Sushi Rock — Restaurant in Arlington

So let's talk about Sushi Rock. I'm driving down Clarendon Boulevard through the densely-interwoven streets of Arlington with my friend Dre in the passenger seat, and don't get me wrong there's a lot of construction around here right now but I manage to find a spot a little ways away and pay the fee and we walk up the sidewalk in the dusky sunlight and see the place: Sushi Rock's exterior is wide and open, a kind of nouveau establishment with a white sign with red and black lettering in a font that seems vaguely electric. There's generous outdoor seating, but the day's a little chilly so we go inside. Being the brilliant person that I am, I forgot to make a reservation. Sushi Rock reached out to me, asked me to swing by, and I assumed I'd get a seat. But this place is packed at around 7:30 on a weeknight, much to my surprise. I walk in, and luckily Dre is sly enough to snag us two seats at the bar after the hostess told us that it'd be a 45 minute wait for a table for two. (So, if you're planning on going to Sushi Rock on a busy night, make a reservation!) Now that we're sitting at the bar, my lapse in prescience regarding reserving a table has faded into the backdrop of ambience that Sushi Rock's interior evokes. There are drumsticks aligned along the back of the bar, guitars affixed to the walls, grayscale photos of rock stars performing at giant stadiums, and of course the customary monitors displaying various sports games that you can't really have a bar in northern Virginia without. Dre and I start by ordering the house hot sake, which turns out to be an excellent choice; next we get the Nigiri Set, which consists of nine chef-selected Nigiri (the kind of sushi where the meat or egg or vegetable rests overtop a bed of rice), and we wait. Not much later it comes out, and the plating is excellent, with colorful sauces drawn across the white plate between each nigiri and a few candied orange slices and some other porous kind of candied desert I can't tell you the name of (still good though). Using wasabi (me) and soy sauce (Dre), we plow through the plate and are finished quite quickly. We sit there for a little while before Dre says she could eat more, which I had been thinking myself, and so we order the "Light My Fire" Maki Specialty Roll, the name of which is a clever reference to Jim Morrison's sultry voice saying those very words (usually preceded by "come on baby"), and we wait for it to come. I look over the menu again - the "Light My Fire" consists of crunchy shrimp, spicy tuna, avocado, jalapeño, spicy aioli, and eel bbq sauce. Let's just say: It rules. Go there and eat it. It's also not overwhelmingly spicy, for which Dre and I were grateful. And then we got our check, hung out for a bit, admiring the lively environment chock full of people, which can sometimes be too much in a bar/restaurant, but Sushi Rock manages it well with two floors and an exterior seating area, which we walk past as we leave, and the sun is lowering behind the tall Arlington office buildings, and I honestly cannot recommend Sushi Rock more highly. We had a great night and you will too. Get...

Went off the reviews and was misled. The waiter was fabulous though- the food however- well if you like food poisoning then I guess it was okay. Still paid $60+ even though neither of us could eat the meal. Miso Soup seemed overcooked as the soup was over-powered by seaweed taste (i make this weekly myself and fresh and this deff was old soup- miso bathwater?). Edamame tasted frozen or maybe just extra cold and poorly seasoned w salt. Bento lunches should be served in bento boxes as advertised but they r weirdly served on separate long plates which crowded the small table. Steamed dumplings were weirdly chewy but edible- pretty sure they were frozen and cooked to order- not much seasoning . Now- u always take a risk w sushi on a Monday bc it will be a few days old bc of Sunday but the nigiri selection was rubbery, couldn’t chew the yellow tail and spat it out. The rice also wasn’t the right quality for sushi rice- rec sugar and vinegar to get that right stick quality. Also- there was no wasabi or ginger provided- and nigiri always has a smear of wasabi- was surprised to see none. The color seemed weird too (one can add shine to make them look more appealing and I think this trick was done so don’t be fooled by looks. Tuna should melt on ur tongue- not be fishy and unable to chew) but the smell was okay oddly enough. The Spicy tuna roll was very bland, fishy and no spice . That said- it was so bad I didn’t even want to pack it for the dog- and that’s bad. Pretty sure the sushi was a week old and hence textured - deff not fresh (been to japan and lived in Hawaii- i have high standards but this was really bad). The Tempura was the most shocking- it was twice fried and not even how u make vegetable tempura at all- and it was beyond greasy. The onion tempura tasked exactly like Burger Kings yet we couldn’t even eat that. Only thing we had was 1 glass each of white wine and some miso soup. That was the only thing that was tolerable. Yet we still paid for the food we didn’t eat and now r throwing up and having stomach issues. Deff was shocked- even for a college town. We didn’t want to make a show as the waiter was great- but do stay away from this place- it isn’t traditional Japanese and the quality of fish is insulting. I’ve eaten gas station sushi in Hawaii that was heck of alot better. When ppl can’t eat ur food- u usually comp them. As we paid for uneaten food and are now ill- this...

I had an unfortunate experience at Sushi Rock last night after having been an occasional customer over the years and loving the place. My bf and I had a set dinner reservation. We arrived on time and the hostess tells us we will have to wait a few mins, no big deal we thought. We end up waiting about 15 mins and watched about 3 other couples walk in and get seated immediately. After the first couple was seated, we thought that maybe they just had an earlier reservation than us, but then it became clear that some were just walk-ins looking for available seating. Of note, my bf and I are African American, while the couples who walked in and were seated instantly were Caucasian. I'd hate to think that the staff of Sushi rock would ever be discriminatory towards their customers but I received that vibe afterall. When my bf and I approached the hostess after we watched the 3rd couple get seated while we were the only people waiting at the front at this point, she had no reasonable response for the mishap. She stumbled over her words and suddenly had a table available for us saying, "I will get you seated now." She then accepted blame saying she "forgot" to let the seater know about our reservations although we waited directly in front of her hostess post. I spoke to the manager who assured us that we would be well taken care of. Our service for the rest of the evening was excellent with us receiving two appetizers on the house. Our waitress was very attentive and accommodating. The seater apologized profusely stating that he felt embarrassed that we experienced that at this establishment. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal, the sushi was amazing as always. However, we still left with am extremely bad taste from the initial experience and will no longer be servicing this...