Sakura Blue: Reviewed June 9, 2007

Sakura Blue takes pride in the details

By Marty Rosen
Special to The Courier-Journal

On a recent Tuesday night, I saw something completely unexpected: a queue of waiting diners spilled out of Sakura Blue onto the Shelbyville Road Plaza sidewalk. Inside, every table was full. The sushi bar was shoulder-to-shoulder.

At one of the teppanyaki tables, a smiling group watched as a blue-capped chef presided over soaring flames, clanged his knives, and put on an impressive exhibition of slice-and-dice knife-work.

Sakura Blue's Thunder Over Louisville is crisp shrimp tempura and avocado nestled in tuna and red beads of tobiko. Photo by Arza Barnett, The Courier-Journal

Although it's located in a shopping center, Sakura Blue feels like a neighborhood restaurant. Customers and chefs greet one another by name — sometimes from across the room.

The look is traditional, with wood trim, calm colors and nary a hint of the glittering metal that these days defines "trendy." More important, the sound track is soft and civilized.

You could think of Sakura Blue as an all-purpose restaurant, a place that can satisfy both the folks who can't get enough raw sea urchin and broiled eel and the folks who want nothing more exotic than teriyaki beef. And based on a few recent visits, at both ends of the spectrum, Sakura Blue is excellent, indeed.

Looking for cooked food? A yakitori chicken appetizer ($4.50) is simple as can be, but still manages to be one of the finest skewered dishes in town: grill-charred chunks of firm meat and green onions are gracefully dressed in the lightest of tangy-sweet sauces.

Chicken yaki-soba, a stir-fried plate of chicken, zucchini, green onions, mushrooms, carrots and firm wheat noodles, makes an extraordinary lunch value at $5.95 — especially considering that it comes with a salad.

Mongolian beef ($12.95, with soup and salad), one of a dozen or more cooked entrees, is a sautéed masterpiece, far removed from the sweet Chinese restaurant staple. It arrives on a three-cornered platter bearing bite-sized slices of tender beef, long white strips of just-cooked white and green onions, and vivid orange carrots carved into parallelogram-shaped planks. Each element is gently accented by a savory brown sauce that lurks gently in the background.

Although I haven't eaten at the teppanyaki table, I can certainly attest to the showmanship of the chefs. Prices for full meals with all accompaniments range from $8.85 (vegetables) and $11.95 (chicken) to $29.95 for a combination that includes lobster, filet mignon, shrimp and scallops.

And of course, at the center of everything are the raw and cooked rolls, nigiri and sashimi, which are as fine as can be found in the city.

Sakura Blue is a place that takes pride in the little details. The chefs carve red snapper, halibut or toro (fat tuna) just so to highlight the grain of the fish. Thumb-sized nigiri portions are tucked in graceful arches over delicate pads of tangy sushi rice. Incongruous is an order of uzura (quail egg) that arrives in a plastic cup.

Nigiri portions (two pieces of fish) start at $3.50 (red snapper) and rise to $7, with most in the $3-$4 range; platters and combination plates start at $16.95 and rise to $23.95.

And when it comes to specialty rolls, Sakura Blue offers a wide assortment of zany options. There's the Sexy Girl roll ($10.95), with spicy tuna, avocado, cucumber and cream cheese inside, and fresh tuna, mango and bright flecks of tobiko (flying fish roe) on top. There's Kiss of Eel ($7.50), eel, spicy crab, avocado, and asparagus.

And there's the glorious Thunder Over Louisville ($10.95), which comes as close to putting fireworks on the plate as any dish could: crisp shrimp tempura and avocado nestle at the center, while tuna and red beads of tobiko glimmer on the outside.

Freelance restaurant critic Marty Rosen's review appears on Saturdays. You can e-mail him at cjdining@courier-journal.com.

Sakura Blue

4600 Shelbyville Road, Louisville, KY

502-897-3600

Rating: 3.5