PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES

Senfuku is a Japanese restaurant in the best and purest terms—buttery cuts of fish left to stand on their own, a curious and friendly collection of regulars and servers—but the restaurant’s sake margarita is a margarita in only the loosest terms: a mix of sake, plum wine and a small squeeze of lemon juice. Like Senfuku itself, the drink spares the distractions—there’s no gaudy add-ins, just a cloudy combination of alcohol and a straw. But the sake margarita does work on similar notes as the traditional marg. On an empty stomach, the liquor spreads through your chest, warm with that smooth alcoholic burn. After a bowl of miso soup and a few salmon skin hand rolls, the margarita loses some of its kick, absorbed instead by the rice and fish. And that’s when it hits you: a mild wash of citrus masking about eight ounces of pure, potent liquor. Eventually the sake margarita becomes something that you won’t want to eat without, a nearly vital drink between mouthfuls: sweet enough to go down easy, enough bite left over to still mean something.

SENFUKU 300 W SIXTH ST | SAN PEDRO 90731 | 310.832.5585

Tags: Drink of the Week, SAKE MARGARITA, SENFUKU