Sens Asian Tapas & Sake Bar

After a very nerve-​wracking interview for a position in Japan held in Downtown Phoenix on a Friday night, my family decided it might be a good idea to head over to Sens to help me relax. Seems appropriate, right? Well, we were huge fans of the old Fate restaurant before they changed it into some commercialized abomination… luckily, we had heard that Johnny Chu started a couple of other places that had been left untouched. Fans of Mr. Chu, we decided to give Sens a try, hoping that all of those great times at Fate could be revived ;)
While Sens certainly isn’t the same, it was still a breath of fresh air. It is definitely unique and innovative, and definitely not traditional… but that’s okay too! The prices were a bit high, but for 4 of us we were actually surprised by how «cheap» the final bill was. It wasn’t really cheap, but way cheaper than we had anticipated.
We had some GREAT drinks, one of which was a very strong Japanese vodka infused with Lychee fruit. I don’t think I really would order it again, but it was pretty good! Just not my type of drink… extremely strong-​tasting!
For food, since they do mostly «family style» dishes where everyone at the table shares, we all ordered a few different things to try out. Pretty much everything except for the riblets was great! I don’t really like pork or beef anyway, but these were especially unappealing to me. However, the Wagyu (Japanese beef) they served was very tasty, and I usually hate beef! We got our own binchotan grill, but the waiter helped us out with cooking the beef since we had never done it before.
Other than that, I can’t really remember the names of what we ordered… but it was all good! (Except for those riblets…) The staff was awesome, it wasn’t too busy, very small but comfortable, and the DJ was pretty awesome. He was a really nice guy, and I think he did some DJing at Fate a few years ago too. Not sure though. The music was also pretty cool!

I love a place that serves food till 2am, and asian inspired food to boot. The quality is always fantastic, service is great and if you want to try a bunch of different sakes, they have a great list to try.
My favorite thing to eat is the miso soup. It’s huge, best to share with someone. My favorite sake is called «Aladdin», it’s unfiltered and a little fruity. Best for groups who are comfortable sharing food, since this is a tapas restaurant.
The atmosphere also makes me forget that I’m in dowtown PHX, and not even a highly populated part either. It’s trendy, but comfortable. It’s one of my go-​to places to eat in downtown.

This place was a great surprise yesterday. We rarely venture in to downtown Phx but we had movie plans at Filmbar, so hubby and I showed up ~6ish for Fri night dinner just before the movie. Our server was this tall guy that was pleasant and welcoming, though not in that fake ‘smile-​and-​kiss-​your-​butt-​for-​a-​good-​tip’ kind of way (hubby hates the over-​the-​top cheery friendliness — think Brian the Chotckie’s employee from Office Space) — in short, we liked our waiter — friendly, educational, and prompt. oh yeah, and he didn’t bug or interrupt us with ‘anyone water water?’ annoying-​ness .
On to the next: atmosphere.
Atmosphere here is really great — they had a DJ playing some swanky, lounge, electronica that went perfectly with the place and the mood; good sounds, nice dark interior with a few soft and bright colors from lotus lampshades, etc; the interior works really well.
Food! Can’t forget the food!
Duck Salad — a yummy crispy cabbage salad with cold duck meat slices in sweet, spicy vin — then topped with crispy garlic and peanuts — oooH!
Gyoza Soup — OMG we wanted more! they burst in your mouth deliciously and the little detail of ginger slice attached to the bottom brings a whole different layer of enjoyment to these dumplings.
Bacon Lychee — We wanted more! The coupling of savory and sweet was outstanding, esp the crispy and fattiness of the bacon melding with the sweetness of the lychee… sooo good!
Almond Fish — it was ok, I enjoyed the previous 3 more.
Korean Short Rip — again, it was ok, but didn’t stand out like the top 3.
Drinks:
— My husband liked his Bombay Gin Dry Martini. said it was made very well
— I really liked my saketini — Jasmine infused Vodka with Sake and grapefruit juice was perfectly flavorful and not sweet like other soft pink drinks.
Overall — it was a perfect ‘date’ night for us — great ambiance and music, wonderful foods and great waitstaff… and good drinks to top it off.

