Sakura Bana, Ridgewood

[Hiroyuki]

Is it clear to everyone what Sakura Bana means? Cherry Blossom(s)!

In Japan, the cherry blossom season is just around the corner. I wonder if Sakura Bana offers a seasonal menu that represents the name of the restaurant.

[PicnicChef]

so tonight, my friend who just moved to San Fran in January, was in town...asked for Sakora Bana. They don't take reservations, but they held the sushi bar for me at request. Somebody came in at 6:30 so they gave them our seats for 7:15. Who was it? None other that White Truffle chick! She can have my seat and make me wait. Needless to say, perfection from Ken as always. what a great dinner! Sooooo much food!

[whitetrufflechick]

so tonight, my friend who just moved to San Fran in January, was in town...asked for Sakora Bana. They don't take reservations, but they held the sushi bar for me at request. Somebody came in at 6:30 so they gave them our seats for 7:15. Who was it? None other that White Truffle chick! She can have my seat and make me wait. Needless to say, perfection from Ken as always. what a great dinner! Sooooo much food!

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;-) Totally enjoyed Sakura Bana tonite and what a fantastic surprise to see PicnicChef as we were leaving! My current sushi fixation has me running around chasing salmon sashimi throughout Bergen county. If Sakura Bana was full, our next choice was Wasabi, also in Ridgewood.

[PicnicChef]

so tonight, my friend who just moved to San Fran in January, was in town...asked for Sakora Bana. They don't take reservations, but they held the sushi bar for me at request. Somebody came in at 6:30 so they gave them our seats for 7:15. Who was it? None other that White Truffle chick! She can have my seat and make me wait. Needless to say, perfection from Ken as always. what a great dinner! Sooooo much food!

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;-) Totally enjoyed Sakura Bana tonite and what a fantastic surprise to see PicnicChef as we were leaving! My current sushi fixation has me running around chasing salmon sashimi throughout Bergen county. If Sakura Bana was full, our next choice was Wasabi, also in Ridgewood.

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Whaddya have? WE had a peter roll, a glen rock roll, a few sweet shrimp, toro, negitoro, tons of salmon, dynamite roll, and a few surprises Ken made especially for Dawn's visit! I will contend this: best sushi in all of bergen county!

[whitetrufflechick]

so tonight, my friend who just moved to San Fran in January, was in town...asked for Sakora Bana. They don't take reservations, but they held the sushi bar for me at request. Somebody came in at 6:30 so they gave them our seats for 7:15. Who was it? None other that White Truffle chick! She can have my seat and make me wait. Needless to say, perfection from Ken as always. what a great dinner! Sooooo much food!

←

;-) Totally enjoyed Sakura Bana tonite and what a fantastic surprise to see PicnicChef as we were leaving! My current sushi fixation has me running around chasing salmon sashimi throughout Bergen county. If Sakura Bana was full, our next choice was Wasabi, also in Ridgewood.

←

Whaddya have? WE had a peter roll, a glen rock roll, a few sweet shrimp, toro, negitoro, tons of salmon, dynamite roll, and a few surprises Ken made especially for Dawn's visit! I will contend this: best sushi in all of bergen county!

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Glen Rock Roll, of course. So bad, so good.

Bunch of salmon sashimi, tamago, salmon roll... black cod with miso butter appetizer, tuna, eel, yellowtail handrolls, sea urchin.

It's excellent sushi, I have to agree.

[Jason Perlow]

More Sakura Bana sushi porn, and a horror flick.

Caribbean Roll, with mango and tuna.

Oshitashi

A live lobster.

Lobster Sashimi. If you want to see how this was done, Check out this instructional video. The carapace on this plate was still moving quite vigorously, before he was removed and turned into soup.

Lobster Sashimi Closeup.

Special Chirashi Sushi, chef's choice.

Miso Soup made with lobster body. There were two bowls worth, one for me and one for Rachel.

