Sakushi - a hungryhouse top takeaway 2014

I recently received a lovely email from the guys at hungryhouse (and, yes, that is all one word and in lower case) asking me whether I wanted to use their takeaway service to try out a couple of their Top Takeaways for 2014. And, of course I accepted.

Now, only those takeaways with good reviews, ratings and customer return rates make the Top Takeaways list so I knew we were going to be in safe hands. Having said that, I was still pleased to see Japanese restaurant, Sakushi, on the list. We've had a few takeaways from here and we've never been disappointed.

Ordering through hungryhouse was pretty easy. I just logged in through my Facebook account, put our chosen items into the basket and entered my voucher code at checkout. I then received an email confirming the order was pending with Sakushi and another confirming acceptance of the order along with the expected time of delivery. We received our food some 42 minutes after making the order, which I thought was perfectly reasonable.

I'd decided to take advantage of the freebie situation by trying a few new dishes. Normally our order includes a serving of ton katsu kare, lots of salmon sashimi and some vegetable gyoza. But this time we went for a sushi and sashimi platter (£13.95), yakiniku pork don (£7.95), duck gyoza (£5.75) and takoyaki (£4.95). A bargainous 20% discount and a delivery charge of £1 brought the total to £27.58, which isn't cheap, but a reasonable price for Japanese food.

As we waited for our food, I prepared the table; a dish for the soy and wasabi dip, chopsticks and fizz (the perfect accompaniment for sushi).

Yakiniku pork don was chunks of pork served in a light sauce with red onions and rice. This was a new one for us - I think I chose it because I liked the name - I had no idea what to expect. And, to be fair, it was a little bland for us. This isn't a criticism of Sakushi; had I Googled the dish beforehand, I'd have known it wasn't really our cup of tea. The pork was well cooked, the onions added a touch of sweetness and the sushi rice was good and sticky - but I think I was just craving my kare!

Duck gyoza was tasty, and, thanks to the use of hoisin sauce, they were reminiscent of the popular crispy duck pancakes (never a bad thing). But takoyaki was probably the most successful of the new dishes we tried. These dough balls were stuffed with octopus and served with a sauce and mayonnaise (believe it or not, your favourite condiment is more popular in Japanese cooking than you'd think). They were pretty moreish and we'd have them again.

The sushi and sashimi platter came with three salmon and avocado rolls and four cucumber maki, but it's always the sashimi and the nigiri (essentially sashimi with a chunk of rice) that catch my eyes. Here we had three slices of salmon, two of tuna and two of seabass - they were all beautifully fresh and clean tasting. Our favourite is salmon and I was glad to find that our slices were quite thick, making for quite a decent portion. I was also pleased to see that an extra piece of nigiri had been thrown in, so we had salmon as well as prawn and tuna.

On a whole we were happy with the food. Although, if I'm honest, it wouldn't have hurt for the hot food to be a little, well, hotter but I guess I'd say that about any takeaway. At the end of the day, the food was well prepared and tasty. In terms of service I can't fault either hungryhouse or Sakushi. The ordering process was easy and the food arrived in a timely manner. 

There will be more Sakushi takeaways.