Between items that taste vaguely Asian and prices that can easily stack up, Sens is essentially an upscale Panda Express.
I’ll give them points for concept, though. Basically, you and your pals want Asian food, but can’t decide what kind. Thai? Chinese? It’s whatever, you can get them both here. Portions are small, as everything is a well-​presented appetizer meant for sharing. Between $ 5 and $ 11 a pop for these snacks, you’ll find yourself spending way more than you would if you just ate an entrée at a real restaurant. Beyond that, items are pretty bland, and they really rely on sauces to come alive. I couldn’t taste a hint of goat cheese in the wontons, and the Thai chicken lollipops were bland. They had to be drenched in wasabi or chili sauce.
I then realized I noticed a pattern. Bland fare that caters to a mainstream crowd who actually hasn’t sampled Asian snacks. I will admit that it looks awesome. I’ll admit that it tastes good, but then again tasting good doesn’t mean it’s authentic or worth it. Maybe I’ll be back to try more items, in hopes that I’m all wrong. In the meantime, this Unilocaler has been jaded by similar (yet superior) places in Southern California. If you’re a hipster who’s ideal destination is around Roosevelt, then welcome home.

Sens is one of my favorite places downtown. The drinks are exotic and the food is never disappointing. The staff is also friendly and very helpful.
One of my most recent visits went like this…
Waiter (wish I would have gotten his name) told up the specials. We ended up ordering sizzling shrimp, chicken lollipops, short ribs, and one other thing I can’t remember. I also had a lychee saketini (yum). All of the food was absolutely delicious. Also, the music that they were playing practically matched my current playlist. The acoustic version of «Heartbeats» by the Knife was playing and I mentioned to the waiter that I loved the song, so he played the original as well. (How nice)
When you are at Sens the atmosphere is hip and comfortable. Good for a group or date night.

I absolutely love love love this place. It’s one of my favorite restaurants in the Valley. Everything I’ve eaten here is wonderful, cooked to perfection and with zest.
I love the fact that they have REAL wasabi and not that horseradish paste that’s dyed green.
There are a bunch of things I would recommend but my favorite is the Wasabi Chicken. Oh wow, what a pleasure this is. Everything else is awesome too. I can’t even think of one thing I didn’t like.
The alcohol menu is huge, the Saki list is grand and they taste wonderful. If you have questions about Saki just ask your waiter, they know their Sake.
The Ambiance is fun, I love to sit outside now that the patio is done.
Head on out… I can’t even hear the name of this place without having a craving for it.

I am torn between a 2 and 3 star review, but I think the 2 will out weigh the 3 this time. The over all experience was nice and fun, however there were some very distracting elements that took away from the charm and experience.
First of all the place wasn’t very hopin… only two other table in the entire place. They had a nice table set up for us up front, however it was cold and rainy out and they left the front door open so I could catch a draft all night long. They also had strange techno music playing the entire time, and pumped it out in the streets. It was a little random, didn’t fit very well. We did have some good entertainment, the drunk older people at the bar making out with eachother and then switch partners, funny!
The server was nice and friendly, almost too friendly. Almost any time someone ordered a drink he would suggest a better one, or make some cute remark like we look «more hip» than to drink that. Weird! He didn’t however suggest a different drink for me, he just brought me a different drink than I asked for all together. He acknowledge that it wasn’t what I ordered but he made this one anyway. Rude! I really wanted my Strawberry Basil martini. Whatever. Moving on… the food was great… lots of tofu. I am not a tofu fan, but I tried it anyway, very good and tasty for what it was. I would order it again. Everything else was good, we shared a everything we ordered. The Thai curry was my favorite I think.
Then dessert came, one of each, a green tea cheese cake (dry and blah) and some kinda of cream cheese won ton thing (gross! chewy and no flavor, don’t get it!) And again he talked me into some drink again I didn’t want.
Like I said the over all experience was good, the server needs to just back off, bring me what I ask for, and shut the front door please.

