Shizen Vegan Sushi Bar & Izakaya

Awesome vegan food! I ordered the shoyu ramen and it was awesome-didn’t come with nori sheets though as it is labeled it does, which would have made it even more delicious:) my non vegan friends ordered the tofuna roll and the California roll and some tempura, said it tasted better than ‘normal’ sushi and was amazing:) so this place is definitely for everyone!!!

The food here was beautifully presented and everything we tried was delicious! The only reason I am not giving the 5^th star is because we had to wait for over an hour to be seated based on the list. But I guess that is what happens when you go on a Saturday night at prime time.

What! Did I just give five stars for a vegan restaurant! I sure did. I didn’t know what the hell I was eating when I was eating it but it was all so good! They could of been feeding me chopped liver for all I knew, wait it’s vegan. The only thing that was not good was the vegan cheesecake it was grainy yuck. All the rolls we got were amazing and the stuffed mushroom, croquettes, lotus in dashi, all yum!

Very good veggie sushi. I’m not a vegan but my friend is. I highly recommend this place for vegan sushi.
My buddy ordered for us and every dish that came out was delicious. Who would have thought?
The open at 5pm and get pretty busy by 6pm. The service is outstanding.
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My family and I couldn’t stop talking about this place. Every single roll we ordered was phenomenal! If only LA had a place like this we would seriously go every month at least.
Can’t wait till our vegan friends/​family try it out.

San Francisco now has two vegan Japanese restaurants: the venerable (in Internet years) Cha-​Ya, and now Shizen. Both offer an abundance of sushi. Cha-​Ya has a more complete menu, while Shizen specializes in smaller dishes; their only entrée-​size item is ramen.
For my first visit I started with umeshiso, green mango nigiri, and tempura sweet potato sushi. The umeshiso was a good basic hosomaki. The green mango was very tasty; I recommend you try this one. The tempura roll was tasty, but can’t hold a candle to Cha-Ya’s tempura rolls. Shizen’s was merely wrapped in some kind of tempura sheet, while Cha-​Ya dunks the whole roll in tempura batter and deep-​fries it. Their soy sauce is *very* salty. Don’t dip your sushi too long!
I also ordered gyoza, which arrived amongst the sushi but which I ate after, because I love gyoza. They tie for Cha-​Ya here; nice delicate flavor and a sauce that didn’t overpower. And I do believe they are less expensive here.
Finally, I got a bowl of garlic-​miso ramen. The noodles were a bit overcooked, but tasty. The broth was strong, but then I did order garlic-​miso. The dish was garnished with a few mushrooms, one fried in tempura batter, some very odd-​tasting tofu slices, and two sheets of nori. The menu says gluten-​free noodles are available for $ 2 extra; I overheard the waiters and this is just soba. Cha-​Ya just says up front you can get udon or soba noodles, and doesn’t charge extra (that said, Shizen’s noodle are made fresh in house). I can’t say I would order noodles again here.
I didn’t order any of the fancy expensive rolls because I was by myself, but they look very tempting. If I find myself there with a group I will definitely try some. I was seated at the sushi bar and saw a few of them prepared. Some of them are lit on fire!
They only have one dessert special each day. I didn’t get it, but the folks next to me at the sushi bar got it: tempura banana with mango ice cream & strawberries. $ 10. It smelled delicious.
As for the venue, it’s loud. Everybody has a cell phone or computer out, and they’re all talking over each other (both of the couples on either side of me were yapping about the little kid eaten by the alligator at Disney World; how appetizing). The floor is concrete, to boot. Don’t go here for a quiet date; go to Cha-​Ya instead.

We first went here on a weeknight about a month ago when we just wanted takeout. After we looked over the menu for a few minutes, the hostess informed us that we could not order takeout because they didn’t have enough RICE. I literally told her that that didn’t make any sense and she said the manager wants to save the rice for people dining at the restaurant… Uh what? We are paying customers too. If you don’t do takeout you should be clear about that. We decided head their request in dine in because we were already there and they had a table available. Once seated, the service and food were both good.
I cannot say the same about our service last night, however. We arrived 40 minutes before closing and the staff looked annoyed to serve us. The staff literally ignored us the first 20 minutes of trying to get our order in. I wish they would have been clear about the time that they stop serving people, we could have easily left and gone somewhere else. Beyond that we are pretty easy customers… It was an extremely uncomfortable feeling during the entire dinner. no food is worth that.

