Foodie Friday: Sakura

Sitting at a booth inside Sakura, my dining partner and I began to see movement near our seats. 

Slowly but surely a conveyor belt brought small plates of sushi around our booth. Although we didn’t grab any, it’s a part of Sakura’s all-you-can-eat plate. 

This San Marcos Japanese, sushi and hot pot spot is located just off Aquarena Springs Drive. The restaurant offers a wide variety of sushi, hibachi, all-you-can eat and delicious lunch specials. 

“Our restaurant has been dedicated to offering the most memorable dining experience for you,” Sakura says on its website. “We pick ingredients carefully and use only the freshest and natural ones to prepare every dish.”

What to get: 

During our visit to Sakura, my dining partner and I both chose to sample the restaurant’s lunch bento box special. This special is only offered during lunch from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. and includes a vegetable spring roll, onion soup, salad served with a Japanese-style salad dressing but with an added twist of strawberry and apples. These bento boxes also included four pieces of California roll. 

My dining partner, who is particularly fond of curry, chose Sakura’s curry style lunch. This meal came with green curry chicken and steamed rice ($12).

I went with Sakura’s yakisoba lunch bento box ($14), which came with stir fried noodles with chicken — you can also try the noodles with beef or shrimp. This meal was well portioned and a tasty lunch. 

To finish off the box, both came with four orange slices. 

Sakura also offers several other bento box options, including katsu — fried chicken with teriyaki sauce and your choice of steamed or fried rice ($14); and the tempura mix lunch with a choice of either fried shrimp, chicken, calamari or vegetables with either steamed rice or fried rice ($14). 

Maybe you’re in the mood for a hibachi grilled meal — all come with grilled vegetables, a house salad, soup (miso or onion) and your choice of steamed rice, fried rice for an extra $2, or chicken fried rice for an additional $4.

Sakura offers a teriyaki chicken hibachi grill plate ($16), teriyaki beef ($23), New York steak ($27), filet mignon ($31), teriyaki salmon ($20), lobster ($38) and tilapia ($19). 

You can also get a hibachi grill combo with steak, chicken and shrimp ($36), New York steak and salmon ($31), ribeye steak and lobster ($45), and filet mignon and lobster ($46). 

Searching for sushi? Sakura has a wide variety of options for the sushi lover. You can get the classic California roll ($5.55), or maybe the ninja roll is calling your name, which comes as a fried roll with spicy tuna, cucumber, cream cheese, spicy mayo, eel sauce and sriracha for $10.55. Maybe you’re in the mood for a Red Sox roll ($12.75) — salmon on top of spicy tuna and cucumber served with sriracha, spicy mayo and garlic mayo — or the double wide roll ($12.25) served with crab mix, salmon, spicy tuna, cream cheese, avocado and cucumber with spicy mayo and eel sauce, or you may even be in the mood for a nom nom roll ($12.25), which comes as a fried roll with spicy tuna, crab mix, avocado, cucumber and cream cheese with spicy mayo and eel sauce.  

Sakura also has several customer favorite rolls: Sakura roll ($13.25) served with shrimp tempura, crab mix and avocado with yellowtail, salmon, mango mayo, spicy mayo and eel sauce; the tuna dream ($14.25), which comes with peppered tuna and tempura flakes on top of tempura white tuna, spicy tuna and avocado with eel sauce and spicy mayo; or flaming seabass ($14.75) served with lightly seared sea bass on top of crab mix, cucumber and avocado with masago, green onions, tempura flakes, eel sauce and spicy mayo. 

To see more options from Sakura's large menu visit: https://m.chinesemenu.com/us/521311790

If you go:

Sakura is located at 117 Meiners St.

The restaurant is open from 11 a.m until 9:30 p.m., Sunday-Thursday; and 11 a.m-10:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. 

Phone: 512-757-8785

Website: http://www.sakuratx.com/