Tempura, Sushi And Ramen: Sakae Brings Japanese Specials To Shantinagar

At Japanese restaurant Sakae, you can customise sushi platters, noisily slurp on porky ramen and munch on the Japanese version of fried chicken.

Tori Karaage, Haikoro – Double Cooked Pork, Pork Ramen

Sakae has a full fledged bar and they should be able to rustle up a tipple of your choice.

Japanese food at prices that won’t cost you too much. And generous portions!

Sakae {meaning prosperity} is a Japanese restaurant attached to the UNO-Inn Hotel. Split into three sections, the place has an enclosed space right after the entrance for small groups, the red and white table and chair set up and then the low seating {the ones where you have a nice deep space to dangle your legs}.

The Tori Karaage {fried chicken} comes on a platter with shredded daikon and some tempura parsley as well. The chicken is moist and done well despite being flash fried. The crispy tempura batter makes it a nice munchie to have. Another dish that we brought to the table was the Haikoro – Double Cooked Pork which is served on a salad of lettuce, peppers, scallions and finished with a generous sprinkling of sesame seeds. You may find the salad part of this dish overpowering, but it does lend some great texture and taste to the pork that is abundantly mixed into this.

Though the menu does not feature a sushi platter, you can ask them to create one for you. The 12-piece sushi platter we had was made up of Tamago {egg}, Maguru {tuna}, Ika {squid}, Hirami {flounder}, salmon and prawn rolls. Served up with mild wasabi and soy and gari this was a platter that satisfied and did not really break the bank. The Pork Ramen comes in a deep dish with a broth that is steaming and bubbling with pork fat, generous slices of meat, noodles, soft boiled egg, fresh onions and scallions, making it completely slurp-worthy.

The menu, part in picture and part in Japanese script is not user-friendly, despite the two-three word English descriptions, but with a sense of adventure and some help from the staff you will do just fine. Sakae is no EDO if that is what you are wondering, but what it definitely is, is Japanese food at prices that won’t make you wince. The food is generous in quantity and the experience of sitting down to a meal is quite literal.

The story was first published on the blog Bangalore’s Restaurants. Read the full story here.