Sakagura
Sakagura
211 East 43rd Street
New York, NY 10017-4707
Delicious. I LOVE this place. This is my go-to place for a celebration. It’s a little bit of a splurge, but with the dishes averaging $10-20, this place is not too bad if you don’t order drinks. But this place has a sake encyclopedia! In fact, ordering sake here is daunting, because they have a binder filled with 50+ sakes with little to no descriptions for any individual sake. However, they do have a seasonal, sale, and special selections list that rotates with beautiful descriptions that I usually order from. (What do you expect, this place is a brother to Sake Bar Decibal down in the village)
Not every holiday/momentous occasion can be followed up with a reservation at Ko, for instance. One, we can’t get reservations. Two, well… I can’t very well afford it. Still, if you want to do something special, a little expensive, but delicious, come here. Get reservations, though, because we were sat at the bar on Friday at 6pm (we were waiting for the restaurant to open and were the first ones in), because all the tables were apparently booked.
The first course we ordered was ama-ebi (raw sweet shrimp) spiced with fish innards, shiso (japanese basil), and scallions. I forget which part of the fish, though. It is sizzled on top of a fiery stone (I suspect there is a light underneath) and seared before eaten. We found this in their seasonal menu and specials for the month. Sweet shrimp is so sweet and delicate that I usually always eat it raw. Searing it just a little bit with the sauce gave it a whole new texture. The key was to cook fish innards than the ama-ebi.
It was spicy and delicious. We didn’t need any additional flavoring, and we paired this with a clear sake found on their “sale” menu.
Then, we both got our entrees of choice. We are creatures of habit and I think the last three times we came here, we usually just get these bowls. I got the kaisen kimchee don. Ryan gets the sake-ikura don. It’s hard, because these two dishes are our favorite, and although we sometimes switch, we need to get these two dishes all the time. I get the kaisen kimchee don, because it’s such a good deal. I get an assortment of delicious sashimi in a sweet and spicy kimchee sauce. They don’t skimp on the fish, although at first glance the bowl is a little small. The sake don, is beautiful. The salmon is good, but the gem of this dish in the ikura. Never in NYC have I tasted anything this fresh. The only thing that beats this is the ikura we had in the fish markets of Tokyo.
We were feeling peckish, so we followed the fish course with some red meat, some saikoro steak. Saikoro in Japanese means “dice,” like playing dice, to notate the cubed beef. It was thick, but tender. The sauce was a sweet ponzu (vinagarette of vinegar/mirin/soy) and hit the spot to make us satisfied.
The first dish was around $15, the following dishes were $13 and $16, and the steak was $12.50. Not too shabby, but not cheap, either.
They have a great black sesame desert, and some truffles I’ve never tried, which is their signature. However, this time around, we decided to go for their desert sake flight. There was the higher tier one and lower tier one, and the lower tier one got us this:
Hanato Kijoshu: Kinda tasted like garlic. Weirdly enough, it had a slight tinge of brandy and a bitterness from tannic sake. It was nice, but strange.
Kaku Rei Ume Shu Junmai Ginjo: Delicious plum sake. Ryan’s favorite.
Himezen (ichinokura) Sweet Sake: My favorite. I’ve never ever ever had sweet sake before. It’s clean, sweet, and slightly acidic. Not cloying at all.
Sakagura has a HUGE selection of sakes and Japanese fare, done a little differently. Just know that it’s slightly pricey, especially if you want to order their sake. Also, it’s a real shame if you don’t at least get a tasting of their seasonal fares. They have a very reasonable lunch soba menu, which is limited to serving the first 30 people. Get there quick. (I’ve yet to really make it down there for lunch)
