Sakura Sushi and Grill

6241 Riverside Plaza Lane Albuquerque, NM 87120
505-890-2838
Open:
Monday – Thursday 11:30 am – 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Friday and Saturday 11:30 am- 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm – 10:30 pm
Sundays Closed

One of my favorite things to eat is sushi. Many people love sushi and there are so many different sushi restaurants in most cities. In the year that we have been in Albuquerque/Rio Rancho, we’ve tried many of those sushi restaurants in this area. We’ve tried many recommendations from friends, yelp, the popular voting site “Best of Burque,” and so on. We found this restaurant when we came up to ABQ to look for housing when we were deciding if we’d move up here with a job offer. We happened to stop here when we were going to look at some new home builds in Rio Rancho. It is still to this day our favorite in the area, hands down.

Now there’s an interesting story behind this restaurant and our move to ABQ. We ended up buying the lot and building a house at the location we were looking at that day. That day happened to be Mother’s Day, a Sunday. It’s interesting because normally, Sakura is closed on Sundays, and unbeknownst to us, they were opened for the holiday. After we decided we were moving and selected our new home to be built, we had to find somewhere to rent until the house was done being built. That whole process was very challenging due to the fact that we didn’t need a year long lease, only a few months, and we have Kai, a German Shepherd. Long story short, when we found a rental posted on craigslist, we recognized the area to be the neighborhood across the street from Sakura and it was in a safe place. We ended up signing the agreements and it wound up being perfect for us. I continue to say it was fate for us to find that place and agree to rent it the way we did (sight unseen, however a wonderful friend checked it out for us) and I attribute it all to our experience at Sakura.

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Now our first visit was very pleasant. We were seated right away and took some time to explore the menu. Autumn and I had weekly date nights in Carlsbad, NM at a sushi/hibachi restaurant that we liked so we knew what we were looking for; a variety of nigiri and sushi rolls with plenty of flavor and texture. Sakura happens to have a lunch and a dinner special that we tried out and now we almost always order. This special is called sushi lunch or dinner B. These meals come with a signature roll of your choice and a selection of chef choice nigiri/sushi. The only difference between the lunch and dinner portion besides cost, is the amount of sushi/nigiri you receive. I love that you’re able to pick any of the signature sushi rolls on their list, and they aren’t generic plain rolls, they’re their signature rolls.

When you select their sushi/nigiri, they will ask if you want to upgrade your fish to premium for a small up charge. Always upgrade to premium. It is so worth it. The fish Sakura gets is from different locations and it’s shipped in weekly as whole fish and their chefs break down the fish every week. If you check out their facebook, you’ll be able to see videos and photos of the process. Or if you’re lucky, you’ll catch them breaking down the fish during your meal.

Our personal “usual” that the long term staffers know we always order consists of the following: Sushi dinner B, premium, with a Lobster Tempura roll and a Tiger roll. Sometimes we will add an American Dream roll with this, but it’s a lot of food. The Lobster Tempura roll is fresh water lobster that’s fried into little nuggets that top the crab, avocado, and cucumber roll that’s then drizzled with a selection of sauces. The Tiger roll is a shrimp tempura roll with crab, avocado, and cucumber on the inside and it’s topped with shrimp and avocado, then drizzled with a selection of sauces. If you’re up for some eel, try the American Dream roll. It’s a shrimp tempura, crab, avocado, and cucumber roll with sweet smoky eel and eel sauce on top and finished with dry fish flakes. We’ve tried several other rolls here, they’re all good, so try them all and determine what your own personal preferences are.

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The sushi/nigiri is always fresh and has a different texture than what you’ll get at most sushi restaurants. It almost melts in your mouth with how fresh the fish is. They also have real kizami wasabi here, so if you’re wanting to know how the real stuff tastes, give it a try. Now for those who prefer the common sushi wasabi, that’s fantastic here as it is whipped and it so much better than the harder paste types you often see elsewhere. If you feel adventurous or love sashimi, nigiri, and rolls, give one of their impressive boats a try.

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Sakura doesn’t just serve amazing sushi, they also serve some pretty awesome Korean food. I love bibimbap but it’s often difficult to find a place that serves it with a dolsot bowl, or as they list it on their menu, hot stone pot. This bowl is a stone bowl that’s heated up to a super high temperature and when the rice is added to the bowl with a bit of oil, it creates a crispy rice that is perfect with bibimbap. This bibimbap has fantastic bulgogi and assorted vegetables. My only complaint with their Korean food is that they don’t serve the traditional sides, banchan, you’ll often find at some Korean restaurants. They do have seaweed salad and squid salad that are listed as side dishes, but I do miss the other sides.

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If you want a starter before your meal, they do not disappoint. Our favorite is the gyoza, a chicken and vegetable based dumpling. Shumai is another one of my personal favorites and it’s a shrimp dumpling that’s like a purse and it’s great steamed or fried. We have enjoyed their edamame which were a great light start to the meal. Don’t fill up too much with starters, as the main dishes are not to be missed. Their meals are served with a starter miso soup and a garden salad with a ginger dressing. At the end of the meal, you get a complimentary dessert tea which is a ginger cinnamon tea.

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The staff are always so friendly and the owners are very kind and present and you will often see them running food, busing tables, or assisting their staff in anyway, especially when it’s busy. This restaurant isn’t huge, so if you attend on a busy weekend night, expect a wait. But the wait will be worth it and will go much faster than you expect.