Sakae Sushi..

I’m pretty fussy with my choice of Japanese food. You can’t fault me really. The amount of Japanese eateries available; plus the on-going infiltration of Japanese, Japanese influenced, Japanese fusion , Japanese-French, Japanese – whatever outlets left us all with the luxury of choice; & in a way, has better educated all of us of the finer quality of Japanese cuisine.

So I have always wondered, why do people still patronise Sushi King? (which in my opinion, serves probably one of the most errr..”basic” tasting Jap food out there)
I think here is where the differentiation of prices comes in. While I would unabashedly recommend Rakuzen, Kura, Kampachi (you get the idea) for your Japanese fix, I did realized that mid- price range outlets such as Sushi King, Sakae Sushi, Don Sushi, Sushi Groove, Oh Sushi, Sushi Zen, Yo! Sushi survived for a reason.
Of all the above, my choice goes to Sakae Sushi.

(For me, Ichiban Boshi & Pasta Zanmai remained a notch up from these outlets).

Sakae (pronounced Sa-Ka-eh, & means “growth”) Sushi is a franchise from Singapore. Their Salmon are imported from Norway and all of their ingredients shares the same supplier for both Sg & Malaysia’s outlets (so there is no discrimination okayyy :razz:).

My assessment on Jap food starts with their fresh cuts of seafood. Here at Sakae Sushi, it was decent but the texture of the fish didn’t impress me.
Sashimi Mori-Yu RM59.90.
Assorted sashimi (7 kinds) – Salmon, Tuna, Yellowtail, octopus, red snapper, salmon roe, sweet shrimp.

Sashimi Mori-Yu

I thought this was something different, & placed an order without hesitation.
Gyu Tataki (seared sirloin beef),  RM5.90.

Gyu Tataki
Well, tasteless beef ain’t my kind of thing; if you get what I mean.

Mango & Soft shelled crab Maki (RM12.90).
Mango & Soft shelled crab Maki
I was dissappointed with this. Seriously, the mango was of inferior quality & the soft shelled crab tasted (“chao yau yik” in Cantonese) of unfresh oil.

This was decent.
Ika Lobster Salad (squid & lobster) – RM5.90.

Ika Lobster Salad roll

This is one of the better items on the menu; the topping of codfish roes with the mayo was a bit rich but I still enjoyed it.
Salmon Mentai Yaki (topped with codfish roes & mayo) RM15.90

Salmon Mentai Yaki

Flaky salmon & sweet young stalks of asparagus. Always a favourite of mine!
Salmon Asparagus Teriyaki Roll, RM13.90.

Salmon Asparagus Teriyaki

Sakae Sushi’s eel was actually not bad.
I ordered the Unagi Kabayaki RM12.90 while FeeQ ordered the Unagi Kamameshi (traditional rice dish cooked in iron pot) RM17.90 and both of us concurred that the texture of the eel was right & doused in just right amount of sweet sauce.

Unagi Kabayaki

unagi kamameshi

Sakae’s bentos comes with the obligatory miso soup, rice & so forth.

The Salmon & Teriyaki Chicken Bento – RM22.90 was passable, and the chawanmushi didn’t give me any reason to complain.

salmon chic teriyaki
chawanmushi

My Sakura Bento RM32.90, however, was a different story. It says DUCK MEAT on the menu, and I got chicken instead. Apparently, they were out of duck that day. Best part is, they only informed me when they serve me my bento. Naturally, I wasn’t too pleased. Ah well, the cod fish made up for it though.
(Sakae Sushi Sakura BentoDUCK MEAT, codfish, seasoned octopus, fried tofu topped with codfish roe & Mayo, potato salad, unagi, chanwanmushi, Jap rice & miso soup).

sakae sushi sakura bento

Undeniably, these crab sticks beats our generic supermarket processed ones.
Kani Fumi (Snow crabstick) RM3.90.

kani fumi

We washed down our lunch with “Mogu Mogu Fruit Juice with Nata de Coco“, RM6.90.

mogu mogu drinks

Sakae Sushi will be revamping their menu by July 2010 & their outlet at Bangsar Village 2 is currently running a Wagyu Beef promo, which may be worth checking out. Other than the some minor gripes above (I could be a tad too fussy here), the food at Sakae Sushi still remain top for it’s category (kaiten belt, fast food style – wise).

Photos & review invite credited to FeeQ aka Meaningfool . Thank you!!

This Post Has 32 Comments

  1. Azrin Arizz

    I always find sakae sushi food good. But they served me expired macha ice cream once and the service is bad when it comes to lunch hours 🙂 Other than that is cool..