Mmmmmmm butterrrrr.
I’m speaking specifically of the Edamame with truffle butter. We probably could have eaten a few orders of these.
Sugar cane pork. Ohhh yes. Falls of those teeny little bones right into my mouth. Very finger foody. Delicious.
Spicy «Sirring» Shrimp. Comes out sizzling and spicy and delicious. As the server mentioned, «Sirring» isn’t a real word, but who cares!
These three were the stars of the five tapas that we chose. I cant really remember the other two, so they clearly weren’t that great.
The atmosphere is cute, artsy and pretty comfortable. The music was a little low, so we could hear the conversations of the couples on either side of us pretty easily. Kinda awwwwkwaaaard.
I would for sure return.

Sens is, well, SENSational!
I love tapas style of eating. And unlike yogurt and cupcakes, tapas, I think, is here to stay! Sharing food with friends is perhaps one of my all time favorite things to do. Some people like camping. Some people like How I Met My Mother. Others scrap booking. My gig? Friends. Food. Sharing.
So we gathered here yesterday after enjoying fantastic cocktails and my favorite nachos at Bliss to have some serious food. I shared my two favorite things here, the SOUP DUMPLINGS… omg…omg…pounding fists on table… total mouthgasm. You know when you get the squirt of gooey cheese from the middle of pasta shell in your fave mac n cheese? This is so similar. Hot, salty broth exploding as you bite into tender pork and savory cabbage. Pure heaven! Really, who doesn’t like things exploding in your mouth?
My other love is the White Ginger fish, whitefish steamed with a soy ginger sauce. And I loves me some ginger. Even on Gilligan’s Island, I was a Ginger man, not a Mary Ann. I mean really, pigtails?! Tender, mild and absolutely off the charts with some very enjoyable flavors.
Miss for me on this visit were the Korean short ribs… ugh…flavor was there… just couldn’t chew the damn things. Also on the dry side and simply just very pedestrian was the Wasabi Soy Chicken.
But, with the fabulous company I had and the Asahi beer and the chilled sake, it still measured up to a four star evening. Service was great as well. Patient, good-​natured waiter, took care of eight buzzed and chatty diners!
So Sens… you get me. With your tapas style menu. Your downtown vibe. Chilled sake.
And. The. Soup. Dumplings.
SENSational indeed!

Wowza! This place is a total trip! No, I don’t smoke, but if I did this place is probably the place I would go to.
First off, the food was okay. I ordered some chicken wings, which wasn’t really that great. My favorite was the Thai Curry — it definitely had some pop to it. It’s one of those that creep up on you. Milk please! My friend ordered some Sake that I thought was real good and smooth — don’t ask me what it was, the lighting was low and I didn’t care much by the time I arrived.
Service was pretty good I guess, and then again the place was drop dead for a Friday night. What’s up with that?! I’m sure the place gets hopping on 1^st Friday, but that’s only one day out of the month — I sure it picks up quick!
Ambience, was cool, just reminded me of the 70’s in a way even though I didn’t grow up during the 70’s haha, but I thought the design and décor were pretty cool. Eccentric I think was the word I used. Bathroom was blue and that’s all I’ll say… check it out! — Enjoy!

This place does not get enough business! An awesome spot to have drinks and get some things to snack on while you’re at it.
Some nights they have a DJ. Once we celebrated a friend’s birthday there and the DJ was completely ignoring any of our song requests and continued to play 90’s hip hop.
Their sake list is pretty long and very reasonably priced, so it’s a great place to try some cold sake. I think too many people taste hot house sake and don’t know any other varieties.
Also great for trying are their tapas plates. Most of their items come with about 4 – 6 pieces per plate, so you can try a lot of what the kitchen has to offer. Recommendations: Korean short ribs, Thai red curry wings, and wontons filled with pepper jack cheese and chicken.
There is only one bathroom, which gets run down pretty quickly. If you’re waiting in line, you’ll be forced to enjoy the erotic artwork in the hallway.

