Zuma Boston
Zuma, located in the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston, is an upscale sushi restaurant that has been gaining popularity for its modern Japanese fare, described as “izakaya” style dining. Izakaya refers to small, informal pubs/bars in Japan that serve small, inexpensive plates. However, this restaurant is far from inexpensive. The restaurant has 14 locations around the world and an additional 8 seasonal restaurants, all in major cities.
We chose to go to their all-you-can-eat brunch to try all the vegetarian dishes without breaking the bank (although it was still pricey). The restaurant was larger than I expected and featured many vegan and vegetarian options, to my surprise.
My friends and I enjoyed the edamame, miso sweet potato croquette, assorted vegetable tempura, steamed baby spinach, sweet corn, grilled shishito peppers, Zuma kappa maki, and yakisoba noodles.
The non-vegetarian dishes included the miso soup, spicy fried chicken, salmon and yellowtail sashimi, spicy tuna maki, spicy yellowtail maki, salmon avocado maki, salmon nigiri, yellowtail nigiri, tuna nigiri, prawn nigiri, salmon teriyaki, and spicy beef tenderloin.
Dessert, which was included in the brunch selection, came as a beautiful assortment of fruits, sago, sorbet, and pastries. The presentation was beautiful.
My beverage of choice for brunch was a non-alcoholic Zuma iced tea which consisted of matcha, passionfruit, and lemon. This was refreshing and not overly sweet (see picture #3).
While edamame is not something that can be heavily critiqued, this edamame (not pictured) was fantastic, minus the amount of finishing salt sprinkled on top. The edamame were fresh and large, allowing us to nibble on this tasty snack while waiting for the stars of brunch to arrive.
Next came the miso sweet potato croquettes. The crumb on the exterior was perfectly golden brown and crunchy, but the inner part of the croquette surprised me. Rather than having a soft potato center, the filling was creamy. I almost couldn’t tell that there was any potato. Furthermore, the dish left a slight aftertaste that was unpleasant.
When I dine at Japanese restaurants, I don’t often order vegetable tempura. While I do enjoy tempura, many times it is over-battered or oily; however, Zuma’s assorted vegetable tempura was light, crunchy, and delicious. The sauce that accompanied the vegetables could have been slightly saltier, but overall, they served us a light dish that was more enjoyable than I have ever experienced elsewhere.
After the tempura came the steamed baby spinach. This was a cold, steamed spinach salad with a sesame dressing. It was nutty and creamy from the sesame dressing. In the future, I would love a little squeeze of lemon juice to add some acidity to the dish.
Corn! One of my favorite foods. This was served “street style” and was similar to elote. Instead of mayonnaise or aioli of some sort and cheese, the corn was served with shiso butter and shichimi pepper. The flavors were delicious, but the dish is a little messy. I love corn on the cob, but I wish they had cut it off so that it could be eaten out of a bowl or plate.
After the sweet corn, the shishito peppers arrived. I loved the plating. It was simple but elegant. The shishito peppers came with a yuzu sesame dip. This dip would have been perfect for the spinach salad since the yuzu adds acidity. I enjoyed this very much and would definitely order it again.
I want to say that we have made it to the main course, but this wasn’t even considered our entrée. Here we can see an abundance of sushi that we may or may not have over-ordered. Below you can see the Zuma kappa maki (cucumber and avocado), spicy tuna maki, spicy yellowtail maki, and salmon and avocado maki. I do not consume fish, so I will base my opinion solely on the cucumber and avocado maki. For me, vegetable sushi really can’t be that bad, but considering we paid quite a bit of money for this brunch and this restaurant is known for sushi, I was expecting it to be better. The rice was not seasoned like sushi rice usually is - with a little sugar and rice vinegar, and it wasn’t sticking to the nori (seaweed) very well. Overall, my sushi was okay but nothing out of this world.
Now the entrees. My friends and I were absolutely stuffed at this point, but we didn’t want the food to go to waste (and the restaurant does not allow to-go bags for all-you-can-eat brunch). Out came the yakisoba noodles, spicy tenderloin beef, and salmon teriyaki. The yakisoba noodles were cooked perfectly and were lightly coated with a sweet soy reduction. It needed a touch more salt, but otherwise was fairly enjoyable. I would love for it to have more vegetables as the majority of the vegetables/greens were garnishes. The gals enjoyed their main courses, but the beef tenderloin was salted a little heavily. It seems as though the dishes here fluctuated from not salty enough to too salty.
Before I show off the beautiful dessert, I wanted to present the rest of the non-vegetarian dishes as they are aesthetically pleasing!
Finally, the most beautiful dessert platter came out. It was extravagant, but I loved it! What you are looking at below is an assortment of fruits, sago, sorbet, and pastries. While I loved this presentation, I have to mention that some of this fruit was not ripe. The cantaloupe, honeydew melon, pineapple, and Asian pear were all under-ripe. The sorbets were mango and coconut, which paired beautifully, and the cakes were chocolate mousse with caramel and some sort of berry cake which was less appealing to me. Lastly, the sago which is shown in the ramekin. It is a chewy starch (similar to tapioca but comes from palm stems) with coconut milk, lime zest, and mango. I loved this! Presentation 10/10, but only half of the assortment hit the spot.
I had a really lovely time trying this restaurant out. I highly recommend dining here, especially for those who enjoy raw fish. Even as a vegetarian or vegan, you’ll have plenty to eat, but it will cost you an arm and a leg. I am always happy to try upscale restaurants; however, the prices push me away a little bit. I don’t know how often I’ll find myself here, but the experience was very nice this time. For an upscale, modern Japanese restaurant, try out Zuma!
⭐️ Rating: 7.3/10
*Please note that ratings are based on ambiance, service, price, and taste*
Very nice review - It seems a lovely place to dine.