15 Park Ave, Clifton Park, NY 12065

Whenever I go out for Japanese, I think of the freshness, quality, and artistry that comes with preparing the delicate meals. The cuisine of Japan is one of my favorites, and I hold sushi at high standards in accordance with seafood in general. I consider myself a self-proclaimed expert, if I may say so humbly, when it comes to tasting sashimi and sushi. I have studied the techniques of preparing the dish, and I am informed of the correct techniques to eat the dish while maintaining the proper manners. If you couldn’t tell already, I was excited to take my seat.

I think one of the most embarrassing problems a restaurant can encounter is to have almost all the tables empty, and still, with only two people, have them wait ten minutes to even be seated. None of the hosts even greeted us at the moment we entered and the chimes ringed. Although the restaurant was extremely beautiful, it felt motionless, as if no one was even around. It could be that there is a lack of employees, but even so, there was someone rearranging the menus by the front desk when they easily could have at least brought people to their seats. After nine minutes in, I seriously debated leaving and reviewing another place. In luck, we were finally seated.

Easily the most gorgeous quality is the decoration and the theme. It is very modern, but classic at the same time. It abandons that that simple, polished, wooden architectural theme and adopts a modern, neon setting. The bar and the sushi station glows up in a bright pink underneath by the stools, and the lights up by the white and black reflective ceiling is a sky blue, and its rather stunning. The table setup spins off the classic Japanese table mats used to roll hand roll sushi, and with the neat soy sauce bottle, the aesthetic is highly appealing.

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As an appetizer, my girlfriend really wanted to taste the Thai Spicy Chicken Soup. Thankfully, it didn’t take as long for the soup to come as it did to be seated. The portion looked rather generous, serving that it was only $5. The broth wa steaming with red and the smell burned as the spice flew around the air. The thai flare in the soup was prominent and it brought the flavors together well. The raw zucchini was a bold touch, but it contrasted well with the soft chicken. It would have been nice to have more of those ingredients in the boiling broth.

My order was placed with the intention of grasping a wide variety of the sushi menu. The order came out all at once, and the presentation was astonishing. I’ve noticed a lot of sushi restaurants utilize decoration with a flower and with the crunchy daikon radish, and i find it to bring out really nice color onto the plate, but it does seem to act as a filler for space. One thing I want to point out is that my plate did not have any wasabi on it, and when I had told the waitress, it was never taken care of. I ended up having to eat most of my girlfriend’s instead. Quite annoying to say the least. Service is just not good here

Now to begin with the main course. My favorite meat on the planet is eel, and I can only find it at Japanese restaurants. The soft texture of the eel mixed with the creamy sensation of the avocado is a perfect blend with the sweet sauce of the hand roll. The bite is soft, felt strong on the back of the mouth; although it carries little bite to it, it devastates with it’s soothness. The Spicy Yellowtail hand roll offers a little kick in terms of spice and flavor, but the rice was crumbling off the layer of seaweed with the simplest touch. It seemed as if the rice was carelessly rolled onto the hand roll, and presentation wise it was lacking. The flavor of the yellowtail was prominent as the main part of the roll.

Wasabi Caviar has got to be my new favorite type of caviar. usually I get the larger, salmon roe as a side with my hand rolls, but I decided to change it up a bit. With the bite, it felt as if a symphony of firecrackers were sprouting out of the caviar, filled with a bijou yet distinguishable sensation of the wasabi. With just a dab of soy sauce, the sushi was easily one of the highlights of the meal.

The sashimi was a major disappointment. With both the red snapper and the salmon sashimi, I could immediately tell that it was frozen fish. Now, I understand that it is hard for the region of Upstate NY to get fresh seafood, but when it comes to sushi, it can only be fresh. The fish was not even fully thawed out when it was served to me, and when I picked it up and dipped it in the soy sauce, it dripped right off because the bits of ice on the fish were melting. I had to send it back because after just one bite of each the red snapper and salmon sashimi, I knew it was inedible. It really was pretty gross; no amount of wasabi could have saved that.

On a side note, my girlfriend had to spit out one of her shrimp tempura rolls because parts of the shell were still attached to the shrimp. I expected a lot more from a restaurant that looked so promising.

Price: $$

Service: 3/10

Setting: 9/10

Food: 4/10*

*Hand rolls are fine, but any raw fish sushi or sashimi was not pleasant and should be avoided.