Saké Restaurant & Bar | Brisbane CBD QLD 4000

DolceBunnie 10/01/2013 2 Comments Edit

Saké has been one of my preferred Japanese fine dining restaurants for a long time; in fact ever since it opened here in Brisbane. Many special occasions were celebrated there. So one day, when a fellow food blogger and a long-time friend from uni suggested that it was time for us to have a long overdue catch up, it was inevitable that Saké went top of the list.

I’ve always enjoyed the ambience at Saké. You are always greeted with a polite and warm irasshaimase before you are seated. The atmosphere is always a genuine balance of classy and casual, which makes the restaurant a great location for catch-ups or even first dates.

You see, the fantastic thing about eating with a fellow foodie, among other things, is that we can take as long as we want to take photos of the food, from all sorts of different angles without feeling even a pinch of guilt. You’ll know what I mean if you have ever told your friends NOT to touch their plates before you’ve captured the perfectly plated works of art.

My fellow food blogger, also known as OMGGIMMENOW, loves food. In fact, she’s like me, we worship good, delicious food. Seriously, during our three-hour long nomming session, we would always somehow come back to the topic of good eats. Oh and that probably explains why we spent a while trying to decide on what to order, as we were lucky enough to dine at Saké during their month-long Cherry Blossom Festival.

We started off our soirée with sashimi tacos – tuna & salmon sashimi filled baby tacos with chilled tomato salsa matched with kozaemon junmai ‘sake shots’ ($16) and popcorn shrimp – bite-sized prawn tempura pieces served with creamy spicy sauce ($14). I was slightly disappointed with the tacos, the sashimi tasted bland and the salsa had no zing to it. I was expecting fireworks in my mouth, but instead all I got was the taste of raw fish with little flavour. Those popcorn shrimps, on the other hand have never failed me.

As we sipped on a cherry elixir ($18) and a blossom martini ($17) (mind you that cherry elixir was so yummy!!!), our mains were presented in front of us. Buta no kakuni – 12 hour braised pork belly, daikon radish, onsen tamago, 64°c hens egg, truffle oil scallions ($28) and Ora king salmon – pan-seared New Zealand Ora King salmon, green pea & eggplant purée, sautéed shimeji mushroom ($32).

The pork belly had been braised for such a long time that the meat instantly fell apart with just a little pressure applied by my chopsticks. Needless to say that it melted in my mouth leaving a rich and oh so tasty flavour down my throat. The daikon radish had soaked up the sweet broth from the dish and I swear that I’d be happily eat it on its own without the pork belly.

The salmon on the other hand, had soft and smooth flesh and it created good refreshing balance to the buta no kakuni.

Of course, a feast wouldn’t be complete without desserts. As much as we wanted to order every single dessert available, we understood clearly that it was not the appropriate thing to do for ladies and settled (with much self-control of course) on a sakura mont blanc ($15) and a sakura cream custard and strawberry tart ($12). The desserts were so beautifully presented, but the presentation only lasted seconds as we quickly devoured both.

The dinner under the (faux) cherry blossoms was good, but with great company, it was exceptionally memorable.

Totally Bunnie Dollars Spent: $155