Mr. Fuji Sushi - Albany — Restaurant in Town of Guilderland

TLDR: The service was fine, the appetizers and sush/sashimi were bad, and the manager followed us out of the restaurant to tell us we didn't tip enough. 0/10 would not recommend (at least for sushi). I don't usually leave restaurants reviews but I felt that I should for this restaurant. For context, I enjoy sushi and have tried a variety of places specifically in Albany (it's Albany, so I don't expect super high quality sushi), but I order the same basic sushi/sashimi when I go out to get sushi, so I know when things taste off.

Key points: the service was good (but the restaurant was mostly empty on a weekend night, which was a little concerning as soon as we walked in) we got some fried appetizers that tasted very oily we also got sushi and sashimi -- all of it tasted off (not spoiled, but definitely off e.g. slimy, texture and taste made me question the fish, etc.), but one of the rolls in particular had a fishy taste, which sushi/sashimi really shouldn't.

I was a bit let down especially for the price, but it is what it is -- I chalked it up to a poor meal, paid, and left. However, the craziest part is that after paying, we left and the manager followed us into the parking lot to tell us that we didn't tip the server enough.

Granted, I made a mistake in calculating the tip because I used a gift certificate, so the amount of the final receipt was lower than the amount we paid for out of pocket, but I worked in the food industry for several years and not getting the best tips happens all the time (whether accidentally like this case or intentionally).

It wasn't the server's fault the food was bad though and I did make an error compared to what I intended to tip, so I went back in and changed the tip, but it was still crazy to me that someone would do that considering we weren't in a huge party or any situation that generally warrants a fixed tip minimum.

Overall, I can't recommend this restaurant...

Pros: great service clean restaurant really nice napkins for a restaurant in that price range lol (you'll notice it if you go) The appetizers were good (we had tuna hand rolls and eel hand rolls..doubt they are wild caught though so I would limit intake to once and a while if you bother purchasing only wild sustainably caught fish Cons: . The entrees..this is where things fell apart. the KATSUDON was literally the worst I've ever had (I"ve had it at least 30 times dining out over the years. I lived in Japan for five years (in the Army and lived 30 mins outside Tokyo). I don't expect it to compete with the dishes I ate there, but this was really bad. -the breading was total mush with zero texture nor taste -the pork was low quality, but not a shock given the $15/$16 price tag -the rice tasted like great value rice -there was no egg. maybe in breading, but there is suppose to be perfectly cooked egg that covers the pork..again, I know eggs are expensive, but I'd rather pay $20 for a meal I enjoy than $16 for a meal i only had about 4 bites out of. It was even worse than the on-base club's Katsudon, which is remarkable. if restaurants tried to serve this in Japan they would be closed (based on taste and execution of the dish).i couldn't even finish half of it. One of the guest's I took out also had it since i wouldn't shut up about how much he would love it. I was embarrassed for talking him there or at lesat recommending such bad Katsudon. YOu want sushi...great spot, but stick with the sushi bar.

If this was the only katsu/oyaku don you've tried, then don't give up hope on the dish. this can be an amazingly tasty dish. I haven't tried their TonKatsu (if they have it), but I wouldn't touch it based on how the pork cutlet was cooked for the katsudon.

I would go back again, but only a few specific things. good spot for...

Went for date night here. Generally don’t write reviews but had to for this one. Service started off very good and then it went downhill from there. Service disappeared right after we ordered. The manager/owner idk who it was approached us to ask if we were done just 15 minutes after we started. The sushi itself was very sloppy. The cuts on Salmon Lover wasn’t done well and in fact there was no seaweed for a couple of cucumber hand rolls. The avocado rolls were very sloppy as well. We decided to not tip the place and right at the exit, we got heckled by the manager on not leaving a tip. He said it’s customary to leave a 15% tip and it’s not nice to not leave one regardless of how the food is. Went on for almost 10 minutes by the entrance. He said they expect all customers to leave a tip which is absurd. Coming from the service industry, I usually tip 15-20% but this experience wasn’t worth it. In fact, not sure why they expected a tip when it wasn’t mandatory, a tip is...