You might be wondering why there was no post on the place that probably has the most posts on out little blog was during the pandemic. Well, to be perfectly honest, the items I enjoy the most from Sakura really wouldn't hold up that well for takeout. Add to that the rather surly and sometimes plain rude service I've gotten in recent years along with the food not being up to par at times…..well, I just didn't want to deal with that.
But my recent visit to Hogetsu had me thinking about all those days of yore, all the wonderful meals and memories…I thought, what the heck and dropped by to see what was going on.
Sakura has quite the outdoor set-up going on (this was before the recent red tier change). I took a look at the menu on the table in the doorway and saw that those dishes I really liked weren't available…but the "Special Bento", which I hadn't had in years was….and would you believe it's still $12……13 years later?
I went to Nijiya to pick up a few things and my bento was ready when I returned.
The bento did look similar to what I had back in 2007. Not as much meat based items perhaps; but overall this was still quite a bit of food.
The miso soup was even decent!
My favorite items was the chicken karaage. I was surprised it was still crisp when I got home. As I mentioned way back in 2015 when I did a karaage comparison; the version at Sakura is on the lighter side; which made me doubt that it would hold up to takeout, but this was still pretty crisp when I ate it at home.
The menchi katsu, basically a deep fried meatball had also held up pretty well; still crisp, nice seasoning, loved the katsu sauce. I wasn't as enamored with the glazed salmon which was on the fishy side and the aji kushiage, which almost looked like a shrimp was lacking in flavor. The tamago here is always a decent bet and the pasta….well, that was filler.
In the side compartment was a Japanese version of "pot-au-feu" which uses sausage and chicken instead of beef like the French version does. It's also made in dashi, which actually went well with the whole thing.
The rice was perfect; moist with just enough lightness.
While I'm fairly certain that I'll wait until I feel comfortable dining al fresco or indoors before returning, it was nice to revisit one of our "golden oldies". After all, we've lost a good number of these places during the pandemic. And still at $12….well, you can't even get a sandwich for that these days.
Izakaya Sakura
3904 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
(858) 569-6151