Best Penang Food

When you are driving or walking along Penang road; the famous tourist concentration street in Penang, you will found Sakana Sushi bar and cuisine. Sakana Sushi bar has started the business on August 2012 and it is less than one year old at the time I write this review.  It occupied a pre-war double storey corner shop lot with a floor space of ~2500 square feet. This is a large restaurant and i am pretty sure that you will not missed this restaurant as it has a big red sign board with white wording which clearly attract lot of attention.

Sakana Sushi Bar and Cuisine is located at the intersection of Hutton lane and Penang road. Since this is one of the hot tourist spot in Penang, it draws tremendous traffic around it. Picture below shown the wide angle view of the intersection at 3PM. The traffic is congested and the car looks incomplete which cause by the effect of the panorama stitching by the camera. There are such kind of car exist in current world!!

The selection of the current location for Sakana Sushi bar is strategically selected as it gives great exposure to public. But there is one big issue; there is no parking around the restaurant!  You will loss most of your customer that hunting food along Penang road as there are no parking. Well, here is the solution! Just park your car at Hutton Lane multi-storey car park which is directly opposite to Café Evergreen and walk distance to Sakana Sushi. You will only need to walk around 2 minute along Hutton Lane before you reach the restaurant. The best part of it, it is FREE parking where you can claim back the parking fee from Sakana Sushi bar.

Free Parking Map

Sakana Sushi Bar dining environment

Sakana Sushi bar is designed with open kitchen style Japanese restaurant where you can observe the entire kitchen operation during dining. Upon you entered the restaurant; you will observe that the open kitchen has taken ~ 60% of the ground floor space. This is kind of surprise to me as the open kitchen is way too big.

Within the big center compound of the open kitchen, the chief is actually preparing all the order like sushi, hand roll, maki, sashimi, pan fried tempura and grill dishes there in real time mode. There are not glass separation between the kitchen and the customer. This is kind of unique in Penang as I have never seen such a big open kitchen design in Penang. As a result of that, the oil stain will trap in customer clothes even though there is good air suction on top of the grill and fries section. Secondary effect of the suction is it made the dining area hotter as it sucks out all the cold air.

Sakana also erected a Kaiser Belt system which similar to Sakae sushi and Sushi King where the customer can get the sushi from the belt system directly.

 

The dining table setting is kind of simple with fixed wooden table and chair. The wall is well decorated with Japanese style wall paper. There is one big issue with the table setting at the ground floor. Upon customer entering the restaurant, they will need to choose to sit around the Kaiser Belt or at the dining table. If the customer chooses to dine at the dining table and order the a la carte dishes from the menu, then they will face this problem. The table can only fit 4 adult, if the grouping is more than 4, then fifth person will need to sit at the next table. This issue had been raise by Ken’s blog on Nov 2012, and I do hope that Sakana able to make some changes on the table setting at ground floor.

Fixed location dining table, can only fit 4 Adult

The dining hall is fully air conditioned. The basic dining utensil is well organized on top of each table. There are no triggering/pinging system similar to Xuan Xin Restaurant or Pizza Hut where waitress will be alerted when a request button is pressed. If you need the attention of the waitress, you will need to raise your hand to get their attention.

Dining hall at second floor

While waiting for the fixes at the ground floor, Sakana waitress may need to lead the customer to the second floor dining hall or the Kaiser belt if the grouping is more than 4. There are 4 main dining hall on the second floor and all of them is well decorated and air conditioned.

Dining hall for small group customer

Dining hall for small group customer

Dining hall for big group of customer base

Customer will need to sit at the wooden floor with square sofa mat provided and dine like  Japanese. Well, get ready to stretch your leg after 20 minutes as Malaysia may not used to these kind of dining environment. Beside this, there is no pinging or triggering system to get the attention of the waitress, you will need to go outside of the hall or ground floor to get help. I do hope that Sakana can improve on this.  May be; just put a mechanical bell system to draw the attention of the waitress.

Sakana Sushi also offers the dining hall for group event, birthday party or special event. Do contact Sakana earlier in order for them to reserve the hall.

Sakana’s Menu

Sakana Sushi bar has designed a new menu and it has release to public on mid April’13. The new menu is on the right and the old menu is on the left.

The menu is full of pictures, simple labeling and a clear label on the price tag. Customer should not have any issue to navigate thru the menu and complete the order.  This only that lags off is the chef recommendation star which draws the customer attention.

Does the food taste good?

This is an invited review by Sakana Sushi Bar where I have spent 3.5 hours chatting with Alex Chieng, the owner of the restaurant. Mr. Alex is a talk active, friendly and straight to the point type of boss. There are a lot of issues with the restaurant as it has just started for less than a year old. Alex has a positive mindset and willing to learn + improve attitude, I believe Sakana sushi will success in near future.

First, I have tried the Tuna sashimi from the alar-carte menu. I love tuna instead of salmon. Here is how the dishes look likes.

There are 5 slices of Tuna sashimi placed on top of the ice. By dipping the tuna sashimi with the wasabi, you can start to enjoy the sashimi. The red tuna is juicy and it melts in your mouth. There a no raw fish smell! Delicious!

