9 Hanover Street,
London,
W1
0872 148 2945
The ViewLondon Review
Walk into Sakura on a weekend and the clientele is almost exclusively Japanese – a good sign.
On weekdays there is a mixture of shoppers from neighbouring Oxford Street and working lunchers of all ethnic origins, eating their Asian fare under the shadow of a series of once lurid but now slightly aged, most comic posters of Dragons, festivals and martial artists in action.
The staff were efficient, but my companion and I weren’t overly impressed to be seated next to someone we’d never met, who was dining alone at a table for four, especially without being asked if we minded.
It just so happens that I had not seen this particular friend in many, many moons; and neither of us had envisaged sharing the touching moment of reunion with a random punter who was slurping his miso-soup so effectively.
They moved us when we complained though, and I suppose if you want a quick working lunch you might be willing to prioritize speed over privacy.
There’s an a la carte menu, with soups and starters from £5, main courses from £7-£10 and set lunch menus from about £10. The main categories of food are soups, various kinds of noodles, tempura (vegetable and seafood), salmon and beef teryaki, sushi/sushimi and rice.
My companion had soup with udon noodles and vegetable tempura, and chicken on a skewer. She pronounced the soup nourishing and warming, satisfying in a solid and healthful way. The abundant portion of noodles in her soup was more than she could finish. The chicken was unremarkable; not the most tender confection I’ve ever chewed, but palatable enough.
I had buckwheat soba noodles with assorted tempura, which I polished off effortlessly. These arrived on an exciting bamboo platter with a sauce that was pleasingly reminiscent of Marmite.
The noodles were cold, which was unexpected, but not slimy, which is lucky because I imagine the logistics of handling slimy noodles with chopsticks would have been quite beyond me. The tempura was hot and crispy, and rather good.
We rounded lunch off with a refreshing green tea, and departed content.
User Review - 1 out of 5 stars
Customers beware! The manager has a habit of calling you awful things in Japanese. Unfortunately, for him, on this occassion my friends happened to be fluent in Japanese. When asked why he had used such language his response was: "get out! Because I don't like you".
Nice touch! Shame as the service in most Japanese restaurants is first rate.
Sent in by: James Dill
Sakura Japanese Restaurant has been reviewed by 26 users