Unfortunately the Sakana has closed it's doors
The first restaurant review of the year comes in early and is about a fantastic experience we had last night at the Sakana Japanese restaurant.
Sakana is located at the ring road in Bophud, in between Big C and Makro, at the other side of the road, on the hill leading up to Makro. There's only a sign on the road and in order to get to the restaurant you will need to go about 50 meters in between two rows of town houses, Sakana is on the left hand.
It was my first visit and we went only because I saw a sign advertising a new Japanese restaurant, that went up about two months ago and we didn't really have time to visit until now. First impressions count and the entrance to the restaurant is beautiful, the win open doors with the staff welcome you to enter into the compound.
You enter into a nicely designed garden with a small stream running through it and it's sparse but effective decoration includes this original idea of an ox cart with a spirit house on it.
There are plenty of small lovely details, like the white and black pebbles that are placed in the walk way leading up to the restaurant.
So far so good, the good first impression holds on!
This is a view of the actual restaurant from the garden. It's an old Chinese style house at has been re-decorated in a very imaginative and practical Japanese-Thai fusion style, dominated by the Japanese style.
Two floors make for plenty of space and downstairs there are futons to sit on and upstairs there are more futons and also Western style tables if that's more comfortable.
A view from the ground floor into the garden. The design is very nice and makes you immediately feel comfortable.
The upstairs area with the futon seating's. Up here you have a beautiful view over the garden.
Now it's time to start with the food and my thoughts were that if the food is as good as the place looks like, we're going to be in for a real treat. We did not get disappointed at all. First of all the service was outstanding and Sam, the person who seems to be in charge was very helpful and explained all dishes and made some very suggestions to help us with our choices. His Mother also frequently visited our table to make sure that everything was fine.
There is a menu, which is very Japanese orientated (what would one expect in a Japanese restaurant) but mainly catering to Japanese people and they may change this in the near future to cater slightly better to the prevalent Western crowd visiting the restaurant.
There's also a specials menu which I can highly recommend, we mainly had specials, partly recommended by Sam and he made some great recommendations.
One of the specials is this Japanese saury fish fillet-ed and rolled with spring vegetables or Sanma Roru. Normally a fish with too many small bones thus making it difficult to eat, so the fish was prepared in such a way that it was cooked enough for the bones to become brittle and everything could be eaten without a problem. A delicious meal and a specially imported fish.
A fairly traditional Agedashi Tofu dish, a warm tofu dish and very tasteful.
Now we're on to one of the specials again, a Nasu Kani-Miso Yaki which is eggplant stuffed with crab and miso and mushroom. As recommended by Sam and this dish was delicious!
Sashimi Ume, raw fish but the freshest sashimi I ever had on Samui.
Probably the piece de resistance, Amari ebi sushi, sweet shrimp with their heads deep fried so they could be eaten in total, which was very tasty and Hottate sushi, scallop.
We had loads more, garlic fried rice, a delicious and fresh Salmon terriyaki and Tempura mori (mixed tempura)tasting deliciously fresh.
It was time for desert, pictured above is a Gyuhi Lichigo, another special and it's 'delectable mochi (rice cracker) with a strawberry ice-cream filling served with home made strawberry sauce and fresh cream'. My fellow eaters had already started before I could get a picture but in complete style with the whole meal, this was another treat. A great sauce which made it taste like real strawberries!
Last but not least, I had this Shiratame Zenzai or mochi hatched in red bean sauce which our Thai fellow eaters recognised as a Thai like dish.
All in all a fantastic experience, from entering the compound, the actual restaurant and the food, it all fitted perfectly and tasted sensational. By far the best Japanese food on Samui. With the help of Sam's recommendations, we had a well balanced, light but delicious qaulity meal.
Sakana comes highly recommended by me and even though everything is being freshly imported, the prices aren't too expensive and it's well worth a visit to find out for yourself! I used a lot more pictures than I normally do but also this is worthwhile and I hope I could catch our experience.
Camille
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