We tried the teppanyaki tables today, we had a party of six, the food was great as well as the service. The owners of this restaurant have to be the nicest restaurant owners I have ever met, they are very friendly. Hope to see the kimonos back on the ladies soon, they were very elegant, even though some people thought they were pajamas! very satisfied with food, service and prices, we will be back often,
(5)
Joan R.
We went in for lunch and had the lunch special for $10.95. We could choose 3 items. I had edename, tempura prawns and veggies and dumplings (gyoza). My husband had teriyaki chicken strips, tempura and dumplings. We enjoyed both of our lunches. Usually we go to Ah So or PF Changs in Happy Valley.
(4)
Adrian R.
We came in on a Saturday night and we had the most absolutely awesome experience. We sat in the teppanyaki grills and our server got a wonderful sake sampler of all the sakes they carry. And our appetizer where a salad and soups and shiitake mushroom with crab where delicious. After 15-20 minutes the chef came out and cook us very delicious steaks and shrimp and veggies with fried rice and also he was very entertaining:) me and my family will be back.
(4)
Jen B.
I don't usually write a review of a restaurant, unless it's stellar or completely awful. Unfortunately, when it comes to Sakura, it's the latter. My boyfriend and I decided to give this place a go, for a nice Friday night dinner. We are sushi lovers, so we were excited for a good meal. Our order was wrong, twice, and on the third attempt we told the server to just forget our last order. The sushi was subpar, and we were jokingly saying to one another, "well, I sure hope we don't get sick!" The miso soup was absolutely terrible. Carrots, celery & onion...in miso? Never in my 25+ years of sushi eating have I seen this...for good reason. Note to self: when a sushi restaurant can't get something so simple as miso right, you should probably skip the rest of the meal. Needless to say, we will never go back.
(1)
Desert D.
If it were possible to rate a zero, I would have. Let's start in the parking lot... 15, 1 hour parking spots right in front of the restaurant. What kind of eatery wants their patrons there for only 1 hour? Walked into a near empty dining room where we waited at an unstaffed host stand. The manager seated us after waiting for a bit and handed us a grease pencil to order our sushi on a laminated menu that he some dishes taped over. Real classy. Speaking of menus, the happy hour menu had the hours crossed out with a sharpie... Yikes times must be tough. 10 minutes after being seated, we he already decided what to order and marked up our sushi selections and the server finally made it over for our first greeting. Asked for a tito's and soda, to which she replied, we don't have Tito's. (It was listed as a choice on the scratched out happy hour menu) No joke, another 10 minutes went by and our water hadn't made it to the table, nor my cocktail. While waiting, we observed the table next to us send all of their food back as it was not to their liking and could only fear what was coming for us. Waitress finally came with our waters after all this and asked if we wanted our soups before everything else. Really? Shouldn't they have been there already? And is there even a bartender working, no cocktail in sight. Needless to say, we couldn't do it and had to leave after being there for over 20 minutes and only had 2 interactions with staff and all we had were waters!!! Close your doors Sakura. If you can't staff for a Friday night, you shouldn't staff at all.
(1)
Roxy H.
Last night my boyfriend and I were headed out to go see a movie and wanted a quick bite to eat before, I am a sushi junkie so we decided to try Sakura Sushi. We walked in and were seated very quickly but that was really where the positive ended in our experience. We ordered both a meal from the dinner menu - The Kalbi Beef, we were charged a split plate charge when we never requested it (an additional $7.95), the beef was dry and beyond salty. We then ordered items from their sushi menu, All of which were okay, typical california sushi, not very high quality. We were waiting for additional food items to be served when our waitress comes over and asks us if we are ready for our check when half of our food hadn't been delivered. We asked her if the rest of our food was going to be delivered, and about 5 minutes later everything else was delivered. It was obvious that she had made a mistake and I wish she would have acknowledged it, to make matters worse the wait staff just kept pushing our dirty dishes to the side of the table never clearing the dirty dishes as more food came to our table. Service was beyond poor, which was disappointing since our meal was over $100.00
(1)
Supersweet B.
Went to Sakura for lunch very hungry after looking for another sushi place that is located in the same plaza (GPS threw me off). Went in anyway and the entry area was very dirty. The place is pretty large and not one customer was in the joint. Also, I could smell old spoiled fish. I should have turned around at that point, but I didn't. Nobody was at the hostess desk to greet me. I gave it a few minutes and decided to look around the wall and saw an elderly man watching soccer and a young lady standing at the bar. I said, "Hello" so they would notice I was there and a guy that appeared to be the chef came out from the kitchen and seemed shocked that I came there for lunch. At that point the senior and lady turned around and also seemed shocked that I was there to eat. The chef sat me at a table so that I could watch soccer. Wait...I came for sushi not a tournament. I ordered iced green tea. Now that I was sitting closer to the kitchen, clearly something smelled terrible. Then I noticed a body laying down on several chairs at the sushi bar. Was someone intoxicated? Turns out there must have not been a babysitter available to keep the child who was napping at the sushi bar. At this point I decided to leave and save myself a night of sleeping on the toilet. I told the waitress/bartender that I had to leave and she asked if I wanted the tea to go. I agreed and gave her $20 for a $2.79 green tea. All of a sudden none of the staff knew where the change was kept. It took 10 minutes to get change. And, the incorrect change at that. I have to tell the waitress how much change she owed me. I know cash isn't used often, but waitstaff still needs to know how to count. The cup of tea leaked from the bottom into my console cupholder so I have no Idea how the tea taste. Probably a good thing. Headed over to the other sushi place in the same plaza--Yoshi Bento!
