RESTAURANT: Sushi Zanmai

A&Z
at
Sushi
Zanmai

Restaurant: Sushi Zanmai

Location:
Boulder - 1221 Spruce Street - (303) 440-0733

Gluten-Free Options: They actually have very few gluten-free options, but they will provide Tamari soy sauce and edit sushi orders (if necessary) to make them gluten-free.

Total From A to Z: 2.5 Stars

A's Review: * *

The food is really good...but that's about it. Although the hostess assured me that they had gluten-free options, further questioning of our waitress revealed that the gluten-free options were limited to tamari sauce...and that was it. So anything that already had sauce or was marinated was out. The waitress did do her best to help us, so she can't be blamed. But couple the lack of options with the fact that this restaurant is perpetually packed and you potentially have a very frustrating experience.

Z's Review: * * *
Boulder County Celiac has a restaurant list of gluten-free friendly restaurants in the Boulder area, which is where we originally saw Sushi Zanmai. Before visiting, we called Sushi Zanmai to confirm that they really did have gluten-free options. Over the phone they told us that they didn't have a separate menu but that they could certainly modify things to make them gluten-free and that their servers were very knowledgeable. I lived in Japan for a summer and I have a soft spot in my heart (or stomach?) for Japanese food, so I started to get excited about the prospect of getting to have things I have missed since becoming gluten-free.

However, when we arrived at Sushi Zanmai we discovered that their gluten-free offerings were actually quite limited. They couldn't modify tempura or katsu or teriyaki or yakisoba or gyoza, which basically left me with nothing to order but sushi, which I can pretty much order at any Japanese restaurant. Still, after asking a lot of questions they were able to provide Tamari soy sauce and make unagi (eel) rolls with the sauce on the side. The sushi was delicious and I really enjoyed it, but I was still a little bit disappointed that they indicated I would have more options than I did.