Sushi Zanmai - Boulder

Was great and they were really quick with everything. We didn't have a reservation but there was a gap that we happened to make it in to. I ordered standard sushi, sashimi and tempora items and then accidentally ordered salmon eggs, which I had never dared to try in the past, and even with my accidental item, it was all tasty! Gotta love any restaurant that has a Tanuki statue lol. The tempora banana dessert was also something unique. It's funny because I was initially going to another restaurant and accidentally Google mapped the the wrong restaurant, but I would say it worked out well, happy accident lol. Cheers!

Chicken Katsu gave my friend food poisoning. Don’t go here

Delicious sushi. Despite it being extremely busy we were seated quickly and service was fantastic.

I 've lived in Boulder for over 20 years and I *used* to be able to say unequivocally that Sushi Zanmai was the best sushi in Boulder. The last 2 times I went, the food was just average--over cooked ginger steak, slapped together sushi presentation, I 'm not even sure what happened to Z-9, but it is now meh , I swear the wasabi has even lost some kick, and more subtle things--but isn 't that what sushi is about?I don 't expect the kitchen and sushi to come out at the same time, but with a half full restaurant and 5 sushi chefs, seems like they could have gotten closer than the 20 minutes some in our party had to wait for sushi after or kitchen dishes.The new chefs seem to not particularly enjoy their jobs nor provide energy to the restaurant like they used to.Oh, an no Saturday night Karaoke!!?I hope the new management/owner can improve things.

I’m giving this three stars solely because it doesn’t seem fair to give one star based on our experience when we didn’t eat there.We were very excited to try this place after reading great reviews. Idk when management changed, but what we experienced was the opposite of these years’ worth of raving reviews. We got on the wait list and were told it would be at least 30 minutes, with a facial expression that definitely indicated we were in for the long haul. So we went to grab a drink around the corner. 9 minutes later I got a text our table was ready. That’s nice but idk how they got it so wrong. We had to abandon our fresh drinks at this other spot. When we arrived, a group was about to be sat so I flagged the hostess down to let her know we arrived, as it looked like the only table left was being given away. She said acknowledged us and asked for a few minutes. Unfortunately my fears were correct, the last table had been sat and instead we were being given the one table in the house that had traditional floor seating. As in, the table is low to the ground and you’re sitting on little deflated cushions. I’m sure this is supposed to be a big deal, but just one look at my group would have alerted the staff that this wasn’t going to work for us. At the very least, I think this should be something that guests are made aware of and can opt out of- especially when disabilities are involved. When I told the hostess that wouldn’t work for us, she looked shocked (but not concerned). Thankfully that group that was sat ahead of us overheard and jumped in. They actually wanted the special floor seating and switched with us. Great. After that, it unfortunately kept going downhill. We were only given one menu for the four of us, so looking took awhile. Our waitress came to us nearly immediately expecting to take our entire order. We put in drinks haphazardly, and asked for more time. 10 minutes later we had to flag her down to ask a question about the menu, and as we were saying “let’s order an appetizer” she walked off. She never returned. 10 minutes later we decided to leave. The menu online isn’t reflective of the menu in the restaurant. Some stuff is lunch only but that’s not clear online. We’d decided to come here so everyone in our group could be accommodated (not everyone likes fish, but hey good friends compromise) and finding out the menu differences, on top of the absent service, was the final straw. We managed to pay for our drinks and left. It’s hard to accurately articulate the scene here but it was just a bizarre experience from beginning to end. The vibe was totally off and I expect our dinner would have taken 2.5 hours based on the 25 minutes we were there.I’m sure the food is great but when everything else is chaotic, that doesn’t matter much unfortunately.