Saka-E — Restaurant in Duluth

The Good: Quaint little sushi spot aiming to please with basic Japanese and Korean options.

The waitstaff was highly attentive and accessible. There was little wait time for the food after ordering as there are only a few tables and booths. An error was made with our order and it was fixed with a genuine apology and options to make it right.

The food was priced competitively for its quality. The sushi was comfort food level with the exception of one roll that had toasted yellow on top was uniquely tasty. The chicken yakatori was above average tasty with larger bite sized vegetables seasoned well in teriyaki. The fried rice was on par with other comparable restaurants.

The Not So Good: While we were able to give the benefit of the doubt to the server, we felt that they may have been new or having an off night. We were offered a regular chair for our 1 year old who was also given a regular cup of water along with the rest of the table. No big deal but worth mentioning if kids are coming.

Which also segues into their not being any child friendly options on the menu, which is ok as long as you're prepared coming in.

The chicken yaki udon was soupy with teriyaki sauce, the wheat noodles were over cooked to the point of being slimy, and the over all flavor profile was uninspiring and lacking layers of any flavor.

The ginger salad was coarsely chopped iceberg and the dressing was significantly watered down with more orange juice and ginger flavor. The miso soup was as good as similar restaurants.

Overall, I would recommend it if you're looking for a local place with exceptional service and comfort food...

First time at Saka-E.

I ordered 3 special rolls (Trust Me, Caterpillar, Rainbow) and some Sashimi.

There was nothing wrong with Sashimi. They were fresh and cleanly cut, and the presentation was well executed.

However, the rolls were quite lacking, and this was a big deal for me since I’m more of a rolls guy than a Sashimi guy.

Rolls were small and had stingy amounts of ingredients on the inside, resulting in the majority of its composition being made up of rice.

Rolls were pretty much flavorless and no amount of soy sauce could fix it. Probably the result of the rolls having so much rice and very little of the other ingredients.

Caterpillar roll didn’t come topped with eel sauce and they included tiny bits of eel on the inside. On the contrary, they included huge chunks of cream cheese so that’s literally all i could taste; yuck!

If in the future I am looking for sashimi, then maybe, just maybe, I would return. However, I don’t see myself going back to Saka-E for their bland rolls.

PS - Their salad dressing and miso soup were on point...

The service was really great even though we came in only an hour before closing and left a bit late. The server(Kevin) was attentive and answered any questions we had. The privacy curtains were a plus. The rice wine was great, and so were the side dishes.

When I told them that I would be traveling a while before buying their side dishes in bulk, they packed a bag of ice so the food would stay fresh. It’s a quaint restaurant with good service and a...