Sakura

Sakura is a regular spot for my family.  Tim and I think it's the best sushi in town.  This is mostly because it's reasonably priced but still incredibly fresh (the place is always packed, resulting in high fish turn-over). And, we've finally figured out what we believe to be the perfect sushi roll combinations for the two of us to share.  So, in celebration of my step-son's 5th birthday, we went last week.

(Sorry for the lack of pictures once again--I sort of forgot about the blog when I was presented with the beautiful, delicious plate of sushi and started stuffing my face instead of getting out my camera.)

Our standard order always begins with the gyoza ($4.25 for 5 dumplings).  Sakura's are a pork mixture with thin wrappers, are lightly pan-fried, and come with an amazing dipping sauce.  I mean, I could (and often threaten to) drink the stuff.  It appears to be a fairly simple soy-based, garlicky, gingery concoction, but it's set off with chili oil.  Something about it is incredibly addictive to me.  I am getting hungry just thinking about it now.  Omnomnom.

Ahem.  Anyway.

Appetizer and soup-or-salad (your choice of miso soup or a typical orange-ginger vinaigrette topped iceberg salad is complimentary with each meal) consumed, we then turned to an order of four sushi rolls: the Florida Mix roll, Texas roll, Bob's roll, and the New York roll (prices vary from the website sometimes, but all of the rolls are in the $5.00-6.50 range).

Florida Mix:  Tuna on the inside, topped with a delish mixture of salmon, tempura crunchies (i.e. tenkasu), green onion, flying fish roe, and spicy mayo.  It's probably my all-time favorite roll and I haven't found anything equal to it anywhere else thus far.  The mayo provides a creaminess which is cut by the bite of the green onion (but not too much bite).  The tenkasu and roe give it texture.  It is just SO. GOOD.  Beware, it's a big roll.  But it's worth looking like a fool while you eat it.

Texas:  My second favorite roll.  We were only brave enough to try it about a year ago, as it does contain chili oil and "jalapeno masago" (more roe, this time green).  It's salmon on the inside, and on top is piled more tenkasu in spicy mayo with green onion (a magic combination), and the whole thing is covered with the green masago.  Another large roll, but so yummy.

Bob's:  Moving on to the simpler rolls, this one has asparagus tempura, smoked salmon, and spicy sauce inside.  The salmon gives the whole thing a salty smokiness and goes extremely well with the asparagus.  (Ever had prosciutto with asparagus?  It's a similar meaty/salty/asparagusy experience.)

New York:  This is the simplest one of all, and what we generally use as a palate cleanser after we have a Texas roll.  It's just shrimp, avocado, and again, spicy sauce.

Our boys always split an order of the Chicken Cutlets ($11.25).  They are pounded flat and breaded with panko and lightly fried.  They then slice them into strips perfect for kiddos.  To be honest, it seems a bit dry to me--it does come with a soy-based dipping sauce, which would probably help--but the boys LOVE it.  They are also rice addicts, so we divide it all up and they dig right in.  The dish also comes with a bit of broccoli and some carrots--if we're lucky, we can force them to eat a bit of veg with their meal.

This is actually enough food for our boys, who are both pretty hearty eaters.  They do also like miso soup now, so that helps round-out the meal.  The waitstaff seem to enjoy having kids there, especially on weeknights (as opposed to their insanely busy weekends), and the first time we came with the boys they gathered around and chatted to the boys before the meal.  They also willingly make the boys "practice chopsticks" which means rolling up the chopsticks wrappers and placing them at the non-food end of the sticks, and securing everything with a rubber band so that the sticks can be opened and closed easily without requiring major hand coordination.

Website:  Sakura