Sake Sushi - Southside

$5 Sashimi

Everyone loves a new sushi restaurant. Sake in the Southside is the sushi-only component of the larger restaurant chain Saga. The main difference is that Sake does not offer hibachi, but they do offer a variety of hot dishes in addition to sushi.

The main selling point of Sake is the pricing. On Mondays they offer a variety of discounted specialty roles for $7.50. (Please note that they advertise Monday as a half off special, but it is really more of a 32% off special based on the normal pricing.) However, everyday of the week they offer a specialty happy hour menu featuring various appetizers in the $5 range.  I tried the sashimi appetizer (pictured above) in addition to the octopus salad, house special tuna jalapeno sashimi and fried tofu.

The house special jalapeno sashimi is honestly where it's at. Thinly sliced tuna topped with jalapeno and some siricha. I also really enjoyed the octopus salad. Some items I think you can skip on the happy hour menu are the coconut shrimp, fried tofu and edamame. I'll never ever understand why people go out and order edamame. I just can't grasp why anyone would pay to be served a bowl of steamed soy beans. If you just make the damn things at home you can save the 900% markup you pay to have the restaurant throw beans in a steamer and put them in a bowl.

SAKE BOMBS

The high point of happy hour was learning how to take sake bombs, compliments of the house. (Thanks Calven!) I'm honestly embarrassed to admit that I was never taught how to properly do a sake bomb. Here's how it works. You place a shot of sake on chopsticks placed on top of a glass of beer. Someone yells, "sake sake sake" and then you yell, "bomb bomb bomb." After that everyone pounds on the table like an angry samurai and it makes the sake fall into the beer! Amazing, yeah?