japanese bistro zen 禅

we came here one rainy night and left stuffed.

thefoodwas beautifully presented and tasted amazing and fresh.

we ordered way too much food. the sashimi platter filled up all three of us!

entertaining, lively, and great value meals. the type of restaurant you'd walk straight past if you didn't know it was here, because the facade really is nondescript and doesn't scream out 'here we are'. but once you walk inside, you don't really want to leave - the atmosphere of industry zen is spectacular.

my girlfriend and i visited here in 2015 during 'restaurant month'. we were initially drawn here by what we thought was their great deal of the month, but then thought we'd prefer to select our own dishes. and my goodness, what wonderfulfood- even the seasonal vegetables on the hot plate were delicious, and it's such a simple dish. i recommend that you try the yumyum prawns, which comes with teriyaki poached egg.

as you can see from the photos, the servings are generous, so we left feeling absolutely buggered - we were actually going to order more, so we were really glad that we didn't. my partner has returned since, of which i very jealously missed out on.

i have some very poor quality photos here, but thefoodwas soooooo amazing that i have decided to upload it anyway!

had dinner here with 2 friends last sunday. took us a while to find this place as we got confused with our streets, but was very glad to eventually stumble through the door.

lovely layout inside the restaurant, and offers a very authentic japanese feel. we sat in a table next to a projector screen and wondered what that was about. only later to find out that the projector winds up later to introduce the chef and kitchen staff. that was a very different experience.

when we sat down at our table, the 3 of us felt that it was unnecessarily huge (kind of awkward to talk to the person across), however when ourfoodstarting arriving, we were quite grateful for the large table!

we ordered an item each under most of the headings on the menu. i would highly recommend the following: the spider wrap, the california wrap, karaage fried chicken and the teriyaki chicken with 5 sauces! those were my absolute favourites!

we also had the pleasure of watching their mini drumroll performance to congratulate customers who were celebrating an event.

i am dying to return again!!

horrible experience. waitresses were not friendly, impolite and unattended. thefoodlooked good but tastes bad.
karaage chicken 0.5/5. unappetising, oily, not krispy
the dragon 2/5. eel was very thin and doesn’t taste like eel.
spicy tuna roll 2/5. too much of the spicy sauce and very salty
beef tataki 3/5. there were different kind some were alright and some tasted weird
over all it was really bad!

after a failed attempt at the grand habour, industry zen saved my night. not knowing what to expect, i walked in with an open mind and was very impressed. thefoodwas amazing and would definitely go back again.

decided to come by for dinner since it was in the area we were meeting. once we got there we were seated and given ample time to look over the menu. we decided to order a few things to share. most of thefoodwas quite good. the dragon roll was blow torched at the table and the robata had the skewers sitting over embering coals. the teppan was on a hot plate and we were able to choose the flavoured salt to season it with. thefoodwas nice in general but did come out a bit slowly.

part way through the meal the curtain over the kitchen went up with a dramatic welcome from the chef and staff. they also brought out the drums for a birthday greeting.

it was quite an interesting dinner.

'as a butterfly glides, so should goodfoodflutter on the palate.' since i came back to auckland, industry zen's been on my radar and i have been impressed by the high ratings this modern take on izakaya gets. the design element of japanese culture andfoodis always a source of wonderment and joy so when i was invited to lunch i had high expectations. as jeffrey archer wrote, 'be careful what you wish for'. although the company was sparkling, thefoodwas okish overall, with some complete clangers. we had vegetable tempura, takoyaki, pickles, squid legs, ebi, unagi and ikura sushi; which were all standard. the 'crisp crabs on a hot plate' were leaden lumps of fish-shop batter. even worse was the deconstructed agedashi tofu - skewers of tofu with a sickly dipping sauce. in my opinion, the tofu should be lightly dusted with starch and deep fried; then dressed with a dashi based sauce and enlivened with spring onion and fresh ginger. purity and clarity of flavour should rule in japanese cuisine - this was not either of those. the one 'twist' (a ray mcvinnieism if ever there was one...) that worked was the gomawakame which came as a 'cappriciosa' of seaweed, pickled shiitake and two other vegetable components. this was the only dish that impressed us. it was a quiet day and the atmos' was fine, the service reasonable but less friendly than other places. auckland has 'une embarras de richesses' when it comes to japanesefood- the best are a splendid showcase for nz's great raw produce. this is not one of them.

i hadn't been here before and we really enjoyed it.
they could have used one more service staff but the service was still very good.
the decor was great as was the atmosphere and thefoodwas good to very good although the quality of the sashimi could be improved. i do eat sashimi often so i am used to fresher fish.
the desserts were very nice. overall, recommended!

went there for dinner on last friday with my family, it was my first visit and surprisingly it wasn’t too busy on a friday night. polite staffs and traditional japanese decor.foodwas pretty average tbh, we have ordered the sushi roll, sashimi platter, crispy squid, oyster platter and scotch fillet. sashimi was really fresh, scotch fillet was perfectly cooked. sushi roll was kinda bland to me, not flavourful enough. overall experience was not too bad, in terms of value i’d say kinda pricey and they do not have many options on the menu.

rating 3.0 moody looking from the outside, it’s hard to tell that it’s open and trading inside. a bit theatric in thefoodpresentation, the umeshu was served in a lopsided glass with ball ice, and they torch-charred the eel sushi right in front of you as they’re served on your table. unfortunately it was a bit average on thefoodquality, where it counted. not necessarily bad, but the sushi rice was bit dried & hard, the seaweed salad was bit over dressed. did enjoy the lamb leg robata though.

disappointing! i was really surprised to see that the chefs are japanese, as thefoodis unfortunately adapted to suit joe public, and as such suffers for it. not at all like authentic japanese food, which could be mitigated if it was supposed to be "fusion". however it is not, it's just japanesefoodthat isn't very good.

staff were very friendly and accommodating.
the quality of thefoodwas alright but was definitely expecting a bit more for the price.
restaurant lighting was a tad too dark for my liking but service was very good overall.

as the only vegetarian in my group i ordered seperatefoodto everyone else, who all shared various meat & seafood dishes. i ordered soy beans, veggie tempura, and tofu. the beans were basic, the tempura was ok (however they battered calery...and it was tough celery), and the tofu was barely cooked (cold, soggy, watery). i got very sick fromfoodpoisoning about 3/4 hours later, so it must have been the undercooked tofu. i was sober driving, so it was definitely not from drinking. it was not a nice experience, and i will never be going back there.

nice atmosphere and great staff here. thefoodhere is nice here but i feel like it is a bit overpriced for what you get. portions are quite small. we had to order quite a bit in order to feel full and satisfied. the sushi rolls were nice but 4 pcs for $11 is quite pricey. sashimi was quite thinly sliced as well. 

i thought the teriyaki salmon would come out with a side of steamed rice, which made it less appetizing considering how much teriyaki sauce was on the salmon pieces - it was very salty and i had to break apart the sushi rolls so that i could use the rice to 'dilute' the saltiness of the salmon. 

also ordered the 'matcha iced green tea' and it wasn't anything special or nice. it wasn't the best ice green tea i've had for sure.

absolutely fantastic all round - highly recommendable and a fantastic experience. service spot on -foodincredible, presentation spectacular. excellent restaurant and will be back again and again.