Yelp gets it right again.
Four stars.
* * *
Sakura Sushi executes well on your basic suburban Asian Fusion Formula.
Sell Sushi.
Sell Chinese Food.
Have a bar.
Sakura Sushi goes one up on this by offering eight different kinds of dumplings.
This way they can say on their menu that they serve "dim sum".
I suspect that if spaghetti and meatballs were ever to become popular again, they would serve spaghetti and meatballs too.
* * *
That said, a lot of Sushi + Chinese + Full Stocked Bar places are pretty good.
Sakura Sushi is pretty good.
My Zen Tempura roll was served piping hot - and it was an admirable execution of deep fried sushi.
I would have that dish again any time.
I couldn't drink because I had a lot of driving to do.
But the bar selection was excellent. They had a lot of my favorite top shelf whiskeys and a credible selection of interesting sakes.
I didn't get a chance to sample their Chinese - but I suspect that is pretty decent as well.
* * *
The ambience of the room is kind of funny.
They have a corner location with picture windows on two sides - so you get a great view of the comings and goings at the Oaks at Lakeway.
They have two different TVs showing sports events.
I normally don't go to Japanese restaurants to watch sports events - unless of course they are showing sumo.
If they had been showing sumo, those TVs would have had my undivided attention.
It felt weird to be eating sushi while watching Kansas State basketball.
But if I had had a couple of sakes in me, I could see how Kansas State could be whole lot more interesting.
If you are there for romantic ambience, sit by the windows and have both you and your lover put your backs to the basketball game.
The window view will be fine.
* * *
That said, the interesting story about Sakura is not the food or the room.
It is the location.
Sakura is in a strange combination of strip mall and artificial downtown called The Oaks at Lakeway.
For a long time, all the retail in Lakeway, Texas was in strip malls on Route 620.
You drove up and down 620, you saw everything the city had.
The city didn't have much compared to the size and wealth of the population.
Lakeway was majorly underserved.
* * *
This has now changed big time.
The building of multiple shopping centers in neighboring Bee Cave - all called the Galleria - has provided major retail for the area.
(Yes, all the malls are called the Galleria.
Remember Dr. Seuss's Mrs. McCabe who had 23 sons and she named them all Dave?)
One of them, the Hill Country Galleria, is a full-fledged fake town built much along the lines of the Domain in Austin.
The mini-town has been such a success that it is getting micro-imitators in Lakeway itself.
One of them is the Oaks at Lakeway.
The Oaks is a four block deep three block wide imitation town center by the side of Highway 620.
The Oaks is a good news bad news joke for the retailers within.
The good news is that by going four blocks deep, there is a lot more room for stores than there would be if everything had to be one block deep facing 620.
Having more stores is definitely a good thing.
The bad news is that no one can see what the stores are in the second, third or fourth tier.
So the stores in the back tiers have a major marketing problem.
There are miniscule signs indicating the existence of the back stores at the entrances to the Oaks.
Most 620 traffic will go by so fast, that the signs serve only as guideposts for people who already know that a business is there that they want to visit.
Dying of invisibility is a real risk for tenants at the Oaks.
* * *
Sakura has worked aggressively to solve this problem.
On Route 620, four miles away as one approaches Lakeway, there is a gigantic billboard advertising Sakura Sushi - and their next door neighbor - a crepes place.
It is pretty rare to have a small Japanese restaurant pay the big bucks to rent a highway billboard miles from their establishment.
But this is what Sakura Sushi has to do.
Sakura Sushi and the neighboring crepes place have customers.
Other restaurants in the back tiers that do not have billboards are not doing nearly as well.
* * *
I am glad that Sakura Sushi solved this problem.
They are a good restaurant that deserves support.
And here is a lesson for some other restaurants I know in Austin but will not name.
These establishments deserved to stay alive but suffered miserable deaths.
Sometimes - restaurants - it pays to advertise. read more