Sakura-Ya

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Ana Saura foresaw that Japanese cuisine would be very influential in Spain. In 1996 she left her career as a university professor to open the first Japanese bar in Spain: Sakura-Ya.

Found on the ground floor of Illa Diagonal shopping centre, it’s known for having some of the best sushi-men in Barcelona.

Start with some of their famous appetizers like the miso soup or the gyogilete tataki-carpaccio with an exquisite sauce. For your first course, try the yakisoba (sautéed noodles with vegetables and meat on a fine egg crepe and topped with flakes of dried tuna), the kaki ague soba-udon with vegetable tempura, ebi frei (panko shrimp with ponzu sauce) or the marvellous katsudon (battered pork on a rice base with egg and soya sauce).

For the finale, there’s nothing better than some of the chef’s makis with salmon, prawn, mango, salmon eggs and mayonnaise, moriawase – a variety of sashimi on a base of rice, ginger and wasabi – or a tekkadon – tuna sashimi on rice and shiso.

“Like Japanese cuisine, we highly value what we serve; there’s nothing on the plate without a reason. Even the ceramic of the plate itself has value,” Ana tells us. She travels year after year to Japan to absorb and appreciate their culture.

Ana, just like a Japanese restaurant owner, is the perfect host with attention paid to service and the art of serving. “The diner is in your home and you have to offer them the best of what you have, that’s how it’s done.”