We went to Sakae Sushi in Burlingame, CA to celebrate Annie’s birthday with some of the best sushi in the Bay Area. In Part 1, we talked about all the great sashimi we had. Now it’s time to talk sushi…nigiri sushi.

When most Americans think of sushi, they think of California rolls, Caterpillar rolls, Dragon rolls, etc. You know, a tube of rice and relatively small pieces of fish mixed with the likes of cucumber, avocado, fake crab, cream cheese, mayonnaise, you name it. Sometimes it’s even drizzled with a sweet sauce. It’s basically a way to avoid tasting raw fish, which I guess is not big with the Western palate. (No wonder I see a lot of people absolutely drown their sushi in soy sauce and horseradish!)

Japanese do eat rolled sushi (called maki) but they don’t tend to hide the fish. Nigiri sushi puts that fish right on top. And that’s the way we like it!

Continue reading Sensational Sushi at Sakae Sushi (Burlingame), Part 2 →

Saturday was Annie’s birthday, and we wanted to go out for a special sushi meal to celebrate the occasion. We had talked about going back to see our favorite sushi chef, Ryo of Sushi-Man in San Francisco. But Ryo was tragically killed in January, and we were left looking for a restaurant worthy to replace the high quality of sushi and service that Ryo gave to us.

In recent months, we had been going to Akane in Los Altos to get our sushi fix because it was closer to us, was more affordable, and served some pretty high quality sushi there. We found this place on the “Big List of Peninsula Sushi”, where Akane came in at #2. #1 on the list? Sakae Sushi in Burlingame.

Sakae Sushi in Burlingame

I made reservations at the bar for the two of us on Saturday night. We knew we were going to get top quality fish, so we had no problems going omakase. But would we make a connection with the chef, as we did with Ryo?

Continue reading Sensational Sushi at Sakae Sushi (Burlingame), Part 1 →