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| - You know how Burger King started serving ribs, but they're still a fast food burger joint?
That's how I feel about Sushi Rock and sushi. It's a meat market that happens to serve raw fish.
My first two experiences were on half-price nights, and I figured... "this isn't a fair assessment... they're churning out truckloads of sushi to a bunch of people who only eat it when it's half price, and most of the rolls are premade and refrigerated, which is just a big no-no."
Then, I gave it a try on a normal night and was equally unimpressed.
Often, the fish was cut improperly with respect to the grain. The same piece of tuna can be cut to melt in your mouth or to require chewing through stringy membrane... I experienced a lot of the latter at SR.
The fish was sometimes less than fresh. It wasn't rancid or anything - this is all relative (see my review on Shuhei). But, it was far from swimming yesterday.
And the rice... an often overlooked component to great sushi among novices. I learned about the importance of rice when I started making my own sushi. First of all, it's hard to cook perfectly. Next, it takes many years of practice to perfect the seasoning to have the right flavor. My palate is not refined enough to be able to tell the difference between a grand master expert's rice and a mere expert's rice, but it is refined enough to know that SR's rice is junk. It's not even cooked properly, which is unacceptable. On most visits, it has been undercooked, which leads to a horrible experience.
If you are into the "posh" club scene, SR delivers. It's a striking place to look at from the entry door. But, if you want good (even merely decent) sushi, you'll have a hard time, here.
I wish it wasn't so... I have tried numerous times to like it.
No luck!
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