zen toro

I'm about to go get my standard half fuji salad add tofu lunch at crepeville and I'm very excited about it, but before I go I thought I'd write a review of Zen Toro. I ate there for the very first time last night. Me and smiller tried to go to Mikuni cuz I never go there and it's kind of a novelty to me, and now with Taka's gone...sigh...anyway, upon entering Mikuni smelled like stale grease, the flat screens were all going, it was noisy, and people were lined up for a 20 minute wait. Why will people wait for this place? It is nothing special! So, we just had a pleasant walk to Zen Toro.

The food was EXCELLENT, but there were two drawbacks:
1)the big one, the seated us and then as I was trying to order the server rudely told us that they were closing soon. That sucked and made us feel uncomfortable. If they are going to do that they should just tell us they're closing and they can't seat us. Don't seat us and then act like you don't really want to serve us. I don't usually go to restaurants as they are closing but it's pretty weird for a sushi place to close so early (nine) and there were other people chillin'. In the end we only left a couple of minutes after the last party.
2)this same server was kind of clueless or pretending to be so so that she could rush us out. She could not tell me the difference between fresh water and salt water eel (I was curious to try something new) and then (I guess this is a third drawback but the food was so good I want to hold it down to two) they didn't have the special eel or a toro special that was on the board.

However, it was pleasant and quiet inside (except for their TV being tuned to King of the Hill, same as in Mikuni, why the fuck would anyone want to ever watch King of the Hill with the sound turned off, what is the point of that?!). We got a big hot sake for five bucks and two big rolls. One had hamachi and scallions and was quite good. The sushi rice at Zen Toro stands out as better than average. The second roll had tuna with poke sauce and unfortunately it was pretty bland because the poke sauce flavor was not strong enough. We also got nigiri. We got a seared beef one that was awesome, it had a spicy hot sauce on top and a strong beefy flavor. The texture and flavor of the smoked salmon nigiri was also excellent, and the unagi was the best I've had in ages. A big chunk of fresh, tasty eel. I would have liked to order more but we were being somewhat vibed out (another server we had was nicer and told us to take our time), but this place was really good and I'm going to add it to my sushi schedule.