The Spot: Sapporo, 14344 N. Scottsdale Rd., North Scottsdale, 480-607-1114
www.sapporoscottsdale.com
The Hours: 11 a.m. - close, Monday through Friday, and 3 p.m. - close, Saturday and Sunday, all summer long.
The Details: The 10-year-old North Scottsdale destination for quality sushi, teppaniaki and young professional tail celebrates our sweaty butts by extending our happiness with summer-long discounts on a varied selection of eats and drinks.
The happy hour menu is available everywhere in the restaurant and includes discounts on sushi, appetizers, teppanyaki, select wines by the glass, bottled beer and a few handcrafted cocktails. However, the menu is made a bit tricky by mixing happy hour prices with regular prices.
Luckily, we did the discounted investigation for you. For sushi, happy hour highlights include an asparagus roll for $3, a caterpillar roll for $8, Hamachi Nigiri for $6, and Sashimi for $13. Appetizer prices range from $3 edamame to $11 lobster stuffed shrimp and Teppanaki options offer great low prices on Calamari Steak ($12), Salmon ($17), and New York Strip Steak with Chicken ($20).
Wines by the glass range from $5 - $12 and "Liquid Market" cocktails range from $6 - $10 and a $.25- $.75 discount is also offered on bottled beer. We found the best discount on drinks to be $1 off sake and a the $8 price on The Passion- Mango Martini, an enormous freshly blended concoction of slushy mango goodness.
Sapporo gets graded, after the jump.
Judging by the consistently large Saturday night crowd, maybe bigger really is better when it comes to North Scottsdale restaurant concepts.
The Cost: Three appetizers of edamame, crispy chicken spring rolls and crab puffs, one veggie and one pheledelphia sushi roll, plus two cocktails and one 20 oz. bottle of Sapporo came out to $50.75 before tax and tip.
The Conclusion: We applaud Sapporo's all-day every-day happy hour offering, but their value driven advertisement is a bit misleading. The quality of their sushi and cocktails were spectacular but their discounts were only fair.
Though we were blown away by the beautiful presentation and unique flavor of their $10 Coconut Water Martini, we ordered it thinking its inclusion on the happy hour meant an included discount, when really it's offered at the exact same price as the regular menu. The same is the case for a large amount of their appetizer and sushi options. However, there were a few high-quality items with low prices we'll undoubtedly revisit, including a $5 phelidelphia sushi roll that was the best we've ever had in the valley and $8 mango martini that was blended to hot-weather perfection and big enough to induce a buzz for two.
Whether it was the busy bar staff that failed to point out these happy hour highlights or our false assumption that all happy hour items meant happy hour prices, we spent a little more than we would have liked to on this happy-hour venture.
But when considering the North Scottsdale hot spot liveliness, fresh sushi and high-quality cuisine, it's safe to say HH guests will get what they pay for.
Overall Grade: B+
