Sushi Gen — Restaurant in Albuquerque

Coming to ABQ is always very exciting because you can usually get some good sushi unlike where I moved to in New Mexico. Being from New Orleans I know what good seafood is or better yet... what fresh seafood is.

When I google searched this place and saw it had good reviews I was very excited to get all you can eat sushi like you can get on the west coast. Upon entering the doorway and seeing the tint peeling on the class my wife gave me "the look." you know that look of "what have we done"? Being an optimist I figured lets just give it a shot. When we sat down I noticed there was a cheap fake bamboo fence separating our table from some employee section ordeal. Behind this fence there was some employee's child blasting some sort of video game the whole entire time we were eating, which was irritating to say the least.

Finally they hand us the menu, lo and behold there is a separate menu for the all you can eat, which consists of the most basic of basic sushimi and sushi rolls, such as the California. Being irritated now that I got swindled I decide to order the rolls in which i'm going to get my moneys worth at this point. Literally the best you could get for your moneys worth was the Philadelphia roll, it was the only one of the rolls that did not consist of anything but fake crab cucumbers and maybe if you got lucky... a piece of avocado would be in the roll. You literally are paying $21.99 for rice wrapped in seaweed with cream cheese or fake crab in the middle. Being beyond frustrated at this point I put in a second order of just sushimi, i mean how can they screw up sushimi right? It's just raw fish on top of rice. Well let me tell you, they did not let me down. The fish was clearly picked up at the local grocery store and was not "fresh" by ANY stretch of the imagination. The salmon was almost a light RED from the dye of farmed fish. Only someone who is completely ignorant of what fresh fish looks like would call this fish "Fresh". The ONLY and ONLY reason i ate the sushimi is because I did NOT want to pay for my leftovers. The Eel also tasted like straight up FISH and I don't mean like the eel was substitute fish I mean that eel was old and should not have been served.

I am beyond confused as to why people are reviewing this place and using terms in the English language such as "good" and fresh". There is a reason sushi is expensive, its because fresh fish is expensive. Even on the coast it is expensive, now imagine lugging it out to the desert quickly so it is still fresh?

If you want "budget" sushi that you most definitely could get better quality at your local Chinese buffet then come eat at this place. This place should seriously make you sign a waiver before you eat and "fresh" fish from here. Sushi is NOT a "budget" food, it is a luxury meal. Eating cheap seafood makes you SICK.

People defending this place? I award you no points, and may god have mercy on your soul... and...

We tried Sushi Gen for the first time on a Wednesday for dinner. The counter is closed for dining, but there are still tables and booths available for seating. The restaurant is dark, so it took a minute to get used to the very dim lighting. No music was playing; instead there was a TV playing a cooking show that eventually timed out.

Sushi Gen can do à la carte sushi, or all-you-can-eat. I asked if there was a menu that had pictures or descriptions since sushi can vary so much between restaurants even if the rolls share a name. Sushi Gen only has a picture/description menu for the speciality rolls. On the regular rolls, you just have to know what is included in the roll, or ask the server for each one. For example, an Orange Roll had no citrus ingredients whatsoever.

We ordered a Fried California Roll, two Alaskan rolls, a Tiger Roll, an order of unagi, and two soft drinks for a total of $47.39 before tip.

Despite there only being one 2-top in the restaurant before we arrived, the sushi took quite a bit to get delivered. Since the mini-oven (or microwave) was in the back, the sushi chefs had to walk through the dining room to bring rolls back and forth. It came all at once inside a sushi boat. Since each warm roll needed to be taken from the back of the restaurant back up to the sushi chefs and then arranged with the rest of the rolls, everything “warm” arrived lukewarm or room temperature.

We only enjoyed one roll, which was the Fried California Roll. The Alaskan rolls seemed cheap, and I was disappointed they didn’t have cream cheese. If the menu had descriptions of what was in the rolls, I wouldn’t have ordered them. The Tiger Roll was fine, but my husband didn’t like it at all. Finally, the rice for the unagi was hard, as of the rice had been shaped and then sat out for a while.

We both agreed the service was subpar, the wait time long despite very few patrons, a dark environment, cheap ingredients, and just not enjoyable overall. After a 20% gratuity, the total was $56.86 which was completely non-commensurate with the experience.

Would we go back? No. Would we recommend it? No. Should you...

I am by no means a sushi snob, I’ll eat anything, but I know the difference between the good and bad. I actually came here, after seeing the sign stating “all you can eat” from the road. Frankly, we rolled in there expecting to be fat kids - receiving quantity, not quality. Got both. Have you ever ate something so amazing, your brain gets a little kick of endorphins and somehow all is right in the universe for the next half hour. It was all quite good, the crunch roll was perfect. BUT The Salmon Sake (Nigiri) was just phenomenal, the salmon was just that perfect texture that melts in your mouth, I am happy to say I rode that sushi high for what seemed like forever. I ate like 8 of them alone. and we shared another 8 rolls. We easily ate 90 dollars worth of rice and fish for 20 bucks each. You really, really can’t beat that. From the street it looks a little dark inside and foreboding, almost like a bar, but it’s just the window tint. Inside it’s mellow, a little worn down, but you can tell the owners take pride to decorate and keep it nice. Overall the atmosphere was just fine, and for that kind of quality and price, I would eat it off a...