(1)
Tyler B.
Been sitting here for 40 min for a bowl of udon and one sushi role. Coupled with the fact that this place is tough to find or see from mayo... Food finally got there. Udon was ok but roll had sauce that was just straight mayonnaise. Not quick, not cheap, and more trouble than it's worth Cleaning chemical on hosted stand while I waited was nice to look at
(2)
Su-shien C.
After you read my review, you might be laughing so hard and pee in your pants. Not kidding. My son and I decided to come here after volunteering at Tranquility Trail Sanctuary and it was at the Sakura parking lot that I realized I had left my purse/wallet back at the sanctuary. Luckily, I had my iPhone so I was able to pull up the Groupon we were going to use for this meal. But I didn't know if Groupon would be enough to cover the meal so you guessed it, I was digging in the seats and pulling out all the emergency bills and pennies. I went into the restaurant cause my son was hungry and looking forward to the sushi and I did not want to disappoint him. What can I say, I'm a bit of a softie. So I asked the waitress what the Groupon covered and my dilemma and not surprisingly because there are so many cool and nice people in the world, the waitress said don't worry about it. The chick was the bomb! Full of understanding and general good vibes. Thanks to her, my son who is 8 happily ordered what he wanted (I did not eat I felt so mortified) and even though I did not have enough money to give this waitress a tip and promised to come back the next day to give her a tip, she graciously told me it was not necessary and still happily served us. It was really incredible. Unfortunately, I was so mortified about not being able to leave her a tip that I did not remember to note her name to give her credit here. In case the management is reading this review, she had long, black hair with bangs. Know what a great person you have working for you! XO
(5)
Laura H.
I really really hate to do this because I hope it was an off night (but reading reviews I'm not so sure). We were supposed to go somewhere else, but from the outside it got my attention so we switched to here. I walked in first and thought the restaurant was closed. It was awkwardly dark. No one in the front. No one at the bar. 3 people sitting at the sushi bar. An older man came over to seat me. The waitress came up and it was obvious from the first minute she had no idea what she was doing. Throughout the entire meal she was pretty much brain dead. I feel so bad saying this but she was probably the worst served I've had in years. Trying to get a drink was so painful that when it came to me wrong I didn't even want to attempt to get what I ordered. She didn't know the menu and couldn't give any suggestions. We all ordered sushi. It wasn't the worst I've ever had, but not good by any means. The salmon was a weird texture. It tasted very low quality or old. The positive is there were some different rolls on the menu. Price was high for drinks but sushi was pretty average, but when you factor in the fish quality it would be high. I don't know why I keep trying to find something better than sushi brokers and every time I'm disappointed. I hope the owners read these reviews and do something drastic to fix this restaurant or else I can't imagine it will last another month or two.
(1)
Frankie S.
I could have absolutely sworn that I had already written a review about Sakura, but it seems that my former review has magically disappeared! So I can't speak to the quality of the food, because after 20 minutes we were never even once approached for our order - but I will likely never be returning to find out! We stopped in at 8pm one evening after a movie with a party of six. It took about 10 minutes of standing awkwardly in the foyer before I finally flagged down one of the four employees sitting at the bar and asked to be seated. A nice lady promptly brought us water and then was never to be heard from again. I kept glancing back over at the bar hoping someone would catch my drift, but after 20 minutes we just gave up and walked over to Red Robin. Too bad.
(1)
Jamie R.
We went here for dinner on a Sunday evening and were very disappointed. We ordered the teriyaki chicken and chose to pay the extra $7.95 to share a single plate, since we didn't want leftovers. First we received our soups and salads. The soup was fine, typical mushroom soup. The salad was drenched in a very intense and salty dressing. I like a lot of dressing but it was so salty I couldn't finish my salad. The teriyaki chicken was served with fried rice and steamed veggies. It was all incredibly bland. Not what I expected at all. Worst Japanese food I've ever had, and not the cheapest either! Not worth the prices they charge at all.
Very expensive and very average sushi. I love sushi. I eat sushi all the time. This place is charging $13 for special rolls that are nothing close to special. I won't be coming back here simply because I know what good sushi tastes like and how much I should be paying for it. A rookie sushi eater might live this place. I was not impressed and know of way better places like Masa in Gilbert. Way good sushi.
