~ Sakagura: the Hidden Jewel of NYC ~

This past weekend, I was up in NYC again taking "engagement pictures". I saw the pictures, but wasn't allow to take any home so I have nothing to show yet. Anyways, on Saturday, we had a special dinner at Sakagura. It was highly recommended by a friend and has 4.5 stars on Yelp. I was pretty excited to go. When I made the reservation, the lady said "You'll have the table from 7-9 and we will only hold your table for 15 minutes." What? Really? Do we get kicked out if we stay past 9? So strict! We got there around 7:30, but we called ahead to change our reservation.


The restaurant is beautiful. It is a little strange because it's in the basement of this office building. The coolest part was the bathroom. You wouldn't even know it's a bathroom until someone opens the door for you. Like Ninja, they have those high tech butt cleansing toilets too.

I can talk about the food right after I talk about the toilets right? The menu looks like a tapaz menu with many small portioned dishes. The waitress recommended to order 3-5 dishes per person. This picture shows (from left to right): Kamo Roast (duck), Tori Tsukune (Chicken Meat Balls with Teriyaki Sauce), and Gindara Yuan Yaki (Grilled Cod Fish). The duck was excellent. Meat ball was ok. Cod fish was excellent too.


Here we have a beef dish and rice balls. The rice balls weren't spectacular, but I wanted some rice. I forgot what that beef dish is but the Gyu Miso Nikomi was definitely awesome. It is shredded beef back ribs stewed in Miso topped with grated dikon radish. Another note worthy dish was the Tori Karaage which is basically really good fried chicken.


This was a fun specialty dish on the front page. It was $20. It's served raw with the really hot stone to cook the beef. It was really good with the sauce and salt. And it's always fun to have something sizzle at the table.


We also had one of the famous sakes. I forgot the name. Something 515. It was a good sake. I don't usually like sake, but this one was ok to me and delicious to my friends. It was about $40 for a half bottle. Sakagura is actually famous for the sakes. Some are $70 for half a bottle!

Overall, everything was good at the restaurant. It felt very authentic. Our waitress and hostess spoke with Japanese accent and just oozed Japanese culture from the way they acted. And there were Japanese people eating there. The place looks very Japanese. Can't get any more authentic than that. The only downside? The price is a little bit steep. You order a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Before you know it, your bill is a couple hundred dollars. But, good food is worth the money right? For this much money though, I think Ninja is more fun.