Sado

My friends had raved about Nippon Tei for years, but since the restaurant was out of our typical driving zone, we just never had the desire to make it there. 

Then when I heard that the restaurant was moving to the city, I had hoped that I'd get my chance, but strangely, it didn't last long. 

So when everyone started raving about this NEW restaurant, Sado, I knew I had better not snooze for a third time. 

For my pick for "date night", I knew exactly where I wanted to go. Normally, this would be a special occasion kind of place, and looking at the final bill would agree with me, but I'm glad we didn't wait and miss out either.

From what I had read online, it appears that Sado is the place to order nigiri, but the "Cold Starters" list was lengthy and I didn't want to miss out on those either. There were several items I wanted to choose, but I knew I had to save room for the nigiri. 

I ordered the Seaweed Salad, since it's one of my favorite Japanese dishes, and Patience picked out the Pork Belly Steam Bun, which was also delicious. I wouldn't have minded one of my own honestly.

Seaweed Salad

Pork Belly Steam Bun

To add to the difficultly of ordering, there were daily specials tucked into the front of the menu. I figured we should order some of those as they were limited in availability.

Daily Specials hidden in the front pocket of the menu

The list of nigiri and sashimi on the specials menu was also lengthy as they were on the main menu, so I thought we could pick one from there. (These were a bit pricier than what was listed on the regular menu.) We ended up ordering two servings of the Hamachi Tataki, seared yellowtail belly, since it was so good.

Hamachi Tataki

From the regular menu, Patience picked the best nigiri by far, Daiba Hotate, which is dayboat hokkaido scallops. Again, we ordered a second set of these.

Daiba Hotate

My selection was a salmon nigiri since that's one of my favorite fish and it melted in my mouth.

Salmon nigiri

We did ball out once as Patience wanted to try one of the "high end" nigiri called "Ito" from the Specials Menu, which is Wagyu beef. Again ,melted like butter!

Wagyu nigiri

I figured we should at least order one roll each to cover the last area of the menu, and the Shibo Maki had to be one of the best rolls I have ever had.

Shibo Maki

Patience's Old Yokai Maki was just as beautiful.

Old Yokai Maki

We still ordered a couple more nigiri since we had a little bit more room. Although I lost tracked of which nigiri was which at this point. They're all so beautiful, but boy did our bill get out of hand quickly! LOL

Wild Caught Yellowtail Nigiri

Hirame Nigiri

The staff is highly attentive and it was nice that any of them could deliver an order as soon as it was ready so we could keep the stream of courses coming.

We also opted for the cocktails, since we relied on the restaurant to create drinks that would pair with the courses. I picked a winner, as my drink was very smooth. The cocktail list was more manageable when compared to the rest of the menus and I still tried something new! This is the Seoulful, a soju-based cocktail. 

Seoulful

Definitely put this restaurant on your special night out list!

Resources:

Sado = https://www.sado-stl.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon