The Restaurants We Can't Live Without By Tom Fitzmorris Sake Cafe Japanese. Garden District: 2830 Magazine. 504-894-0033. Map. Metairie: 4201 Veterans Blvd. 504-779-7253. Map. Kenner: 817 W Esplanade Ave. 504-468-8829. Map. Elmwood: 1130 S. Clearview Pkwy. 504-733-8879. Map. All locations: Lunch and dinner continuously, seven days. Casual AE DC DS MC V   WHY IT'S ESSENTIAL   The most physically striking Japanese restaurants in town, the Metairie and Magazine Street Sake Cafes also boast an uncommonly wide-ranging menu, strong both at the sushi bar and in its cooked, plated offerings. A first-class bar and wine operation, too. The other locations are notably less showy and less delicious, but still more than passable.   WHY IT'S GOOD   The sushi bar believes, with some credibility, that it can make anything, and it has the raw materials with which to do so--including the rare, expensive ones. Textures, temperatures, freshness, and presentation know only a few peers locally. On the cooked side, they bring more excitement than usual to dishes like teriyaki (which always comes to the table sizzling) and noodle dishes. It's the kind of restaurant to which sushi fanatics can take less-adventuresome friends, and have everybody equally happy.   BACKSTORY   The city’s most ambitious Japanese restaurant chain began in the late 1990s with the opening of its Metairie location. It caught people's attention with a beautiful dining room and an adventuresome menu--plus a few ideas from Western gourmet restaurants. The complimentary amuse-bouche, for example, which may be the most unusual tidbit you’ll have all night. The second location on Magazine Street--in a former K&B drugstore--was even more impressive atmospherically, and much larger. Three other locations opened in Kenner, Elmwood, and Covington. None of these, however, are as fine as the first two either in food or ambience.   DINING ROOM   The Metairie restaurant is cool, dark, quiet, and suave, contrasting mightily with the mall outside (where Chili's and Houston's seem more in place). The Magazine Street Sake Cafe is modern and stunning, with high ceilings and striking treatments of walls and floors, mostly in unusual woods. It's spacious, even when packed. The other three locations are handsome but in a sterile, chain-restaurant way.   ESSENTIAL DISHES   Torched tuna with chili sauce. Baby mackerel sashimi, plus fried head and tail. Seaweed salad. Salmon skin salad. Shu-mai. Oshitashi (steamed spinach with bonito flakes). Sushi and sashimi. Negimaki (grilled beef rolls). Bento box dinners.   FOR BEST RESULTS   Ask as many questions of the sushi chef as you can. They won't tell you about all they really have otherwise.   OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT   Can't understand why the sushi ate the Kenner, Covington, and Elmwood locations lack the magic the two original locations have. The hostesses could go a little farther in making new arrivals feel at home.   FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD   Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter. Dining Environment +2 Consistency +1 Service +1 Value +1 Attitude Wine and Bar +2 Hipness Local Color    SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES    Romantic Good for business meetings Private dining room (fewer than 25) Private dining room (more than 25) Open Sunday Open Monday Open most holidays Open all afternoon Vegetarian dishes Quick, good meal Unusually large servings Good for children Easy, nearby parking Reservations accepted Reservations honored promptly   ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS   When the Sake Cafe opened, you could tell right away that these guys were writing new pages in the local Japanese dining book--particularly in the areas of opulence and menu variety. The first time I dined here, something happened that went against typical sushi-bar practice. The sushi chef was eager to show me everything he had to share. (I must say that I'd said the magic words: "What do you have that's especially nice today? I like everything.") He had toro--fatty tuna, a rarity in even the best places, usually reserved for regulars. He also had some beautiful small Gulf mackerels, which he thought I should have that cut into sashimi, and then have the head and tail fried. Before the evening was over, I'd had a few other items not encountered before, each better than the one before. Although that kind of enthusiasm cooled after Katrina, the Metairie and Magazine Street locations of the Sake Cafe remain in the top tier of Japanese restaurants locally. Delicious, and so atmospheric as to be romantic. (Good for other kinds of business, too.) Click here for the index to all the reviews so far. © 2009 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com