For Sushi in St Louis I would rank Izakaya Ren as 1) having the best service of any top tier Sushi Restaurant in STL and 2) for the price the best Sushi.The quality of ingredients and skill taken to prepare at times seems lost on the patrons or they are just fully unaware how rare it is to be served REAL wasabi with their sushi instead of the standard green horseradish paste.Easily the most underrated sushi place in all of St Louis.
fair price and the food was delicious with good service
Compared to many sushi places they have all of your normal rolls but actually have some more unique options that have always been outstanding. Service is consistently good and rarely much of a wait.
Unfortunately the restaurant smelled like smoke. Service was extremely slow, but the sushi was excellent. Probably a better option for carryout rather than dine-in.
We dined inside last Friday -- first inside dining since COVID. Food was terrific as always. The hamachi collar was piping hot and delicious. We also had Unagi Don, which was also wonderful, and the sushi fish was fresh and tasty. Our server, Brendan, gave us super quick service and was really helpful with picking out menu items so that we could get enough to eat without over-ordering. (We usually just get sushi and rolls but wanted to try some new things.) Our favorite local sushi.
Went there for my other half's birthday. She wanted seafood, so she got the ooh la la shrimp roll. I a Whitaker roll, a kanpyo roll, and an oshinko roll. They were delicious.
This place was awesome. I literally just left and couldn't wait to say how great it is. The food was yummy and the staff was attentive and super friendly. I will definitely eat here again.
We have ordered take out food from here several times and my biggest compliant about this place is the wait for the takeout food. When placing the order I'm always told it's an hour which I wait at home, then once I get there it's another 30+ minutes of waiting. My most recent experience was 1 hour at home and 45 mins of waiting in the restaurant. They clearly don't understand how long it takes to cook food for takeout. Once we got the food home everything was cold and soggy. I will never buy takeout here again.
Ordered shrimp & vegetable tempura through Door Dash. No fish broth came with it. Who does that??! Never had that happen before. And no soy sauce with my salmon avocado roll. Or chopsticks. Lame.
It's sad to me that I forget to rate the places that are in my own back yard so often. I'm trying to remedy that, and Izakaya Ren deserves some local love. You'd be forgiven for thinking that Valley Park is not a place to seek out sushi. I get it. But think about this. You're in MISSOURI. Where *is* a good place to seek out sushi? Exactly my point. The staff here does seem to turn over kind of frequently, but that's everywhere these days, so don't let it put you off. The owner (I think) is there every day and always greets you with a smile. The nigiri, which is honestly the best way to get the measure of a sushi place, is always fresh and tasty. Anyone can dress up a roll with sauces and shenanigans, but letting the fish speak for itself is the true art. We've not had a bad fish experience here, and that's a good thing. Bad fish is a very, very bad thing. The nigiri is great, and I know I just kinda lightly bashed rolls, but I didn't mean that they're not good. They are, and they are quite good here. We opt generally for the spicier ones, and though these are not going to cause any meltdowns, they do bring a decent amount of spice. And that shitake roll is really, really good. I'm not sure what kind of sauce they put on that thing, but I'd make tea out of it and drink it on a cool fall evening. Local places need love too, so I'd love for you to go show Izakaya Ren some.