It’s been awhile since we’ve been out, so we took advantage of my recent birthday as an excuse to offload C for a couple hours and go enjoy a dinner. So off we went, once again back to Shaker Square, this time to Sasa, a Japanese Izakaya Asian bistro. Izakaya refers to a type of drinking establishment that serves food as well, a casual bar/pub type place. Sasa bills itself as serving “tapas-style dishes,” and we certainly found that to be the case. We also came on a Monday, which meant all-night happy-hour pricing, so $5 per small dish (the menu is set up with small, medium, and large dishes).
Since the size of the plates was smaller, we had many different things, so I won’t describe each one in detail – I’ll just let the pictures do the talking. Suffice it to say, the food was all outstanding, though in our case, very seafood-heavy (being Japanese; there are also many non-seafood menu items if fish isn’t your thing). Part of the reason we came here was I’ve been craving sushi. I’m not totally sure why, because I’ve only had it a couple times and I tend to like my food cooked, but nevertheless, I wanted some, and Sasa didn’t disappoint with the Spicy Dynamite, a combo of salmon, tuna, and whitefish, wrapped and deep-fried just long enough to crisp up the outside, but still leave the inside raw. Quite amazing.
Lobster and shrimp harumaki – egg-roll style dish, with a nice, sweet, dipping sauce.
SASA fries – crispy outside, soft inside, sprinkled with two types of seaweed, and alongside a Japanese-style barbecue sauce, and a creamy, spicy dip.
Tuna sashimi
Fried oyster served in their shells atop napa cabbage slaw.
Shrimp yakiudon – served over udon noodles and vegetables in a spicy peanut sauce.
The Spicy Dynamite roll.
And for dessert, a plum-wine poached pear.
Japanese cream soda, with a marble in the bottle.
The verdict: Sasa gets six stars out of seven. The food was all excellent, the patio seating is nice, service was fine, and pricing was reasonable – for seven different dishes and a drink, the bill was about $80. Of course, you don’t have to eat seven things, but it all sounds good, so you may have a hard time narrowing it down…
I mean, I know you’re eating for 3….. but you guys really ate ALL THAT?
Impressive.
We did have leftovers. Gabe had all the sushi since I can’t right now (and wouldn’t even non-pregnant!).