Valentine's Day At Sakagura

Although Asiate is at the top of my list for romantic restaurants (what a view!), a cozy, dim nook in the back room of Sakagura is pretty romantic too. And since my companion and I are in love with Sakagura, it was only fitting that we spent Valentine's Day there, enjoying the special prix fixe dinner.

In Japan, Valentine's Day is something of a Sadie Hawkins affair. (White Day, which is celebrated on March 14, was created to balance things out. On Valentine's Day, women give men a gift (usually chocolate); men reciprocate on White Day.) This Valentine's Day, it was almost impossible not to give someone a piece of chocolate... Hershey representatives were out in force around Grand Central Station, handing out free samples from their new Cacao Reserve Collection. (Disclaimer: As a food blogger with Blogads on my page, I was the happy recipient of a large box of complimentary chocolate bars and truffles from this very collection; in a bit of serendipity, I received this box on Valentine's Day. There is no way I can eat all this, so please E-mail me if you'd like to share in the wealth.)

But back to Sakagura! My companion and I sat down to a pink rose petal-strewn table and a sake aperitif in which one rose petal floated. (See? I told you it was romantic.) Instead of opting for a three-flight sake tasting, we ordered the sweet, low-alcohol Himezen sake. Soon we were served a dense, creamy soymilk custard in which bamboo shoots and shiitake slivers were steamed. On top of the custard was a layer of gelatinous shark fin-thickened soy sauce. Scrumptious.

The next plate was a carnival of different tastes, colors and textures: cold, caviar-sprinkled shredded lobster salad with crunchy yam, sea urchin with a spray of Japanese salt, thin slivers of fatty tuna, grilled red snapper served in a giant leaf, and sweet citrus halves stuffed with snow crab and sea urchin.

Sakagura was so crowded that there was a very long wait for the grilled dish, so our apologetic server brought over a plate of cold fried whitefish salad. The entree was a choice of foie-gras-stuffed Kobe beef or Toyama yellowtail teriyaki; we opted for the latter. Just as we were about to start eating the chopsticks, along came the rich marinated yellowtail, decorated with red pickled ginger, Japanese mountain pepper and toothsome miso-dressed taro potatoes.

A pungent shiso sorbet palate-cleanser was next, and then came the bamboo baskets of sushi. We loved the smoked salmon sprinkled with tiny dots of sweet egg, chopped tuna, grilled eel and sardine-like needlefish.

A romantic evening isn't complete without dessert (and other things that are not relevant to this food blog, but that's another matter), and we were delighted by the chocolate-mousse-stuffed mochi, mixed berries and cream on pound cake inside a crisp cookie shell, and rum raisin ice cream.

Sakagura: 211 East 43rd S.t, B1, (212) 953-7253.