TV Times

TV Times

Sakura celebrates two decades of authentic Japanese food
Although there are restaurants plenty in Colombo, it is not easy to find one that has withstood the test of time while maintaining high standards on a consistent basis. Sakura Japanese Restaurant, at Rhineland Place, Colombo 3 is one such restaurant. It recently celebrated its 20 year anniversary of successful commercial operations.

“Sakura”, which serves authentic Japanese cuisine is the oldest Japanese restaurant in Colombo. It is also the only Tourist Board approved grade A restaurant that has been in operation under the same management for 20 years.

While “Sakura” is the parent company of the group, its subsidiary companies are “Kinjou” Chinese restaurant at Havelock Town, Uda Walawa Safari Village in Uda Walawa and Wasgomuwa Safari Village in Wasgomuwa.

The entrepreneur behind these endeavours is Jayantha Kumara is a veteran hotelier. He visited Japan in 1981 in order to study Japanese cookery. He studied Japanese cookery extensively at RKC cookery School, Kouchi City, Shikoku Island, Japan. On completion of his professional studies, Jayantha returned to Sri Lanka and opened the “Sakura” Japanese restaurant in collaboration with Mrs. Hideko Nishimura, the owner of “Obama” guest house and restaurant chain in Kouchi city in Japan.

“I received the fullest support, cooperation and encouragement from the Principal and the staff of the RKC cookery school, Japan for my new venture. In fact, Mr. Hashida, a teacher from the cookery school, spent a few months in Colombo in order to train the initial staff of Sakura” appreciatively recalls Jayantha.

‘In early 1980’s, Sri Lanka was a very popular destination among Japanese tourists. In addition, there was a sizable Japanese expatriate community in Sri Lanka engaged in construction industry and other business ventures. Hence it was a very healthy environment for the operation of Sakura particularly because of Japanese food, Shashimi (Raw fish) in particular, was not popular amongst Sri Lankans at that time. Hence 80% of the clientele at the initial stages was Japanese.’ Jayantha said.

Jayantha himself is a Japanese trained cookery professional, and pays meticulous attention to the quality of ingredients used and the food prepared. “I will never compensate quality of ingredients that is why I have been importing authentic ingredients from Japan since the inception of the Restaurant”, he says. The other reason ‘Sakura’ has been able to consistently maintain the quality of ‘Sakura’ food is to the fact that the Chef and key staff trained in 1983 still remain with ‘Sakura’. “Perhaps this may be the reason for some Japanese guests who visit Sri Lanka and ‘Sakura’ even after few years claiming that they feel like coming home “ he said.

Jayantha said, Sakura also had to face many challenges during the last few years. Amongst them were, bomb explosions in the city, 1988/89 insurgency, curfew, power cuts, water cuts etc. which all had an adverse effect on smooth operations of a restaurant mainly catering to the tourists and expatriate community.

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