Sushi Prime 88 — Restaurant in Town of Clifton Park

We have been to Sushi Prime 88 many times over the years. Unfortunately, what USED to be a special and tasty dining experience has worsened pretty much each time we have been in the past two years, in our opinion. Last evening when we went, we ordered the All You Can Eat meal. The newer ordering system program (you use an Ipad or similar device) is NOT user friendly. This was our second time using the devices there. We like the idea.. but a couple of times we ordered an extra meal in error, and when you DID want multiple of the same item, it listed them separately. Very hard to verify the total order that you wanted is correct. In addition, we do not like the "automatic" service charge they place on the bill. it is too much since the waitstaff do not have to take your order. You do the work (as now on the IPad or before on the slips of paper where you marked your order in pencil). The staff brings the food, drink and clears your table. Now on to food, comments.. the Ramen (we had chicken) had a sauce that had a very odd flavor- none of us liked it, the shrimp tempura was heavily breaded-covering up the shrimp flavor- and the sauce was tasteless. The sesame chicken sauce had a cloying flavor, not good. The katsu (both fish and chicken) was okay... though the chicken was overcooked; those used to be one of our favorites. The miso soup, ginger dressed salad, avocado sushi were ok as was the fried rice. Dumpling and shumai were nothing special. The sweet and sour chicken was hard and round shaped-- tasted and chewed like cardboard. The good highlights were the steak teriyaki (cooked perfectly with a nice sauce) and crab rangoon crisp, hot and fresh. In general, not enough sauce is given to accompany the food, so we have to ask for extra each time (ie. especially the sweet and sour or duck type sauces). Though we did not drink alcohol this time, we also note that the mixed drinks tended to be quite weak the last couple times we went. Very disappointed. One last thing--- at the price they charge, a soda or non-alcoholic drink should be included. Used to be a favorite place. At this point, we won't...

I'm sure that excellent AYCE sushi is available somewhere, but I have yet to find it. Even so, I stopped in for a weekend late lunch at this AYCE restaurant in a corporate strip mall with low expectations, and was not disappointed. The experience was not the most pleasant, but not the worst either - more of an McD experience: edible, I guess.

I sat down at the end of the spacious 6-seat sushi bar surrounded by weird blue lighting, but no annoying TV or loud music. The chefs were polite enough, but rushing to prepare for even the small crowd in the restaurant (photo). I tried to steer away from the AYCE menu, and simply order à la carte, but in hindsight, the price would have been about the same (including the 18% gratuity added to all AYCE orders) because almost everything was on both menus. I ordered my usual couple of maki and bunch of nigiri.

The soup was not bad, and was followed quickly by my main, served on one of those "boat-shaped" wooden plates (photo), which I have never liked. I just don't think that they can ever be properly cleaned - at least it wasn't one that had those tiny nets attached. The decoration around the main was simple, and the preparation was not too bad.

Unfortunately, the taste was as to be expected at AYCE, beginning with the very lightly seasoned rice - much less than I prefer. One maki, the bland, non-spicy salmon paste covered in sauce, tried its best to cover the less-than-appealing taste of bargain fish. It failed. On the high end was the saba, which probably just came out of a vacuum-sealed pouch - and it is already one of the cheapest cuts. Even the tamago had substantial room for improvement with its suspiciously high water content.

But the main reason patrons enjoy AYCE is cost. How does the restaurant make a profit at a low price point? One way is savings from lower cost of ingredients. We all know this.

And this is one of the cheapest sushi restaurants in the area.

I've had worse AYCE, but that can't really be a recommendation. It will most likely be quite a long time before I...

This review has been edited to reflect the most recent experience, which is likely our last one here.

The sushi is not consistent in either quality or size. We visited three times in short succession and enjoyed our first two visits. We ordered our usual spread the third time, with some confidence that it was exactly the amount of food we wanted, and received rolls that were about twice the usual size. Some of the fish tasted off. As we didn't want to waste food, we ate all except one roll, which was .. unfortunate to say, disgusting.

When we asked for the bill, the waitress noted that we didn't eat the one roll, and said that it would be an extra charge. We explained that we left it because it was terrible. She repeated that we needed to eat it or it'd be an extra charge. She then, extremely agitated, went to get the manager... who proceeded to argue over the extra $3, until he finally went to remove the charge after what seemed like 10 minutes of explaining that we did not like the roll and should not be obligated to eat it.

I suppose we could have let it go and just took it off our normal 20% tip on the bill... but I was incredulous. How dumb is it for a restaurant to risk losing a repeat customer over $3? Why would the restaurant double the size of their rolls and serve old fish, hoping that someone is forced to pay when they can't stomach it? Reputation is everything in this business... when you give someone a horrible experience even once, after many great ones, you will still lose them forever.

For consistently incredible food and solid service... we recommend you try Wasabi, on central Ave in...