SakaMai

I visited my sister in the Lower Eastside and we were going back and forth deciding on a Japanese restaurant for dinner. I’m happy we agreed on this spot bc Sakamai lent a different experience we genuinely appreciated. The one thing I’d recommend not to order is the Unagi roll. Wasn’t a big fan of that. But we’re both very big on desserts and we picked something we’ve never had before — a sick combination of matcha. I can’t remember exactly what it’s called but it made our night.

I enjoyed the freshness of all ingredients but flavour of the dishes was not such amazing. I came there just at the open time and ordered 3 dishes:
Egg on egg on egg — $ 19 scrambled egg with urchin and caviar. Love the creamy urchin and this combination but the scrambled egg was some over watery.
wagyu and uni roll — $ 14 raw beef and pickles sushi roll. However I did’t find the pieces of sea urchin although it showed on the menu. The pickles made the roll crunchy and wasabi sauce inside was good.
Tsukune — $ 8 chicken meat ball mixed foie gras with sweet soybean sauce. The meatball was moist but flavourless. The sweet soy with raw egg white sauce matched well with the chicken.
Staff was very friendly and introduced every dish well. The confusion style was interesting for first try but need more efforts to let me be a fan.

Amateur restaurant, amateur staff for amateur foodies… this is a borderline 2.5 stars. It seemed like the person that put together the menu was like… «hey, if I put a foodie ingredient in each and every dish, what could go wrong??» Uni, bone marrow, truffle, foie, lardo… well, the menu got me in the door but the execution will not have me coming back for more.
What we ordered:
— Egg on egg on egg: may be the only dish we really enjoyed. Good flavor! But how many times do you thinkthey reuse the uni shell??? That thing was all dried out. I would rather have it served in a cup, so I know its sanitary
— Uni Crostini: literally uni on toast… that is all
— Beef Tartare: standard tartare w/​bone marrow. Nothing to break up the richness of the 2 ingredients. the horseradish was a good touch
— Chicken Tsukuni: A bit of a weird texture with lil bits of grounded cartilage and not enough foie
— Kale Salad: simple salad perfectly dressed, much needed to break up the other rich dishes
— shisito peppers: biggest shisito peppers Ive ever seen, not spicy at all and not seasoned. Needed to ask for some course salt on the side
— Arctic Char Ceviche: isnt arctic char supposed to have orange-​ish meat like salmon? It looked more like yellowtail.
We ordered the uni mazemen but it never came…
Décor: seemed like it was put together in a hurry. Empty space with chairs and tables. plus we were sat near the mens room in the middle of the floor and the door doesnt close on its own so ppl would leave it open… even the waiters were annoyed of having to close it everytime they walked by.

I order the «Egg on Egg on Egg» every single time I come here. It’s a simple little dish but it’s SO delicious. The scrambled egg at the bottom is very creamy and it’s topped with fresh uni and salty caviar. I would order 5 at a time if it didn’t cost $ 19.
I came to SakaMai for brunch once and the food options were very different from what is served at traditional American brunch restaurants. We ordered eggs benedict, uni mazemen (noodles served with bone marrow), and of course my favorite dish (Egg on Egg on Egg). I liked the food at brunch but I think I prefer the nighttime ambiance and food options at SakaMai. I enjoy sitting at the bar with a drink and some of their delicious small plates. The kakuni sliders and tsukune (chicken meat balls) are delicious. I definitely plan on coming back and trying more items from their dinner menu.

The sound of Egg on Egg on Egg is so intriguing and I fell for it. I really don’t think that picture do its justice, the eggx3 is much smaller in life than the one you normally see on picture. they skimped on the uni. Don’t get me wrong it was good, but not good enough…
The beef tartare and bone marrow was pretty solid, it’s very rich so if you’re thinking to eat this all by yourself, you’re probably either drunk or cray…
Kara-​age, i kid you not, i could go to the yakitori place in east village and will find much better kara-​age and cheaper too. this was a total failure.
What’s even worse, we sat on the bar and it took almost thirty minutes for us to get our food. The bartender/​server to let us that there were a miscommunication… good thing we weren’t in a hurry.

