Yea the sushi chefs that I've seen are great at 'measuring' the amount of rice. It's all done by eye and feel, but man it's very consistant.
I agree with cranks though-- at least my take on it is that "roll sushi" is not exactly in the 'upper end' of things. I'm sure you can find expensive stuff out there, but it doesn't seem to have that image to me (but I'm not a native so this is all by my eperience).
I also have never heard of a $500 a person sushi place around here
. We have expensive places, but that would range in $100-$150 per person if you really got the good stuff. If you keep moderate you can do just fine at $50-60 per person. The most expensive places I've been to kind of fits the description of "not using cold rice" though... it's not exactly hot or even warm, but it's certainly warm
er than the sushi I remember having in California.