Sake Sushi Bar and Grill

The holidays are a time of great food and great company. We made sure to spend as much time on both of these things as possible with as many people as possible. Lucky for us, we got to spend the 26th with a pair of good friends from our days in Salem, IL at Sake Sushi Bar and Grill in O’Fallon, IL. We knew we wanted to meet for sushi, and all the online reviews in the area pointed us to a joint along interstate 64. My husband and I had never been.

I’ll start off with a small preface that I was not feeling great when we got there, much less after filling my stomach with some very spicy sushi. If you can’t handle spice, this may not be the sushi joint for you. More than half the rolls we got between the four of us had such a kick to them that we must have had to have our drinks refilled three different times. A lot of their rolls boast ‘spicy’ something, and they aren’t kidding. The spicy tuna was a spicy roll compared to every other spicy tuna roll I’ve had across the country.​

But that’s not to take away from the quality of the meal. We enjoyed appetizers of fried Gyoza and soft shell crab tempura. Dine in meals always come with a small salad and a bowl of miso soup to start you off. I could have done with a slightly larger bowl of miso soup and no salad, but I’m not one to complain about ‘free’ food to go with your meal.

There is a thing they do in the St. Louis area that I don’t see anywhere else, and that’s deliver a lot of sushi to you on a wooden boat. In the Metro East, we’ve seen those wooden boats on shelves behind the bar at every single sushi joint we’ve visited. This isn’t so in Delaware. The meal we shared with friends at Sake was the first time they ever had to bring our food out on a sushi boat.

Between the four of us, we had a lot of rolls to try. I was much more bold than I should have been, going in on the very spicy Geisha roll and the spicy tuna first. In the pictured sushi boat, the Geisha roll is the bottom row. The spicy tuna sits on the back bow of the boat, out of the way from the rest. These were the two I was most interested in trying.

The spicy tuna roll requires no description, but that Geisha Roll. Holy shit. It was stuffed full of spicy crab meat and crunchy tempura, which isn’t to mention the sauce over the top that gave it an even stronger kick. This is the roll that inevitably took me out and left my stomach sore. I couldn’t handle another bite.

My husband ordered what was called a samurai roll, filled with eel, soft shelled crab, avocado, and cream cheese. Of course, it was deep fried. It was a welcome reprieve from the spice of the Geisha and Spicy Tuna Rolls. The fat of the fried roll helped cut the spice, and we must have finished that one before the rest.

Then, there was the OMG roll, which we ordered twice between the four of us. It said on the menu that it came to the table on fire, and they weren’t fuckin’ around. The OMG Roll, which is stuffed with Shrimp Tempura and spicy crab, plus topped with eel sauce, ebi, avocado, mayo and sriracha, is served in a foil boat on a plate with lit alcohol. The spectacle of it all set you up for the actual taste of the roll. It was the favorite at the table.

After eating there, even with my near constant stomach trouble, I would still recommend Sake over the other sushi bars in the area. It was clean. The rolls were consistent, and most importantly, the rolls were unique.  You can check them out at their facebook page: Sake Sushi Bar and Grill.

The good news is that if you have picky eaters in your party that might not want sushi, they have a whole menu dedicated to other products too, such as soba noodle bowls, etc. When next you find yourself in the Metro East of St. Louis, stop on in and give them a try.