It was my first time at this cute little spot at LES. Once you enter, there is a bar where you can sit and wait for your friends. The lighting there is dim which makes it a great date night. The service was good. They kept refilling the water which meant you’ll never feel thirsty. For the dishes, I got the egg on egg on egg, crispy duck, steak tartar and grilled octopus. Like all the reviewers said, the egg on egg was small! I definitely liked the taste of it and I’m not even a fan of Uni. The steak tartar was sweet since the spreading was sweet. I was excited to try it since I never had bone marrow before. It was a good experience. The grilled octopus was juicy. It wasn’t dried at all. My favorite dish of the night was the crispy duck. It was tender, juicy and crispy. The skin wasn’t over fried, it was just right. The best thing was that we didn’t eat it right away and it still tasted delicious after 20 mins. I would definitely want to come back to try the other dishes.

Ever since I visited Sakamai for the first time in 2014, it has become my go-​to place for special occasions (our anniversary, our first lease signing, etc)
This time, we were here for my birthday.
We tried their tasting menu this time ($ 65) — it was an endless parade of the very best Sakamai has to offer. From the creamy tofu topped with tomato relish, wagyu slices with grated daikon, the glorious egg on egg on egg (almost licked this one clean), the arctic char ceviche (nice plump slices with sun dried tomatoes!), the crab croquette (served with yuzu infused tartar sauce), the most glorious Grilled Octopus (Served with watermelon radish… but seriously, i didn’t know octopus could be that soft and tender), the dry aged duck breast to the dessert (custard pudding!!!), it was a delight for the palate and beautifully plated. We also ordered the uni mazemen (brothless mixed noodles– aka noodles mixed with plump uni lumps, menma and scooped out bone marrow that you scoop yourself!) — this decadent meal left us dazzled and stuffed.
Also, our server was super sweet and gave us a scoop of chocolate gelato! thank you so much for making my birthday dinner extra special!
Next special occasion is… Valentine’s Day?! Guess we will be making our reservation soon!
Thank you again, Sakamai!

This place has been on my «go to» list for so long but given that it’s not in the most convenient location deep in the LES I’ve always ended up canceling last minute.
I’m sure most people searching this restaurant have already seen the infamous «egg on egg on egg» picture. While good — be warned that objects appear significantly larger on Unilocal.Maybe the full app version is larger, but I went for the tasting menu and I’ve seen bigger uni pieces at the supermarket.
The food here in general was solid, but nothing stood out and the 2 guys I went with looked at each other at the end and opted to grab pizza on our way home.
I went on a Sunday and didn’t drink, but if you’re a sake connoisseur it seems like they have a pretty large selection of rare sakes (based on the table next to us)

The service here is very good. Maybe it’s just me gave this place too high expectation, I found the food here is really disappointing. The egg on egg on egg was such a good idea but the taste was just meh. They put cheese in the scrambled/​steam egg, so the cheese flavor over played over the taste of uni and caviar. You can barely taste the flavor a of uni and caviar. The wagyu and uni sushi is not really sushi, it’s a roll cut into 4 pcs. I also tried the uni bone marrow ramen. Ramen flavor is the main taste of it. Again you can barely taste uni. I guess this is not a bad place but it’s just not very delicious to me.