Kanpachi (Amberjack) with Scallion

Mirugai (Giant Clam)

Dragon Roll

Deep Fried Giant Prawn head (from Rachel's Chirashi platter)

Sashimi Tuna Salad with Avocado

Edited May 29, 2006 by Jason Perlow (log)

[Jason Perlow]

Alan thought his sushi was good nothing particularly special compared to Wild Ginger. He's just spoiled!

Alan really needs to order Omakase there, you're not getting the best stuff he has unless you really talk to Ken-San and ask him what's really good. This is not to say the regular sushi isn't good, it is, but you need to ask about special things he gets in.

Wild Ginger is a very good sushi restaurant, and I would put it on par with Sakura Bana with some of the things it does and on basic fish quality. But it is not Japanese owned and operated (its related to the Lebanese family that owns Bennies in Englewood). Just on that detail alone I'd give Sakura Bana an edge, in addition to the fact it never gets as crowded (its a larger restaurant and doesn't get uncomfortably hot in there) and the prices are better for what you are getting.

Being Japanese-owned and operated isn't always an edge, though. Hiura in Fort Lee is (was) Japanese-owned and the place is a dump. Same deal with East in Teaneck, the Kaiten-Zushi place, although it might be Korean or Chinese owned now. I believe the sushi restaurant right by Mitsuwa in Edgewater may also be Japanese operated but I haven't been there in a very long time. There is also a sushi place within Mitsuwa itself but I haven't tried it yet. Chef Ken at Sakura Bana however happens to be particularly talented and perfectionist with his fish.

Edited May 29, 2006 by Jason Perlow (log)

[BryanZ]

That lobster video is so bad ass. How much is an omakase style meal at this place?

[bergen]

Special Chirashi Sushi, chef's choice

Do you recall the price on this. Also this looks like sashimi with some rice below.

[tommy]

Special Chirashi Sushi, chef's choice

Do you recall the price on this. Also this looks like sashimi with some rice below.

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i don't see any rice, but chirashi or chirashi-sushi is essentially, by definition, fish with rice, generally below.

Edited May 31, 2006 by tommy (log)

[bergen]

Special Chirashi Sushi, chef's choice

Do you recall the price on this. Also this looks like sashimi with some rice below.

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i don't see any rice, but chirashi or chirashi-sushi is essentially, by definition, fish with rice, generally below.

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if you look closely you will see a little rice below. looks great

[hitmanoo]

That lobster video is so bad ass.  How much is an omakase style meal at this place?

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That lobster video seems almost cruel. For some reason it reminds me of a scene from Jurassic Park where they talk about the dinasaurs eating prey while they are still alive...

[Rachel Perlow]

There are two ways to order chirashi at Sakura Bana, Regular or Special (Chef's choice). I think the regular is around $20 and the special is $30+. I was going to get the regular, but Ken and Jason encouraged me to get the omakase, I believe we were charged around $34. My plate included toro, amberjack, salmon toro, giant clam, scallop, salmon roe, raw prawn (head was then deep fried to eat the body/head (except the hard carapice), octopus and a few other things I can't remember (those white fish pieces, there were two or three different ones).

Chirashi is what I order when I want simple sushi, but can't decide what individual pieces I want. Sometimes nigiri sushi is too much to eat in one bite also. With Chirashi, you can take as much or as little rice/fish ratio as you like. Also, I request that the fish be cut in smaller pieces. Sometimes sashimi is cut quite large, and it is very awkward to take bites out of large pieces of raw fish, or worse, to try to cut them with chopsticks. So, it is much easier to have the sushi chef do this for you.

Oh, and yes, the rice is on the bottom, then a layer of nori, then the fish.

[bergen]

There are two ways to order chirashi at Sakura Bana, Regular or Special (Chef's choice). I think the regular is around $20 and the special is $30+. I was going to get the regular, but Ken and Jason encouraged me to get the omakase, I believe we were charged around $34. My plate included toro, amberjack, salmon toro, giant clam, scallop, salmon roe, raw prawn (head was then deep fried to eat the body/head (except the hard carapice), octopus and a few other things I can't remember (those white fish pieces, there were two or three different ones).

