Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve waited for this day for what seems like eternity, and am elated to announce that THERE IS AN AFFORDABLE SUSHI PLACE NEAR ME NOW!
It’s been 4 years since I moved from Baltimore (where there was a fantastic, affordable sushi place 2 blocks from me that I visited at least twice a week) to my Boston burb (where there are great sushi restaurants that I can’t afford, and the one walking distance from me that I can afford is god awful and is out to kill me.) 4 years of no constant sushi. AND ALL THAT CHANGES because Sakura is in town! Hell yeah!
Sakura has these lunch specials that are easy on my wallet, and the maki rolls are fresh and delicious. And, to top it all off, the service is great – I am so glad you are on Moody Street! [Someone must have heard my prayers/whines.]
In fact, I was so happy, I went there for lunch for two consecutive days!
Miso soup and salad (comes with every lunch special!): Miso soup was warm and delicious, and the salad was a sizeable serving for lunch. They don’t skimp on the salad either – there’s romaine lettuce (not iceberg!), carrots, tomatoes and cucumber! And the ginger sauce is tasty too – a tad sweet!
Shrimp Tempura Lunch – $8.95: On J’s first day, he got shrimp tempura, although he had a small back surgery that morning, and was sick from work. The tempura was great! Really crisp and light! I was a tad disappointed by the rice, which was regular white rice and not sushi rice (seriously!?)
Three Maki Roll Lunch – $11.95: I got the salmon and avocado roll, spicy tuna roll and the una-avo roll. The rolls were good! Not too much rice! My favorite was the spicy tuna roll, though I generally hate spicy anything rolls because they’re diced up little pieces of fish. That said, this spicy tuna roll was great because they added little bits of panko crunch in it – and the variety of texturesin the roll is simply genius. The una-avo was my next favorite. It was good, and the sauce was not overpowering, unlike some una-avo rolls I know!
2 x Three Maki Roll Lunch – $11.95: On the second day, we both got three maki roll lunch sets! J got the salmon-avocado roll, california roll and east roll (shrimp, avo and cucumber with tobiko outside.) I got my una-avo roll, negi-hama (yellow tail and scallions) and spicy salmon. I love all the rolls, but probably won’t get the negi-hama again, because it was dry, and the ratio of rice to filling was off (for my taste.)
Fried Ice Cream – $5.95: It’s been a while since I’ve had fried ice cream, so we went for the novelty! It was good – the ice cream was not melted at all when it came, but because it was so cold, the tempura batter became cold quickly. It was still crispy, but the contrast between warm and cold didn’t last long. Textural contrast though, remained! It was good! 🙂 Also, we got the mango, which was more sherbert-y, which was more my taste!
* update 6/23/15 *
Instead of lunch, we headed to Sakura for dinner!
Oyako Don – $11.95: Lots of rice, and the wrong type of rice. This is very unlike other oyako dons I know. Firstly, it’s on a plate! Shouldn’t dons be in bowls? Tastes fine, but not authentic. A little disappointed.
Salmon Wonton Chips – $8.25: Spicy salmon on crispy wonton skins! I love the contrast here. Quite good! Would have been better if it had a little more moisture!
Chirashi Bowl – $15.95: 3 slices each of salmon and maguro. Some tamago and crabstick to add to the mix. There’s not enough variety in this to call it chirashi. It was also very dry to eat. Way way way way too much rice. Would not recommend, unfortunately! 😦
Sakura Japanese Restaurant
Address: 5 Pine St
Waltham, MA 02453
Telephone: (781) 216-8922
Hours: M-Th | 11.30am – 9.30pm
F, Sa | 11.30am – 10.30pm
Su | 12pm – 9.30pm
Price Range: $$ ($10 to $20 per person) – lunch
Overall: I’ll be back every day if I can!
emylogues 