Vegetarian Delights at Sakana

Are you craving real Japanese food?

Now here’s a refreshing tidbit – a restaurant that specializes in a single cuisine! And that this particular single cuisine happens to be Japanese puts Sakana in a league of its own in Goa. That it also happens to be very good Japanese food is the icing on this Japanese cake. On a recent evening,prostate we dined at Sakana and sampled a lovely selection of sushi rolls, vialis 40mg sashimi and salads. One of the night’s specials was something called Hot Kingfish Sashimi, which seemed to be a contradiction in terms, for wouldn’t heating sashimi make it sashimi no more? (For all those Japanese food virgins out there, sashimi, like sushi, is raw fish).  Turns out it’s not the sashimi that’s hot, but the oil that tops it, and in reality it’s not very hot at all, neither fire nor spice wise. But was it good? Yes indeed! Next came another special of the night, the Lemon Fish Salad, which was tangy, hearty and delicious. The best, it turns out, was yet to come: the Salmon Lover Roll, featuring smoked salmon and avocado.

Sakana, the brainchild of Indian-Israeli Eliko and his Japanese wife Mali, boasts a number of USP’s, not the least significant of which is its extremely inviting interiors situated in a well-travelled section of the Anjuna-Vagator beach belt. Another happy USP: when you order an alcoholic beverage, a ‘small’ is 50 CC and a ‘large’ is 100 CC. That’s substantially more than what’s offered at pretty much any other restaurant in the state, and there’s no extra charge for it. If you consider the quality of the food – which also includes a wide variety of meat and veg Udon noodle dishes, Gyozas (Japanese-style momos) and various creative variations on tofu – and the extremely reasonable prices, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Sakana was packed on the recent Monday night we visited. Yes, you read right. Sakana was packed on a Monday – and for good reason.<

The Food: Lovely Japanese food in Vagator

The Service: Prompt and friendly

The Prices: Sushi rolls are all under Rs 300. Most expensive dish is the Mabo Tofu Beef Udon, at Rs 400

Where: Chapora Road, Vagator (near Anjuna Petrol Pump)

(+91) 9890135502