If an alcoholic beverage could be described as beautiful tasting then Sens’ moonstone coconut lemongrass sake earns it. I’m a fan of unfiltered sake and this one was delicious tasting, smelling.
The Wasabi Tofu was also excellent. I was skeptical of the dessert wonton, but I enjoyed it’s subtle sweetness.

We came here after the GIANTS spring training game. The DJ spinning the tunes had some pretty good beats. There isn’t much open late, but luckily we were able to find this on Unilocal.
We ordered a number of tapa’s plates such as the tofu, edamame, pork buns, Xiao lum bao’s, Miso soup, spicy noodles, spicy shrimp, and a few others. It was good, but not fabulous. It seems like they use the same style when trying to make their dishes spicy. It had the same spice to it each time, so the chef should change this up.
Overall the price is okay. The drinks weren’t that good, my wife said her drink wasn’t very good. I don’t think I will come back here as there are much better fusion places in places like CA and NY. But I guess for PHX, it’s okay.

We (11 of us) went on a Saturday night. The birthday insisted on this place from raves from her coworkers. I called ahead to make reservations since I heard the place was kind of small. I got there 10 mins to the reservation time. They will not seat us until most of our party was here, then though the restaurant was empty. So we waited around outside for the rest of the party to show up.
We ordered a ton of food, these are the things I tried and I remembered:
1. Volcano Flamed thinly sliced beef seared on hot stone
— The presentation of the dish was awesome. The beef cooking on the hot stone. The beef was pretty good. The sauce on the served on the side was basically fish sauce with peanuts.
2. Almond Fish crusted white fish flash fried with 2 dipping sauce
— The fish had a spicy almond crust. The 2 sauces were house soy sauce mixed with wasabi & the other was sweet hot chili paste. The fish was good, but it was too spicy for me.
3. Chicken Lollipops chicken wings in a spicy thai pepper sauce
— The chicken was juicy, cooked through and through. The pepper sauce on the chicken was spicy but not overpowering.
4. Pineapple Ginger fried tofu served w/​ginger dipping sauce
— This dish was the usual tofu cut up and fried. The ginger dipping sauce was so spicy, which was a surprise because the menu did not mention it was spicy.
5. Hong Kong Flat Rice ovalettes in a sizzling garlic sauce
— Ok, I loved this dish. It reminds me of going on Sunday mornings to Shanghai dim sum as a kid. The rice ovalette covered in the garlic sauce was so good.
6. Charcoal Grilled Jasmine Rice Ball
— Basically what it says.
Overview the presentation of dishes were awesome. The flavors of all the dishes were average for Asian food. Most the dishes were a little tad too spicy for me. The place itself was like a modern décor with a splash of Asian flavor. The service was spotty, we had to keep looking for the server. Asian tapas does already exist it is called dim sum. I am with Tina T., I gave it three stars too because I did like the place but just not LOVING it.

Well it almost feels redundant at this point after 168 reviews posted for Sens, but for the love of sriracha this place was spectacular! Once I got over the drool from reading the menu and actually tried several of the vegetarian options, I started scheduling my next visit. Holy thai basil, the flavors were impressive. The taste was comforting and exotic at the same time and the dishes very visually pleasing.
The house infused vodkas and shochu are delicious. Paired with the swanky semi-​punk vibe, you’ve got a nice cocktail to wash down that sesame tofu. I did take one star for the disappointing okra. Is that fair to take away a whole star for a vegetable nobody like anyway? I don’t know. I love okra and I’m sad it wasn’t given a fair presentation.
I’ll definitely be bringing my out-​of-​towners here to show case the fancy food and funky atmosphere in Phoenix.

5 stars for the taste of the food.
2 stars for service.
YIKES.
I’m allergic to peanuts. I told the lady server this from the get-​go, and she confidently stated she’d let the kitchen know and assured that no peanuts would reach the table.
Of the 8 dishes we ordered, 7 were brought to the table garnished with peanuts. 7!
Each time, the server would apologize and blame it on the kitchen.
I would be inclined to believe her, if it weren’t for the crap service she provided otherwise.
We constantly had empty drinks, and at one point, during a particularly spicy dish, we ended up having to flag her down out of desperation.
The food did taste great though. Too bad I’ll never come back because of the service/​peanut concerns.

