Sakura Asian Cuisine

(menu)

Lucky #13 brings us to a BYOB in the strip mall kind of behind Friendly's.  It's one of those spots that you would forget was over there if there wasn't some great raw fish just waiting to be eaten.  Sakura is a BYOB sushi place with modern decor.  I've been there before and the dining room is usually pretty empty.  I believe they do a good amount of takeout business as well.  Normally we just get sushi and sashimi here.  This time we decided to mix it up a little.  We ordered the Sashimi Deluxe and one of the entrees, Teriyaki Steak.

The Sashimi Deluxe comes with rice and soup or salad and the Steak came with soup and salad.  Sakura gives you the option of white or brown rice.  I've had both and they're both nice and sticky and a little bland, the way a side of rice at a sushi place should be.  I ordered the miso soup which was pretty standard, cloudy and sweet.  This one had a lot of green onions though, maybe a few too many, but it was a good soup.  Steve ordered the hot and sour soup.  The salad came out.  It looked like a nice, fresh side salad with ginger dressing, but we never touched it.  Too much other food to try.

The sashimi came out first.  The presentation was nice, but pretty basic.  I have seen them do some nice arrangements that look like flowers and landscapes, but maybe you have to get the bigger order of sashimi for that.  The pieces were yellowtail, tuna, salmon, striped bass and red snapper.  Typical selections for a sampler like this, maybe next time I'll pick something crazy out.  The fish was fresh.  The wasabi didn't break up as much in the soy sauce.  I don't have extensive knowledge of what's authentic or not, etc. It just seemed to me that it was a little more like play-doh than usual.

The Beef Teriyaki came out on a sizzling platter on a bed of carrots that were somewhere between shredded and julienned.  It was accompanied by some broccoli, more carrots and zucchini.  We ordered the steak medium rare and that's the way it came out.  It looked like it was cooked as one piece and then sliced and coated with sauce. and sesame seeds.  The flavor of the teriyaki was a little sweet and it was thick.  The meat was great, but a little difficult to eat with chopsticks.  We could have been less stubborn and asked for a knife, but what fun is that?  The veggies were nice and al dente.  My only complaint is that the sauce was only on the steak and underlying carrots and not on the veg.  Half the reason to have broccoli in a teriyaki is that those little flowers soak up all the sauce and make for an awesome bite.  Easy to ask for extra sauce next time or sauce on the side.

The service was good.  The waitress was not familiar and she mentioned that she hadn't tried the hot and sour soup yet so I gather she was somewhat new.  She said she was working her way through the menu and I think that's a great idea for any server so they can get to know the menu and it also implies that she enjoys the food.  Although the place is usually empty I think the service and ambiance are good and it;s a great spot to go to before a movie up the road.



  

Fujiyama Japanese Steakhouse

(menu)

For #5 on the tour I visited Fujiyama Japanese Steakhouse.  There are a few places in Pottstown where I consider myself a regular so I feel like I should disclose that Fujiyama is one of them.  Maybe that makes me biased, I'm not sure.  I do know that my visit and my account of it are probably colored by many past visits.

Fujiyama offers sushi and hibachi among other things.  They have a small downstairs bar, a sushi bar with several tables in the back, several hibachi tables on the first and second floor and a second floor bar that is larger, has more tables, a deck with tables and a stage for music.  I got to Fujiyama around 6:00pm on a Friday night and I sat at the upstairs bar.  The bar is new in the past year and the deck has a nice view where you can watch the sunset.

Dave is the bartender at the upstairs bar.  The bar is usually open Thursday, Friday and Saturday night.  Dave is very nice, but not who you would expect to see behind the bar at a sushi restaurant.  He will talk sports with anyone, especially local high school sports.  His local cable show on the subject makes him somewhat of a local celebrity.

I ordered a Pinot Grigio as usual.  Their wine selection is maybe sub par.  The wine isn't terrible, but don't go there looking for a selection.  They also do not carry any craft beer although I know there is an effort to change that.  They have Sapporo on tap and at least one other Japanese beer in bottles.  They do have a full liquor selection as well.

They have recently added a bar menu that has a different variety of selections from the regular menu. I ordered #4 on the Sushi Specials.  12 piece sashimi, miso soup and white rice.  I requested a substitution of the vegetables they serve with the hibachi dishes for the white rice, but I failed to notice if there was an upcharge for my change.  I will pay better attention next time.

These are photos of the same sashimi with the two sides I ordered.  The wait was a little long and the veg and sashimi came out without the soup.  Once I mentioned it they corrected the mistake quickly.

It's a pretty basic meal.  The sashimi at Fujiyama is always right on.  It's a typical selection of tuna, salmon, white tuna and striped bass.  I assume that these selections have the highest turnover vs other things on the a la carte sashimi menu since they are included in the specials.  Regardless, they have been fresh every time I've ordered them.  Good texture, nice and cold.  I think the striped bass sometime has connective tissue which makes it hard to bite apart, but I think that's the nature of the fish and not anything lacking in the knife skills.

The hibachi veg is one of my favorites.  There is something about the sauce they put on them that I love.  I guess nowadays we call it 'umami'.  I call it awesome and mouth-watering.  The vegetables were cooked perfectly as well.  Firm, a little crunchy.  I always think overcooked vegetables are a crime so this is one of my favorite sides - no doubt the vegetables were fresh.

I am not a connoisseur of miso soup, but this one is pretty good in my opinion.  Sweet, cloudy and a little grainy like you'd expect.  They add some small cubes of firm tofu and greens.  I believe the 'greens' in their soup is seaweed and it has a great, firm texture and a slightly bitter taste like you would get out of other dark green vegetables.

There was live music when I was in.  On that particular night it was Ryan Conroy, playing acoustic guitar and singing.  It was great dinner music for sitting at the bar and hanging out.  Not too loud or heavy.

Definitely check it out.  If you're into the live music you can find their schedule online or on Facebook.