Sage 400 Japanese Cuisine

07/03/2008 Posted by foodie133

Used to love the place, but have made a vow to never return. On two separate occassions she has sent our waiters over to "invite us to their bar area". Translation "get the heck out of here so we can seat someone else". I understand idea behind it, but not five minutes after you've finished your food. When I told her that we didn't appreciate the treatment she basically told me to go to hell. The final straw was when I went in with a gift certificate I received from work friends. She claimed that it was no good and that I had to call the people who gave it to me and have them call the restaurant. After almost a 45 minute wait she was finally able to locate the the records and allowed me to leave with the food. No offer of a comp or even an apology for the mixup. If she isn't the owner whoever is should fire her. Other than that the sushi is great!!!

Pros: The Sushi

Cons: The Lady at the Front

06/15/2008 Posted by cherynp

The evening started off on a high note. We knew there would be 3 of us for dinner with possibly a 4th joining. The policy at Sage 400 is to only seat fully parties (which I completely agree with). We asked for a table for 3 but explained our situation and the hostess gave us a banquet for 4 anyway, which was really nice (especially as we did end up being 4). We immediately ordered drinks and when the waiter asked for the food order, we told him we hadn't even had a chance to look. That was probably where we went wrong. For the remainder of the 3 hours we were there, we had to either flag down our waiter (when we could locate him) or ask the hostess to get him for us. This was really a shame as the food was excellent. Among the highlights were the Agedashi Tofu (perfectly cooked), the Raw Beef Roll (beautiful and delicious) and the Rainbow Roll (perfectly presented). I had high hopes for this restaurant, as it was recommended by a friend with great taste, but this incredible lack of service in a restaurant with only 20 tables really detracted from the experience.

Pros: Sushi

Cons: Service

06/13/2008 Posted by alaskansurfer

After my last sushi fiasco at Miyako's on Westheimer the next sushi experience was only up from there. Sage 400 didnt disappoint and turned out a 5 star evening. The evening started out well, with being seated right away and immediately served water, which seems to be an afterthougt these days. Our waitress was friendly, welcoming and looking to accommodate. Our choices were the hot rock beaf (Angus), salmon roe, Spider Roll (soft shell crab), esocolar and salmon sashimi followed by Mochi Ice Cream. All the dishes were fresh and very delicious. The waitress was conscious of the timing when the items were served and let us know the kitchen was closing and asked if wanted to order additional items. She was kind enough to set aside the Mochi ice cream after the kitchen had closed and when I accidently spilled my drink, luckily no one got wet, she was good enough to refill my drink without charge. Any place has its good and bad nights, but every time I've chosen Sage 400 I've consistently left very pleased.

Pros: Sushi, Crowd, Service

06/10/2008 Posted by lss5502

The food is good but the lady manager is so rude. Our food took over 30 mins and the staff messed up several times. I was very nice and spoke to the manager and she did not offer to comp anything and got an attitude with me and told me they were doing the best they could. whatever happend to being polite to your customers?

Cons: MEAN LADY MANAGER with attitude!!

05/07/2008 Posted by texas_flood

The place has great atmosphere, a good bar, and delicious food. Sushi quality is quite good, easily among the best in Houston. There are many interesting cooked entrees and appetizers. A la carte tempura is a nice idea too! They might recommend Red River roll but I find that the pepper and the chili paste obliterate the flavor of the fish and the rice. Other than that, I am pretty impressed with the food! I do have to say that service is subpar. It goes beyond a lack of concern for customer satisfaction. I wouldn't go so far as to say that they have contempt for the customers, but it's pretty close to that. Every time I've been there, the hostess of the evening disrespected me or someone in my party. Waiters and servers tend to do a good enough job during meal time but are in a hurry with the bill. Essentially, you tend get a slapp on the face when you walk in and just before you leave, but a pleasant meal in between. In the short run it might be easy to puff yourself up as the elite sushi restaurant by being snobby to the customers, but I don't see the point. We pay good money to be there and we appreciate the food. They should be doing what they can to make it an enjoyable experience. It is very easy to treat customers with respect and appreciation. The hard part is the food, the decor, getting a good supplier, etc.. they do such a good job of that, so I don't understand why they put no effort into how they treat customers. They might get away with it while they are one of the newer places in town, but that won't last forever. This would be the best upscale sushi spot in town if they didn't manage to agitate me (and many others, apparently) on every visit.

