I have dined at Sakagura twice—once at the bar and once at a table. Overall I am very impressed by this establishment and love the food and presentation of sake. It is definitely one of my favorite places for Japanese food (not sushi).

Food

I have yet to try a dish I didn't like. Overall the food is pretty solid and one can't go wrong with any of the options. But a few highlights include but no limited to:

1) Waygu beef sashimi with Daikon Radish. The fat and juicy meat complemented by the daikon radish and onions is mouth watering.

2) Fluke Sashimi with Daikon Radish. Very similar to the beef sashimi in flavor but fluke. Really excellent flavors. Very light and appetizing.

3) Boiled tofu. I love tofu, especially when very fresh and of high quality. What I especially loved about this dish was the tofu skin. This really made the dish because I am obsessed with tofu skin. On the side there is ponzu sauce, onions and radish to enhance the flavors of the tofu as you wish.

4) Steamed egg custard. I grew up eating this dish, so I loved it. The egg was so soft and tender—such a comforting dish. I highly recommend.

Sake

Obviously Sakagura is known for its vast selection of sake and unique presentation of each order. The use of fresh flowers for each sake makes the experience not only visually appealing but also gives honor to the sake being served. It makes the whole drinking experience a much more classy one.

Decor/Ambiance

The restaurant is located in the basement of an office building. Unless you've heard of Sakagura, it's not a place you'd just randomly stumble upon. Once you enter the building there is a not-so-noticeable door that leads you to the restaurant.

Price

For a nice full meal with a decent carafe of sake for two I'd say around $65-80 per person including tax and tip.

Reservation

I can never seem to get a reservation at a good time, so I recommend making it far in advance. However, the times I've been, I did a walk in and had no issues. It all depends on the day and luck of the draw. But I think if you go an hour prior during peak times, it should be okay.

Organic Chicken with Sea Salt and Yuzu Pepper

At 9:40pm, we were seated to begin our omakase meal on a Friday evening. The small space located in East Village with wooden decor gave its authentic Japanese allure. The staff was extremely friendly and attentive—changing our tea when it got cold and attending to our needs.

Omakase begins at $70 per person with a variation of sashimi and nigri—or only nigri if that's what you prefer. We chose a starting point of $80 per person with sashimi and nigri. We began the meal with a some lightly seasoned lotus root and a platter of fresh sashimi. The fish was tender, tasty, and most importantly fresh and high quality. Shortly after the sashimi, we had fried shrimp head. Is it bad to say that it was probably the best piece we had? With a sprinkle of salt and lemon—it was salivating.

We began our first nigri piece with freshly killed shrimp. Very tasty—a shrimp well done. This is where things started to get more interesting. The Chef slowly began to take his sweet time. A regular that sat next to us began intense 10 minute long conversations with the Chef. They drank a lot and talked a lot. A little too much. The Chef started getting sloppy and serving us nigri with straight-out-of-the rice-cooker hot rice. The overly warm rice did not contrast well with the cool raw fish. It was near the end of the night so he was probably losing concentration. We were starting to get a little irritated.

We ordered fried uni in addition to our meal. What a great idea. I still prefer uni as is....but fried is not a bad idea. It's crunchy, fried and really flavorful. We were served a few pieces that are not even worth mentioning as it was poorly prepared with overly warm rice and a lack of proper seasoning. The seared otoro was very juicy and delicious as always—but it's hard to screw up oroto as the fish itself does the job for you.

Our last piece was the hokkaido uni which was very good, except the Chef accidentally put soy sauce and apologized for it. Again his sloppiness was very irritating. The soy sauce wasn't actually that bad—it slightly toned down the creaminess and added more savoriness.

In addition to our omakase we ordered the tamago and famous quail egg with caviar. Probably two of the best pieces—which wasn't even part of the omakase. The tamago at Ushiwakamaru put an emphasis on the true egg flavor as compared to other places where there was more emphasis on the fish component. It was light, sweet and surprisingly refreshing. It almost looked like pieces of pineapple.

The quail egg with caviar was very delicious. The subtle creamy and melting egg mixed with the slight bitterness of the caviar added great texture to the bite. It was well balanced and flavored. We finished our meal close to midnight.

Our entire omakase comprised of the sashimi platter, fried shrimp head and seven pieces of nigri for $80 per person. In addition, we ordered the fried uni, tamago and quail egg with caviar ($9 piece). Overall we spent roughly $140 per person including tax and tip. Not terrible as most high-end omakase is around this price. However, the Chef's lack of focus and technique will not bring me back to this spot.

Sakagura

Ushiwakamaru

Wells Blog

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