Chirashi is what I order when I want simple sushi, but can't decide what individual pieces I want. Sometimes nigiri sushi is too much to eat in one bite also. With Chirashi, you can take as much or as little rice/fish ratio as you like. Also, I request that the fish be cut in smaller pieces. Sometimes sashimi is cut quite large, and it is very awkward to take bites out of large pieces of raw fish, or worse, to try to cut them with chopsticks. So, it is much easier to have the sushi chef do this for you.

Oh, and yes, the rice is on the bottom, then a layer of nori, then the fish.

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$34 for all that fish that seems very cheap considering toro was included.

[Rachel Perlow]

Our total bill that night was around $120 plus tip, we had a couple appetizers (spinach salad, tempura), the chirashi, the lobster sashim, and Jason ordered a specialty roll and a couple other more special, but regularly sized maki. Jason thought it was cheap, if you compared it to some of the places we've been to in NYC.

[Tamar]

This is just to say thank you to eGulleters for your discussion on Sakura Bana. My husband, son and I ate here for the first time tonight after a lovely bike ride by the Saddle Brook River, and I think we're going to make a tradition of it.

The crab shumai was hands down the best I've ever had, like eating really fresh, really crabby crabcakes in a dumpling wrapper. The seaweed salad was nice, not particularly unusual, but exactly what I felt like eating. We had the special dragon roll, with shrimp tempura inside and eel and avocado outside. Very tasty. I love good eel but hate when it's all fat and gristle. This was the good stuff, and the slight tempura crackle inside the roll was a nice complement to the fatty mouthfeel of the exterior. We also had toro, chutoro and hamachi negiri sushi. All outstandingly fresh, all excellent. Especially the chutoro, I thought, which had a suprisingly sweet flavor.

My son had a chicken teryaki children's dinner, which he enjoyed, especially the strawberry pocky stick dessert.

[Chihiran]

I moved to New Jersey from Japan last year, and I've been looking for good close-by Japanese food. I've been to Wild Ginger, which was good, but my favorite sushi place so far is

UMEYA (Cresskill)

It's a really small restaurant (owned and run by a Japanese couple) but the sushi is the best I've found here, especially the bara chirashi!! My biggest mistake was going to East, which has the turning counter. It was terrible.

I'm also happy to see another great looking restaurant in this thread. I'll definitely try Sakura Bana! It looks great for an anniversary dinner.

[scarlet knight]

Is it safe from a health perspective to eat raw shellfish such as lobster and shrimp? I have always been advised that it is not safe to do so. Anyone know if this is still true, an old wives' tale or you guys are willing to live dangerously?

[tommy]

Is it safe from a health perspective to eat raw shellfish such as lobster and shrimp? I have always been advised that it is not safe to do so. Anyone know if this is still true, an old wives' tale or you guys are willing to live dangerously?

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i wouldnt eat raw *anything* if you have a compromised immune system or are very old or very young. however, raw shrimp is pretty standard at japanese restaurants. i've had raw lobster at upscale restaurants. i've gotten sick from cooked mussels. caveat emptor.

Edited September 11, 2006 by tommy (log)

[Lima Bean]

Well, we were back to Sakura Bana last night and it was of course, great. Ken added two new rolls, which I'm glad to see. The "Charlie roll" with tempura shrimp, avocado and jalapeno. Not too spicy, perfect. The second roll is the Hercules Roll...spicy tuna, avocado, chili pepper powder on the outside covered with raw onions, small silvers of raw garlic and Japanese mayo....OUTSTANDING !!! We also asked them to make us a lobster tempura with the miso butter that usually comes with the Chilean sea bass appetizer...this was an unbelievable combination...small portion though. And if you haven't tried the spicy shrimp salad....it's wonderful.

ok..it was our anniversary last night, 16 years, so we splurged a little !!!

LimaBean...