Sakura Restaurant and Bar

Sakura for a weekday lunch date with a friend is a good choice as it seems to be a popular gathering place for the downtown St. Paul working crowd. It is a pleasant location with large windows on both sides of the restaurant that facing the street, making for interesting views of downtown. For those who enjoy watching their sushi being prepared, there is a newly installed sushi bar. They also boast a full-length bar complete with a flat screen television and an upstairs loft style dining area. The restaurant is appropriate for single diners, couples looking to enjoy a quick bite, and family diners. Although parking on the street is scarce, Sakura validates for up to three hours at the Lawson parking ramp.

Sakura offers traditional Japanese cuisine and their lunch menu includes warm and cold appetizers, soups, salads, tempura, entrees, teriyaki, noodle, bento box, teishoku, donburi, yakizakana, and of course, sushi. There is also the Minnesota Wild menu, which boasts everything from the Uncle Joe Roll (#1 Fan), which is a tempura scallop with asparagus and spicy mayo topped with tuna and avocado and sweet eel sauce to the #20 Andrei-San (named for Andrei Zyuzin, a player for the Wild from 2003-2006) a shrimp-crab-and-asparagus roll with avocado and spicy mayo, deep-fried and drizzled with eel sauce.

My friend and I were seated promptly in a booth with a window view. I choose maguro sashimi and the #55: The Nick Schultz, a tempura shrimp and asparagus roll topped with masago (brightly colored roe from smelt fish), tempura crumbs and creamy sauce. It is then blowtorched and drizzled with eel sauce. My friend chose the sukiyaki don, a sliced beef loin with mixed vegetables and noodles served on white rice. I also ordered hot tea black tea. My sashimi came quickly as did her clear soup, which preceded her meal. Both tasted fine. Her soup had plenty of scallions and fresh mushrooms and my sashimi was cool and mild, just the way I like it.

Things took a turn when we received our main courses. My Nick Schultz was very good, if a bit saucy. I recommend it as long as you are not expecting a more contemporary sushi dish. The tempura is quite tasty but between the extra crumbs, creamy sauce, and eel sauce, it was a bit heavy. My friend's Sukiyaki Don was not good. As she put it, "It tastes like the state fair smells." It was returned to the kitchen and I offered some of my Nick Schultz instead. We both had green tea ice cream for dessert, mine as an indulgence, hers as a replacement for her lunch. It was fabulous. I highly recommend it.

Since we were on our lunch hour, we wanted to leave quickly. We had some trouble flagging down the wait staff to get our check. We eventually got up from the table and went to the wait station, preferring to stand there rather than sit in the booth hoping to catch someone's attention. The staff was kind enough to comp my friend's meal. For my appetizer, my lunch, my dessert and my hot tea, my bill was just under $30.00. There was enough of my #55 left to box up and take home.

About two weeks later, my daughter and I stopped into Sakura's at around 3:30 on a Friday afternoon for a quick bite prior to doing some shopping. We ordered the California roll and egg rolls from the happy hour menu and the sashimi and avocado salad from the dinner menu. I also ordered a glass of house rose wine as required for the happy hour items. Our items came one at a time with the California roll being first. It was very, very good and fresh, with each of the ingredients standing out. By the time we were done with that our salad arrived. It had a sweet dressing that I was not sure if I would like but I actually did. The avocado was ripe without being too soft and went perfectly with the sashimi. I was also pleasantly surprised at the sprouts that came on the salad. The egg rolls came last, which my daughter had specifically ordered. They were hot and flaky like egg rolls are supposed to be. We both thought we were too full to eat them but my daughter was able to finish them so that we did not have to take them to go. Because we ordered off of the happy hour menu our total bill, including tip, was under $25.00.

www.sakurastpaul.com

350 St. Peter Street, St. Paul, MN (corner of St. Peter and Fourth Street in the Lowry Building)

By Jeanette Madden