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Kitchen Thai (Formerly Zensai Sushi) - Chef Zen Sensai Doubles Down on Thai - Colesville Road and Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring - Closed


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Just opened sometime in the last week or so.  For reference, this is in the site that was previously Stage Burger, and was Sabroso before that.  And since that didn't help you for reference, it's two doors closer to the Fillmore than The Classics.

http://www.zensaisushi.com/

Haven't been able to see much, as they have large logo decals blocking out much of their window space, and a large Christmas tree occupying one of the two double doors, so visibility from the street is minimal.  I will say this much, though - it leaves a sour taste in my mouth when you run to Yelp to put a five-star review up for your own restaurant, complete with obvious press photos that also appear on the restaurant's website.

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Based on the menu posted on their website, it would seem they are probably Thai owned. Perhaps related to Khao Thai a few doors down? Just looking at the pictures, the sashimi arrangements are definitely not done with a Japanese aesthetic. If the fish isn't presented right, it doesn't taste right to me either. I know it's not rational, but one of my little quirks about sashimi.

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Just opened sometime in the last week or so.  For reference, this is in the site that was previously Stage Burger, and was Sabroso before that.  And since that didn't help you for reference, it's two doors closer to the Fillmore than The Classics.

http://www.zensaisushi.com/

Haven't been able to see much, as they have large logo decals blocking out much of their window space, and a large Christmas tree occupying one of the two double doors, so visibility from the street is minimal.  I will say this much, though - it leaves a sour taste in my mouth when you run to Yelp to put a five-star review up for your own restaurant, complete with obvious press photos that also appear on the restaurant's website.

Based on the menu posted on their website, it would seem they are probably Thai owned. Perhaps related to Khao Thai a few doors down? Just looking at the pictures, the sashimi arrangements are definitely not done with a Japanese aesthetic. If the fish isn't presented right, it doesn't taste right to me either. I know it's not rational, but one of my little quirks about sashimi.

Thank you, fuzzy510 and dinoue, for pointing out these questionable Yelp posts.

The poster on Yelp, Zen S., from Annandale, is the owner: "Zen Zensai" (I don't know if that's his actual name or not - it might be Zen Saratch which is the name of his Facebook Account, although he appears as "Zen Zensai"), who gave his own restaurant 5 stars on Yelp. He comes across as an upstanding family man on his Facebook photos - perhaps willing to do whatever it takes to make a better life for his children. On his website, he lists his name as "Tony Zensai."

He claims to have won "The Gold Medal" in the 2007 "Maki Sushi Making" category in the "Sushi Chef Olympics Competition" held in Tokyo, Japan.

This contest must be on record, right? Could someone with better Google skills than I have verify that this person was indeed a gold medalist in the Maki Sushi Making category in the 2007 Sushi Chef Olympics Competition?

Can someone look at this adorable November 29th photo and verify that this language being spoken is indeed Thai? I hear some French in there, so Thai would be my naive guess - it's quite possible his wife is Thai and they're teaching their (also adorable) child Thai, so I don't think any conclusions can be drawn from this. And even if he *is* Thai, so what? There's no reason that a Thai chef can't make kick-ass sushi. Well, there's the years of apprenticeship and all that, but if you discount that, there's no reason.

This November 14th photo implies it was his last day at "The Old Siam Thai and Sushi Bar' which was on Barracks Row.

From everything I can see? He's Thai. He's a dedicated husband and father. He has lots of friends. And he seems like a great guy. The only thing in question is that 2007 Gold Medal which I hope someone will check on.

Other than that? He's starting from Ground Zero with me, and if/when it comes time for me to review Zensai Sushi, it will be done with zero prejudice and bias.

As always, thank you to our members for being on the ball - I most certainly couldn't do this without you.

Cheers,

Rocks

PS - Chef, if this post gets back to you, why don't you come over, sign up (free, quick, private!) and engage our members? Our readers love it when restaurateurs and chefs interact with them directly, and I hope you'll consider this a personal invitation from me to do so. We're your friends, not your enemies, and we'll be pulling for you to succeed. We had 65,000 unique visitors last quarter, mostly from the DC area - and I want to reiterate that being a member and posting here is *free*. Just disclose your affiliations - that's it! That's all you need to do! Hope to see you here soon. Here's a local success story who did the same thing. There are even bigger ones, but hopefully this is a perfect example of how to engage our readers in a very understated, elegant, successful fashion. I personally went to his restaurant tonight, got some carryout (my son had his wisdom teeth out yesterday, and needed some soft food - they made me a whole stuffed squash), and had yet another fine meal. You'll be more than welcome here and treated as a friend.