(3)
Mike O.
Long looking N-scotts for excellent (and value-priced) sushi and teppanyaki. Unfortunately after a year, Sakura is still off to a slow start. * angus beef grilled from kitchen or at your teppanyaki table is by far your best bet. great flavor and good quality beef! * beautifully hand-painted wall decor and carefully selected furnishings make this a one-of-a-kind and classy spot * great spot for your pre- or post-cine capri jam, especially if you love American-"Japanese" (could we say "Cal-Jap"?) rolls. I wish I could end the review there, but if I did, I would not be telling it like it is. Owners are such wonderful people are very well meaning, but the consistency and organization is just (still) not there yet. !!! Please send your proud and stubborn kitchen chef off to west bell road where he belongs. He will cost you your business !!! I just want (and will pay for) the best quality and freshest fish. Anything less I will send back. # overstocked food + rotation = the food which is actually served is never fresh. who are you saving it for?! # garde manger fridges are too cold -- are the prep dishes uncovered, I wonder? -- salad mixes are always just about to or just succumbing to frostbite # sushi fish is rarely fresh. wednesday is delivery day. with rotating stock, you still have to fight for the fresh stuff. # blechy seaweed, squid and octopus salds served in martini glasses. STOP THAT, GODDAMIT. Martini glasses are for martinis! They stink! HOW can you serve me that old and decaying $#@! ? ## fried rice does not have corn kernels, mini carrot spheres or peas. stop that. there is no corn in japan. ## powdered black pepper is dangerous in large quantities. it can be (and was) accidentally inhaled and is very painful ## freezer-burned shrimp for fried rice is over-peppered, dry and rubbery # lunch service almost always understaffed. one time, it was the poor guy's first day and there was no host, no manager, no floor manager, no barman and no busser. he did a great job of selling the 4 of us on draught beers, but the keg ran out after the 2nd glass. we (and the other tables, and our food at the pass, and the 2 four-tops who came in and then left when no one was there to greet them) waited for 10 minutes for him to reappear. what a shame! i tried very hard to recruit away master chef hiromasa kyodasan from that hellhole (and double-x blacklist) abyss to the south which shall not be named, but it didn't work out.
(2)
Star S.
Well, if you've never been to Teppan this could be a fun experience. Unfortunately, it's the exact same show from each Teppan chef at every table. Tossing an egg around, making a choo choo train from the onion and tossing pieces of shrimp into people's mouths (or in their faces as im that happened to two people in our group. Their prices are ridiculous and be prepared to spend a lot of money. They use frozen Gyoza ($7 for a bag of 50 or so) and charge $8-$9 for 5 of them. The service is slow and the waitresses talk crap about their tables (including yours) in another language. Getting drinks takes quite some time so I would normally recommend going to the bar, but that would depend on who's bartending. The music is fun and the patio is great!! The happy hour isn't too bad either.
(3)
David E.
Wow. Worst experience at a sushi place ever. When we returned the salmon egg because it ran down the side of the seaweed like snot and the sweet egg my 10 yr old ordered was frozen in the middle, the chef laughed at us. Never again !!
(1)
Jen H.
I've never written a review on yelp, but I couldn't help myself tonight. We should've know we were in for it when at prime time on a Friday night, we were the only table occupied in the entire restaurant. The service was beyond terrible. Everything was slow and no one bothered to clear our dishes as we ate. Once our dishes reached volcano height the chef stacked them on someone else's table. The sushi we ordered was delivered without part of the ingredients. When we inquired about this the server responded, "oh he doesn't make it like that". Apparently the menu was mistaken. While I was hoping for a late comeback during the tepan potion of the dinner, I was again disappointed. The chef let the grill get too hot...perhaps it was because midway through the cooking he asked for a sprite which he promptly starting spiking with the sake from his food cart that he drank out of a styrofoam bucket. Classy...due to the overheated grill all of the food was burnt and overdone. Overall a very disappointing experience. By far the worst tepan I've ever had. We will not be returning.
(1)
Mike G.
Good good spoiled by penny pinching on the air conditioning. Enjoyed it but when your shirt is stuck to seat back it sort of takes the edge off. It's fairly high priced as well which you'd think would pay for the air conditioning. Even the poor young waiter who was otherwise doing a good job had sweat streaming down his face. Deb loved the scallops and the rainbow rolls. We won't be back.
(3)
Corey M.
