RESTAURANT REVIEW:

It saddens me whenever I drive by Triangle Square and see the papered-up glass windows and doors of the stores where the businesses are no more.

This was supposed to be an icon for Costa Mesa, an anchor at the end of the 55 Freeway to showcase the city.

Virgin and Niketown are long gone, and Sutra is rumored to close, but the owners insist it is staying.

The Yardhouse and the movie theater are the only major players left in the struggling mall.

While those venues march on they won’t be the ones leading a revitalization of the area. That will be left to places like Sushi Zen Bistro.

The little sushi bar and restaurant has been in the same location for nine years, which makes it a veteran at Triangle Square.

Their success is definitely not because of settling on the reputation it made when they first opened.

The old supposed haunt of celebrities such as the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant and actress Heather Locklear has given way to a steady hang out for locals.

One of the reasons the restaurant keeps customers returning is with one of the most impressive happy hours in Orange County.

We arrived on a Sunday afternoon, really on a whim, not certain they would even be open. We were surprised they have continuous hours, instead of taking the obligatory two-hour break between lunch and dinner.

The happy hour goes daily from 3 to 6 p.m. Yes, that is right: daily. They don’t take the weekend off or try and claim Friday as a weekend day like a lot of other places.

The challenge I threw down to my dining partner for the late afternoon was to see if we could be satisfied just ordering from that menu.

I didn’t think it would be that difficult. The half-price deals had drinks, rolls, appetizers and nigiri sushi, so the problem was more what were we going to get, not if we had enough to choose from on the menu.

There were several people eating when we walked in the door and the lone waitress was running between tables but still managed to warmly greet us and direct us to an open table.

The décor is warm and the atmosphere mellow. I like that in sushi places as opposed to the rock and roll theme places where you point to the menu items because the waitress won’t be able to hear you over the loud music.

Another huge bonus point was earned when they came over with free edamame. I view the soybeans like chips and salsa at Mexican restaurants and am always perturbed when they aren’t given freely.

These weren’t warm, which was a bit disappointing, but they were free, so I wasn’t complaining.

The first order off the menu was the peach sake. It is one of several sake and beer specials that are 50% off on the happy hour menu. The also have $1 regular sake as well.

Our first dish was an appetizer. We got the pumpkin stuffed tempura for $4.97 and it was incredible.

Four shitake mushrooms are stuffed with mashed pumpkin and deep fried. On top of the appetizer was onion and button mushrooms with a secret sauce that tasted an awful lot like spicy mayonnaise.

The next item was a crunch roll. It was ordinary and the shrimp tasted kind of limp.

We mowed through it and moved on to the spicy tuna.

That was much better and we thought we got a steal, paying $3.37 for it. The quality was much better than the crunch roll, which was a $1.50 more.

The spicy roll was deceptively spicy and we smartly had the vegetarian roll to cool our palettes. The roll, which was the cheapest item we ordered at $2.75, was perfect with its mix of red leaf lettuce, daikon, cucumber and avocado.

The yellowtail and the salmon were both very good, though a bit steep at about $4 apiece after the discount for two pieces.

The final dish was the tuna bites, and this appetizer was interesting.

It had spicy tuna on top of a deep-fried, flattened wonton. On top of the tuna was avocado and spicy mayo.

It wasn’t as hot as I thought but I liked the crunchiness of the wonton with the tuna.

The bill came to $39 and we were stuffed. It was a great feast and a place I would come to again, even if I didn’t order off the happy hour menu.

SUSHI ZEN BISTRO

ADDRESS: 1870 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa

PHONE: (949) 722-2520

CUISINE: Japanese

SPECIALTY DISH: anything off Happy Hour menu

ALCOHOL SERVED: beer, wine and sake

ENTRÉE PRICE RANGE: $2.75 to $6.99

FAMILY FRIENDLY: Yes if they like sushi

CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED: American Express, MasterCard and Visa

RATING: ***

JOHN REGER reviews local restaurants and may be contacted at [email protected] or P.O. Box 2984, Seal Beach, CA 90740.