The inside of Sushi X is unlike any restaurant I know of in the Capital Region. As it is billed, Sushi X is more like a lounge than a restaurant. The inside is brightly lit, with fluorescent lights and chandeliers everywhere. Asian-themed wallpaper is on the walls and lanterns are hanging from the ceiling. There is a huge sushi chef kitchen with four sushi chefs busily preparing meals. The place has a very sophisticated air to it.
As I sat down, a waitress dressed all in black handed me two slips of paper and a pencil. She asked me to write down my order.
As I looked the menu over, I saw a notice on my table. It said that if I order something and I am unable to finish it, I have to pay for it a la carte. I thought that was a little ridiculous. On this first round, I made sure to order only what I could eat. I checked off miso soup, seaweed Salad, a piece of Salmon Sashimi, a Salmon Skin hand roll and a shrimp tempura special roll.
The food that I ate was pretty good, though not spectacular. The miso soup was excellent. It was flavorful and not too salty. The seaweed salad was good, though the portion was not huge. Now, for the sushi. Unlike Sake Cafe, the sushi rolls had a lot of rice. Clearly, Sushi X is looking to fill its customers up quickly. The salmon skin hand roll and shrimp tempura rolls were both acceptable. The funniest part of the first round of food was the salmon sashimi. On my plate was a piece of salmon smaller than my thumb. Sushi X is kind of stingy on the fish.
As I finished my plate, I was surprised to see the waitress coming around to give me another sheet of paper. Sushi X is pretty good about coming around to clear plates and see if you want more food. They do not mind giving you your money's worth. This is good, because I was determined to leave Sushi X full. The rice was beginning to bloat me however. On my second round, I once again had the seaweed salad. This time I tried a crazy girl roll (crunchy spicy salmon and avocado inside topped with pepper tuna and honey wasabi sauce). This was very good. I loved the spicy tuna stuffed inside and the fish on the top was a bonus. I also had salmon, tuna, yellowtail, shrimp and white tuna pieces, which were also good.
Shortly after I polished that off, the waitress came by and asked if I wanted more food. The place was packed by this time. The crowd mostly consisted of young adults in their 20's and 30's. It was generally a hip crowd. I was determined to continue to eat, though I was feeling quite full. I decided to stick to the hot foods on this go-around. I had the crab wonton and the beef rib. The beef rib was delicious! It was 3/4 pound of beef with the bone on barbecued in teriyaki sauce. I ate every scrap of it. I also had a house salad which I was a little disappointed with. It was drowned in ginger dressing, and consisted of nothing more than lettuce and dressing.
On the weekend, Sushi X charges $21.95 plus tax. They add a 18% gratuity, so the whole thing costs almost $28.00. I suppose if you count everything I ate, I did fairly well. After all, two special rolls, soup, salad and seaweed salad would come out to about $22.00 a la carte, and I ate much more than that. If you are hungry for Japanese food, Sushi X is the place to go.
