When it comes to sushi, everyone fits into one of either two categories: either you can’t stand it or you can’t get a enough of the stuff. I’m the latter. Lucky then, that I was invited to dine at Sakura restaurant in Jood Palace hotel, Deira.

Sakura, a Japanese and Pan-Asian restaurant with a contemporary twist offers ‘all you can eat’ Mondays for AED 99. I had been craving sushi for quite a some time so the ‘all you can eat’ buffet presented the perfect fix and excuse to eat myself silly with one of my all time favourite foods. It was with this fix planted firmly in mind, that we made our way from JLT, past downtown Dubai and into Deira.

All you can eat…

We arrived at Jood Palace on time for our 8.30pm reservation and left our car (Jood Palace doesn’t serve alcohol) with the valet service at the front of the hotel. Sakura restaurant is easy to find once you’re within the doors of the hotel and we were greeted at the restaurant by an extremely pleasant waiter who showed us to our table and explained the ‘all you can eat’ concept (he didn’t need to elaborate much, it’s pretty self explanatory). We were then offered a bottle of still water for the table or a soft drink of our choice that is included in the deal. 

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Warming up…

There are three buffet stands in this atmospheric little restaurant. The first is the ‘hot’ stand complete with Miso soup, a selection of dim sum, yaki soba noodles and a hot plate where you can choose your preferred meat to be cooked in front of you by the two friendly chefs behind it.

To warm up our stomachs, we started our Sakura experience by helping ourselves to a healthy-sized serving of miso soup from the hot pot. Accompanying it were two bowls: one with tofu, the other with finely-chopped spring onion so you could sprinkle them on exactly how you like.  Next up were warm and tasty little bite-sized treats: dim sum.

The real star of the show: sushi

After our fill of dim sum, we decided it was time for the main attraction: the sushi. We wandered over to the sushi counter where we were informed that they would bring us over a selection box with a small taster of everything. This was music to my eager ears, as I was already starting to get slightly sleepy thanks to the generous portions I’d already helped myself to (I take ‘all you can eat’ as a personal challenge), I’m not sure I could be trusted to fill my own plate appropriately. It was also nice to see we weren’t the only ones being treated to this personal touch.

A couple of minutes later, out came our bento box generously full with deliciously fresh sushi of all shapes and sizes: California rolls, ebi shrimp, maguro tuna. Wow. Needless to say, we dug in without any further adieu and continued to bring ourselves step-by-step closer to our later experienced sushi-induced coma. 

Too finish off…

In the hope of limiting the calorie-induced damage we did to our New Years resolutions and to wake us up for the car journey home, we washed everything down with some oriental green tea from these cute little pots.

The verdict

Overall we enjoyed our Sakura experience. All you can eat sushi for only AED 99 (Including a soft drink too), you can’t go wrong really. Next time we happen to be in Deira craving sushi we know where to go!

Now read: Dim Sum Brunch on a Saturday?