It was my first time at this cute little spot in the lower east side. Considering that it was rated best asian restaurant in NYC on Zagat, I thought it would be a really great spot to take my friend out of his birthday and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised.
First, was the EGG ON EGG ON EGG which is their signature dish. It is uni, scrambled egg, and caviar all served in an uni shell. The dish was definitely really delicious and I highly recommend (only if you’re a fan of uni, of course) to get this dish! Its a signature for a reason. But I would only recommend if you enjoy uni.
We also ordered the KAKUNI SLIDERS which came on brioche buns which I found a little odd to be honest. This was a more americanized version of steamed pork buns. They were toasted and looked almost like hamburger buns which is a little untraditional because most japanese restaurants go for the softer approach with their chewy steamed buns. But, regardless of this little difference, the pork was well-​marinated and flavorful. I’m not too sure if I would order it again so probably next time I’ll try the uni crostini. The menu is very uni heavy, but as a lover of seafood… I loved it!
The CHICKEN NANBAN was the next thing that we ordered. A basic, traditional izakaya dish which is pretty much a derivation of fried chicken. I wasn’t too impressed with this dish because of its simplicity… I was expecting something a bit more, maybe a stronger sauce? But the chicken was cooked thoroughly and tender while maintaining a good, clean crunch on the outside. The oil that it was deep-​fried in was definitely clean and well-​maintained judging from the color of the fry as well!
But, probably the best thing that I had there was the GRILLED OCTOPUS. Wow. I just have to say that I have tried octopus at a lot of different types of restaurants… greek, korean, new american, japanese, seafood. But, the cook/​grill on this octopus surpassed all of those. This is a must have as well if you come here! I was expecting to take a bite into the octopus and have it be very chewy and tough because the leg as a tough muscle is difficult to cook tenderly. However, this melted in my mouth which is something that I was really not expecting at all. It was very soft and I didnt have to fight to chew it at all. The dish also came with a spicy, red chili korean paste called gochujang which was a great contrast to the buttery octopus taste. A MUST HAVE.
The last thing that we had was the UNI MAZEMEN. The presentation of this dish was interesting as the ramen came with no soup and the roasted bone marrow was on the side and meant to be scooped out to use as a sauce. The noodles felt like regular instant noodles to be honest and I was ambivalent about the flavor impact on the bone. The meat that we scooped out of the bone, meant to be the «sauce» felt braised and oilier than I expected. The flavor was tasty and you could tell that the meat was slow-​cooked, but the dish was on the heavier side. It was a dish that I wanted to try because of the presentation and creativity, but I would not order again. Maybe try the truffle rice the next time around.
All in all, the service was amazing. Our server knew exactly what he was talking about and presented everything with great care and explanation. I was thoroughly impressed with this spot and will be returning to try out a couple of different things. This restaurant is on the pricier side as for two people it came out to be about $ 160 (this includes beer and cocktails as well), but WILL BE RETURNING :)

The blend of Japanese and French /​New American cuisine that this restaurant is going for makes for a fairly unique dining experience. Personally I thought that the marriage of the two cuisines didn’t achieve something greater than the sum of their parts. Some dishes felt like a Japanese dish trying to be French, or vice versa. But most of the dishes were well executed and some were quite enjoyable.
As all of the previous reviews have said, the egg on egg on egg is definitely a must. It is a very visually striking dish. The combination, yet simplicity of the flavors was great, and the egg with the uni left a melt in your mouth feeling. The Wagyu and uni handroll was decent, although the beef seemed lost in the flavors. Similarly, the chicken meat balls were also decent, but the foie gras seemed overpowered in it and didn’t seem to add much. The steak tartare felt like one of the dishes that was a strange marriage of the cuisines. With the mushrooms and bone marrow in it, it felt overly heavy and also didn’t have anything like the usual tartare spices to brighten it up. On the other hand, the oysters were very good, and I enjoyed the sauces they were paired with.
The staff was very friendly and informative. We ordered a sake flight that our waiter put together for us and gave a great explanation about. He also brought by a complimentary one afterwards to show us a flavor he was trying to describe. The only downside to the service was the dishes came out very staggered. We would go for a while with no dishes, and then get several. It sounded like the kitchen was backed up, but at the price point of this restaurant I would expect those bumps to be smoothed out.
Décor in the restaurant was great, lots of exposed brick and dim lighting made for a modern and intimate ambiance. The spacing of the tables wasn’t cramped, and the dining area had a great energy to it.

