Some friends and I wanted to expand our Thursday-night sushi tradition to include more places than just Ra, Zake and Rickshaw, so we tried Sage 400 the other night. Bottom line - we won't be going back. Nothing was really bad, but it's just not for us, and we have a better experience elsewhere. The prices are a bit steeper than the other places, and the happy hour specials aren't quite as special. Additionally, the crowd was more 50-something than 20/30-something, and we missed the vibrant atmosphere of our other faves. Maybe it's the low ceilings, the muted decor or the barely-audible background music, but you cannot forget you're in a strip mall in this place.
NOW for the food - I had some interesting dishes, but nothing more innovative than what I've seen elsewhere. While I knew that tuna, my favorite, is higher in mercury than perhaps any other fish, the sashimi slabs I had here were extremely heavy on the metallic taste, so much so that I didn't finish them. The Red River Rolls were interesting, but not quite as tasty as Ra's Lone Star Rolls. The lychee martini was not quite as smooth or heavy on the fruit as Zake's. The dessert menu also leaves a lot to be desired. While Ra's sublime cinnamon tempura ice cream is delicious and large enough to be shared by a table of 6, I could have finished off Sage 400's tempura ice cream dish on my own inside 2 minutes.
Maybe we're spoiled by the other great sushi haunts in town, but this one is not the top of the heap.
Pros: large menu, interesting martini selection, good service
Cons: dishes not superlative, pricier than similar places, sleepy ambience
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