Sakana House is located at 750 Big Bay Point Rd. in Barrie, about 100km n. of Toronto, in a quiet residential area in an isolated small mall. It's about a 30-minute walk from the Barrie South GO station so can be considered transit-accessible. Sakana has a modern interior with some bench seating. iPad menus. Reusable chopsticks are used, which is appreciated. Ginger is dyed pink. Pop is $1.75 canned not AYCD. Green tea is included and was good. Soy sauce at table all green lid and low sodium and was very rich and flavorful although a touch salty, but was fresh. We went for weekend lunch.
Green salad was excellent with romano instead of iceberg lettuce, and the dressing was a very good house dressing, not sweet, mild and delicious. Mishy loved the seaweed salad. Miso soup was a bit dilute, but still delicious and clumped well. Hot and sour soup was only very slightly burnt, had a nice rich savory flavor and was quite enjoyable.
Spring rolls were fresh, delicious and not too oily, and the sauce was good. Wonton soup was excellent with a nice flavor given by added pork slices. Mishy adored the sweet-and-sour chicken, saying it was the best she ever had because it was mostly chicken and the sauce was very good. Chicken teriyaki very good and not “rubbery” as Mishy so often puts is, with a nice sauce.
The salmon nigiri’s salmon was a couple of days old but was not off; Mishy also noticed the flavor was slightly different. Red snapper aka tilapia was fresher. Surf clam nigiri was excellent and fresh. Spicy salmon sushi was very good and well seasoned while not being too hot.
Black pepper chicken and beef were both excellent in a very tasty sauce and we loved them. Mishy thought that the lemon chicken was a bit too sweet, and preferred the sweet and sour, and I agreed with her. Beef teriyaki was delicious although the sauce was a bit sweet, too much so for Mishy who described it as molasses-like. (At this point I had to explain that is what teriyaki is based on!) Chicken curry was delicious, and the gravy was excellent with a very nice flavor. Shrimp tempura was extremely light and flaky and not oily, and the sauce was good although a bit thin. Pork cutlet AKA tonkatsu was delicious and not oily, and the sauce was very flavorful and expressive. Beef with broccoli was very good with a nice sauce, and the beef was well seasoned.
For dessert, red bean ice cream had a little of that elusive flavor that I love and was very fresh, vanilla very good and fresh, green tea with a great, strong flavour, mango unfortunately with not much flavour, strawberry fantastic. Chocolate pudding was excellent with plenty of bitter rich chocolate notes. Strawberry pudding base was alright, but the strawberry flavor on top was excellent. Coconut pudding had plenty of small pieces of shredded coconut on the top and was delicious. Service was very fast and friendly, with plates being taken away almost as soon as they were put down. Weekend lunch was $22.99. Lunch was a touch more expensive than at other places in the area but there were enough better-than-average to excellent items to make it reasonable, and we certainly enjoyed our lunch.
Rating: 8 - 8.5 / 10
