Sora in the West Bank of the flats in downtown Cleveland started out as a ghost kitchen and then was so successful they opened as a full service restaurant. Sora is located on West 10th St. right in the hotel entrance, next to Lago. When we were downtown the weather was beautiful and downtown was very busy. It was so great to see Cleveland so electric and vibrant.
Sora is a breathtaking restaurant. I love all the bright pink colors and the beautiful mural above the kitchen. You walk into the entrance right near the hostess stand and this beautiful wall that is great for photos. It’s covered in pink flowers and a Sora sign. We of course had to take a photo in front of it.
What’s crazy is the front wall isn’t even the focal point of the restaurant. There is a tree with pink flowers in the center of the dining area with flowers that cover most of the ceiling. Sora has an opened kitchen with a beautiful mural above it and some seats in front of the kitchen to watch all of the beautiful sushi being prepared. The bar is toward the front of the restaurant and has some pretty cool basketballs on the top shelves that caught our eye.
For drinks we ordered some specialty cocktails. They also have beer, wine and lots of sake options. We tried the Suntory Highball which consisted of Suntory Toki whiskey, plum bitters, grapefruit and sparkling water. Suntory Toki is Japanese whiskey, which I had never tried before and really liked the flavor. It’s not too strong and mixed well with the grapefruit which is not always my favorite flavor. The drink had a slice of grapefruit in it that added a beautiful pop of color to the drink. We also tried the Lavender Margarita, which our server warned us was pretty sweet. My friend said it was sweet but not overly sweet. It comes with Suavecito Blanco Tequila, fresh lavender, Crème de Violette and fresh lime. It is topped with cotton candy which just makes the presentation of this drink. We did add the cotton candy into the drink to dissolve. The presentation of this drink was so fun.
We were provided with complementary Edamame. They were lightly salted and a great starter to our meal. Everyone I was with ordered sushi. The sushi comes out on one wood block for the table, so if you have multiple people be ready to share. The sushi was set up on the platter so we knew whose was whose. They ordered two portions of the Sora specialty roll. It consisted of giant prawn tempura, avocado, American Wagyu draped over the sushi pieces, sweet soy, spicy Mayo, caviar, and eatable gold flakes. They also ordered the Toro, fatty tuna, Sashimi style. They said that the sushi was some of the best they have had. And they all eat sushi often. The presentation was gorgeous!
I went with one of their popular cooked dishes, the Guy-Don. This dish had beef, onions and scallions and came with rice, a salad, soup and a side of veggies. The salad had cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, and carrots. I’m not exactly sure what the dressing was but I’m guessing it was a ginger dressing of some type. Normally ginger dressing has a strong ginger flavor but this dressing was light and didn’t over power the veggies. The soup was Miso soup which had tofu, scallions, mushrooms and wakame (kelp). It was delicious. The beef in the Guy-Don is thinly sliced, was tender and had great flavor. The beef onions and and scallions come on top of the rice which was like a sticky rice. There was a lot more rice than I had anticipated. The dish also came with a couple different veggies on the side that you could add to the dish. I tried each one but really liked the flavors of the dish already so I didn’t add them.
Sora is a beautiful restaurant and you can tell there was a ton of thought and preparation that went into the building and the menu. Even if you have people in your party like me that don’t eat sushi or a lot of sushi Sora has other things on the menu that make it so worth the visit. Next time your in the flats area of Cleveland this is a must try.