LEO/LHB: Sake Blue is on a roll - lots of rolls

[Robin Garr]

LEO's Eats with Louisville HotBytes.com

Not so long ago - well, back in the early '80s - the only place in town to get sushi was a downtown diner, where a Japanese woman came in on Thursdays to produce a special sushi lunch for a small but ardent corps of cognoscenti.

A generation or so later, more than 20 eats emporia provide Japanese fare across the metro area, most of them boasting good to excellent sushi bars. You can even buy sushi boxes at local grocery stores.

Just about everybody in town, or every sushi lover anyway, has a favorite, and a roster of top spots (Kansai, Sake Blue, Raw Sushi Lounge, Jarfi's Bistro and Z's Fusion) showed off their wares last month at the annual Sushi in the City gala. The all-you-can-eat event and competition at the Henry Clay was for the benefit of the Family Scholar House of Louisville.

New restaurants carried off top honors, with a judging panel rating the entry from Z's Fusion as Sushi of the Year. The audience, however, followed another favorite, voting the "People's Choice" award to the city's newest Japanese restaurant, Sake Blue.

Sake Blue, which fills a sushi vacuum in the far East End with its sizable shopping-center venue beyond Fern Creek, near the Gene Snyder and Bardstown Road interchange, wowed the crowd's eyes with ice sculpture and steaming dry ice, and satisfied diners' palates with a sterling sushi roll right off the restaurant's regular menu.

Sake Blue's Temptation Roll, reported Deb Hall on LouisvilleHotBytes.com, was a maki-zushi roll stuffed with shrimp tempura, asparagus, cream cheese, crab, spicy wasabi mayo and sweet eel sauce, all topped with lots of spicy crab. "The flavor and texture combination was outstanding," Hall wrote; it was a favorite at her table and, apparently, throughout the audience.

Fine sushi in sophisticated surroundings in Fern Creek, not previously known as a destination for authentic Japanese fare? I had to check this out, so it wasn't long before I pointed the jalopy eastward for the not-so-long trek from town.

Read the complete report [url=http://www.leoweekly.com/dining/review-sake-blue-roll-—-lots-rolls]in LEO[/url] and on LouisvilleHotBytes.com.

<b>Sake Blue Japanese Restaurant</b>
9326 Cedar Center Way
708-1500
Robin Garr's rating: 88 points

I got a hearty laugh at this part in the full article: "A trek over to Bardstown Road and then all the way out through Buechel and Fern Creek might have saved a few minutes but likely would have taken an hour at dinnertime on a weekday."

An hour, seriously? I'm not sure where you live in CH, but using CH as a general starting point, I could do it in 35 minutes. 30 with a few shortcuts and getting a few important lights (like the one at Hikes).

[Robin Garr]

An hour, seriously? I'm not sure where you live in CH, but using CH as a general starting point, I could do it in 35 minutes. 30 with a few shortcuts and getting a few important lights (like the one at Hikes).

An hour might be an exaggeration, but note that I'm talking about commuter rush hour. I got my post-graduate driving training in LA and NYC, and I can be pretty aggressive, but I'll stand by what I said: I-64 and the Geneway makes sense to get from city neighborhoods out to Sake Blue and environs as opposed to fighting all the way out Bardstown Road from the Highlands. Maybe I'm biased because I can reach the I-64/Grinstead exit in about 90 seconds from my front door.

An hour might be an exaggeration, but note that I'm talking about commuter rush hour. I got my post-graduate driving training in LA and NYC, and I can be pretty aggressive, but I'll stand by what I said: I-64 and the Geneway makes sense to get from city neighborhoods out to Sake Blue and environs as opposed to fighting all the way out Bardstown Road from the Highlands. Maybe I'm biased because I can reach the I-64/Grinstead exit in about 90 seconds from my front door.

I'm not trying to pick a fight, so I'll take your word on it. You could cut through the parks and get to Taylorsville and Bardstown w/o even stepping foot on Bardstown. I think your route makes the most sense in that it avoids the Southern trek through Fern Creek. That area has really boomed in the last 5 years.

I see what your saying about being so close to a good highway ramp. I grew up 90 seconds from the Smyrna exit off the Gene Snyder. Although all my friends thought I lived "way out there," having the highway so close made an trip pretty bearable.

Great review. I was there the other day to scope out a menu before Sarah comes in town to see if we want this to be our sushi bash place during her visit. Very impressive menu! Not your usual stuff. I can't wait to try it out with Sarah. With so many inovative dishes on the menu maybe a forum night is in order?

[Robin Garr]

With so many inovative dishes on the menu maybe a forum night is in order

I could go for that! And since Sohee is on the forum, I'll bet we could work out something really special.

NO HATS, THOUGH!

Ohhhhh OK. No hats. How about toupees and wigs?

Ohhhhh OK. No hats. How about toupees and wigs?

Carla - we have 2 geisha/sumo wrestler wigs at the restaurant if anyone would like to borrow for the night!

Robin - thank you very much for your kind words in your review. We have been waiting, very patiently, for you to review us so we're ecstatic that you finally made it out and more importantly, enjoyed our dishes!

We would love to have everyone on the forum come to Sake Blue for an offline event! I'm not sure how this usually works, but I can speak with our head chefs and see what we can come up with. Most likely, we can offer a few complimentary tastings of our best dishes so that everyone can walk away with a varied and more in-depth sake blue gastronomical experience! Shall we start looking at dates? Mondays would probably work best for us as it's our slowest night.

I'm in for a sushi off-line- and Mondays rock for me.

I'm in perfect agreement with Gary.

I promise to wear one of the sumo wigs if we do.

Oooooh, Carla, I can't wait for this offline to come to fruition.

that must have been "Starla" (my evil twin) that made that promise!

LOL, Carla.

After reading this write-up, I've been really eager to get out to Sake Blue. Robert and I went out there tonight to celebrate his promotion at work (YAY!) and it was really wonderful. I liked the atmosphere, the service was wonderful, and the sushi was really something special. I had the house salad (simple but very, very fresh, and nice), and I always like to try the Tamago, which was really delicious. I always just think it's so amazing and artful how they manage to cook egg like that. Then I couldn't resist the Temptation roll, which OMG that has to be the most filling sushi roll ever! Half of that thing and I was totally stuffed. It's a huge roll! Robert had the cherry blossom roll, California roll and a tuna/salmon roll (I think), and he was very pleased with all of them too. We'll be back for penny sake night too! Recommended, and worth the drive!