Photo courtesy of Creative Commons
Cayla Bush/ Contributing Writer
Fusion cuisine is an art that very few places can successfully pull off. Korean fusion is art that over saturates the market, and very rarely leaves me wanting to return.
Somehow, Sakaya Kitchen manages to stand out from the crowd and deliver food that’s worth multiple visits.
Located in The Shops at Midtown, Sakaya’s decor is lively and fun, which mirrors the dishes served at the restaurant. Each dish is colorful and packed with layers of flavor. It’s a millennial mecca, with instagram worthy plates.
The food tastes as good as it looks, each dish I tried being better than the last. For appetizers I ordered the chunk’d tater tots, KFC wings, and orange baby back ribs. They’re called sharables on the menu for a reason: the portions are just over the average appetizer size, which is too much when paired with a main course.
The chunk’d tots are uh-may-zing. Taking traditional tater tots to a new level, Sakaya adds a spicy cheesy sauce and top it off with kalbi beef chunks and green onions. It sounds like there’s too much going on to be worth the hype (provided by Guy Fieri from Food Network and the Miami Herald), the layers are all complementary while still being strong enough to hold its own. A very rare feat for loaded dishes, and well appreciated.
The KFC wings, which stands for Korean Fried Chicken, were also a much appreciated shock. Deep frying chicken in a “fast food” restaurant can go very wrong, with either soggy crust or dry meat. A juicy, succulent wing with crispy crust is a phenom in itself, but it’s the sauce paired with the wings that make them worth writing about. Not too sweet, not too salty, it’s perfect.
For burger lovers, the bulgolgi burger is my suggestion. It’s big, juicy and messy, all the makings of a perfect burger. It’s topped with chunk’d tots, cheese, and house-made pickles. Again, sounds busy but it works. If burgers aren’t your thing, their bowls are equally as delectable. My suggestion here is also the bulgolgi, along with the dae ji. The bulgolgi bowl couples beef with a kick of spice from kim chee, and crunch from bean sprouts. The dae ji bowl pairs spicy pork with sweet coconut rice and savory buttered broccoli. The bowls are more simple, but equally as delicious as everything else I tried.
The creator of each of the dishes I tried at Sakaya deserves an award, and is well worth the hype they receive. It’s definitely worth the prices, which are outside the typical fast food range, because the portions are quite large. I consider myself a hearty eater and I still had to get a to go box. Plus, it’s located in the Midtown, so the $7-$18 price tag is to be expected for the location.
Overall, Sakaya gets 4.5 stars – fighting traffic to get to Midtown and the limited seating space are the only drawbacks to an otherwise perfect dining experience.
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