Update July 2009: The restaurant has moved to a more upscale building/location in Hamagawa, closer to the port. After a turn west from the 58 at Hamagawa intersection, turn left immediately after the port. Follow the road around and park somewhere along the water. Walk towards the water and turn right onto the street that parallels the beginning of the seawall, behind the anti-typhoon plantings. (ie at the corner that has Hamaya sea restaurant and Sunset music). There is the new Sushi Zen, still only open for dinner.
Location: Chatan. From the 58, turn at the Hamagawa intersection towards the seawall. Take the right after the car lot (the last R before the seawall). Head north, the restaurant is on your left past the supermarket.
Hours: opens 5:30p, closes 10:30-11p, closed Sunday
http://www.okinawahai.com/my_weblog/2007/12/sushi-zen.html
Everybody knows about Sushi Zen. The proprietor has done everything right to appeal to the local military community - English menus, English speaking waitstaff, and dramatic colorful rolls with cute names. As a result, the place does very well financially, and after 6:30p on a Thursday a queue was out the door. But it is disturbing to be in Japan and eat at a restaurant entirely packed out with U.S. citizens.
The food is undeniably tasty. There is something so decadent about the combination of raw fish, rice, seaweed, avocado, roe, and mayonnaise. The dragon roll and volcano roll were both excellent examples of this (rolls 600-1200Y). This is the Japanese equivalent of good TexMex - a completely unauthentic cuisine, based loosely on the ingredients/ideas of nation's rich food heritage, totally transformed to the strange fat&sugar-craving American palate. And very much like having a Corona with your carne asada burrito, having hot sake (beer/sake approx 500Y) with your monster roll just feels right, even if you know it is wrong.
