Had lunch there today. The food was good and the presentation was excellent. The service was top notch and very friendly. It was a very enjoyable experience. Â Excellent choice. Highly recommend.
I updated my review to include this: I tried the sushi lunch special another day last week (3 rolls - I was hungry) and it was AWESOME.
Sake Cafe was my second Japanese restaurant I tried on my return trip to Albany area. Â The location is far from the central area but I will say it was best overall in my second trip here and worth the trek out to the middle of no where.
My dinner here had the best balance of prompt and considerate service with fresh seafood quality. Â My dinner order consisted of the deluxe sashimi with the option of soup or salad. Â I opted for the salad and it came quickly after I ordered. Â It was your typical iceberg lettuce with a creamy dressing that was a bit heavy handed. Â The sashimi dinner arrived soon after and it was on the largest plate I ever seen!! It took up more than half the table and left a lot of white space around each fish. Â The selection was 6 varieties and 3 pieces each. Â The quality wasn't as fresh or tasty as Shogun in Delmar but I would say its close to Mr Fuji. Â I did enjoy the salmon more than other pieces.
The restaurant is clean and modern with lots of nice spacing between tables. Â Though it was mostly full, I never felt cramped or rushed. Â The service was always prompt and they refilled the tea often.
This time, Sake Cafe was the best restaurant overall because it was delivered everything well. Â If Shogun fix their service issues, I'd recommend it over Sake but we'll see if they do.
The last time I ate sushi in Albany, I got really, really sick. It's been over 6 months since I tried any. After all this time, I finally got my sushi craving back, and we decided to check out Sake Cafe after hearing so many good things.
The space is clean and newer looking. Service was great. A few different people waited on us, and they were all friendly and helpful.
My one complaint is the menu options. I wish they had more specials (the only specials were three chef special rolls with a lot of the same ingredients), and I wish they offered a few combos of standard rolls. I think there is one on the menu and it wasn't that appetizing.
The two special rolls that we did try were excellent!! Great flavors, perfect amount of spice, and the fish tasted fresh. The teriyaki scallops were really sweet and boring. We'll stick to sushi in the future.
Incredible! Having lived in the Capital Region my entire life and absolutely LOVING sushi, I've tried out a lot of places. Sake Cafe is hands down the best sushi in the area. And we're not talking those tiney tiny rolls you get at some places...portions are generous and prices are very reasonable.
I havent tried any of their other entrees but the couple dining next to us last Friday ordered what looked like General Tso's chicken and it looked incredible. Not gloppy or gooey like the takeout chinese you get at most places.
We had edamame and gyoza for appetizers. Then moved on to spicy yellow tail, california roll, rainbow roll and a spicy yellow dragon roll. Incredible!
The food is great, especially the spicy tuna role, which is my favorite (and it's not easy to find a great spicy tuna role!)
The service is even better. I go to the Sake Cafe in Slingerlands, Price Chopper Plaza, so I'm talking about that location specifically.
As one of many examples, my mother can't have anything too spicy. They do everything to accommodate her tastes -- including asking questions before making the meal, remaking her dish (twice, on one occasion.) They also redelivered my order AND refunded my entire purchase when they made a minor mistake. They know me because I am a frequent customer who often makes special requests out of necessity so I see their actions as a good example of (reverse) loyalty/appreciation. (They also know I don't take advantage of their kindness.)
Ultimately, I see the staff (not sure if they are the owners too?) as being incredibly proud of their abilities, and appreciative of their customers. They will not let a customer walk away unsatisfied, which is how I think Customer Service should be everywhere.
If you like Japanese cuisine and haven't been to Sake Cafe, I highly recommend giving them a try. It is not possible to walk out the door disappointed. It's a great little restaurant, and very fairly priced.
Since we were going to the Slingerlands Price Chopper today, we decided to just find someplace nearby to eat (rather than using yelp to help us find something like I normally do). We saw two restaurants right there in the Price Chopper plaza and decided after reading the menus to try out Sake Cafe.
The decor inside was so my taste! There were comfy black chairs that were actually stylish in design, wood banquettes, a unique wood bar (the area where the bottles are was very cool), and a decent sushi bar (considering that it's in a strip mall and not some giant restaurant). The music was nice, and the lighting was somewhat dim but not so much that it was out of place. The artwork on the walls was the perfect amount of minimal with muted colors and Japanese flowers. The menu had both Japanese and Chinese items on it, and I haven't had either in awhile; so I was very excited.
We were about to order off of the lunch menu (which says nothing about days or times, but it was noon on Sunday, so we thought we were safe) when the server informed us that they don't allow "lunch" orders on Sunday. (They really need to either separate the lunch menu and not hand it out or put some clarifying information on it, because we were quite disappointed to have to rethink our orders.) We ended up ordering the same as we would have off of the lunch menu, but it cost us $7.00 more. sigh.
My husband got the General Tso's chicken. It came to him looking like a work of art. It was plated just gorgeously, and steam was rising off of it. It came with broccoli and carved radish and carrots. He said it was the best he's ever eaten anywhere.
