Saki, Washington, D.C.

After our little visit to La Fourchette Tuesday evening, we were walking back towards the Metro stop when Laurent decided he wanted another drink. After discussing the fact that he had never had a Sapporo beer before, we went in to Saki, a sushi bar also on the First Tuesday restaurant list.

Things started off innocently enough. We each ordered a Sapporo (it's a type of strong, lager-style Japanese beer), and it came in bottles instead of the oversized silver bullet cans. Laurent started chatting up our comely waitress (pictured above) and eventually succumbed to her wiles, and decided he wanted a little bit of food. Well, with the First Tuesday special, for just a tiny bit more money, both of us could get a lot of food, so he decided we would have a second dinner. LOL


The special menu was a little different here. We each got a bowl of miso (fermented soybean paste) soup, then a tray of sushi rolls to split, and then a big bowl of green tea ice cream to share. The special also included a vase of hot sake. The sushi included a saki maki roll (crab, avocado, tuna, salmon, and unagi sauce) and a lasagna roll. No, the lasagna roll wasn't Italian, it was said merely to look like Italian lasagna. They took crispy tempura shrimp and topped it with a spicy crab salad that was all then put into a toaster oven and further crisped on top with a few passes of a culinary blow torch. The sushi was quite good and had a nice, fresh flavor.


So, the food was good, but that wasn't why we were there. After beer and sake, Laurent wanted more, so he had the waitress make him something. She came up with this great big, oversized martini glass full of mostly cold sake and a little grenadine that she called a "Cherry Blossom." There are a few pictures of Laurent with his Cherry Blossom below. She also fixed him a mai tai (above) and then later a concoction that was mostly Grand Marnier and a splash of cranberry juice.

Laurent is such a wild party boy. After a couple of cocktails, I induced him to eat a whole, great big wad of wasabi—that green grated Japanese horseradish that'll take off your head with just a tiny whiff—and not only did he eat it all, but he masticated for quite some time!

Meanwhile, Laurent kept talking and flirting with the waitress, and even got her MySpace and Facebook names! So, we had a pleasant experience at Saki. I suppose we'll have to go back again sometime if only for Laurent to continue flirting with that pretty girl.