Flight school

ARE you ready to fly? Here, at the trendy Tengu in Westwood, where a DJ spins funky music while you dine on superb sushi and other divine culinary treats, it is quite possible to feel like you’ve taken off if you indulge in one or more of the restaurant’s seven sake flights.

From New York to San Francisco to Los Angeles, thrill-seekers and connoisseurs are engaging in the latest cosmopolitan drink experience. Similar to wine tasting and beer sampling, sake flights offer a way to try the rice-based beverage that is made like beer but tastes like wine.

“It’s a great thing to do if you don’t know anything about sake and you want to learn,” said Alon Ravid, Tengu’s bar manager. “Or if you just want to have a good time with your friends.”

Which is exactly what Brenda Mendoza, 29, of Pasadena, who has tried all seven flights, had in mind. “It was very enlightening ... I didn’t know there were so many types of sake, like tequila,” she said. “I really enjoyed the fruit-flavored ones. The infused litchi is the best. If you’re interested in sampling different drinks, whether you’re a wine lover or tequila drinker, sake flights are another way to go.”

Served in three square, 2-ounce shot glasses, each sake flight offers a taste of several styles of sake or different flavors of a particular style. The new Tengu Sake Flight Program includes three main categories of premium sake: Junmai, Ginjo and Daiginjo, as well as nontraditional fruit-flavored and fruit-infused sakes, the house special.

All of these sakes are filtered and clear in appearance. But the difference lies in the percentage of the rice grain that has been polished, Ravid said. The more polished the grain, the more floral or fruity the sake will be; the less polished, the drier the sake.

Premium sake, which can be compared to fine wine, is served cold and sipped. At Tengu, sake drinkers can choose from five flights that include combinations of three different brands in one of the Junmai, Ginjo or Daiginjo categories; or flights that include sampling one of each category. For those with sweeter or more adventurous taste buds, there are two fruity flights, which include the restaurant’s house drink, the infused pineapple sake or the popular infused litchi sake that tastes like honeydew.

Chef Carlos Mulia, formerly of Wolfgang Puck Cafe in Beverly Hills, Border Grill in Santa Monica and Splash in Malibu, offers an Omakase (chef’s choice) menu in which the day’s best dishes are paired with the sake or wine that best complements the flavor. Traditionally, an Omakase menu consists of the best of the sushi bar, but since 70% of Tengu’s menu is hot, Mulia serves both.

A sample Omakase menu includes: Asian tartar, roasted beet salad, an assorted sashimi plate, sauteed lamb chops, subarashi (spicy shrimp, avocado, seared tuna, sweet onions and ginger vinaigrette) and a macadamia nut bar.

“I had never heard of sake flights until I came here,” Mendoza said. “It’s a lot of fun, and reasonably priced, and you don’t have to go all the way to Napa for it, either.”

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Sake sampling

What: Sake at Tengu.

Where: 10853 Lindbrook Drive, Westwood.

Cost: $8-$12. The Omakase menu is $80 alone or $110 with wine or sake.

Info: (310) 209-0071