Vizen Japanese Cuisine is located in Gulf Gate and is a very eclectic shopping area. It has lots of single owner restaurants and bakeries. It is a great little  neighborhood to try all kinds of food including pizza, hot dogs, English food, Chinese food, ethnic groceries, and so much more.

And, if you are interested, at the end of the night, there are a few tattoo parlors to choose from should you wish to get a little souvenir of your dinner at Gulf Gate.

We have to admit; we are Japanese food snobs. We were so spoiled by so many great Japanese restaurants in Southern California that it is really hard for us to go to just any sushi place.

We asked anyone and everyone in any restaurant (like waiters, chefs, and just other people who live in Sarasota area) for suggestions for sushi. We tried many of their suggestions and none of them come up to the level of Vizen.  We visited there twice so far and each time, we ask ourselves why we didn’t get back sooner. The only answer is that it is on the south side of Sarasota so it is about 30 or 40 minutes away.

Everything that comes to the table is just a beautiful picture. Everything looks too good to eat but we managed. The last time we were there, they had stone crab specials. Stone crab sushi! Wow, quite an interesting dish. They also had a stone crab roll that we didn’t try. We did have some yellowtail sushi.

Then we had the Vizen roll. We had the rainbow roll the last time we were there.

This time it was the Vizen roll and it was amazing. Oh well, they were both delicious. The Vizen roll had lobster and scallops in the middle of the roll. We loved it. We also had their ahi stack they call a bomb. It has rice, spicy tuna, avocado, and mango, with lobster on top. Wow, is that delicious.

We have to say the spicy tuna was spicy, more so than anywhere else we have found so far on this west coast (unlike the California west coast).

Finally, we had the tempura that was also delicious and it had lobster as part of it as well as enoki mushrooms that were wonderful.

Along with it, we had a bottle of a New Zealand sauvignon Blanc. If you don’t have sake, then a sauvignon blanc is the way to go with sushi. It matches it well and doesn’t take away from the lightness of the fish. It also provides a bit of sweetness to the salty and umami flavors.

Vizen is definitely a favorite and we will return as often as we can. It is open at 5:00 so lunch isn’t an option.

Vizen Japanese Cuisine

6559 Gateway Ave, Sarasota, FL 34231

(941) 926-0830