A nice little walk from my apartment, this place is a cute little restaurant off 1^st street. The décor and ambience are pleasing, with a DJ that plays the kind of music I prefer. The wait staff are attentive and friendly, with constant refills of the water and help with the menu.
I’ve only been here once, but I’ll give it another try. The fried tofu triangles with the spicy ginger sauce were tasty. The spring roll that was called mango papaya had no flavors of mango or papaya whatsoever, although I did detect mint. The flavorings were delicious, but the spring roll was just kind of bland.

It has been a year-​and-​a-​half since my last review update, and I still cannot get enough of Sens. I’m here at least 2 – 3 times a month, sometimes even twice a week!
I really appreciate the love and dedication that Johnny puts into his craft. He cares about the quality and taste of every meal that comes out of his kitchen, the way his staff interacts with customers, and the overall ambiance of the restaurant. I think he has mastered this craft.
Being a vegan I have a plethora of options, which makes me very happy! The mango papaya spring rolls are incredibly refreshing and pair well with the spicy peanut chili sauce, the wasabi tofu is a great crunchy and spicy transition into the incredibly flavorful Hong Kong Flat Rice (I add tofu) or Spicy Saigon with Tofu. Both dishes are loaded with snow peas, cauliflower, onions, and carrots and tons of flavorful sauce in a skillet with crunchy tofu.
Another chart topper for me is the hot and sour soup with tofu. Try the sweet chili sauce that comes on the side for a sweet, spicy, and salty adventure! The red tofu curry is amazing as well. VERY filling.
I’m a huge fan of the plain ‘ol vodka tonic, but love that they infuse their own vodkas with a variety of things like chili’s and lychee. Dallas G LOVES the «hot and dirty» and I am also a fan of the «Cucumber chill.» Although I cannot drink beer anymore, the White Ale is a chart topper.
They also have a great selection of Sake. I took part in their sake tasting last night and became a fan of several new sakes! We downed a bottle of Pure Dawn and were really excited to see the discount after partaking in the tasting! Bonus!
Overall, Sens is definitely my favorite restaurant. The food, the drinks, the love… and we know all of the waiter/​tresses so it makes for an even better experience!
PS… Still love the bathrooms ;-)

Okay, right to the food… Being a fellow Asian, it was mediocre at best. I will admit that it was at least tasty. The tasty factor i would rate a 4.
2-​rating due to the price. For basic southeastern Asian tapas, it should of been a fraction. It was a fusion menu between Vietnamese, Thai, and Chinese. I truly felt like I was ripped off. I don’t normally say that, but that’s how I felt.
The sake cocktails were also tasty but your still paying an arm and leg. I’m pretty sure the extra cost goes to the rent/​staff expense in downtown.
The ambient was trendy, modern with artsy decorations on the walls. A little fun fact, the Chef and cooks are all Asian, so atleast you know it will be made right.
Overall, I would say this would be more of a place to get your sake fix than your asian food fix in a low-​key, chilled setting. Lastly, don’t expect your appetite to fill up.

Have you ever gone to the hot restaurant in town that everyone loves, and gotten horrible service? Yeah, I got the pleasure of that at Sens recently.
The horrible bartender made my experience here a complete shit show. This is not my 1^st time here, and I may still give Sens another shot to redeem itself, but my experience Friday was awful.
We had a pretty big group 12+ on a Friday night, which I know is a pain for restaurants. We called ahead, & when we got there were were given a completely reasonable 35 minute wait time.
A few of us decided to go ahead & eat at the bar I ordered the same time as my friend next to me. My order included hot tea & 1 dish that had 4 dumplings. Though pure incompetence, it was an hour and a half before I actually got my food. That was of course after I finally went up to management & complained.
We ended up having a lovely waiter at the table, and he was the guy who salvaged my experience.
Here’s the deal, First Fridays are always going to be busy downtown, Sens management needs to make sure they are fully staffed with competent employees on those nights. period
I hope Sens does it better next time.