Food Review: Sakura
Jan. 12th, 2009 02:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzOur Christmas present for 2008 was to be taken out for dinner at a Japanese restaurant. I knew where Sakura was, but had never eaten there before. It's around the corner from Schröder, but to just walk in for some Japanese food never crossed my mind.
This occasion was perfect to sample their dishes. The seven of us (Father with his wife, Raphael, Jos&Eef, NoKey&I) gathered at seven for dinner. Smiling, clearly non-Japanese people greeted us and we were ushered to sit around the hibachi.
The atmosphere was really great, lots of dark lacquered wood, and very friendly faces all around. It helped that my father was all the way at the other end of the hibachi and because his hearing has deteriorated he can't talk with me when I sit so far away. I loved the 'executive' room to the side of the common restaurant, with room for 20 people around 2 hibachi, it was a secluded place to do business and there were pictures on the wall, indicating more sense of style than the restaurant itself where we were seated. It was a spark of exclusiveness in an already smooth restaurant.
NoKey, as a vegetarian, always has some problems picking out nice food that will nourish him enough, but he struck a deal with the waiter, who offered a special price. I decided to go with the steak & salmon menu, which was an excellent choice.
The starter dishes were simple and nice, although the cold salmon in sweet&sour sauce tasted a bit refrigerated. The beef was not my kind of thing. Luckily, after this dish I received a fair share of sushi. This was really quite tasteful, with sweet rice and fresh salmon and cucumber. It was reasonably freshly made, although the cucumber was too cold. I even tried the ginger slices, but I didn't like them much.
The fried vegetables were good, and by this time we met the chef. He was a very serious man, who worked quietly and focused on the food he was preparing for us. We liked him from the very beginning.
The main course for me was not one, but two large chunks of salmon, exquisitely prepared. I've never had so much salmon in one go, and I had to beat NoKey to eating it all. By this time I sampled the sake, which arrived warm and lucious. Yum. Of course, everyone wanted to taste it, and nobody else liked it. More sake to me!
The fried rice was lovely and I stole a chunk of NoKey's gyoza before finishing off my rice and waiting for the "steak hibachi" (biefstuk van de plaat, dus). It was the crown to a very successful dinner. Icecream and coffee finished off the dinner, though I passed on the coffee as NoKey and I had shared three pots of green tea during dinner.
And here's the verdict:
Sakura [Iens.nl] - Aert van Nesstraat 4, Rotterdam. [Official website here]
Atmosphere: 7,5
Food: 8
Service: 8
Though the reviews on Iens.nl show that Japanese food is not for everyone and that Sakura has had its bad moments, we had no problems having a very enjoyable meal with great food. The chef was funny and focused and the staff very helpful. I'm hard-put to decide whether Sakura or Yamato is the better Japanese restaurant in Rotterdam, but if you don't want to order the master chef especially, both are equal on all points. I like the variety of the menu in Sakura better, to be honest, but I haven't tried the salmon menu at Yamato (yet).
I guess that means we're going to have to sample Yamato again!
This occasion was perfect to sample their dishes. The seven of us (Father with his wife, Raphael, Jos&Eef, NoKey&I) gathered at seven for dinner. Smiling, clearly non-Japanese people greeted us and we were ushered to sit around the hibachi.
The atmosphere was really great, lots of dark lacquered wood, and very friendly faces all around. It helped that my father was all the way at the other end of the hibachi and because his hearing has deteriorated he can't talk with me when I sit so far away. I loved the 'executive' room to the side of the common restaurant, with room for 20 people around 2 hibachi, it was a secluded place to do business and there were pictures on the wall, indicating more sense of style than the restaurant itself where we were seated. It was a spark of exclusiveness in an already smooth restaurant.
NoKey, as a vegetarian, always has some problems picking out nice food that will nourish him enough, but he struck a deal with the waiter, who offered a special price. I decided to go with the steak & salmon menu, which was an excellent choice.
The starter dishes were simple and nice, although the cold salmon in sweet&sour sauce tasted a bit refrigerated. The beef was not my kind of thing. Luckily, after this dish I received a fair share of sushi. This was really quite tasteful, with sweet rice and fresh salmon and cucumber. It was reasonably freshly made, although the cucumber was too cold. I even tried the ginger slices, but I didn't like them much.
The fried vegetables were good, and by this time we met the chef. He was a very serious man, who worked quietly and focused on the food he was preparing for us. We liked him from the very beginning.
The main course for me was not one, but two large chunks of salmon, exquisitely prepared. I've never had so much salmon in one go, and I had to beat NoKey to eating it all. By this time I sampled the sake, which arrived warm and lucious. Yum. Of course, everyone wanted to taste it, and nobody else liked it. More sake to me!
The fried rice was lovely and I stole a chunk of NoKey's gyoza before finishing off my rice and waiting for the "steak hibachi" (biefstuk van de plaat, dus). It was the crown to a very successful dinner. Icecream and coffee finished off the dinner, though I passed on the coffee as NoKey and I had shared three pots of green tea during dinner.
And here's the verdict:
Sakura [Iens.nl] - Aert van Nesstraat 4, Rotterdam. [Official website here]
Atmosphere: 7,5
Food: 8
Service: 8
Though the reviews on Iens.nl show that Japanese food is not for everyone and that Sakura has had its bad moments, we had no problems having a very enjoyable meal with great food. The chef was funny and focused and the staff very helpful. I'm hard-put to decide whether Sakura or Yamato is the better Japanese restaurant in Rotterdam, but if you don't want to order the master chef especially, both are equal on all points. I like the variety of the menu in Sakura better, to be honest, but I haven't tried the salmon menu at Yamato (yet).
I guess that means we're going to have to sample Yamato again!
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-12 02:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-12 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-12 05:54 pm (UTC)I have one problem with that drink, and that would be stopping myself from consuming more.