Review: Rise Sushi Lounge
Rise competes for attention in a town that knows its sushi
There's never been more choice in Atlanta when it comes to Japanese food. We now have a wide range of quality establishments, from authentic sushi restaurants along Buford Highway to small Japanese pubs to swank temples of raw fish flown in daily from Tokyo. We may have become spoiled. There are worse problems to have.
I suspect this raising of standards, while good for our palates, may not be so good for the standard sushi spots around town. It may well be the problem at the newly opened Rise Sushi Lounge. Despite being open only two months, the restaurant's been practically empty on recent evenings.
The folks at Rise would argue that their restaurant is far from a standard sushi spot. Waiters stress that Rise has at its helm "Atlanta's only master sushi chef," Tony Wang. Wang's best known for opening Peachtree City's popular Ginza Japanese Steak and Sushi in 1991, which he sold a decade later. Rise is Wang's attempt to re-create his success in a downtown Atlanta venue. He joins the glut of new restaurants surrounding Centennial Olympic Park and the Aquarium in the Luckie-Marietta District.