So here goes.. Like some other reviewers, I have never had a bad experience going for teppenyaki ... but, what a disaster. So, we made a reservation for 6pm, and when we made it, the person taking the call made it sound like they were so busy, with limited availability. When we arrived, the restaurant was virtually empty, and with a scour (arriving at literally 6.01) the hostess snarled "we've been waiting for you".. Got to the table, at 6.02, and there were 2 other people waiting, I joked.. Sorry to keep you guys waiting. They laughed, but the last laugh was on us, because there were another 6 people joining our table with a 6.15 reservation. I ordered a drink, neat... when it arrived, there was a piece of something floating in the glass. I very quietly asked the hostess/manager as I'm learning to replace the drink. She took it back to the owner of the restaurant, and the chef, who inspected the glass, and discussed it.. then nothing. The waiter came over around 10 minutes later (we were all wondering what was going on at the table.. there was a mix of frustration and silliness because of how disorganized the place was).. No apology, the waiter asked if I would like something else.. I said sure, how about the same in a clean glass? (in a nice way).. Anyway, here is a summary of it all.. Food was really a 1/5, Took 50 minutes just to see food coming to the table? (this is cut up vegetables, and proportioned meat?) 1. my daughters chicken was placed on the grill frozen, and came like rubber. 2. The salad was ripped out of a bag, with some sub par Japanese dresing 3. The steak, was over cooked (even though we asked for it prepared rare 4. The salmon was fishy, and lacked any real flavor other than old stale fish. Bill comes, I was double charged for the drink, and the waiter out of his pocket took out the $5 saying he would have to pay. (go figure, I hand a dirty glass to the manager, and the poor guy has to pay)... Anyway, this place was better a couple years ago.. now its just awful (food, service you name it)... I do recommend looking elsewhere.
(1)
Vanessa N.
I've never really had a bad experience at a teppenyaki restaurant before. Each has their own flair and characteristics that make them stand out from the rest. But this place, this place was repulsive! We walked in and saw a family of three sitting at a teppenyaki table. No drinks or appetizers had been placed at their table yet so we thought we scored on getting a seat at a table right away. But alas, they told us, their order had already been placed. Next table wouldn't be available for 20 minutes. Ok, that's fine, so we sat at a regular table. We ordered some iced tea and gyozas to start off. Tea was horrible to say the least. Gyozas seemed like they were frost bitten but the sweet sauce covered any ill flavorings. At the advice of the server, I ordered The Godfather roll. Now it wasn't too shabby, but for 13 bucks, I expected a little more flair, but it came out slightly boring. But thats when I noticed someone go over to that family of 3 and start taking their order. So much for already having put their order in!!! Wth?! Onward to the entrees. Now where do I begin... Tonight, they were offering a special on steak dinners which should have been a red flag, but I couldn't help but think BOGO?! Hell yea!! When our soups and salads came out, oh my, were they bad. The soup seemed to be the bottom of the stock. It was way too overpoweringly salty, cloudy, and just down right disgusting. Salad, I'm not a big fan of salads served at Asian resturaunts, so I don't have anything to compare to, but my husband said it was just as bad as the soup. After waiting what seemed like an eternity, our food finally arrived. And it was COVERED in pepper. I mean, drenched. Now, I love pepper. More than the average person, but that was intense. The fried rice lacked any depth in flavor, I mean, besides the pepper. The steak was tough and also fatty and held no flavor. The veggies, you can't go wrong with veggies right?! Wrong! Now, I don't make it a habit to spit food out at a table, but that was so raunchy, it came right out. It was so over salted, holy Hell. The shrimp was frost bitten and over cooked. Oh man, Our meal was such a miserable mess. And to top it off, service was sub par. The server wasn't bad, but the place was so understaffed, it was hard for her to keep up. And sadly, it wasn't all that busy, so I really don't know who to be mad at. Regardless, we won't be back. Sad way to start my weekend.
(1)
Jared S.
Went here for lunch after a movie and I must say, the food isn't really that great and it's pretty expensive. I ordered veggie tempura which was friend to hell! Tempura is supposed to be light and crispy, this looks like there was too much batter or something on it. I also ordered an avocado roll, which was nothing special. The seaweed was exceptionally salty. My friend got some chicken dish that was almost $25 and he said it was just ok. His Sprite also had no syrup in it. For the price they charge I would rate the food a 4/10.
(2)
Andrea H.
My husband and I were on a date for a belated Valentine's Day. We had tickets to go see Varekai at us airways at 7:30. We arrived at Sakuras at 5:00, thinking we had left ourselves enough time to be entertained, have dinner and get to our real show with enough time to find parking, get through the ticket gate and find our seats. OMG were we wrong, 45 minutes later the guy who cooks the food still hadn't turned up. We finally jut got up, asked our waitress for our check and left. It's absolutely ridiculous to expect some one to pay around 30 dollars per plate and make them wait an hour before they can actually eat their food. You might think "oh, well maybe they were busy", when we walked in there were only three other couples in the entire place. The Sakura's in Flagstaff is 100% more classy and professional.
(1)
John F.