I ordered delivery from SakaMai tonight and was quite satisfied! The portions are small and kind of pricey for the size. However, since it was getting late, I didn’t want to stuff myself for dinner, so I actually thought my order of uni mazemen with bone marrow was just the right size!
(A few disclaimers: First, I am not an uni connoisseur, but I have tried this seafood a few times and generally liked it. Two, this was my first time eating bone marrow. And third, I’ve tried the uni mazemen on one previous occasion at Jun-​Men.)
I was worried that the dish would be too heavy as I have the impression that this is quite a creamy dish, but it turned out to be just the right level of cream, savory, and salty. I didn’t finish feeling overwhelmed. There was a generous portion of uni, which added a nice taste, and it was not too fishy. The bone marrow was SUPER flavorful. Who knew a piece of bone could be so rich in flavor. It did feel quite fatty to me, so definitely try to mix it well into your noodles, unless you really like biting of chunks of fat.

Love this place! Very cute and casual restaurant in LES– very good for casual food gathering and going out after– Very good service.
Their famous eggs on eggs on eggs is just like the reputation– it is absolutely incredible. I am «egg lover», and the quality of the dish is amazing. Everything goes well together and melts in your mouth. We loved it so much we all had a second one.
The Cha soba salad was a pleasant surprise. The sauce in the dish is amazing– very flavorful and the hint of the vinaigrette definitely opens your appetite. The mix of the vegetables are great as well. It is a dish I would order every time I visit there.
The truffle rice pot is of course delicious. A must-​try, noted it takes a bit long to prepare, so order it early. The duck breast was good too. The sauce is great, but the duck itself is a bit fat and greasy to me– but very well cooked. Had some oysters– they are pretty fresh.
We had some very good cold sake– I am not an expert on sake, but my friend who enjoys sake told me he thinks they have a great selection.
Overall, it was a great and enjoyable experience– would definitely go back.

I love the eggs on eggs on eggs, just so much eggs and favors, must try if you’re Uni lovers
I love ramen and I love bone marrow, here I got to try the Uni Mazemen, it’s a great combination of Uni, roasted bone marrow and ramen mix… So much favors on the ramen, it’s worth the $ 22
This Kakuni slider, braised pork belly bun is so far the best one I have yet after trying so many in most ramen places, it’s so soft and juicy, just melt in your mouth

I came here the other night with Baramee and Dennis and the 3 of us together (after a few drinks) wanted to Egg on Egg on Egg that Baramee told us about. But since we were there we ordered grilled octopus as well.
The egg on egg on egg is a delicious amalgamation of a soft steamed egg with caviar and uni carefully placed inside a hollowed out sea urchin. The dish is delicious and delicate with each bite being more flavorful than the next. The buttery consistency of the uni matched very well with the caviar and it was all tempered down a bit by the steamed egg.
The grilled octopus was also very very good. Whatever they did to it besides grilling gave it an extra savory flavor with the texture being perfectly cooked. All in all a 5 star experience!

My friend and I were seated in the back area of the restaurant, which was a private area with three table with loungy chairs — some looking more comfortable than others. It had a fireplace at the corner and gave off an intimate ambiance. Good start to dinner.
We took a look at the tasting menu, which was a great deal $ 65 with plenty of courses including their famous «egg on egg on egg» dish, but we opt to order a la carte since we wanted to share and try a couple of different dishes not on the tasting menu. Our waitress took our orders enthusiastically. We ordered:
— Kanpachi $ 8 (amberjack, pickled cucumber and shiso) — very fresh fish beautifully cut
— Egg on Egg on Egg $ 19 (sea urchin, sturgeon caviar, scrambled egg) — awesome presentation and so luscious — all my favorite things in one bite. A must order at this place every time.
— Uni Crostini (torched sea urchin, parmigiano-​reggiano) — it was a delicious bite, but c’mon uni on a toasted with graded cheese…
— Ikura roll $ 11 (salmon roe, brie cheese) — yummy, but nothing extraordinary.
— Dry-​Aged Duck Breast $ 26 (black garlic-​miso eggplant dengaku, yuzu-​kosho scallion soy) — my friend had this dish — can’t really comment too much on it other than it looked perfectly cooked and my friend enjoyed it.
— Uni Mazemen $ 22 (temomi ramen noodle, sea urchin, roasted bone marrow, bottarga, menma) — great ramen dish with delicious uni on top.
We were so full that we could barely finish the duck and ramen. The service was great. Would come back to try the Grilled Octopus and some dessert.

