The SBH Review: Star chef buys old-school Sakura Bana, makes it better

There’s a thing that happens to restaurants that have been around, doing what they do, for decades. While some remain at the top of my mind — and on my list of regular spots — others fade into the background, overwhelmed by the new. 

I can’t remember, for example, the last time I visited Sakura Bana, the small sushi spot off 78th and Dodge streets, before I went in December to start working on this review. There’s one reason I went back, and that’s its new owner, David Utterback. 

I was curious: What was Utterback, who runs award-winning Yoshitomo in Benson and buzz-worthy Koji in Countryside Village, going to do with the restaurant, which has been open in Omaha since 1986? 

Quite a lot, as it turns out. Most noticeably, the biggest changes Utterback made are inside the two pages where you pencil in your sushi order. 

Utterback, the first-ever Nebraska chef to be named a finalist for a prestigious James Beard award, took over the restaurant in June from its long-time owner, Tony Asanuma. Asanuma had been running it since it opened as Sushi Ichiban, which operated for years at 84th and Dodge in a former International House of Pancakes. Asanuma changed the restaurant’s name to Sakura Bana when he moved it to its current location in 2007. 

Under either name it’s an Omaha tradition, a casual, moderately priced family style sushi joint. It is the first place I ever had sushi. It also happens to be the first place Utterback ever had sushi. 

“It’s the most formative sushi that I ever experienced,” he said. “It’s the sushi that everyone (in Omaha) learned how to eat sushi on.” 

Utterback told me after my two visits that he’s been going to the restaurant since he was 10 years old, to celebrate birthdays, Mother’s Day with his late mom and other special occasions. Now, he takes his own children there. During those visits, and as he got better at sushi himself, he said he’d often think about what he might change were he to take over the restaurant. Then it came true. Asanuma told Utterback he was ready to retire, and Utterback took over the restaurant last summer. 

Since then, he’s slimmed down the menu substantially, he said, but hasn’t changed a single one of the remaining recipes. The restaurant had not adjusted its prices since before the pandemic, and Utterback said he had to make adjustments. 

There’s still a selection of bento boxes — a Sakura Bana staple — along with noodles, pork and chicken katsu and a long list of both small plates and sushi. 

But I want to start with the sushi, because I knew right away that Dave had worked his magic on the nigiri list. He told me he’d made small but significant changes: higher quality rice and fish and a new rice cooker. That’s evident in just one bite of the medium fatty tuna, the salmon, the yellowtail. All three are delicious; I am sure the remainder are, too. 

There’s some fun-to-eat appetizers, like the okonomiyaki, a savory pancake cooked on a flat griddle then topped with bacon, cabbage, bonito flakes, Japanese mayonnaise, tonkatsu sauce and nori. It’s stacked with flavor and texture, crisp at the edges and wildly cool to both look at and eat. I also liked the plate of sweet, sour and tangy oshinko, or Japanese pickles. Made with celery, daikon radish, eggplant and cucumber, each pickle has a different flavor profile. 

Fried pork gyoza had a crisp-tender finish and a ginger-forward, meaty filling, good enough that my dining partner and I quarreled over who got the fifth one on the shared plate. And a plate of zingy shishito peppers came charred black with a sweet glaze and a heavy hit of citrus, served in a still-sizzling cast iron skillet. 

The sushi rolls had mixed levels of success. We sampled five, the best being the negitoro, a classic roll made simply with scallion and fatty tuna; the white zombie, made with super white tuna, spicy tuna and avocado; and the familiar Omaha crunch, an Utterback staple made with spicy crab and cilantro with a crispy panko finish and a drizzle of eel sauce. 

At his other restaurants, Utterback makes wonderful beef-centric sushi, but the Nebraska roll at Sakura Bana wasn’t executed at the same level. Thinly sliced beef tasted dry inside the tempura fried crust, and the flavors of scallion were lost among the crust and spicy sauce. The Osaka, the other torched roll we tried, had the same issues with dryness and muddled flavor. Crab and shrimp hid under a thick layer of bonito, mayo and tonkatsu sauce.

Better was the udon noodle bowl, its broth rich with umami and salt. Its thick tender noodles came tangled among fish cakes, soft cooked eggs and tempura fried extra large shrimp, served on the side to preserve their crispness. 

I have seen many recipes online for chicken or pork katsu, a panko breaded and fried staple of Japanese food, but I have rarely seen it on a menu in Omaha. Sakura Bana’s comes in several varieties, and I tried it with a mild, sweet curry, studded with peas and carrots, and two large scoops of tender rice. It’s another dish that’s fun to eat, satisfying in its mixed textures and savory crunch.

Service at Sakura Bana is friendly, but it lags. We waited on refills of water several times, and during our second visit, our entrees came out about five minutes apart. When we ordered sushi, I wished the staff would have identified the rolls instead of letting us figure them out on our own. 

Utterback said his intention with Sakura Bana is to turn it into the kind of Japanese restaurants he experiences on his regular trips to Japan, a concept he said doesn’t exist anywhere in Omaha. 

“There are restaurants that serve Japanese foods,” he said, “but I want to bring the Japanese food that Japanese people eat to Omaha.” 

I have not been to Japan. But if there is one person I trust to bring those flavors to Omaha, who has done it with Yakitori and exceptional, original sushi already, it is Utterback. 

Change isn’t always easy, especially at a longtime restaurant that fits many diners like an old shoe. I hope Omaha diners and Sakura Bana regulars give Utterback the chance to do it.

The Skinny

Restaurant name: Sakura Bana 

Website: www.sushiomaha.com/

Address: 7425 Dodge St.

Phone: 402-391-5047

Hours: Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4:30 to 8 p.m., Friday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4:30 to 9 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Closed Sunday.