Zen Japanese Cuisine: Livingston, NJ

“John at the bar is a friend of mine”

I do not know much about sushi; of this you can be sure. I do not know much about Japanese names but I will tell you that I was surprised when it turned out that the chef behind the sushi bar at Zen in Livingston was named John. I have been going here for lunch for the last few months and have enjoyed what I consider to be some of the best sushi I’ve ever had. I say some of the best because I once ate at Sushi Yasuda in Manhattan and I would put the quality of the fish I had there on a different level. For the money they charge it should be but good sushi, like any other ingredient driven cuisine, isn’t going to be cheap. You’ve got fish and some rice and occasionally something else but for the most part if the fish isn’t fresh you’re going to know it. If the fish isn’t fresh you should get up and walk away.

Now, none of this will be news to anyone who eats sushi regularly. You already know, or should know some of the basics to eating sushi: look for a restaurant that does a good business so that they sell the fish quickly, reject fish that smells “fishy”, and most importantly get to know your sushi chef and take his advice. I love to eat at the bar at most restaurants and with sushi you get to sit right in front of the chef making your food. Go a few times and you get to know him and he gets to know you. You can ask him what’s good on a given day and get to try things that you might never have known about otherwise. Leave him a nice tip, it will be money well spent.*

At Zen, I sit down and just tell the chef how much I want to spend and let him decide what I should have. We’ve been getting some yellow fin tuna, salmon, white tuna and some other fish both as sushi and sashimi along with some rolls, spicy tuna for instance, and a specialty roll or two. The chef at Zen likes to mix crunchy fish items like soft shell crab or shrimp tempura into the specialty rolls along with the uncooked fish and then add another flavor like mango or jalapeño, the idea is to give you a contrast in texture as well as taste. They haven’t had any Toro, the fatty tuna considered to be the best of the best, at Zen when I’ve been there but the other tuna has been fresh and delicious. I really like that white tuna which I’ve never heard of before and is probably a different kind of fish altogether. The portion size has been very generous and the bill has been about $25 per person including tax and tip.

There is waitress service at Zen as well and I’ve found it to be prompt and the waitresses to be very helpful. There are other menu items but I haven’t had anything other than the fish so I can’t comment. It looks to be the usual Japanese sushi menu. I’ve never gotten the feeling that there’s a special menu for Asian customers, something that makes me crazy, but I could be wrong about that. The restaurant is tucked into the corner of a strip mall anchored by a Pathmark and an Olive Garden. If you’re in the area go and sit at the sushi bar. Humming that Billy Joel tune is optional.

Zen Japanese Cuisine
277 Eisenhower Pkwy
Livingston, NJ 07039
(973)533-6828
No website

Sorry, no pictures.

*There is an excellent essay in Steven Shaw’s Turning The Tables about how to pick a sushi chef. “Stash” hits most of the highlights but his advice to start by ordering some Toro sashimi would have you headed for the door at Zen, something I’d think you’d end up regretting.

Huntley Taverne: Summit, NJ

Here’s another example of why bar dining can be such a rewarding experience. I was at the Huntley Taverne in Summit for dinner last Tuesday. It was a cold, rainy night. The kind of night when you know the summer’s coming to an end. I had gone to the Huntley to check out their burger. When I was at the bar at Roots Steakhouse another patron had talked up the burger at the Huntley. I’d sent him up to Copeland in Morristown for their must have burger and now I wanted to see if his tip checked out. I hear all the time that this place or that has a great burger, most of the time I find these tips to be a waste of time. Also I’d recently had the burger at the Trap Rock in Berkeley Heights, one of Huntley’s sister restaurants, and I was unimpressed.

So I’m at the bar waiting for my burger and I notice a bottle of whiskey on the shelf that I haven’t seen before. I ask the bartender, Kevin, if I can take a look. The bottle turns out to be Rock Hill Farms Single Barrel Bourbon a brand I’m unfamiliar with. Kevin and I start talking about whiskey. We both agree that summer isn’t the season for whiskey drinking. I tell him that I’m more of a scotch guy, myself, and we start talking about that. We talk single malts versus blends and I tell him that I’m a Johnny Walker Black guy. He tells me about going to a Johnny Walker tasting and asks if I knew that Johnny Walker Gold is an older version of their red label while Johnny Walker Blue is an older version of the black. I confess to never having had either of these whiskeys and Kevin pours me a small taste of the ultra expensive Blue along with another small taste of the Black just to see if I can appreciate any real difference. Maybe the Blue label is a little smoother, a little longer on the finish but for the most part I can’t see spending the extra money. The offer of the free mini scotch tasting is the kind of smart gesture that can turn the casual customer into a life long patron.

Here's a picture of that Rock Hill Farms bourbon:



Back to the burger; the Huntley burger is very good. The fries that come with it are even better, crisp and salty and served in their own free standing metal cone. I’d stay away from the “truffled” version of those fries, all they do is splash on some truffle oil and who really wants that on their fries, anyway? The burger comes in several different variations; I had mine with blue cheese. The cheese turned out to be too strong and I took it off half my burger. The cheese did work great with the scotch, however, so if you go….

Huntley Tavern
3 Morris Ave
Summit, NJ
(908)273-3166