Sakana of Tokyo

***Closed as of 12/1/17***

So you guys know I have been on a quest for a new most favorite (and close) sushi place. A friend of a friend said they liked Sakana of Tokyo in Castleton, and although I have driven by it many times, and seen it change hands a number of times, I had never been in. I figured, what the heck. So hubby and I gave it a go the other night when he had just come home from a business trip.

So the interior is sort of weird—very 80s nightclub kind of vibe, with lots of faux painting on the walls. The service was good (there weren’t many people there) and we got some wine to start.

They also have one of those all you can eat deals, but we just went with ordering exactly what we wanted and not worrying about whether we ordered too much. We started with the tuna tataki with ponzu sauce ($13). I was feeling a little nervous about the freshness of things given their small amount of business, but this tuna was really good. It was just barely seared, and served with various garnishes—some roe and seaweed. It took us a couple of bites to realize the ponzu sauce was underneath the spiralized radish (I think) that was propping the fish up. Once we realized that and dipped it in the sauce, we liked it even better.

We had a couple of rolls as well as some nigiri. The nigiri (one salmon and one tuna to just get a flavor for it) was very good and we were very impressed with the fish quality. The fish in the rolls was good as well—I liked that the spicy tuna/salmon here is not just like a weird mush, but actual recognizable pieces of fish with sauce. We had a basic avocado and tuna roll with a drizzle of spicy mayo ($6), the fire dragon roll ($13.95) which was spicy tuna inside and topped with avocado, eel and unagi sauce and the ocean roll, which was shrimp tempura and avocado on the inside topped with tuna, tempura flakes, unagi sauce, masago and spicy mayo ($12.95). So inherently, there was nothing wrong with any of the ingredients in the rolls. These are all variations of things we often get. And I didn’t care that the rolls were kind of messy if you know what I mean—not rolled very tightly. The thing that was the big bummer for me was that the individual pieces were so huge that there was no way I could eat them in one bite. I actually had to cut a couple in half, which makes it no fun because you don’t get all the ingredients in every bite. 

So overall, for me personally, I don’t think I would go back for rolls. I did really enjoy the appetizer and the nigiri, so maybe a meal of non-sushi rolls would be something I would do again. There are a lot of items on the appetizer menu that are appealing. But if you are a person who likes those all you can eat deals, you might want to look into this here. They must do a good lunch business or something, not quite sure how this big place stays afloat otherwise.

Sakana of Tokyo

5252 East 82^nd Street

Indy  46250

317/436-7774

www.sakanaoftokyo.com