Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Sakura Ichi That Scratch


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Originally uploaded by photo85365
Last Friday night, my family had dinner at Pomona's newish Japanese restaurant Sakura Ichi, located in the Mission Promenade at Mission and Garey. I know it's been around for several years at this point, but most of the time when we want Japanese food, we jump in the car and drive out to Marukai Marketplace food court in Gardena. We go to Marukai so much, that I literally went into labor in the choco stick aisle of the marketplace. And I'm not even making this up. 22 hours later, Mr. Big was a done deal and as a result he has a Japanese middle name, despite the fact that he is every ethnicity BUT Japanese.

With the cost of gas, we are staying closer to home these days, even for our Japanese food.

I had heard that Sakura Ichi was stylish inside, and I was not disappointed. Although the tables were a bit high for the chairs, it didn't matter because the high backed chairs were too comfortable to complain about, and the wait staff went out of their way to make sure we were well-fed and taken care of.

I actually felt sick before going there, but their egg soup really hit the spot. It was generously flavored with shitake mushrooms, as was my husband's udon. Mr. Big got the children's terriyaki meal, which was a big hit in part because all their kid's meals come with a toy.

As we were enjoying the stylish digs and good food, a female singer set up shop and started to play live music right in front of us. (Yes Angel, checking my email I see you emailed me about this.) I believe the woman who performed was named Adua and she had a beautiful voice. I felt kind of sad to leave such an atmospheric environment, but Mr. Big's 9 p.m. bedtime beckoned.

If I am describing SAkura Ichi right, you might think that the restaurant has the feel of an expensive place, but the prices were reasonable. So much so that I wondered how they could afford the live music, given that the sushi bar was not full, and out of I think 5 dining tables in our area, only three of them were occupied. That is, until we got to the exit door, and passed by a large group of college students who appeared to be embarking on a night of drinking. I probably should have thanked the students for enabling Sakura Ichi to provide us boring-parent-types with such a pleasant experience.

As my husband said, it's nice to have a good Japanese restaurant in Pomona. We will definitely be back.

5 comments:

Andrew said...

On behalf of the college kids no problem! (although I definitely wasn't a part of that group) Interesting that Mr Big has a Japanese middle name. I knew a full blooded Mexican girl with a Japanese first name. I have yet to try out Sakura Ichi, But that is part of the plan for the near future.

pomona's art colonists said...

We feel so fortunate to have a place like this to go to after work or a special date on the weekends. The owners Leo and Simon are the greatest,
Leo never fails to come over to our table to chat and catch up on all the latest news.
I always get a couple of hand rolls with the clam soup and Juan is crazy about the sizzling Teppan Filet Mignon, although we have loved everything else that we have ordered.
Beer drinkers, a pitcher of Kirin is $9 buy one get one free at happy hour at the bar....We love Sakura Ichi and I'm so glad that you liked it too!

Unknown said...

well boss am going to have to try the place, am always looking for a new place to fill my feed bag at.

Anonymous said...

You should have said hi!!!

I am glad you liked Adjoa, I must say you came and left right on time, 10 minutes before Adjoa's set was over the fire alarm went off through out the Mission Promenade building and it was the most irritating sound you can imagine, it went on for about 10 minutes, NOT GOOD.

We hope to see you there again soon, Adjoa is on at 7:30PM on Fridays.

I am glad to hear you are getting our emails, you can see a full list of events going on downtown at www.3x5music.com

Angel

me said...

Was that you at the next table by any chance? There was a guy that looked a little like your photo, but I really was not sure.

G of P