San Francisco’s newest vegan restaurant is also the Bay Area’s best. It has hundreds of five-​star reviews for good reason. We had given up vegan sushi because nori seaweed, the traditional, dark greed seaweed used for sushi rolls, is often germinated on old oyster shells. Oysters have nerve nets and feel pain so we didn’t want to support an industry which killed the oysters to supply their shells to the nori industry.
But Shizen offers soybean paper wrapped sushi rolls instead of nori if you ask for it. We had California rolls and avocado rolls, mushrooms stuffed with faux-​crab, and spicy «tuna» rolls. We also had edamame in a garlic reduction, pot stickers, and perfectly grilled asparagus. We sometimes finish the evening with mochi for dessert. The food is beautifully presented, it isn’t rushed (the dishes come out one at a time), but most of all, everything is delicious.
The only downside is the wine list. Although it is supposed to be a vegan restaurant, many of the wines are listed as «not vegan friendly» on
. In fact, most of them are not vegan friendly.

Walking into this place, I really had no idea what to expect of vegan sushi. I’m a die hard (normal) sushi lover but I wanted to try something new.
First off, the décor of this place is so nice. The wooden beams across the ceiling and the cute tables. It was adorable.
Second, the service. Our waitress was attentive. The food came out at a decent speed.
Third, and possibly most important part, the food and drinks. We tried 2 of their cocktails, the margarita and the sangria, both were perfectly made. Not too sweet, just a tad heavy on the liquor. Just the way it should be. Then came the food. We tried the shishito pepeprs, tempura, open invitation roll, and the spicy ramen. Everything was really good but what stood out was the roll and the ramen. I honestly could not even tell that the roll was vegan ! It was amazing. And the ramen noodles were cooked perfectly and the broth was really rich.
Finally, I would definitely come back again to try more of their rolls !

Waited for 2+ hours for a table for 4 but was quoted for only a little over an hour’s wait. We waited as we watch others get tables ahead of us. We tried to order drinks to pass the time but the drinks never came.
The food was really good. And that’s a genuine evaluation from a happy carnivore yours truly. Everything from agedashi tofu to the candlelight roll were prepared delicately and with care. The flavors come from all directions as you eat their vegan rolls in ways that you don’t get with typical sushi rolls.
The service was really, really bad. Aside from the ridiculous wait, they didn’t get our drink order (not late, but as in not at all) and the waitress was not only aloof but rude. The hostess and the wait staff weren’t much better either. Oh yeah, the space is tiny and pretty much decorated like a hipster coffee shop. Not inviting at all.
So 5 stars for food but 0 stars for everything else.

I had a great time at Shizen. I had been wanting to go there for a while.
I like to take my husband to vegan places without telling him they’re vegan because he gets skeptical. You could never tell that this is a vegan restaurant from looking at pictures of the food there. He only found out from looking at the menu once there, oops! He was not disappointed.
Since you can’t make a reservation, we showed up on a Saturday night around 7:10 and we were seated around 25 minutes later. It wasn’t bad, there are seats for you to wait at.
We sat at the bar, right where the sushi masters prepare their beautiful rolls. I’d love to sit at a table next time, the wooden furniture is gorgeous!
We had the Open Invitation, Proud Peacock and Scarlet Smile rolls. The best was probably the Open Invitation, recommended by the server. It had the most flavor. The most beautiful and colorful was the Peacock roll. You also eat with your eyes so that’s important.
We split the blueberry ice-​cream dessert. The ice-​cream scoop was huge and delicious — tasted homemade — served with strawberries, blueberries and banana tempura. It seems like they only have 1 dessert/​night. We reserved ours as there weren’t many left even at 7:30.
The staff is super professional & friendly.
Will definitely come back & try some of their hot dishes and other rolls!

Gluten free and vegan options that will make you want to come back daily!
GF ramen is so fresh & well spiced.
Sushi rolls are beautiful, fresh, & so well done.
This is my favorite restaurant in SF right now. They did everything right, just wish my bank account liked it more. :)

Shizen shines with a highly creative menu of all vegan sushi that vegans, vegetarians, adventuresome eaters & foodies will go gaga for. It is popular & busy with good reason so might feel a bit cramped & depending on your arrival time you might have to wait for a seat.
The service here was admirable & my waiter was very helpful with recommendations. I opted for two small plates & could have easily ordered a third.
I tried the Shinzen hot plate for $ 7 which came with four or five pieces of Shinzen Shiitake mushrooms stuffed with shredded tofu, tapioca, matcha, & sea salt.
I also got a Robata for $ 6 of bean curd glazed with sweet & spicy peppers. This came with four pieces divided up skewered on two long toothpicks.
My meal didn’t come with wasabi or pickled ginger yet requested it. The pickled ginger was fresh as could be. My Shinzen & Robata vegan sushi was the best sushi I’ve ever had! It was packed with flavor, well presented, & innovative as can be.
Highly recommend it here. Shizen would make a great date night or to come with a group of friends to sample a wider range of the menu. I don’t drink yet for those who do there is plenty of sake & more to choose from. My friend on the east coast is a pescatarian said he could be vegetarian expect for sushi yet feel he would convert to vegetarianism if he dined here!
I think Shizen deserves bonus stars!