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Yes, it is Thai. The child is making Som Tam (green papaya salad). Very cute.

Can someone look at this adorable November 29th photo and verify that this language being spoken is indeed Thai? I hear some French in there, so Thai would be my naive guess - it's quite possible his wife is Thai and they're teaching their (also adorable) child Thai, so I don't think any conclusions can be drawn from this. And even if he *is* Thai, so what? There's no reason that a Thai chef can't make kick-ass sushi. Well, there's the years of apprenticeship and all that, but if you discount that, there's no reason.
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He claims to have won "The Gold Medal" in the 2007 "Maki Sushi Making" category in the "Sushi Chef Olympics Competition" held in Tokyo, Japan.

This contest must be on record, right? Could someone with better Google skills than I have verify that this person was indeed a gold medalist in the Maki Sushi Making category in the 2007 Sushi Chef Olympics Competition?

My Google skills are waning because I could only find was a 2001 WaPo article by Eve Zibart that describes the contest:

As it is to the U.S. Sushi Society. Last month it hosted its second annual skills and technique contest, a fledgling sub-subdivision of the "Sushi Olympics," held every four years in Tokyo. The Washington area competition is the first sanctioned outside Japan, and consequently, it's getting quite a bit of attention: For the second time, the six-judge panel of experts flown in from Japan has been headed by Mori.

and the National Sushi Society describes the Tokyo contest and has several photos identical to Chef Tony's website. The three competing U.S. Chefs listed are:

The three chefs from the United States are:

SEESIADKHA, KRIENGKRAI (Yosaku Restaurant, Washington D.C., maki-zushi category)

LEE, HYUNG JOON (Perry's, Washington D.C., maki-zushi category)

YEH, ANDY (Banzai, New Jersey, nigiri-zushi category)

Dunno, wish him well.

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Gone are the days when I could post while hammered at 1 AM and delete it by the time everyone signs on the next morning. :unsure:

Ugh. Life was so much simpler just a few years ago. :wacko::blink:-_-:lol:

Honest to goodness, this is how much things have changed: in 2005, I would leisurely walk in and out of the James Beard Awards at the Marriott Marquis, with a bottle of wine chilling upstairs in my room. When a winner was announced, I would get on the elevator, go into my room, sign onto the internet (at what was probably 2400 baud), and BREAK NEWS, and I mean this was cutting-edge stuff, and there was *nobody* else doing it - this was not that long ago!

I'd forgotten all about this - I have to say, I had my moments, back in the day. :)

That was a rhyming couplet, by the way.

Source: Eater DC

zensai.jpg
Zensai Sushi "” Image: Facebook

DonRockwell.com reader reports that Zensai Sushi recently opened in Silver Spring at 8624 Colesville Road, next to the Filmore. Don notes that the chef Zen Zensai appears to be: (1) Thai; (2) "a dedicated husband and father;" (3) a person with "lots of friends;" and (4) generally "a great guy." He also "claims to have won "˜The Gold Medal' in the 2007 "˜Maki Sushi Making' category in the "˜Sushi Chef Olympics Competition' held in Tokyo, Japan."

Read full article >>

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We ordered takeout sushi from here a few weeks ago, and were generally satisfied. Takeout would never be our first choice, and I wouldn't judge this place solely by our experience. The rolls were well made, nicely sized (not too big--just the right size for a good bite). The rice was okay, nothing special (but again--takeout). I had a few pieces of negiri, and these were fairly large pieces of fish. The seaweed salad was good and interesting.

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Decided to try this out tonight since they have a Happy Hour sushi deal of $1/piece. he selection of the $1 pieces is actually quite extensive including maguro, hamachi, sake, unagi, tako, ika, and more. Generally fish was pretty good, though the tuna looked like it had been frozen as it had a bit of an off color to it. The rice tended a little more towards the sweet side of what I like relative to the amount of vinegar. The technique on most pieces was surprisingly good. The rice had the right amount of stickiness vs falling apart. It was quite the contrast to Ikko sushi where we ate a few weeks ago with friends and the nigiri was like eating rice balls. There was however some inconsistency in the size of the nigiri rice. Some pieces had a nice small amount of rice, but others seemed overly large. The unagi and anago sauces were overly sweet.

