ordered California rolls and it was regular sushi with no dressing. Soft drinks are $3.5 each. Water tastes like high school water fountain. Overall, the food is not the main reason you will be here...

The atmosphere is great! This is the part that it stands out from other restaurants. The reason is that it has a nice entrance, with stairs and banners everywhere. The dining building itself is comfortable, and there is plenty of lighting.

No parking validation. It would be nice considering since it is $4 per 15min, or $16 max.

Overall, our recommendation is that you should give it a try, but we want to let you know what to expect: okay-ish Japanese food, forced 20% tip, and overpriced food.

Why overpriced and not expensive?

Expensive: You get a lot of food, that tastes good, but it will cost you... Well worth it!

Overpriced: not a lot of food, food taste is forgettable. Still hurts your wallet. You will probably leave sad or...

Last year I left a review on this restaurant with overall 5 stars. The atmosphere was amazing, the food was delicious, and the service was great, until my last visit. All of the times I have been here, my party and I have always been welcomed warmly and received upstanding service! We typically got the same two servers each time we dine in.

Until our most recent visit back in November, we were attended for the first time by this specific server, and we could have never expected someone so impatient and unprofessional. Not only was he impatient in taking our order, he got half of our order wrong (we were only a party of 4). Gave him the benefit of the doubt, maybe they just had a rush earlier, but looking around there were only three other busy tables. When we tried to ask for utensils, he blatantly ignored us until another waitress swooped in and helped us. We enjoyed our meal, had a good time.

Then when I asked for the bill and some to go containers, our previous server came in, threw the containers in front of me, along with the bill, until everything fell onto my food and lap, and walked away. I was completely flabbergasted, I wasn’t and still am unsure of what I possibly done wrong or made him upset. But overall, I was utterly embarrassed as I brought a family member here for the first time, completely raving to him about how amazing this restaurant is, only for his first experience to turn out like this.

I know this is a rather lengthy review, and I apologize, but I would rather give insight on my last experience with them and be straightforward. I really do love and miss this restaurant, but I probably wouldn’t go back here anytime soon, especially if we were to get that rude...

Really enjoyed this restaurant in the past but the recent one had me rethink my future visits.

The servers were extremely bias. Yes I can understand I look like a youth but that is how I was dressed for this day. They treated us like we were kids with no scrap money. The business traffic wasn’t very busy either so there was no excuse to ignore our table. The servers in this shift were more attentive with the guests next to our table because they purchased more items and I guess “more richer and older” so they gave them the best service of all time. I constantly had to keep asking for assistance because we were never checked once. I felt so neglected I wanted to walk out but my food arrived already so I was forced to finish my lunch with my guest.

The pricing of the menu items are reasonable, slightly higher than nearby restaurants. Very understanding of the pricing since it is located in a very popular location of downtown Los Angeles.

I rated 2 stars because the food was actually good.

I honestly had to admit, my first restaurant experience where I did not leave a tip. It’s 2021 and the servers proved to me that equality is still not recognized. Service jobs requires an amount of compassion. I only tip when servers genuinely care about our stay thus tipping is earned, not a privilege. I hope the owner acknowledges the lack of empathy your wait staff has behaved as I also noticed other reviewers mentioning...