Sakaba Nomu's ultimate sake experience
The growing sake experience is never only about the drink — it’s about the communication, the story and food pairing. And it is exactly what the newly opened Sakaba Nomu in the city’s center is offering you. Unlike a lot of the city’s Japanese eateries, Sakaba Nomu offers a tempting variety of the sake options for those of a more curious nature.
The sake brands, from different regions in Japan, are carefully selected by SSI-certified sake sommelier Mark Lu.
Housed inside a building near Jing’an Temple on Yuyuan Road E., the 46-seat restaurant has an intimidatingly discreet exterior yet it lures you inside with a 3.6-meter-long fish tank.
William Zhang, the founder of Sakaba Nomu, has experience in opening several different Japanese concept eateries in Shanghai. He recently opened this concept in order to welcome more sake lovers for sake tasting.
“In Japan, especially in Tokyo, there are many delightful sake bars,” Zhang said. “The concept is still in its very early stages in China. However, I find sake drinking has great potential locally as more and more people around me have started to love sake and its culture behind.
“But Chinese guests still need food pairing with sake drinking so we’ve designed an interesting barbecue menu focused on fresh seafood, ideal for the sake pairing.”
I ordered a few appetizers to start with and a vertical tasting of six different sake kinds that gave me a completely different experience to what I had gone through before — from gentle to more complicated and characteristic ones.
The in-house sommelier guides you to select from the sake tasting menu, following your food order to make it a more memorable experience.
Eight kinds of sake were available on the night and each cup costs between 15 to 35 yuan, while blind tasting three kinds costs 85 yuan. The sake menu is changed almost every day from its 100 varieties in total.
Regarding the extensive selection of sashimi, grilled seafood and meat, I opted for the set which included a snapper sashimi platter and super seafood mix BBQ (498 yuan). The deluxe set was absolutely delicious.
It started with the raw snapper, followed by the barbecue of snapper, king crab, abalone, oyster, clams, octopus and others.
It ended with the same snapper but cooked in miso soup. Different sake has been tasted along the food journey — a memorable dinner.
Info
Opening hours: 11:30am-2pm, 5:30pm-midnight
Tel: 137-9536-7002
Address: 2/F, Bldg 2, 20 Yuyuan Rd E.
Average price: 250 yuan