Some all-you-can-eat restaurants have done considerable damage to the phrase “all you can eat”. In some places we’ve all tried, they can conjure up food designed principally to survive beneath a heat lamp.
Kaizen Sushi in town has found a far better better way of doing things. The Victoria Road restaurant serves its all-you-can-eat menu to order, in rounds of three dishes per person. You have 90 minutes, you finish what arrives, then order again. There is sashimi, nigiri, hosomaki and uramaki, alongside gyoza, kara-age, tempura, katsu curry, yakisoba, ramen and teriyaki rice bowls. It is an unusually broad offer for between £24.99 and £29.99 a head (depending on when you go).
I had already tried the food by collection before visiting for the full restaurant experience, and the two ways of eating it won’t disappoint whether you eat in or take away.
On the collection side, Sushi makes an excellent takeaway when it is handled properly. Open the large platter box of well-made sushi and dinner is essentially ready, arranged into small, precise mouthfuls demanding nothing more complicated than soy sauce, a touch of wasabi, and an argument over who gets the last piece. We opted for a platter and it was incredible.
Kaizen’s menu leans heavily into the richer, more immediately crowd-pleasing end of modern sushi. Alongside straightforward salmon and tuna sashimi, nigiri and maki are crunchy salmon rolls, katsu prawn, katsu chicken and spicy tuna. It was some of the best sushi I’ve ever tried.
It is a style of sushi built around contrast. Cool fish and vinegared rice sit against crunchy coatings, chilli, soy and mayonnaise, while avocado supplies richness and cucumber a clean snap between the heavier combinations.
Three dishes does not sound especially intimidating when the first order is placed. Four pieces of sushi here, a couple of nigiri there, perhaps some gyoza on the side. Then the plates are cleared and the menu comes back into view. The mechanism encourages experimentation because there is no longer the usual calculation involved in ordering sushi in asking yourself, do I really want to spend another tenner discovering whether I like that roll?
Here, you order it. That turns out to be the best argument for the all-you-can-eat format. It allows you to move between raw fish, rice, fried starters and hot dishes and the food genuinely hits the mark.
The main courses are where some discipline becomes advisable. Kaizen includes chicken, prawn and sweet potato katsu curry, chicken and vegetable yakisoba, chicken and salmon teriyaki don, and several ramen options.
These are not little palate cleansers. The are substantial, hearty and perfectly put together.
You should regard the fixed price per head as permission to roam around the menu. Try the salmon, try the tuna, have the gyoza, order the thing you would normally scroll past. The pleasure comes from variety rather than volume.
And that is ultimately why Kaizen really works. It opens up the world of japanese food to all crowds; newbies, sushi occasionals, and die hard Japanese food lovers.
Having tried it first as a collection and then in the restaurant, I would use both again 100%. Collection is the sensible option when you know exactly what you want. The all-you-can-eat menu is the more interesting one, because it removes some of the caution that comes with ordering sushi individually and encourages you to discover more of the menu.
By the end, the only real complaint was that there were still dishes on the menu we had not tried.
Which, for an all-you-can-eat restaurant, is probably the point. If you haven’t tried Kaizen, its one of Swindon’s best food experiences, so is definitely worth a shot.
