Saké Restaurant & Bar - The Rocks

After SMH did a piece on Sake, my friend jumped onto the Sake website to check out their menu. And she saw this:

matcha bombe alaska
green-tea ice-cream wrapped in sponge & meringue, baked & served with white-chocolate sauce

That was all I needed to see before we booked a table for that week at Sake.

Originally we had booked a table for 5, but my friend piked at the last minute leaving us with 4. We mentioned that we're now a table of 4 instead of 5, thinking they'll just put us on a smaller table. Instead, they led us to our own little private room/booth! SCORE! The room can easily seat 6-8 people, but we had it all to ourselves. ALL TO OURSELVES! MAuhAUhaUAHAA

The room next to ours

View of the kitchen from our room

I love the lights and wallpaper! I want my room like this!

Sitting down, the first thing we do is scour the cocktail list. Girls night out must include cocktails, right?

Springtime in Tokyo - $18
Kumesan Saké fat-washed with roasted coconut, Appleton Reserve and fresh pineapple juice

We asked the waiter what "fat washed" meant. Basically the Sake is infused with coconut fat to give it a more aromatic taste. Basically, instead of fat free food, we're deliberately adding delicious fat into our cocktails! Excellent!

Astro Boy - $15
Shochu Tantakatan, plum wine, plum puree, pink-grapefruit juice & peach bitters

I wasn't too fond of this one as it reminded me slightly of soap or cough syrup. My friends loved it however.

The Pink Blossom - $15
Plum wine, strawberries, orange wedges, lime, lemon & passion fruit

This was one of my favourites. I'm a sucker for drinks that resemble a caprioska. The more tropical fruit the better in my opinion. Fresh, vibrant AND alcoholic! What more can you ask for?

Bang On! - $16
Shochu, apple & rhubarb syrup, watermelon & vanilla sugar

This was the one I ordered and probably the most popular one. Because honestly, who doesn't like watermelon!? hehe

beef tataki - $15
seared tenderloin with garlic chips, chives, radish & tataki sauce

As you can see, the fatty marbling on the beef really made this dish. The beef literally melts in your mouth making you want more! MORE!

Oh yeah.......fatty beef.....

panko rice balls - $9
soy bean & bamboo, shiitake mushroom balls with wasabi aioli

This would've been perfect if we increased the quantity by about 5 times, then serve it with a jug of ice cold beer. The cripsy panko crumbs contrasted wonderfully with the soft rice and mushrooms. Dunk wasabi aioli and consume.

spider maki - $17
fried soft-shell crab, cucumber & mayo with spicy tobiko, chives & ponzu

You can never go wrong with a spider roll of any sort. This was a particularly good version. Crispy fried soft-shell crabs with cold crunchy cucumber and creamy creamy mayo. This was an absolute hit, especially for those who have never tried it before.

popcorn shrimp - $26
bite-sized prawn tempura pieces tossed with creamy spicy sauce

Just the sound of the name had us salivating. We didn't even need to debate if we should order this dish. I wish we had. That way we would've ordered two serves! hehehe I would put this on the must order list if you visit Sake.

assorted tempura - $28
prawns, fish & seasonal vegetables with tentsyu dipping sauce

Tempura, an excellent way to judge the skills of the chef. And obviously these chefs were very skilled. The tempura was light and crispy, and not at all oily. You can see the paper under the tempura isn't going see through from all the excess oil!

spicy garlic vegetables - $17
sautéed seasonal vegetables with spicy garlic sauce

We were all very surprised at how spicy this dish actually was. Generally with Japanese food, when they say "spicy", its rarely spicier than strong pepper. In this case, it was almost bordering on Korean food spicy. Luckily we had ordered rice to soak up all the sauce and also help cool the spicy heat.

butter-soy salmon - $29
grilled, crispy skinned New Zealand salmon with butter soy & lemon

This was the most disappointing dish of the night. The salmon was cooked nicely, and we loved how they crisped the skin seperately, but that was about the extent of this dish. We couldn't taste any of the butter soy or lemon in any part of the dish. You can see some sort of dress on the salad, but even that is void of any taste. We even tried just the remaining sauce at the bottom of the dish and still couldn't taste anything.

Now comes the best bit. DESSERT! The whole reason for us visiting!

We did a quick scan of the menu, and 3 of us immediately went with.....

Matcha bombe alaska!!!

As delicious as it sounded on the menu, I was slightly disappointed with this dessert. The sponge cake was extremely dry and rough. Even letting the melting ice cream soak into the sponge didn't help it. The ice cream was delicious though, but next time I think I'll order something else.

Green-apple mille-feuille - $13
green-apple mousse with layers of crispy thin pastry & vanilla-bean sauce

This dessert was much more refreshing than our matcha bombe alaska. I would prefer if they had cook the apples just a little less to retain more of the tangy green apple taste.

So pretty!

We decided to end the meal with a Sake bomb!

"Served loudly and proudly at your table. Draught Kirin Lager with a shot of Saké. A Saké dining experience is not complete until you and your friends are bombed! Best consumed after dinner."

Oh yeaaaaaaaaah!! Sake bomb me baby!!

Yuzu bomb

To drink, drop the shot (glass and all) straight into the glass of beer. Quickly down the whole thing in one go! Just becareful when you get to the end that the glass doesn't slide out of the glass spilling precious alcohol all over you!

I'm not sure what it was, but this hit me quick! And let me tell you, I'm no light weight when it comes to drinks either!

Saké Restaurant & Bar
12 Argyle Street
The Rocks Sydney NSW 2000
(Ph) 02 9259 5656
http://www.sakerestaurant.com.au/