Sato Japanese Restaurant

Sato must have been one of those few restaurants that still withstands the new wave of restaurants/ cafes and fast food trends that is blooming around in Adelaide. The boy and I used to frequent this place many many years ago and decided to venture here once more when we met up.

The menu had not changed much over the years and after a quick browse, we ordered our usual combination set of a mini platter of appetizers, nigiri and sushi, chicken skewers, chicken teriyaki and okonomiyaki (pictures below). The price had certainly gone up by a bit. The boy and I both ordered chilled green tea which costs about $3.50 per glass and were shocked because when we got the bill, we were charged an extra $3.50 for getting a glass refilled. Please do be careful with ordering drinks here. The boy and I were very disappointed both in terms of the prices and the deteriorating food quality.

We were given complimentary preserved bean sprouts to whet our appetites.

Appetizers ~ miso broccoli, clam and crab salad. Was not too bad although I would have preferred a slightly bigger portion.

Salmon, kingfish and tuna sashimi ~ we ordered this separately, just in case we are not filled up from our dinner set. The fish pieces were fresh although the size of each piece might have shrunk a bit.

Chicken skewers ~ I love this particular dish. The chicken skewers must have been coated in panko bread crumbs before being deepfried and that bit of savoury sauce goes well with a small knob of mustard.

Sushi platter ~ our set comprised of a pair of salmon nigiri, a pair of tuna nigiri, a pair of sushi roll pieces and 2 pairs of salmon sushi roll. It was a decent fare.

Teriyaki chicken with salad and mashed potatoes ~ chicken was cooked perfectly with a good amount of juiciness retained and the teriyaki sauce was flawless.

Okonomiyaki ~ a pretty decent fare that was made fresh to order before a good drizzle of tonkatsu sauce and kewpie mayonnaise was added.

Green tea ice cream ~ the boy and I agreed to pay an extra $1.50 to upgrade our vanilla ice cream to green tea. Sadly, we regretted this decision as we could hardly taste any hint of green tea in it. From the picture, you could see a vibrant green dot on the ice cream. We reckon that could be food colouring added. A shame really because it tasted like vanilla ice cream coloured green and to have paid an extra $1.50 felt like a slap in the face. It used to be good but I would not recommend this if you are dining here.

This had been a very painful blogpost to write about because as much as I do not want to say anything bad about any restaurant, I believe it is only fair to be honest when I do restaurant reviews. There are a lot of good ones out there and for the ones that are lacking a bit, I do sincerely wish improvements can be made.