Sake Bar Restaurant

**UNFORTUNATELY THIS RESTAURANT IS NO LONGER IN OPERATION**

To celebrate the end of JJ and mine Photography short course we headed out for dinner at Sake Bar Restaurant on Francis street in Northbridge. The exterior and interior of Sake Bar Restaurant takes me back to Takayama, Nippon (Japan). Walk across the bridge and you enter an area that is like a ryouken, the "wooden" exterior and wooden furniture, Japanese style booths, "paper walls" is very much like what we saw in the town of Takayama and the ryouken that we stayed at. So lovely.

Sake Bar Restaurant offers sushi and makimono rolls that are made to order, fresh sashimi,  an array of teppanyaki dishes, but their signature menu is the omakase bridge, which is an assortment of sashimi, nigiri sushi oysters, sushi rolls on a wooden omakase bridge.

As it was just JJ and me we didn't get the omakase bridge, but from what we can see from our neighbours it looks amazing. We decided to have a small entree, mains, dessert and then JJ was craving gyoza (as we were having Japanese) so we ended up having a side of that as well. 

We started with something a little light by ordering the Maguro Tataki, which is seared tuna with finely diced tomato, cucumber, red onion drizzled with sweet miso sauce and lemon oil. The tuna was lovely and fresh. The salsa flavours were refreshing and zesty and complemented the delicious sweet miso sauce. The only downside to this dish was how thinly sliced the tuna was. If it was just another half a centimeter thicker (and decreased the amount of tuna pieces on the dish by making it thicker) it would be perfect, as you would be able to taste the tuna a bit more. Nonetheless, the flavours of the dish was fab.

Maguro Tataki

For the mains JJ ordered the Beef teriyaki. Charcoal grilled beef, the aroma was amazing, it makes your mouth water just inhaling it. It was covered in beautiful homemade teriyaki sauce. Cooked perfectly, it was tender, juicy and the hints of charcoal taste through the beef gave it that nice twist to a very Australian-Japanese dish. The serving was also very small and we didn't expect the meat to be cut up like it was.

Beef Teriyaki

I went for the Tooth Fish Chilli Misoyaki. The tooth fish was lightly pan fried and drizzled in Sake's homemade chilli-miso sauce. The fish melted in my mouth (literally), the texture was heavenly. The chilli miso sauce was sticky and sweet (more than chilli). It hit the right spot.

   

Tooth Fish Chilli Misoyaki

If we weren't full enough, we ordered a side of gyoza. Usually with these I find them a little too oily and not enough fillings with the skin being too thick. Sake's gyoza on the other hand, had plenty of filling of pork and vegetable. It was lightly pan fried and wasn't as oily as others I have tried. The Ponzu sauce it came with had the right balance of vinegar, lemon, and soy sauce and cut through the slight grease from the gyoza. 

Gyoza

Of course, celebrations cannot end without having some dessert. And we are both such suckers for homemade matcha and black sesame ice cream it was a no brainer. 

I was lucky to try a bit of JJ's matcha ice cream. I love it how the taste of matcha was plentiful and evident in the ice cream. It was sweet enough and the strong matcha flavour however didn't over power the ice cream. With a dab of red bean paste on top it was just lovely.

The black sesame ice cream was just delicious. I love the texture of this black sesame ice cream, it's creamy, indulgent and didn't have that sandy texture like some others do. BUT you can tell the black sesame has been in the freezer for too long as occasionally I would get pieces of ice through the ice cream, which was a bit of a let down.

Of course, the place also has an extensive drinks list, after all it is a bar too. It has a few Japanese beers - Asahi, Sapporo, Kirin Ichiban, some imported beers and of course Australian beers too. As the name suggests, Sake Bar Restaurant also has a nice selection of sakes along with a sweet list of shoyu. Pity I had to drive so didn't get a chance to try a couple of the sakes and shoyu. 

The staff at Sake Bar and Restaurant are lovely, friendly, accommodating, and attentive. The quality and flavours of the food at Sake Bar Restaurant is delicious. Compared to the other up and coming Japanese places, it is priced nicely, although the servings are small, it is no different to the serving sizes of other Japanese restaurants. Having the entertainment card will further decrease the cost of the meal, but it really isn't that bad to begin with. If you are in Northbridge and wants Japanese that's a little more than sushi head into Francis street and cross the bridge into Sake Bar Restaurant.