The Metairie Sake Cafe was the first of the four restaurants bearing that name. In its early years it was one of the best Japanese restaurants around, with a adventurous sushi selection and artful presentations. In recent times, however, the food on both the sushi and kitchen sides were routine. The same has been true of the Elmwood and Kenner Sake Cafes, if not even more so. (The Uptown location has different owners and is much better.)
Sake Cafe opened in the late 1990s, with a beautiful dining room and an adventuresome menu--plus a few ideas from Western gourmet restaurants. Over the years branches opened in Kenner, Elmwood, and (now closed) Covington. It also spun off the large Magazine Street Sake Cafe, which is under different management now.
The Metairie restaurant is cool, dark, quiet, and suave, contrasting mightily with the mall outside (where Chili's and Houston's seem more in place). The Magazine Street Sake Cafe is modern and stunning, with high ceilings and striking treatments of walls and floors, mostly in unusual woods. It's spacious, even when packed. The other three locations are handsome but in a sterile, chain-restaurant way.
Ask the sushi chef about anything you're thinking of ordering before you do, and look at the expression on his face.
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