Marlboro Eats: Zen

Saturday night Mrs. Legalbgl and I were able to secure the services of a babysitter for our future blogger, and had a long overdue date night. We decided to try a Japanese restaurant that recently opened by our house, but which we were unable to go to earlier. Zen Japanese Cuisine turned out to be worth the wait.

Zen is an "upscale" BYOB sushi restaurant. Their rolls were huge. I had a spicy tuna roll, a rainbow roll, and a Bon Jovi Roll (we are 15 minutes from Sayreville, where Bon Jovi grew up.) The Bon Jovi Roll is spicy tuna with avocado and cucumber roll with tuna, salmon, snapper and three different roes piled on top with crunchy flakes. The fish was piled so high, I barely fit a piece in my mouth (and I have a big mouth!) Not realizing the size of the rolls, I also ordered the beef negimaki (thin sliced beef rolled with scallions in a very nice brown sauce). Mental note for the future, when the waitress questions whether you are ordering to much food, you probably are.

Mrs. Legalbgl had the chicken terriaki roll and the shrimp tempura roll and followed that with an order of yaki soba (which I will have for dinner tonight, as she barely touched it after being filled from the rolls.) Both the beef negimaki and the yaki soba came with a choice of soup or salad.

Other rolls I want to try on future trips, the Marlboro Roll (shrimp tempura, crab meat, spicy tuna and eel sauce with crispy crumbs), and the Ocean-5 Roll (snapper, salmon, tuna, shrimp, yellowtail, flying fish roe, crispy crumbs and chef's sauce.)

All in all, Zen was quite enjoyable, and very reasonably priced (five rolls, and two dishes for $86 plus tax and tip.) I paired my meal with a nice bottle of Gekkeikan Black and Gold Sake, purchased several months ago for around $15 at a local liquor store, and graciously heated up and served at Zen.