A friend of mine who works in the Harcourt Street area always goes to the Green Bench Café for lunch but when I met her a few weeks ago I managed to bring her to a place neither of us had visited before: Zakura.
Zakura is a Japanese restaurant located on Wexford street serving sushi and noodles.
The walls are panelled with wood that match the tables and stools, there are even some little cushions if the seats are too hard for you.
The menu is divided into the following categories: sushi & sashimi, traditional Japanese grill, ramens, rice dishes, noodle dishes and sides. They also have a takeaway menu and apply a BYO policy (small corkage fees apply).
To be honest we didn't even look at the full menu and went straight for their bento lunch box, reasonably priced at €8.99.
My friend went for the vegetarian bento box while I ordered the regular one. We got got a nice portion of lovely miso soup. Our bento boxes were served promptly and generously filled. The food looked colourful, fresh and promising.
The vegetarian bento box which I haven't tried but was enjoyed by my friend included Yasai Gyoza (vegetarian dumplings), Yasai Cha Han (stir-fried rice with egg, tofu, mushroom...), two pieces of sushi and a wakame coma salad (spinach, green beans, wakame...). This was definitely an attractive vegetarian lunch even for the meat eater I am.
My bento box was absolutely delicious and consisted of chicken gyoza (dumplings), steamed rice, two piece of sushi and a salad of cumin marinated beef: I liked everything in this selection. There was also some soy sauce, pickled ginger and wasabi in the centre of the tray.
The beef was succulent, melt in the mouth and bursting with flavour as well as being nicely spicy.
I haven't tried anything else on the menu but the bento lunch boxes were spot on. It worked out to be a generous and scrumptious lunch for a small enough price. The service was prompt so we didn't have to rush too much during our lunch break. It's another great little spot to think of when searching for lunch in the area!
Zakura
13 Wexford Street
Dublin 2
http://www.zakuradublin.com
