PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIATimber bench seating and gleaming hotplates take centre stage at Sakura Teppanyaki. The star performer orchestrating over this setting is chef Tony Lim. He delivers 30 years of cooking experience with showmanship to boot. Families don’t have to worry about keeping children occupied in this restaurant – Tony does it for them. Much flashing and slashing of knives entertains all around. Here it is the grown-ups who are known for scribbling on the walls. Panels of mini whiteboards form a visitors’ book; texta’ed testimonies become more humorous after one too many sakes.
The menu will also put a smile on your face. You can enjoy Sakura’s Japanese cuisine a la carte style or in fixed price sets. The Rolls Royce of these is the Sakura Special. Part with $180 and be rewarded with your choice of entree, whole lobster, beef or chicken, mixed vegetables and salad. Fried rice and miso soup serve as sides. Its pancake dessert will please those who like theirs extra thick. Alternately, select individual items to be cooked a la minute before your eyes. Seafoodies will find themselves in heaven. In fact, there are only two beef listings, albeit one of them is the hallowed Wagyu. Summon a portion of barramundi or salmon to the hotplate and follow it through with scampi, scallops and cuttlefish. Moreton Bay Bugs and oysters sit beside market price abalone and lobster; ponzu sauce and Japanese tartare are offered as sides. Soba noodles really are the best, so have some close by. Finish with a cleansing bowl of green tea ice-cream. Not that you need it; the clean, fresh flavours of Sakura’s produce should be savoured.
Roz Taylor