Their service was pretty good and they were always seeing if we needed anything or if the food was good which is never a bad thing. Maybe a little excess of attention since maybe asking customers if everything is fine every 5 minutes is too much? But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt since there was only a family and my table at the time so it was pretty much a ghost town on a weeknight. The atmosphere is a bit awkward since it seemed liked we were being watched by the servers. They were missing background music because it was too quiet. We decided to eat the teriyaki chicken shared plate which provided soup, salad, and shrimp or wontons I believe as well as additional rice and entree. The mushroom soup was meh and my date didn't like it. The salad was good for the most part if pre-mixed with it's spicy tangy dressing, too much dressing and the taste becomes too strong. The main meal was pretty good with the shrimp, rice, veggies, and chicken. The meal tasted good with the exception that we wished the chicken was more moist and came with teriyaki sauce. The fried rice was all right but it's nothing too special. Overall, this place can work to satisfy that hunger but it's not special or unique to come back to again especially for the price. Maybe because it's Scottsdale?
(3)
ryan a.
Great location, decor and that is where it stops. Lunch service was lacking in terms of water and bringing out the food without mistakes. The lunch took over an hour and the staff were unapologetic about the lack of service. The manager did try to make things right for lack of fried rice by offering some alternative appetizers but what Asian eatery fails to prepare enough fried rice? The food once served was great but the service and attitude / non attentiveness of the management was offensive especially given the location and crowd that eats in this part of town...
(1)
Jennifer M.
Even after the mediocre reviews, we decided to give this place a try. Sat night, 8:45pm, place was NOT BUSY. We waited, waited and waited at the hostess stand...a waiter grabbed something from the hostess stand, said hello. He didn't even flag anyone down to seat us! ...Then we did more waiting. I saw what looked like the hostess arguing with someone at the sushi bar... She finally looked over but it was too late. We made up our mind to leave. We were out the door walking to our car, when the hostess came out from the restaurant and asked if she could help us! By that time, our mind was made up...This is not a place we want to dine at! First impressions are EVERYTHING and that was a BAD first impression. After reading all the other reviews, Good Luck Sakura...I hope you work on your customer service, or you won't be around much longer.
(1)
Steve K.
Will keep this short and sweet. "Don't Go".
(1)
Amanda M.
Worst service i have ever experienced. Not even worth one star!! We went because of the groupon - not worth it. We waited over an hour for our food, the order was wrong, never refilled our drinks. We complained to the manager who rolled his eyes then asked to speak to us outside.... Like we were in trouble. Will never be going back!!
(1)
Chris M.
Stop searching and just go. Now. Order the sunset roll and fall in love with it like I did. So perfect to get some sushi and then head into the Harkins 101 for a movie. Love it.
(5)
P J.
If there was a way to give a zero star rating, I'd be more than happy to award it to this place. Read people's one star reviews, and there you have it in a nutshell. Went there for dinner and upon walking in, the entire place smelled like sewage. Sat down and I knew we were in trouble when I looked at the menu. We got a "warning" from our waiter about how long the food might take to come because they were so busy. The place wasn't even crowded at all. Another clue I guess. One look at the "cooks" in the front area visiting with their kids in and out of the place should have been enough. Yes, I saw you doing that. Nice. I also got a peek of the "kitchen" in the back. You don't want to see it. When the food came, it was a small bowl of iceberg lettuce with some ginger dressing and nothing else. A small bowl of soup with broth in it. OK, fine. But the entree was something from Denny's. No flavor at all. Had to cover it with pepper or anything I could grab. All the time and non-stop, loud music blaring from the bar area and very annoying. And, yes, the "owner" has no clue how to greet people when they come in, etc. Never said a word to me as we passed him entering. And that odor was enough to make me choke. Here's another one that needs Gordon Ramsay as soon as he is available. I doubt he could work with the owners though, as good as he is. They probably wouldn't listen anyway. Avoid this place like the plague. It's going out soon. If you want Japanese, go to a real one. There are plenty of wonderful ones in town.
(1)
S Y.
This is a really good place for the food and customer service. The staff was very attentive for my daughter's birthday. I would go back anytime and will soon with my friends. Great service and price for happy hour was really good too.
(5)
Lisa S.
It was probably the worst Sushi place we had. The rolls where not rolled they fell apart .They did not have a lot of selections on rolls. No interactions with the Sushi Chef. Way over priced. Would not recommend.
(1)
Anna N.
Not sure why I'm bothering to review this place, it will surely be shut down soon. After finding out Benihana was booked for the night, we decided to give Sakura a shot. On a Friday night at 7:30 there were only 5 other people in the place & after they left it was just us. The server was odd, telling us she was a vegetarian after we ordered steak & chicken. The food was decent, not as good as Benihana and VERY expensive. Don't waste your time or money here.
(2)
Adrian F.
