Pairing Sake with Western Food: Easy Mode

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Pairing sake with food isn’t just for sushi and izakaya dishes — it can also be a fantastic match for the everyday foods you’d find in American grocery stores and restaurants. If you’re new to sake but want to experiment with easy and delicious pairings, here’s your guide to getting started.

The Basics

Sake’s flavor profile is often smooth, umami-rich, and slightly sweet or dry, making it surprisingly versatile. Here are a few general rules to get you started.

First, light sake goes with light dishes. Crisp, delicate sake pair well with lighter foods. Next, rich sake goes well with hearty dishes — no surprise. Also, umami and umami work together; some sake are high on umami, so they complement umami-rich foods like cheese, mushrooms, or meat.

Just like with wine, you can either match alike with alike — which tends to be more straightforward — or you can try to match in a complementary fashion so that the sake is a sort of palate cleanser. We’re going to do both below.

Pizza

Yes! Of course you can have sake with pizza! A simpler, cleaner flavor profile like that of a Margherita pizza works especially well here. The clean, slightly fruity notes balance the acidity of the tomato sauce and the richness of the mozzarella. For something like this, we feel confident starting off with the classic Dassai 45 (honestly, it’s so balanced and friendly, it can probably go with most of the stuff on this list).

If you’re going for a meat-heavy pizza, a sake with deeper umami flavors can stand up to the pepperoni or sausage. We’d recommend Hakkaisan’s Daiginjo 45.

Maybe 45 is just the right rice polishing ratio for pizza.

Burgers

A sake with a rice-forward taste might complement the rich beefy goodness of a burger. We think something like Shichida’s Furinbizan Junmai would work here. If you’re loading up on stuff like bacon or blue cheese, a drier, more straightforward style sake should cut through the fat and help reset your palate. Maybe Kubota’s “Senjyu” Ginjo.

Fried Chicken

Crispy, juicy fried chicken pairs surprisingly well with a chilled sake towards the crisper, acidic side of things; the goal is to balance the oiliness of the chicken. We would recommend something like the always-delicious Kameizumi CEL-24 or perhaps something a tad lighter like Yamamoto Pure Black.

BBQ

Smoky, sweet, and tangy barbecue flavors match well with nigorizake. The creamy texture of the sake should complement the texture of barbecue sauce. We think the nigorizake could act as a bit of a palate cleanser here as they’re usually not too sweet and not too tangy. We’d recommend something simple and widespread like Gekkeikan’s Nigorizake. If you want to up the game a bit, Senkin’s Yukidaruma (Snowman) could work great here.

Mac & Cheese

A sake with slight sweetness and acidity helps cut through the richness of cheese. Our first recommendation would be Senkin’s Kabutomushi (it has a cute rainbow beetle on the front). If you’re adding mushrooms or something like bacon, perhaps you could go for something a bit more umami-forward like Sougen’s Junmai Ishikawamon.

Seafood

Of course sake is famous for pairing well with Japanese seafood, but western seafood pairs well equally so! For a buttery lobster or shrimp-based dish, a sake with some crisp notes like apple or pear works beautifully. For that, we can wholeheartedly recommend Kubota’s Junmai Daiginjo (the one with the cool black label). A light, dry sake also pairs well with most fish dishes, especially simple grilled fish; we would recommend Suigei’s Tokubetsu Junmai for that!

Check out the selection of sake available on Amazon here.