Sakura Bana

Restaurant: Sakura Bana
Address: 7425 Dodge St. (South side, near Indigo Joe's.)
Website: http://www.sushiomaha.com/
Genres: Japanese, Sushi
Check Constraints: None known
Chain: No | More Omaha Locations: No

==Mecha==
Ordered:

• Gyoza ($4.95)
  
• Lunch Box C ($9.95)
• Sushi (2, Tuna and Whitefish, I believe)
• 3 California rolls
  
• 1 Inari roll (bean curd over rice, essentially)
  
• Teriyaki Chicken
• Cabbage, Rice, and an Orange
  
• Salad (Sesame dressing)
• Soup (Osumashi)
• Tako Sushi (Cooked octopus) ($2.50)
• Ogura Ice Cream ($2.95)
  

Well, I'm starting out for once, apparently. Alert the media.

Sakura Bana is a fairly long-standing Omaha sushi place, which moved not too long ago into this much more spacious feeling building (with better parking), both of which make it a lot easier for anyone to enjoy the resturant. The ambiance is a mix of casual American with strong touches of Japanese, and won't be awkward to most people.

The food, however, is what tends to frighten people about a sushi place, but also is what brings them there if they're the sort, and many of us are the sort. I am an enormous fan of good sushi, and Sakura Bana is the place nearest my work where I can get it. This may be a bit disjointed, but trust me, it's only because it's just hard to find the words for how much I generally enjoy the food here.

The gyoza appetizer was solid, and had a good flavor all the way through, the meat browned independently before being put into the dumplings, which doesn't always taste like the case. The sauce, as is typical for gyoza sauce, was strong, but not too strong here, which is always nice. ND's agedashi tofu appetizer came very hot, and was very tasty on its own (fried tofu is a good, if weird, texture). I believe Cham got Geso Karage, which was an amazing twist on what would be just normal calamari elsewhere, using tempura batter along with some great spices. Moogle's appetizer I do not remember the name of, but I certainly didn't mind it.

The advantage to going to some sushi places (At least, all the ones I've been to) for lunch, if they're more than a straight 'sit at the bar and order' restaurant, is often that they often offer a lunch box special of some sort, which has a wide variety of flavors, usually for a good price. This restaurant is no exception. Two pieces of sushi, 3 rolls (I think they were california, they had avocado in them), some teriyaki chicken, a fish-broth and vegetable based soup (or so it tasted), a small salad with sesame dressing, and other things to accompany and clear the palate... it's just too much for me. Well, not too much to eat, but it's really difficult for me to describe how much the entire package is just plain good. The sushi is made on-site by chefs (and they do have a sushi bar to sit at if you're all by your lonesome), and about as good as any I've ever had, even in a coastal city. Do not doubt that you can get good sushi in Omaha. You can. All the other flavors are solidly done, and if you go to enough oriental/Japanese sit-down places, you're likely familiar with them, even if you don't know the names. But the website has many helpful pictures.

I ordered a piece of sushi a-la-carte, as I often do, and this time I chose octopus. Cooked octopus is a little rubbery in the chewing, although not bad in taste. Not everyone's gonna go for chewy, though, so keep that in mind. The a-la-carte menu, though, is an excellent way to try to branch out from the standard sushi options even if you go for a normal dish otherwise, and although it may seem a little expensive for the size (a large mouthful, generally), it's still interesting to try the new things from time to time.

The ogura ice cream is oddly normal tasting, in that it didn't taste much different from, say, vanilla, despite having sweet red bean flavoring in it. It's not bad, it just... doesn't stand out, despite seeming like it would. A surprising downturn to what was an otherwise stellar meal. Our visit was not without its bad sides, though, but I'll leave describing those to the other. For me, this was another visit to another of my favorite restaurants, and I'll always be ready to go back.

