The restaurant has been renovated to look like a traditional Japanese diner. The shut doors made it easy to think the place was closed, but I guess they had to keep the doors shut due to the cold weather. There was however a sign outside declaring the place open. Inside, the restaurant was small but cosy. We managed to grab the last available table, despite not having made a reservation. We spotted a group of 10-20 Japanese tourists, probably a good sign regarding the food.
The dinner menu had a range of Japanese dishes, including appetisers, tempura, sashimi, sushi, salad, and grilled dishes. Our waitress was friendly and attentive. In fact, we thought the service was even too much, as the waitress kneeled next to us to take our orders!
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Tuna sashimi |
We started with my favourite sashimi - tuna (9 piece for $17). Not many Japanese restaurants in Christchurch have tuna sashimi, so I always get them when I can. This was beautifully presented on a glass plateform. The tuna was fresh, sweet, and absolutely delicious!
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Takoyaki |
Our second dish was the takoyaki (6 for $6.80) - octupus balls topped with Japanese mayonnaise and seaweed flakes. These were quite tasty, although pretty standard like most Japanese restaurants. I thought the seaweed flakes was a nice twist.
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Seaweed salad |
We decided to be "healthy" and have some greens. So we ordered the seaweed salad with white sesame dressing ($7). I love the seaweed, which has a nice chewy texture and great with fragrant sesame seeds and sesame oil. The sesame salad dressing was also lovely. A refreshing dish.
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Soft shell crab |
Deep fried soft shell crab ($12) is always a popular dish at Japanese restaurants. I love the crispy batter with soft salty crab meat in the middle. The soft shell crab here was nice, although probably not as good as some other places I had tried (such as the long gone Tatsumi, and Kinji).
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Ox tongue |
We also had the ox tonge with spring onion dip ($7). The ox tongue I have had in other Japanese restaurants were usually thinly sliced, grilled, and topped with onion and sweet soy sauce. The ox tongue here were slightly thicker cut, and topped with mashed spring onion dip. As they were thicker slices, they took a bit more work to chew, but still tasty. I also liked the spring onion dip, a nice alternative to the usual onion topping.
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BBQ eel & egg omelette roll |
To finish, we had the BBQ eel and egg omelette roll ($13), for some carbohydrate. We were impressed with the presentation and the generous serving. It was the first time I had eel and egg sushi, and I quite enjoyed it. The BBQ eel was delicious, and was sweet and sticky. It was like eating eel don (BBQ eel and egg on rice), which unfortunately was only available for lunch.
Overall we had a good time at Sakura. The food was good and reasonably priced.
Sakura is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11.30am to 2.30pm for lunch, and from 5pm to 9pm for dinner. Booking recommended. Also available for takeaway.
Sakura Japanese Cuisine
380 Riccarton Road
Upper Riccarton
Christchurch
(03) 343 3636
http://www.sakuracuisine.co.nz/ (website to come)
Alvin hates this place. But i think i will try it
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