For appetizers, we got gyoza, takoyaki and edamame. The gyoza were interesting, though I don't think I would call them gyoza in the Japanese sense. They were good fromthe perspective of being dumplings, but they had edamame in the filling and the sauce was again an overly sweet soy based dipping sauce. The takoyaki were OK, but cold barely tell there was any tako inside. Suspect these might have been frozen.

We had tea to drink with the dinner though beer prices are pretty good with Sam Adams available for only $3/bottle.

Generally for the sushi, the technique seems to be pretty good on how well it was prepared, but the fish could use some improvement in quality. For $1/piece happy hour, it's OK, but we still ended up spending $70 on our dinner for 2 adults and a 5 yr old and 2 yr old. I'd recommend staying away from the other "Japanese" dishes, unless your expectations are not for truly "Japanese" style foods. For example I noticed on the menu that Sukiyaki had a hot pepper next to it. I cannot imagine any iteration of sukiyaki being spicy.

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Zensai Sushi might be a good place when you're in one of "those moods" not to have any human contact. There's online ordering and an $18 minimum - if it were me, I'd try the Thai menu, with perhaps a small item from the Japanese menu as a test.

When I'm in one of "those moods," I always see if I can put the tip on my Visa when I pre-pay, just so I can minimize human contact.

Bark bark,

Farfel

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I'm wondering if this place is closed or has undergone a "rebranding" (I'll investigate more tomorrow). I drove past it on the way home from work and it looked like there was a banner being hung for a Thai place, but the light was green so I didn't really get a great look. I called the number listed on the (still active) Zensai website and had a hard time understanding the woman who picked up, but it didn't SOUND like she said "Zensai" or "sushi" - it sounded like something "kitchen."

Still haven't investigated personally, but the existence of this site at the same address and phone number makes me think that DTSS has its 4th Thai restaurant. Maybe time for a new thread?

http://www.kitchenthaimd.com

Edited by jdc
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Upon further investigation, the restaurant appears to have undergone a "rebranding" to Kitchen Thai, rather than a completely new restaurant with new owners. Checking out the restaurant tonight (not eating there, alas), there was a stand outside advertising a "new menu" - but not new management or owners. Furthermore, the Zensai website (still running) has a button for ordering online through something called "orderstart" - and that button takes you to a page for Kitchen Thai (which has an identical page linked from its own website). Lists the same phone numbers. Without having time to go in myself, that's my conclusion.

BaYLHTV.jpg

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Upon further investigation, the restaurant appears to have undergone a "rebranding" to Kitchen Thai, rather than a completely new restaurant with new owners. Checking out the restaurant tonight (not eating there, alas), there was a stand outside advertising a "new menu" - but not new management or owners. Furthermore, the Zensai website (still running) has a button for ordering online through something called "orderstart" - and that button takes you to a page for Kitchen Thai (which has an identical page linked from its own website). Lists the same phone numbers. Without having time to go in myself, that's my conclusion.

Thank you, jdc - it's posts like this which help more than you can imagine.

Similar to what I did with Lapis, I raised Kitchen Thai a couple of positions in the Dining Guide because of the new concept. Yes, it's unproven, but to me, it represents the owner taking a strong step *forward* to their ethnic roots. Obviously, once I get into the restaurant, that will no longer have any effect, but for now, given that they must be placed somewhere, an educated guess is better than no guess at all, and past experience tells me that this is likely to be a positive move.

Note also that free delivery remains with an $18 minimum, and that they have online ordering. Also that they completely nixed the Japanese portion of the menu - if I'm wrong about this, someone please correct me, but the online menu shows no signs of them ever having offered Japanese cuisine. I wonder if the chef's real name is Zen Sensai - damn that sounds like a poetic pseudonym - I think it means "Teacher of Zen."

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This concept appears to have bitten the dust as well. Drove by this morning to see the front of the restaurant covered in plastic draping, Yelp claims that it is closed, both their updated website (and the original Zensai one) are down and pointing to a domain shop, and one of the online delivery services they used (Eat24) has shown that the restaurant is currently not accepting orders (and has for several days, rather than showing an opening time). I can't imagine that they're doing any sort of dramatic redesign a few months after a grand re-opening, but if I find anything else out...I'll update.

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