Sakura is Turning Mid-town Monroe into Little Asia

I'm a little surprised at the collection of Asian restaurants on North Monroe near Fifth and Sixth Aves., they're multiplying like rabbits over there. The first to make a big splash was Masa, right next to Café Cabernet, and then up the street a little, Fusion and another small sushi place opened up soon after, and there's a little Chinese Restaurant hiding behind the House of Frames or whatever that shop is called, though I've heard shady things about the Chinese shop... Anyway, Sakura is now the what, 6th or 7th Japanese sushi joint to open up in town, let alone the 4th Asian restaurant in midtown? And I can name about 4 or 5 more Japanese restaurants that have already opened in Tallahassee since then.

We decided to stop through there several months ago when it was brand new, and have since revisited several times - this post has been a long time coming. Now that Japanese restaurants are becoming common, it's a little easier to become a connoisseur of them even for the less Indie-rock foodie crowd. (Read: Even my mom has started eating sushi these days.)

So what's so great about Sakura, and how does it stack up against other places in town? Let's start with location and atmosphere. As mentioned, it's on North Monroe about midtown, just north of Sixth Ave., in the strip plaza called "The Assembly", you'll spot the big monolith sign with the very 80's stair railing wrapped around the monolith. I have an easier time finding that sign than the light up red letters and red lanterns on the storefront itself, a little lower than street level and off to the side behind some shrubs, or the non-descript white sign camoflauged with trees and other plaza signs by the street. Inside, Sakura is very clean and has a great, modern yet traditional Japanese atmosphere. The floors, chairs, and walls are dark wood finishes, the tables are black laquered wood, the ceiling is a strange dark wood framework with soothing teal blue tiles behind it, and the walls are clean and sparsely decorated. There's a bar on the right when you enter that looks rather modern, really nice HD TV and futuristic looking seats. I've never hung out at the bar area so I can't say anything about their night life, but it looks like a nice cozy area compared to most bars, since it is rather small but very inviting. Probly a decent place to escape with a date for a quick drink, better than a crowded full bar. Overall, the atmosphere is classy without feeling pretentious. There's also a strip where you can sit facing the chef at the sushi bar, of course.

Sakura offers hibachi, but not like Mori or Osaka or other traditional hibachi places where the chefs pull all sorts of stunts and give you a show, they just cook it in back and bring it to you on nice plates. I have to say that the hibachi grilled vegetables there are very very good. They're better known as a sushi place (probably solely because the hibachi is not a show, which the term has a strong association with), and their sushi is pretty dang good. I would say their biggest advantage over other sushi spots is their presentation, which is top notch, and their prices are pretty reasonable. For the same production value in presentation, I'd get the same and pay more at Masa. As for taste and variety, you can find all the standards of sushi you want here, and several of their signature sushi rolls taste pretty good, are inventive, and all have great presentation, but there isn't any one real "knockout" roll I can recommend (though granted, I've still only sampled about half of the signature sushi rolls so far... there's a good number of them). The exception is the Crazy Dragon Roll, which has fish that I can't remember inside, BBQ eel skin on top, the tail of the eel hanging off the back, and every roll plating is individually decorated with the eel barbecue sauce into a drawing of a dragon, which is really cute and most people take a picture of their first helping. The drawing is also never the same twice, always fun.

Miso soup and ginger dressing salad are sushi bar staples, and they vary greatly from place to place. The miso at Sakura has a good broth, and the seaweed leaves are usually pretty big, but the tofu is small and sparse. I prefer a miso with big chunks of tofu, but if you're not thrilled with that, this should work for you. I've also had better miso broth at other places too, but there's nothing to complain about here... I'm more miffed over the tofu. Their ginger dressing is really good though, even though more places do a good ginger dressing than not, but this is solid. Another staple of course is tempura, which Sakura does well, but is also hard to mess up. I will say that to my knowledge, Sakura is the only place with whitefish tempura, which was very nice, very light, not fishy, and still hardy.

The real killer reason to go to Sakura in my opinion is for the lunch specials. Namely, the bento box sets. Bento of course are those sectioned boxes almost like an ancient Japanese TV-dinner or cafeteria tray, and always come with a variety of foods. These usually run for about $12-$15 at most places, and at Sakura they're only offered at lunch time... but they're just $8.25. Furthermore, most places' bento boxes come with an entree, a half a sushi roll, a scoop of rice, and maybe one other thing, frequently just a pile of sautéed or pickled onions or cabbage. At Sakura though, they will hook you up large for less than the price of those skimpy bentos: Their box comes with 3 or 4 pieces of ebi shumai (that's a shrimp dumpling with a hint of sweetness, boiled then lightly fried for a seared outside), a scoop of white rice, a half a California Roll (3 or 4 pieces), a main course of your choice from about 4 options including katsu (breaded and fried chicken, pork, or beef), hibachi, tempura, or teriyaki, AND it comes with miso soup AND salad! That's a delicious, filling, full Japanese meal for $8.25 and covers all the bases of your varied tastes for a very reasonable price. That just can't be beat for Japanese lunch if you ask me.

Summary: Pretty good sushi, pretty good prices, great atmosphere, clean & pretty, traditional sushi/hibachi options (not fancy pretentious or Asian Fusion type of shenanigans). The big reason to go is lunch time bento. Also, like most sushi restaurants, they do close from 2pm-5pm. Visit them at http://sakurafl.com/default.aspx