Holy balls this place is any sushi loving vegan’s Nirvana, afterlife or whatever version of heaven you believe in. This is it.
I love Japanese food so I always loved sushi but becoming a vego has limited my options somewhat so when visiting SFO from Australia we Unilocaled this place and we super excited to try it and were not disappointed.
Shizen doesn’t take reservations so you just have to rock up but even if it’s busy wait, just wait, it’s worth it. To say the food was AMAZING seems inadequate cause it was so good I literally still get sad when I think about the fact I may never get back here.
Between the 3 of us we ordered 3 different types of their special sushi, edamame, agadashi tofu, 2 bowls of ramen and miso and we ate every last morsel despite being so full that we almost couldn’t walk when we left.
The special sushi were beyond belief! Have no idea how they do what they do but the result is delicious and awesome.
Service was top notch — orders were taken and drinks & food delivered relatively quickly considering the place was full.
I actually consider going would go back to San Francisco just to eat here again.

I was somewhat skeptical of this place before we had dinner here but I’m definitely a fan! This is one of the few places in San Francisco that does vegan food incredibly well. Despite being someone who loves her meat and fish, I really enjoyed every dish that we had. I came here with my parents and brother so we ended up ordering a ton of food to share.
Our dinner:
— Garlic Edamame
— Nasu Agebitashi
— Kale Kimpira
— Spicy Garlic Miso Ramen
— Shoyu Ramen
— Shio Ramen
— Open Invitation roll
— Mistaken Identity roll
— Surprise Ending roll
I loved the Nasu Agebitashi and the Spicy Garlic Miso Ramen. We actually loved the Spicy Garlic Miso Ramen so much that we ended up getting a second order to share! It’s not too spicy or heavy but pretty filling.
The specialty rolls were pretty good too. The Surprise Ending was probably not something I would have ordered with my parents present (but I’m glad we got it, it was delicious!) since it’s basically Russian Roulette with sushi. One piece is *super* spicy — if you’re (un)lucky enough to eat it, you also have to take the shot of sake! It’s a fun idea for a group of friends.
I want to come back and try more of their sushi rolls, although to be honest I would probably come back just for the ramen alone. Great spot!

WOOOO! My 2^nd time here, I most definitely had a 5 star experience.
I came as a pair on a Saturday evening so the wait was only about 50 minutes instead of 1.5+ hour for a bigger group. Nonetheless, I was STARVING by the time I got a seat at the bar.
We ordered:
–Mushroom Miso Soup: ⁴⁄₅ Damn good on a cold, SF night.
–Gyoza: ⁴⁄₅ Same as before. Didn’t even cross my mind that there wasn’t meat but I feel there needs to be more filling.
–Shizen Shitake: ⁴⁄₅ Hot and crispy off the fryer, but if you have a smaller stomach, I’d skip this and go for the rolls instead.
–Open Invitation: ⁵⁄₅ Still one of my favorite rolls. Perfect blend of textures and tastes. By far the most memorable roll we had.
–Scarlet Smile: ⁵⁄₅ A little sweet, which was unexpected. A more «goopy» roll and doesn’t have that crunch factor as with Open Invitation or the tempura rolls though.
–Proud Peacock: ⁵⁄₅ Has a hint of spice to it but not overwhelming at all.
–Colonel’s Pipe: 4.5÷5 Good, but not quite as memorable as the other rolls we had.
Damn, we wolfed it all down in no less than 25 minutes. We didn’t even have time for that taking-​pictures nonsense. Every single bite I had to resist the urge to exclaim out loud how effing bomb it was. Like, I can’t even!
I love eating at Shizen so much, now I have trouble going back to «regular» fish sushi. *Deep sighhhh*
Bottom line, the wait is pretty long, the food – not cheap, but worth every second of your time and worth every damn penny!