I ordered the yellow fin tuna roll and the New York roll. Both were very fresh, cut the perfect size, and quite delicious. The New York roll was super yummy. I didn't try any specialty rolls, but they had a decent selection of them for sure.
If  not for the whole lunch menu situation, I would say we had the perfect lunch at Sake Cafe today. We both left feeling very satisfied. :)
I was expecting to be disappointed after all the hype that I heard about this place. I will eat just about anything, but sometimes sushi just isn't high on my list of foods that I seek as i tend to be just as hungry as i was when I started the meal 30 mins after I've finished, and after spending the afternoon skating I had a linebacker hunger that could not be satisfied by just some rice and raw fish; I needed meat. Sake Cafe has a good selection of very fresh sushi, "Chinese" food, and "Thai" food. Our party of 7 ordered a variety of sushi, Chinese, and Thai food.
I ate the following: miso soup, avocado roll, tuna roll (sampled one from my dad's plate), and the Panang Curry. The miso soup was good and had big leaves green, it could have come to the table a little hotter, but it was good. The avocado roll was melt in your mouth delicious as was the tuna roll. The Panang Curry was exactly what my man sized hunger required last night. The portion was nothing short of huge (it came served in a bowl that probably held about 10oz of tender white meat chicken, a whole bell pepper, some type of shoots, Thai basil, and about 1 cup of a delicious mildly spicy peanut sauce). I inhaled the whole thing and was disappointed that I didn't leave myself any leftovers to take home.
The other 6 people in the party ordered the following: several vegetarian sushi rolls, a monkey roll, sushi/sashimi platter, Thai Red Curry, Chicken & Broccoli, and the last dish is escaping my memory at the moment. Every one ate every last bit of their meals and were very satisfied. Notably, my mother who ordered the chicken and broccoli and is waging a one woman war against hypertension and water retention by an absolute moratorium on salt and routinely complains about dishes having "too much salt" (i.e.: any salt) announced with much glee that her chicken and broccoli was great and not overly salty like most "Chinese" food. Sake Cafe thank you for giving her a victory to add to her one woman battle memoir. No complaints were verbalized.
The restaurant itself is acceptably decorated albeit a bit confusing as to the heterogeneous wall hangings (some pears & geographical shapes, and flower x-rays) and comfortable. It is a small space but wasn't too cramped. The staff is a little clumsy and awkward, but sweet and attentive, so I forgive them.
Its 9:30am and now I want a tuna roll for breakfast. Too bad I live 30 mins from the restaurant.
Sake Cafe is the shit, overall.
They have the best sushi I've eaten in the Capital Region, especially in terms of special rolls. I think "Yummy Roll" is my favorite, although "Crazy Couple Roll" is pretty fantastic as well. The veggie varieties are also great, especially Sweet Potato.
Employees at Sake Cafe are very nice and the sushi is not just tasty, but also artfully executed. The only complaint I have is that it's pretty expensive for the amount of food you get. The price is definitely worth it on occasion, due to the taste and presentation, but I would go here more if I received more food for the price, or if prices were lower.
Wow, I just ate here today, and this place is fantastic. Â I was impressed that both the sushi and Thai food (at least my red curry) were equally good, which is often not the case at Asian restaurants that serve more than one type of Asian cuisine. Â
The prices are also extremely reasonable, especially for the quality of the food. Â I was honestly very, very impressed with Sake Cafe, and will be going there a lot more often, as well as telling others about it. Â I don't know what the deal is with the other reviewer listed here. Â Perhaps he went on a really, really random off day. Â Not only was my visit terrific, but I know of a number of other people that have gone here and all raved about it. Â I just can't believe it took me so long to finally eat here myself.
This review is based on a recent lunch visit to Sake Cafe, located in the Price Chopper Plaza in Slingerlands. No sushi was ordered on this visit.
Sake Cafe opened its second location a few months ago. This restaurant serves up sushi, sashimi, noodle dishes, soups, salads, and Thai dishes. The atmosphere inside is casual and clean with bar counter seating, sushi bar seating, table seating and a long row seat along the wall. There are large flatscreen TVs at the bar and sushi bar. The lighting is very dim.
After shopping at the Chopper, I decided to stop for lunch at Sake Cafe. I was seated promptly and ordered a hot tea (complementary). I decided on Kitchen Lunch #7 Pad Thai Noodles with Chicken which included soup or salad. I started out with a bowl of hot & sour soup, which was pretty decent and very spicy tasting. I needed to ask for some ice water to wash down the soup, The Pad Thai arrived shortly after, which was very disappointing. The Pad Thai, a modest portion, was very watery with soft rice noodles, egg, peanuts, not much sprouts, and soft boneless chicken pieces and shredded carrots on the side. The dish tasted bland and bleck. This was one of the worst Pad Thai dishes I've had in a very long time.
The service however, was good and prompt (extra star). I knew I should have stuck to the sushi here based on the other reviews at the Albany location, but I had to have some noodles at the time.