Ambience was just ok but I had great company. Food is pretty standard. The portion is getting smaller especially the uni. Did not wow me.
Ordered:
Egg on egg (uni)
Tartare
Sesame crème brûlée
Beef & uni roll
Service was below average!
Overall: 2.4

I love this.
Maybe I just got all the right stuff?!
Egg on egg on egg: worth all the hype. I loved it and if you are an uni fan this is a must.
Uni crostini: UNI ftw. can’t fail and just loved the twist with the crispiness. Does this exist elsewhere because I have never seen it in other japanese restaurants. they shoudl make it w the crispy rice underneath… might taste even better
Tsukune: pretty hard to mess this one up. I never had a «bad» tsukune yet
wagyu roll: this might be the only dish that I might skip if I had the option. It was good but it didn’t impress me too much.
If I come back I will have to try the truffle rice pot. Might update my review if the other dishes change my opinion of this place.

SakaMai was a spur of the moment spontaneous dinner decision. My boyfriend and I had no reservation and they were booked for the night, but told us if it was ok if we sat at the bar. We love sitting at the bar, so lucky us.
SakaMai is a very intimate and dimly lit restaurant. A lot of their plates are small and similar to tapas style, although they do have some larger plates to share. The beverage menu was quite extensive, from cocktails to liquor to sake. Might I add, a very good sake selection too.
The food was amazing, prepared delicately and presentation was above par. Dishes that are a must get — Shishito Peppers, lightly salted, you would be lucky if you get a spicy pepper; Egg on Egg on Egg, one of the more popular items, not fishy at all and the medley of the sea urchin, caviar and scrambled egg held perfectly, creamy and delicious; Grilled Beef Tongue, a little thicker slice than usual which is perfect since you can taste the consistency, lightly seasoned which brought out the nice grilled flavor; lastly the Tai Cha, this was more fun to eat and a great dish to finish with because the broth with the rice and sea bream was a great palate cleanser.
Overall, I was very impressed with SakaMai. Service can get a little slower into the evening but the staff is extremely friendly.

Although the ambiance was romantic and tranquil, with a good friendly service and we enjoyed our food… I don’t think I could ever bring Sakamai more than 3 stars. Here’s why… Sakamai will remind you of French cuisines, except it’s not delicious intricate French food. In a sense that it’s pricey for portions that are extremely small like tapas.
Egg on egg on egg — $ 18 for a little bit of uni on a scrambled egg and topped w/​some caviar in a very tiny little white egg cup. I was expecting it to be in it’s usual presentation that I always see from everybody… the actual uni shell. Which is not only more appealing, but I’m pretty sure you get much more eggs at least from the uni shell instead of the mini white cup I was presented with. But it was a delicious combination, I tasted every distinguished flavor… It didn’t just mush together or masked each other… It was actually creamy, rich and the uni and caviar stood out.
Duck Breast — $ 23 and you’re not even getting the full breast or half of it. It was 4 small cuts of it. But again, the duck had a good even amount of fat to the meat. It was juicy, tender, and well cooked. A little bit on the salty side but the sweet soft eggplants was delicious with it.
Chicken Tsukune. $ 8 for two skewers that had two chicken meatballs on each. But that’s ok since it was stuffed with a little food gras and overall very tasty as well. Mmm!
Beef tartare w/​bone marrow — the only passable dish for it’s portion and price. Decent amount of beef tartare and a full bone marrow. We’ve had many bone marrows from different places but my boyfriend said Sakamai’s is one of the better bone marrows he’s tasted.
Black sesame crème brûlée — I love black sesame and I’ve had plenty of black sesame desserts before, even black sesame crème brûlée… But this was not satisfying at all.
Luckily we ate a little bit before this. Even though everything was good… It just wasn’t that amazing enough for the price you’re paying and the portion you receive. Don’t get me wrong, I eat pricey food on the regular and don’t mind… If it’s reallllyy good and worth it.