  2. Sean

    my first introduction to japanese food was at sushi king, waaaaaay back in 1998/99. i still remember where … at kompleks bukit jambul in penang! so i have a soft spot for sushi king, and i’m pretty sure that i had at least a hundred dinners there between 1999 and 2004! 😀

    1. rebeccasaw

      hey.. sushi king was my first love too!
      I rmbr the RM2 promo they have. I will queue & once we got a table, we will refuse to leave! LOL

    1. rebeccasaw

      Ohh..it’s shorten much di. I didnt want to be long winded. Heh

  3. iamthewitch

    I ate at the Puchong branch a few weeks ago, service was mediocre. We were in line queuing for the next table (for 2) but the waitress came and asked if she could let the empty table to the party of four who were queuing behind us. How absurd. But I still love the chicken teriyaki rice…

    1. rebeccasaw

      Aiyo! What! So rude.
      The teriyaki was good? for me, i think i wil stick to the eel & cod.

  4. JustinH

    Sushi Zanmaio better~ =)
    more cheaper for me thats why~
    lol xD

  5. TummyRumble

    hahah.. your description makes me NOT wanna go there..

  6. TummyRumble

    I’ll rephrase that..

    ‘Your descriptions of the food made me NOT wanna go there’

    1. rebeccasaw

      Hehe.. it’s not suitable for u la.
      U eat all high class places one..

  7. lotsofcravings

    well cant complain about sushi chains, they serve the purpose of a quick meal or a desperate craving for some cheap sashimi. although if you are careless, the bill can still go sky rocket high and you would have been happier at a higher end jap restaurant.

    1. rebeccasaw

      Yup. Hence Sakae stil my choice if I hv to go economical!

  8. minchow

    “Basic” tasting is about right! I’ve stumbled upon one too many unfresh items (yes including unfresh oil for the deep fried stuff) on various visits to different outlets – simply not worth the calories for me!

    1. rebeccasaw

      I was very pissed I didnt get my duck I tell u!!

  9. Leo

    Ah.. a fav of Jenn & I! But we have a new love… Ichiban Boshi~ simply because there’s maguro for me to order (I love tuna compared to salmon sashimi). Sakae Sushi for some reason stopped serving maguro for quite some time.

  10. Nic (KHKL)

    My favourite Japanese chain is Sushi Tei. It’s slightly more expensive but I like the quality and the BIG menu. hehehehe. check it out when you visit Singapore next time! ;D

    1. rebeccasaw

      Oh yes..we got a Sushi Tei here too @Tropicana Mall

  11. Chong

    It’s been ages since my last visit to Sakae Sushi (The Curve (branch). Don’t really fancy their selection and their service want that good. But I’ve gotta agree with lotsofcravings, at the end of meal, the bill can still be as high as mid/high end Japanese restaurants.

    1. rebeccasaw

      True. Order order order..yikes! can reach few hundreds even!

  12. Great article, hey I stumbled on to this post while surfing for lyric updates. Thanks for sharing I’ll tell my friends about this too.

  13. gill gill

    the salmon mentai yaki taste good in one of the japanese outlet in penang, Edo-Ichi.

  14. Roy Lee

    I was told by my friend that this is suppose to be a lunch meet, not a food review. Considering they pay the bill, not prepared for your arrival.. and you wrote such a harsh comment to them.. what you told them was a different thing.. i think is not fair. They accepted the lunch meet because of another friend. They only got to know your article thru their system alert. I think you should inform them when you put up the post.

    1. Rebecca

      Not prepared for my arrival?
      Wait, so u mean that if they were prepared for my arrival the food would be better?
      Doesn’t tht “screams” of inconsistency/unfairness?
      Every customer that walks in has the right to the best of what the restaurant has to offer, as the price for the item they order will be the same & charged accordingly regardless of the day/time they patronise the outlet or who they are.
      So there shouldnt be any reason why a blogger writing about them gets special treatment.
      For what? So they get a glowing review?
      It doesn’t work that way for me.

      Also, my opinion above reflects on my experience on that day itself.
      And I have told both the people hosting us the same as above (as per my blog post) as well.

      To be fair, I did comment positively on those dishes that I enjoyed.

      And as with any customer, I have to right to be annoyed when I was only informed of the change in my order, ONLY when the food arrive. Oh, wait, I wasn’t even informed! It was only when I digged in that I realized it wasn’t duck! And I had to ask the staff to check for me.
      Would you have liked that?

      As for informing them on the posting, I did so via the organiser – FeeQ, as per what he requested.
      I had assumed that he had in turn, informed the necessary party.

      TQ for your feedback.

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