Pros: Good sushi, atmosphere, lots of non-sushi food

Cons: Expensive, unpleasant hostesses and management

05/04/2008 Posted by turtles55

i would definately recommend this place! very nice decor, good service! very good sushi...very good salads as well!

Pros: very good service...not your ordinary sushi spot!

Cons: no cons!

05/01/2008 Posted by jgjgjgj

I went to Sage 400 yesterday, against my friends suggestions and the very bad reviews i've read here. We were a party of 4, being our first time here we asked the hostess if we could seat in one of the big round booths, the hostess said that those booths we for 5 or more, we looked at one of the big booths and there were a party of 3 seated in one of them, we asked the hostess that if the booths were for 5 or more how come there were 3 persons seating in one big booth, she started stuttering and went to ask the sushi manager if we could seat at one of the booths, the manager Teddy came over and said that we could not seat in the booths and said that those booths were for reservations for big parties, so we agreed to seat in one of the tables right beside the booth, it must have been 30 mins when we saw a couple get seated at the middle booth, my friend got up and asked the hostess that if those booths were reserved for big parties how come she sat a couple at one of the booths, she didn't knew what to say, and when we were about to finish we saw a party of 4 ppl get seated on the only big booth left, the manager angie came to them and we clearly heard her say " oh anything for you, you are big spenders in this restaurant and you know me so no problem" me and my friends felt snubbed, and intimidated and bullied by the fact that we were not seated in one of the big booths because we were not VIP, we asked the manag er to come over by our table and she said blamed the hostess when all of us obviously heard her, all of asudden she got an attitude and basically kicked us out by saying "I'm very sorry for all of this but if you want to leave you can" she basically kicked us out!!! she's right WE ARE NEVER COMING BACK, i should have spent 300 on another restaurant that doesn't discriminate ppl by not being big spenders, i don't recomend this restaurant to anyone!!!! the sushi is not that great for 300 bill,

Pros: Chilean sea bass maybe?

Cons: horrible cutomer service, bad manager

04/16/2008 Posted by Houstone

I've dined here at least twice a month, every month over the last two years, and always, always had a fantastic experience. The menu is creative, and ingredients always super fresh. If you are feeling adventurous, try the raw beef roll, my favorite, or the Miso Sea Bass, the best I have ever had. The atmosphere is hip, upscale and relaxed, with really neat booths and a private area off of the bar that I and friends have had the pleasure of dining in on many occasions, without having to pay extra for it, like some other more pretentious spots in Houston.

Pros: Creative menu, the freshest ingredients, reasonable prices

Cons: Smallish bar

04/06/2008 Posted by JasonParks

I recently moved to the galleria area and was looking to find a sushi place close by. I have been a big fan of sushi for a long time and have eaten at sushi restaurants all over the country. I tried Uptown and Ra to my disappointment, then one of my friends told me about Sage 400. I gave it a shot and to my surprise it was some of the best sushi I had ever had. My waiter suggested I try the yellow tail appetizer, it was yellow tail thinly sliced with jalapenos and cilantro and it was excellent. I also had the Red River roll that was topped with pepper tuna and avacado and the Scorpion roll that had shrimp tempura and crab meat. I was very impressed with both rolls and I was excited to see thier menu also included items like New York Strips, Lamb Chops and all kinds of cooked appetizers like Chilean sea bass. For me that is a big plus because its sometimes hard for me to get my friends to aggree on sushi. I enjoyed Sage 400 very much and cant wait to go back.

03/30/2008 Posted by teknein

You would think that two bottles of Dom Perignon later, the waitress would pay you a little more courtesy. No. The management is sweet. I usually have a decent time going to Sage. Considering that I will only go there to buy a bottle of champagne and sit down. The most unprofessional sushi chef I have EVER encountered!! I asked the waitress to tell him to make a vegetarian roll--OTHER than Futomaki. But oh! What do I get?? Futomaki with Tamago on it. I'm sitting there thinking... Is this guy serious? I call the management out, I tell her what happened. She marches me to the sushi bar--where the chef is GLARING at me. Honestly, he should've been fired a long time ago. Anyway. The owner apologized. But they charged me for the sushi anyway? Regardless. I almost feel like she tried to care, but forgot to. I don't go to Sage 400 anymore. I'll drive the ten minutes and go to Richshaw instead.

Cons: Customer Service is terrible. Even after having been there a while.