==Chamelaeon==
Ordered:

• Ika Ten ($6.50)
• Hot Tea ($1.50)
  
• Lunch Box D ($11.95)
  
• Sushi (2, Tuna and Whitefish, I believe)
• 3 California rolls
  
• 1 Inari roll (bean curd over rice, essentially)
  
• Teriyaki Chicken
• Shrimp and Vegetable Tempura
  
• Cabbage, Rice, and an Orange
  
• Salad (Sesame dressing)
• Soup (Osumashi)
• Green Tea Ice Cream ($2.95)

Speaking as someone who had never tried actual sushi prior to our first visit to Sakura Bana, I can tell you that the place is way more accessible than some others I've tried. They're generally helpful at explaining words and terms, and not condescending about it at all - the sushi is fresh, delicious, and ample (if a little expensive). That's fine, though. I'm willing to pay a little extra for the fresh fish in Omaha... you may not have looked at a map of the US recently, but Omaha's just about equidistant from either coast, which makes getting things like fresh tuna kind of a luxury.

The new building is much larger, much roomier, and in pretty much all ways better than the old location, including things like parking. The staff is (as mentioned) helpful, kind, and reasonably prompt. They don't do things like waiting for all orders from the table to be ready before delivering them, which is understandably important when parts of your meal include raw fish. It means that food shows up kind of haphazardly from the time you order until the last entreè comes out, but that's easy enough to deal with.

And speaking of the food... Mecha was wrong on his guess for the appetizer. The Ika Ten was delicious, though; a tempura-style take on calamari, served with a light dipping sauce. It was perhaps a tad on the rubbery side, but I'm not expecting calamari perfection from a lunch-rush appetizer. The dipping sauce is a ubiquitous tasty liquid of indeterminate flavor that they use for all their tempura-related dishes. I couldn't isolate any single flavor out of it, but it's definitely delicious, and offers the tempura a hit of occasionally-needed moisture.

Mecha's about dead-on in his take on the lunch boxes. It is a lot of food, and I never come away from the D box thinking "I really wish I'd gotten something else". It's served with a dollop of wasabi and a pile of pickled ginger, both of which go really well with the sushi provided. The teriyaki is good, but unremarkable in its deliciousness. The tempura, which is the only difference between the C and D lunches, is a crispy, light flavor that fits in really well with the rest of the tastes going on in the box. I think we've covered the sushi sufficiently, but if you need a final word on that, I'll just say "YUMMY" and leave it there. The salad, however, is the single failure point of the boxes. It's nothing but a bagged salad with an okay but passable dressing on it, when it could be a lot more. If they varied up the greens, then added some green onions and bean sprouts, it would definitely take it to the next level. They already do something like this for their Chef's Salad, so it wouldn't be too hard to do.

The green tea here is delicious, and I almost always get it. They serve it iced, but in the winter I definitely prefer the warmth of the hot tea. It needs no sugar, and it works well as a palate cleanser between bites of sushi. The green tea ice cream, on the other hand, should only be attempted if you really, really love green tea (luckily, I do). The flavor is unmistakably present, and though the sweetness of the ice cream reduces the bitter quality, it's a little overwhelming if you're not prepared for it.

All in all, it's also one of my favorite restaurants, and I always look forward to going back.

==Moogle==
Ordered:

• Shumai - Crab ($4.95)
• Ten Don ($8.95)
  

I have been so busy this week. It's ridiculous. Hence, posting a week after the fact. Anyway, the appetizers were all pretty decent. The one I ordered, shumai, is a steamed dumpling with meat inside. I'm not a big fan of mushy textured food, but the flavor was good. It came with five of them, but they were fairly small. It'd be a good size for a single person. The tofu, again, was an odd texture, but the flavor wasn't bad. I probably wouldn't order it for myself. The calamari was interesting. I have had calamari before, and this was a bit harder to chew through than I expected. The tempura treatment was nice, but again, I probably wouldn't order it for myself. The gyoza was good. I barely remember it now because, to me, it was an average steamed dumpling. I would get either of the dumpling appetizers again. None of the appetizers were bad, but they didn't really stand out in my mind.

When we eat here, I generally get a lunch box E or F which are both great. To branch out a bit this time, my main dish was "ten don", which is a bowl of white rice with some tempura shrimp and veggies and a sweet sauce. This was pretty simple and pretty good. The sauce, which may be the tempura sauce Cham mentions above, holds the dish together for me. I don't think it would be as good without it. I would definitely get it again. They have a couple other options in the same style with meat ranging from beef to eel.

ND had a bad run-in with a mushroom allergy that day, and I believe he is not planning on adding to the post this time around.