Alex is the main chef and he do share with me some of the secret on the tuna selection,  the tuna slide must not have too many layer and it should not have any white tendon. The white tendon is hard to chew and break it;  it will stick in your mouth. Well, I am fully agreed with Alex as I did have similar bad experience in Sarkies lunch buffet.

The second dish that I tried is Beef Tataki. This dish is created by Alex himself.

First, the fresh raw beef from Australia is cut into the rectangular block form. The outer layer is then grilled but the inner section is still raw. The entire beef block will be quick frozen within one hour and keep in the freezer. Upon order is being made, the chef will thin slice the beef block; arrange it on the plate and topped with some Sakana special made Korean sauce.

I have never tried the beef tataki with 95% of it still remain raw.  I would say that this dish is really good. It does not have the odd beef smell. The green Korean sauce come with some sour and spicy in it. When you chew on the beef tataki, I though it will be hard to chew as the beef is not as soft as tuna; but the truth is, it is really nice, the beef tataki do taste excellent and you can easily eat 2 to 3 piece at one time.  Highly recommended if you dare to try beef with 95% still raw!

Beside the alar-carte menu items, I have also tried some of the dishes that place on the Kaiser belt. Price of the sushi is range from RM2 (red color plate) to RM6 (Blue color plate) which depend on the color of the plate selected.  Most of the sushi was placed on the belt for more than 3 hours from 3pm till 6pm. The time slot is actually the off peak hour which I had selected.  I actually tried the assorted sushi from the belt and here is what I found out.

As expected, the seaweed is kind of soft and the cucumber is not crunchy at all. This is not a surprise as the sushi quality will degrade vs. the time on the belt. The longer the sushi is place on the belt, the worst quality it will be.

Gunkan type sushi – ebiko, tuna mayo where is it being wrapped with seaweed

Maki type sushi

As expected, similar issue happen on the Gunkan type sushi like ebiko and the tuna mayo.  This kind of sushi is not suitable for long queue time in the belt. The last sushi that I tried is the maki typed sushi, This kind of sushi has less issue with the soft seaweed and it is more suitable to be place on the belt. I recommend that we get the maki type sushi from the belt and order the gunkan type sushi from the menu.

Overall, Sakana sushi do deliver high quality sashimi, tataki and sushi if the food is being made fresh. I do recommend that the customer should order the sushi from the alar-carte menu directly instead from the belt. Alex may need to redefine it sales and marketing strategy on open kitchen concept in Sakana sushi for long term business growth. Despite to the multiple issue highlighted in the review, with the right mind set and high quality food, I believe Alex will success in near future.

About the boss, Mr. Alex Chieng

Alex Chieng, age early 30;born in Sarawak.  Young entrepreneur who is Master graduated as a Civil engineer in Sheffield University, United Kingdom. He started his UK education journey at age 19 and started to be independent. He supported his education fund by doing additional 2 part time jobs. Daily sleeping time is less than 4 hours for the first 4 years in UK.   After the Master graduation, he work as site engineer during day time and head of chief in Yo Sushi,UK at night time.  He decided to return to Penang, Malaysia on 2012 and started Sakana sushi on Aug,2012.

NOTHING COME FREE IN THIS WORLD, IT IS DEPEND ON HOW MUCH HARD WORK YOU PUT IN, YOUR HARD WORK DOESN’T NECESSARY WILL GET PAY OFF AT THE END, BUT AT LEAST YOU TRY YOUR BEST AND LEAVE NO REGRET IN YOUR LIFE,

May 9, 2013  ALEX CHIENG

Interested to know more about Alex Chieng’s story? Click here

Restaurant information:

Sakana Sushi Bar & Cuisine (PG0299275-U)   >> map <<
Alex Chieng
013-9469796
Alexchieng83@yahoo.co.uk
252, Jalan Penang,
10000 Pulau Pinang,
Malaysia
Open daily from 12noon to 11pm

Available for Birthday party, gathering  @ private function room in second floor
Delivery
Professional consultant on Japanese sushi bar and cuisine set up
Restaurant planning and management

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Best Penang Food Editor’s Review:

• Located at the intersection of Hutton lane and Penang road which has lot of traffic. If you drive along Penang road, you will definitely spot the restaurant.
• No parking around the restaurant. Please park the car at the Hutton lane multi-storey car park and claim back the parking fee from Sakana
• Alex started Sakana from zero to a well established restaurant. It is still not perfect and it still has lot of improvements needed.
• Open kitchen concept where you are able to see the entire cooking operation
• Oil stain from the open kitchen will contaminate the entire environment even though there is a vacuum air sucker.
• Well decorated dining area
• Beautiful manual to ease customer ordering
• Great price that suite the majority of the customer
• Broad alar-carte sushi choices in the manual
• Table size in ground floor can only accompany max 4 persons in one table. **** fixed on 9 May’13
• Grouping > 6 customers will need to go to second floor for dining.
• Sushi quality at Kaiser belt will degrade if sushi was there for > 1hr
• No pinging/alerting system that trigger for waitress help. You will need to wave you hand to get the attention of the waitress.
• Air conditional is not cool enough as the ceiling is high
• Big dining hall at second floor which suitable for group activity, event and party.
• Accept cash and credit card. UOB VOX credit card member get additional 10% discount.

****  Now, Sakana has 2 dining tables at ground floor which can accommodate grouping of 6 customers.