Stopped by the other day for lunch to see what this place was all about. I'd been wanting to try it for a while, especially after I found out they do Bento for lunch! Everything was just normal (including the service) and the quality was so-so... I could tell that the fish wasn't the freshest, but then again I do live in the desert now so I don't have crazy high hopes in that department. Would I eat here again? Yeah probably due to the fact that it's located right across the street from where I work at Focal Point Hair Salon (shameless plug). Sometimes you just gotta have Bento, and sometimes it means settling for slightly lower quality than what you're used to!
(3)
Patreesha G.
Stopped in on a Sunday afternoon for an early dinner/happy hour. Let me start by saying our waiter Patrick was AWESOME and attentive. Prices were fair on the Happy Hour menu but not a lot to pick from. This is the 2nd time I've been there and the owner sits in the back of the restaurant (always eating) and always looking very angry. The wife of the owner is nothing but rude. Never once said hi and yells at the employees in front of customers. OMG!! Let me say it again - our waiter was awesome and it was really the only reason why we stayed. You guys really need to wake up and see what's going on in your own backyard. Not worth complaining to the owner when the owner is the problem. Never going back again.
(1)
B S.
Updated 9/4/14 Ugh ... SO DISAPPOINTED! We took our family for a birthday dinner and the beautiful restaurant and quality have died. I'm sorry to see what was once so promising make a steady decline. Yes, it was hot in the restaurant. Yes, the service was lacking and yes, the quality of the sushi has SERIOUSLY declined! The sushi bar wasn't even open on a Friday night! I'm sorry to say we will not be back and our children will certainly miss this restaurant.
(1)
Debra W.
Found this place on Yelp and was pleasantly surprised to find high grade sushi, large portions, creative dishes from sushi chef Yeung, very pleasant service and great wine selection! Being a foodie who loves wine pairing and dines out 99.9% of the time, we finally found our twice weekly sushi place!
(5)
Sophia K.
This place is straight up weird. I could see this place being super busy and booming with popularity, especially with those awesome teppan tables. But the outfit that the female servers wear is just a bit too creepy. I could do without those. The roll selection here is basic, but that's fine. I got the roll that was on special, it was basically a California roll with chopped up deep fried shrimp. I wasn't too hungry so it was nice that I didn't get a roll or food that I wanted to devour. Service was attentive here and the bartender was interesting. He asked my friend if she liked her drink because it was a drink he hadn't made in a while. I liked that. Other than that, this place is moderately priced, but not a place I'd go to on a regular basis. Mainly because of the oddity and this place is just weird. The drink specials look like a great deal, but unfortunately I wasn't in the mood to drink.
(3)
Bill M.
Disappointed. Farhers Day dinner service was slow (the bartender served us despite wait staff on floor, the guy did his best, but eh). The prices are Scottsdale high. But all 5 of us were unimpressed with food quality and flavor. Ahi sashimi was delicate and tasty, thus the 2nd star. Sushi was meager for the price. Too many good sushi/teppanyaki restaurants out there to be wasting your time here.
(2)
Lindsey B.
Mediocrity at it's best. The service was so-so and the quality of the food was pathetic. For the price of dinners at teppan restaurants, you expect high quality and that is not what we got here :(
(2)
Randy D.
Food was good. Service was terrible. No one greeted us. We sat ourselves. When we did get service the sushi chef read our order back to us. He did not make everything on our list and disappeared. When we finally flagged someone down we asked to cancel the order. The sushi chef blamed a server even though we were sitting at the sushi bar. No one really apologized or did anything for us. We even had to wait several minutes for someone to run our card. First and last time for this place...
(2)
Mihaela C.
I tried to go there tonight and right when we parked and got out of the car, their flashing open sign goes out. We got there at 8pm as their website and store hours listed on their front door advertises that they close at 10pm!!! Maybe it's time they updated their website and sign on the front door. I would have liked to have eaten there tonight as we were in the area but I won't be coming back since they don't like to stay open till the time they advertise.
(1)
Joy M.
First of all there is an awful sewage smell as you enter the restaurant. It is even worse in the bathroom. How can anyone enjoy their dinner when smelling sewage constantly? Soup came out barely warm. Salad had no dressing on it. Food was very bland and almost tasted like cafeteria food. The servers are very slow and take forever to bring you your drinks. There are way better teppanyaki restaurants in the area for the same price with much better service and tastier food. The owner really needs to work on his customer service skills and do sometrhing to get rid of the sewage smell or else his business will go downhill very fast. Would never recommend this place or go back again.
(1)
David M.
This place needs better management. The food took a while to come out. Our server said there was only one chef and apologized. He did try hard to please us and gave us a free starter. Nice atmosphere. Food was very good. Not likely to go back due the overall poor service however.
(3)
Stormi F.
