Years ago while at Intel I co-managed an enterprise project with Nora, a diminutive Vietnamese lady who later left the company and moved to San Diego. I expected her to say she her move was prompted by a desire to be closer to family or to her childhod home. Instead what she most looked forward to about relocating to San Diego was the availability of all-you-can-eat (AYCE) sushi bars. Her answer validated why she and I worked so well. We had a very symbiotic relationship and were able to land our project not only successfully, but better than any other Intel site had done. We both loved Asian food of all types.
Nora left Albuquerque a couple of years before the Duke City saw the launch of its first AYCE sushi restaurant. In 2024, Sushi Gen celebrates twenty years of creating and serving sushi. Its $29.99 per person price point isn’t significantly more than it was in 2004. When Nora first told me about AYCE sushi restaurants, I was skeptical. “How good can AYCE sushi be?” I opined. We found out during a 2001 visit to Makino in Las Vegas, Nevada that AYCE sushi can be pretty good indeed, especially if your quest is for gigantic portions of inexpensive sushi. During our inaugural visit to Sushi Gen, we found it on par with Makino, a pretty highly regarded Sin City sushi parlor.
.Sushi Gen, may in fact, be equal to or better than several of the much more expensive sushi restaurants in the Duke City. That may be more a testament to the quality of sushi at Sushi Gen than an indictment of the state of sushi in Albuquerque. To be honest, you can find better sushi in Albuquerque, but you’ll pay a premium for it. Sushi Gen is small enough to be intimate, big enough to be comfortable. There’s nothing remarkable about the decor, but the service is generally polite and attentive while the made to order sushi is much more than passable.
Our visit during Sushi Gen’s 20-year-anniversary year came after a seventeen year absence. Ever since my Kim developed (courtesy of prescription medication) an aversion to anything piquant, she’s worried the proximity of wasabi (which can be as eye-watering as Napalm) might “contaminate” the sushi. Eventually I convinced her that unless we order sushi that’s made to be piquant (such as spicy tuna rolls or rolls containing greeen chile), sushi is relatively innocuous. Moreover, it’s absolutely delicious as it showcases seafood and complementary ingredients. That’s a lesson many of us have learned after years of dousing sushi with wasabi hot enough to make us sputter and cough.
You might be tempted to order everything on the menu (and we almost have), but it’s advisable to pace yourself and savor the flavors in every bite. Sushi Gen has instituted a per piece “pay for any wastage” policy that includes sushi rice. In comparing the AYCE menu to Sushi Gen’s standard menu, you’ll find–with the exception of several specialty rolls–many of the same maki (roll) style and nigiri (a piece of fish on a bed of rice) style sushi offerings. A single, alternating specialty roll is offered with the AYCE option. If Buddha is smiling on you, it’ll be the dragon roll, a visually appealing, avocado colored masterpiece featuring crabmeat. More than likely, however, it will be the multi-hued, multi-seafood rainbow roll.
The maki style rolls, whether featuring raw or cooked fish inside, are very well crafted and are almost as esthetically appealing as they are delicious. The sushi is served on a boat shaped tray. Among the suhi rolls pictured below are the cactus roll (shrimp tempura, crab meat and cucumber inside, avocado and fresh water eel on top). By the way, the term “fresh water eel” is often enough to cause ichthyophobia, an extreme, overwhelming and irrational fear of fish that are both alive and dead. At sushi restaurants, fresh water eel is served with a sweet and salty sauce “eel sauce” that pretty much obfuscates any “fishiness” the eel might otherwise have. My Kim always asks for extra eel sauce.
As an aside, fresh water eel (unagi) is said to have stamina-giving properties. Containing 100 times more vitamin A than other fish, unagi is believed to heighten men’s sexual drive. Japanese wives would prepare unagi for dinner to suggest to their husbands that they want an intimate night. After waddling out Sushi Gen’s door, intimacy is the last thing on our minds. Enough about fresh water eel, let’s get bck to our scheduled review.
Also pictured on the sushi boat above are a Seattle roll (crab meat, avocado, cucumber and spicy salmon on top, eel sauce on top); a rainbow roll (crab meat, avocado, and cucumber wrapped with sushi rice. Topped with tuna, salmon, snapper, shrimp and avocado on top); tiger roll (Shrimp tempura, cucumber, and avocado wrapped with sushi rice. Cooked shrimp on the top with eel sauce on top) and caterpillar roll (freshwater eel wrapped with sushi rice and avocado on top, eel sauce on top). In solidarity with my Kim, I eschewed wasabi and reenforced how good sushi can be without it.
Only after my Kim had had her fill did I order something exclusively for myself. Most Duke City sushi restaurants have at least one sushi roll that pays tribute to our sacrosanct green chile. Among the best is Sushi Gen’s New Mexico Roll (fresh pepper chile in a light batter, deep fried and shrimp with sushi rice). I’ve often made the point (perhaps ad nauseam) that the green chile on many sushi rolls is better than the green chile on some New Mexican dishes. The New Mexico Roll is no exception. The green chile not only has a nice piquant bite, but an inimitable roasted flavor that makes green chile so pleasing to your olfactory receptors.
Sushi Gen
5210 San Mateo, N.E. #8
Albuquerque, New Mexico
(505) 830-0131
LATEST VISIT: 17 May 2024
# OF VISITS: 5
RATING: 18
COST: $$$
BEST BET: Crunch Roll; Spider Roll; Rainbow Roll; Shrimp Tempura Roll; Mackerel, New Mexico Roll,