We are Fish: Sakura

Monday, June 20, 2011

Sakura

Hello everyone!

Yesterday was Fathers' Day. It was a good reason to go out and have some good food with daddy hehehhe

We went to Sakura, a pricey japanese restaurant in downtown. We went to eat at around 7pm. Surprisingly, the restaurant was not as full as I expected, which is not a bad thing sometimes as we get more attention and the place is more quiet d=

I have not taken pictures of the waitresses. They are all Japanese and wear kimono.

The ambiance is very zen and romantic. The restaurant is very big, and has more than 3 tatami rooms if I remember correctly. As usual, reservations are highly recommended for a tatami room.

Chirashi is $23 at Sakura. It contains more than 10 "classic" types of seafood including salmon, tuna, shrimp, omelet, surf clam, red snapper, octopus, mackerel, crab meat, and scallop. They were of big size too. Presentation is simple and attractive.

We also ordered kamikaze salmon roll, smoked salmon sashimi and scallop sashimi. They were alright. The scallop sashimi is slightly more outstanding among the 3. The taste of scallop was subtle and lighltly sweet.

Chawan mushi is a famous japanese appetizer. It is basically steamed egg curtard with a piece of chicken, shrimp and scallop. The egg mixture contains soya sauce, dashi broth and other authentic japanese ingredients, allowing a really good taste like soup. Also, the egg is supposed to be very very soft and smooth. Many restaurants that serve chawan mushi fail to do so. At Sakura, it is amazing. It was as though I was eating the softest tofu.

The star of the night was sukiyaki. It is also the reason why I chose Sakura. They serve the best sukiyaki in Montreal in my opinion.

Sukiyaki is another common Japanese style hot pot. Instead of cooking food in a broth and then dip into a sauce to eat (like shabu shabu), sukiyaki gives the meat and veggies a strong and sweet taste directly from the rich sauce in which food are cooked. The brown sauce is very tasty and is made of soya sauce, mirin, sake and sugar.

The first step consists of pan frying the ingredients in the hot pot. When the ingredients are starting to be cooked, you pour the tasty soya based sauce and food will absorb the sweetness of the sauce/broth. Ingredients include thinly sliced beef, cabbage, mushrooms, tofu, carrots, green oinions, noodles. At Sakura, they serve two types noodles. Both are delicious.

When the ingredients are cooked, you dip them into beaten egg and they are ready to eat. The beaten egg makes the food more smooth. I really love it. Another point is that at Sakura, the quality of the beef is exceptional. Kobe beef is available at $110 for two people, but you get high quality beef in the regular sukiyaki too. Even if the meat is cooked well done, it melts in your mouth. Regular sukiyaki for 2 is priced $65.
Trust me, it is s-u-c-c-u-l-e-n-t!!