YUMMY! We had the filet and chicken tepanyaki, it was outstanding! Our server was very attentive, I appreciate that. We started out with onion shoyu soup, very tasty. I always have this vision of dirty dishwater when I think of Asian soups, this was far from it. Simple flavors but delicious and warming. Our chef was gracious enough to allow me to take photos while he prepared our meal, it was a show for sure! The veggies were tender and grilled to perfection. The filet was tender, flavorful and prepared just how we asked. The chicken had a glazed exterior and juicy interior, just how it should be. We chose the fried lobster Cali roll. I am not a fan of sushi but I would've consumed the entire plate had I not been sitting next to my boyfriend who is just as big a foodie as I am! The spicy mayo and eel sauce complimented each other drizzled over the succulent lobster. The presentation was beautiful, very important since we eat with our eyes first. Next time I think we could share the combo filet/chicken along with the sushi, we certainly had leftovers. The foliage inside is a little strange but it's clean, quiet and not bustling with loud teenagers or screaming little ones. No offense I have 3 of my own but it was nice to eat in a peaceful soothing environment. We will visit again to try out other menu items, that's a given. Sakura is certainly worth a try!
(5)
Ann S.
Sakura has a really nice happy hour. I feel like no one knows about this place. We go on Friday for happy hour and get in and out, which I don't mind because I usually have my two children with me. There is something on the menu for everyone. They have tepenyaki too. Will definitley be back
(3)
Chris S.
There is a lot of competition in this space. I like to try different Teppan-style restaurants in the area, as each tends to have their own unique thing they do that makes them stand out. There is some nice art on the walls here, which was reportedly designed by the owner. The sushi prices ($12-$13 rolls) were on the high side, so we skipped it. My wife and I aren't huge eaters, so we like to split a main entree. Even though the menu threatened a $7.95 plate sharing charge, they didn't actually charge it. They also gave us a pass on the kids menu for our 13 year old (the menu says kids menu for under 9 only) The chef was uninspired, only putting in the motions it seems. The chef did forget our appetizer until the end after we questioned him about it. We also observed the older man/host with the limp yelling at the waitstaff in the back about silverware. Yelling doesn't motivate your team in the restaurant business. Your staff ends up hating you and talking about you on the other side of the restaurant (we saw that too) Overall, the fun energy that should be at one of these restaurants on a Saturday night just wasn't there. We did have some nice people at our table, so that was a positive. I'm tempted to drive another three miles next time and go to Benihana, or for sushi, Sushi Brokers.
(3)
Jonathan B.
Had the exact same experience this past Friday as Heather N did in her review on 4/30/13. We had $60 in prepaid gift cards that we legally obtained by some third party vendor. We paid the bill with them, the waiter told us they didn't accept them any more. The owner came out and could not have been more unpleasant, told us this was our problem and that if we didn't pay she would call the police. Not sure what the problem was, but apparently they no longer accept them; fine, but we paid for the gift cards in the first place and probably obtained them before they changed the policy. The owner did offer us 10% of a discount, which the waiter actually had the gall to ask us if we really wanted taken off the bill. We said yes. He didn't honor. We were so distraught by the whole experience, we didn't tip. Not like me at all nor is complaining about a place, but the service was so horrendous and unacceptable, I feel no other alternative is possible. Nearly thought about contacting my credit card company to stop payment. Not a chance I would go back, nor would I ever recommend anyone going to this place. Wouldn't do anything to support this ownership. Not how you treat customers under any circumstance.
(1)
Eric J.
spent 29.45 on roll and 2 sides of rice at 4.00 a piece. we were the only ones in the restaurant on Saturday night. server did not even know what sushi was. lack of knowledge. they cancelled reverse happy hour my crossing off with a sharpy. over priced everything
(1)
joe l.
Saturday nite 6 pm only ones in restaurant. Literally. Atmosphere depressing, food overpriced and not very good. Chef didn't really know what he was doing, wine way too warm, just overall feeling of "blah". Waiter did good job. We give the over/under on closing at 6 months. Needs life injected.
(2)
Taylor Momo J.
This is not your normal sushi restaurant. Their menu is limited and pricey. A piece of tempura broccoli had raw dough in it. The carrot had some random hard piece that almost broke my tooth in it. The sushi didn't seem very fresh. There were only two other parties in there on a Wednesday night. Fish may not be rotating often. Eat at your own risk. Waitress and waiter err very friendly and provided good service. Soy sauce dishes at table had stuck together due to some dirty residue. No side plate was provided with appetizer or sushi so it was awkward to eat without a place to set your sushi piece.My friend thought the green iced tea was not good. The regular iced tea was refreshing. No sugar at the table. Soy sauce mini pitcher was left at table where the lid was removable. This doesn't seem sanitary. The nigiri sushi pieces' sizes were able. Sushi rolls size as expected. Could not get happy hour process with Groupon. Disappointing. Overall, do not plan to return. I got this place confused with Sakana sushi which has three or four locations and that place is easily 5 stars. This place gets 3 because the service kept it from getting a 2.
(3)
Andi B.
