New Bakery Sachi Sweets Combines Japanese and Local Flavors

Photo: Martha Cheng

In an unassuming space tucked behind Mama Woo’s on King Street, a Restaurant Suntory server and sous chef have made the leap from Instagram to brick-and-mortar. During the pandemic, Lani Yoshimura, a server at Restaurant Suntory, found herself unemployed. She turned to baking and selling souffle cheesecakes with the help of her husband, Keisuke Nishi, a chef also at Suntory. Since they opened Sachi Sweets in a physical space a few months ago, they’ve expanded from cheesecakes to a variety of sweets, including ube mont blanc, POG pudding and liliko‘i tiramisu cups. 

Photo: Martha Cheng

The souffle cheesecakes come in plain, matcha, hojicha and ube. Simultaneously cottony soft while creamy and rich, the hojicha slice finishes with a slight tang and notes of roasted tea. It is a paradox of fluff and heft. 

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I rolled my eyes at the thought of another ube dessert made for the ‘gram, but the ube mont blanc broke through my curmudgeonliness. It’s made with a soft and tender roll cake mounded with cream and draped with an ube cream of mashed purple sweet potato, and ube extract for color and a boost in nutty vanilla notes.

Photo: Martha Cheng

Throughout the desserts I tried, Sachi Sweets strikes the balance of richness and lightness while melding local flavors with Japanese pastry techniques. The tiramisu cups are chunks of cheesecake layered with cream and fruit, including liliko‘i, and the puddings are silky and gently set (so gently that leaving them out for a few hours turns them liquid—so make sure to keep them refrigerated!). Yoshimura debuted the POG pudding recently, but I prefer the cleaner flavors of the mango pudding. In general, the flavors at Sachi Sweets are a little bolder than at other Japanese bakeries. 

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Yoshimura says she and her husband are keeping their day jobs for now, but hope the bakery will eventually turn into a stepping stone to their own restaurant. They never envisioned a bakery initially, but the opportunity presented itself, and it’s become a sweet tangent. 

Open Tuesday to Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Wednesday from 5 to 7:30 p.m., 2080 S. King St. #102, @sachi_sweets1