I love this place. It is absolutely amazing and my new favorite restaurant in San Francisco! ¹⁰⁄₁₀ and definitely worth the hour long wait.
«Japanese» «vegan» restaurant is a combination you don’t hear often. I end up eating at sushi places a lot thanks to a certain sushi lover in my life, but it’s usually just avocado rolls or shiitake mushroom rolls (I don’t usually mind because I like her and they fill me up). Occasionally, you’ll get some sort of tempura veggie roll. The fact is if you’re vegetarian — a real vegetarian and not a pescatarian — you’re really limited.
Shizen in one word is «limitless». For once in my life (outside of Indian restaurants) I was able to try a huge range of dishes from an entire country without having to compromise my vegetarian lifestyle. The carnivores didn’t seem to miss the meat too much either!
I came here for a birthday dinner and tried half the menu: miso soup, candlestick roll, ramen, surprise ending, open invitation, flying colors, gyoza, and much more! Every dish tasted great and I had an enormous amount of fun sharing with everyone on my table!
I hope other restaurants learn from Shizen and find ways to make their regional cuisines vegan/​vegetarian. It takes effort, but Shizen’s popularity and high ratings are evidence that it works as a solid business model — at least in SF.
Thanks for a great birthday!

Shizen, where have you been all my life? And how come I didn’t know that you popped up right in my second-​home ‘hood? {the Mish}
OK, if anyone is griping about price, you’re trippin’. The fact that I can walk into this spot and order anything and know that there are no animal drippings anywhere to be seen, then I’m a happy camper. Not to mention, the guy who took me to this place was one cheap MF but we (or he) managed to make it work for under $ 100.
First off, you can’t make reservations. 7pm on a Friday night was about a 20-​minute wait.
Second, the ambiance is so cool. Light and airy and lots of light wood and cool green touches all over.
Any seat in the house can work. A glass of wine was in order to start. That will set you back $ 10 (or so). They’ve got plenty of wine, beer, soju and sake to choose. Then moving onto the food… The selection is divine. Lots of standard traditional rolls, more inventive rolls, and then the super creative stuff on the back for $ 12 /​pop. I’m not into anything fake meaty, but I do I recommend starting with those Shizen Shitake Mushrooms. Hot and flakey and you don’t even taste «fake crab» or whatever that is. Just pure DELISH. That was just enough to whet my appetite. We moved on to a few standard rolls — spinach, avocado and sweet potato tempura. If there was a gold star, I’d say that sweet potato tempura roll gets it!
I had worked out hard that day so this was barely enough food to get me going. Before I knew it, the dude was asking for the check and I had to call it a night… no dessert :(That’s a major faux pas with me so you know I’m not going out with him again.
All of that for $ 78. Would I order more next time? HELL YES. I you better believe that I’ll be adding 1 – 2 more rolls and a dessert.

Really delicious, beautifully presented, and made for vegetarians/​vegans! yay-​yuh! I came here for a girls’ night with some fellow vegetarian friends, and boy were we excited and satisfied after this meal!
We ordered the gyoza which were pretty good but I would only come here again for the sushi. We ordered quite a few rolls and among them were the Colonel’s Flight, which was delicious and creamy!, and the shiizen shitake, which was tasty as well. We ordered a couple more rolls (among them Flying colors). I remember liking Colonel’s Flight the most. I’m not huge fam on tofu anymore so I would definitely opt more for the non-​tofu rolls, but I’m glad I tried them this round. I was in a group so we got a bunch of items and shared and I think this was a great way to figure out what I like and what I still want to try in the future.
The presentation is gorgeous and it is nice that this place actually takes the time to present vegetarian food well. Hey… we are people, too, and we like pretty presentation! LOL
Would return… maybe even with some non-​veg peeps!

When your nutty friend decides to become vegetarian, you play along and take it as a new dining opportunity. Our friend recommended Shizen, which we all decided looked good, despite my love of meaty/​fatty sushi.
On a Saturday night, we decided to meet at 6:30 since they do not take reservations. Luckily, I was almost an hour late, as that was the time my pals waited to be seated! The restaurant is a little difficult to pinpoint even though I was a kitty corner across and warranted a phone call to my friends who said «its the place with the purple and pink lighting.»
Even before stepping in, I could see tons of diners waiting to be seated (super popular spot!). Lighting was dark and moody, but very chic. We were led to a table where I ordered a lychee/​strawberry sangria that was fruity and refreshing — not bitter at all (my friends had imbibed drinks while waiting).
Between the four of us we ordered tempura shitakes, gyoza, two spicy garlic ramens (one with gluten free noodles), and a few specialty sushi rolls. Everything was delicious and between how dark the restaurant is and the impressive plating and sauces, you do not even miss the meat! Notables were the gyoza (I still can’t believe its not meat!), Body and Soul roll, and Hidden Agenda roll. Most of the rolls were made to impersonate classics like California roll and Rock n roll, etc.
Service was stellar (though my pal did note she has some issues with the seating system), dishes were parsed appropriately and we had everything we could ask for.
After tax and tip, the damage was a little over $ 30 pp, which, while expensive for vegetarian food, is a fair price for the ingenuity and ambiance. I would definitely return again!