I was supper excited to try this place after it came highly recomended. Really cheap quality sushi at pricey rate. They use tons of fake crab in everything and cover it in a little bit of fish or avocado. Took forever for our food to come out, and we were there before the dinner crowed. The sushi at Frys is way better then this place, and faster too.
(1)
Nicolette L.
Went on a whim Saturday night around 7PM after a movie at the Harkins. The space is large, bright and glossy, with female servers dressed in kimonos and a bizarre mix of instrumental music playing. There were only a few patrons when we came in, which was quite noticeable in the large space. Overall the combination was a little unsettling. We looked over the teppanyaki menu, and were a bit surprised at the prices which started at $20 a plate for steak and chicken. We asked the server about splitting one and ordering a side of rice, and he suggested getting a split plate for $7 more and a 1 and 3/4 portion so we went with that. It was therefore $30 for my husband and I to each get less than a full meal. First we each were brought a soup and salad. I did not like the soup in the least - it was extremely powerful with flavors of smoke and pepper and killed my taste buds with one sip. They really should warn you it's nothing like the miso soup it resembles. The salad was crisp, cold and fresh. We had to wait a while for our main dish, and when it finally arrived it wasn't what we ordered. We were brought filet and shrimp instead of filet and chicken. We waited a bit too long for the food to come back corrected to find the shrimp replaced with steaming hot chicken (good) with everything else now luke warm (including the filet). The quality and flavor of the food was really good. The filet mignon was tender, flavorful and cooked just right as were the chicken and veggies. Overall atmosphere, food and service were too much of a rollercoaster for me, especially for the prices, which is a shame because I actually really enjoyed the main dish. Not sure I'll come back.
(3)
vanessa m.
I absolutely love and know good sushi, and this was not. The rolls were small with lots of rice and very little fish. For a table of multiple people they put wasabi and ginger on only one plate! The service was terrible to say the least. Rude and was only there when she was not needed and never there when she was. The price did not match the quality.
(1)
Jake B.
Went here with a group of six people, with reservations for a Saturday night. We were seated right away, but there was clearly no need for reservations as there were several empty tables. The table next to us was having their food cooked, and nobody seemed to be excited or enjoying it. It soon became clear why this was the case. Our waitress came to the table once, after we sat there for about 20 minutes. She took our order, then brought a salad for each of us after another 10 minutes. We never saw her again until the end of the meal, when we had to ask someone for our checks. The chef came to start cooking, and we had to ask for our soup, which had of course not been brought out by the waitress. One couple had ordered a sushi roll, which also had not been delivered so they cancelled that. The food was not particularly good. The filets were all cooked to medium well, no matter how they were ordered. On the other hand, the shrimp did not seem to be cooked all the way. There were even items missing like a chicken breast, so the chef had to cook those at the very end. Since our waitress had not come back, we had to ask another person to refill the waters. This person was cleaning tables and had his hand in a bucket of what was presumably bleach water. He put that down, went to the back and started scooping ice into the pitcher without having time to wash his hands. We did not drink the water after it was delivered. When we were leaving, we told the owner about our problems with the meal and the terrible service. She offered us $10 off for our next visit (total for six people who just spent $150) and told us not to tell anyone about the problems we experienced. Don't worry, I won't tell. ;-)
(1)
Tanya K.
Not impressed...Sushi rolls are small, lots of rice but barely have any fish; flavorless. We also ordered shrimp udon. Broth was somewhat sweet, udon noodles overcooked, tempura shrimp greasy. Our waiter was nice. Way overpriced for the quality of food. Not coming back, waste of money.
(1)
Sandy B.
We were recommended to this restaurant by friends that are foodies and we are food snobs, for sure! The food was top quality and the service was great too. Having a business of our own ( and having read some previous revues) there may be some glitches when you are getting yourself together and people should be more tolerant. Ive gone there 4 times a week after working out at Lifetime fitness as its the perfect compliment to your exercise routine. If you have a legitimate problem the owners really aim to please and have their heart in their business. Lets keep great businesses in our community and not be so quick to criticize; the restaurant business is very hard work with extreme hours.
(5)
Ben S.
It was terrible. The service was slow and the hibachi chef did not seem like he wanted to be there. The family sitting next to me and my parents asked the chef to do tricks and he barely did any and that is the whole point of going to a place like this. Very expensive and not worth your time.
(1)
Haley H.
I was really impressed with this place. Even though it's brand new, I think it's going to be a huge hit. The food was delicious, very competitively priced, and the owners were kind enough to be present and take the time to chat with us. I had the spicy tuna roll (my very fave, and I've never had one better) and the Superman roll, which was new to me. Needless to say, I'll be back for that. It's an easy to hold, easy to eat, eel sauce covered sushi dynamo! The owner came by to check on us and have a little chat, the server was very friendly, and the onion soup (which is $1.50, btw) was a really great way to start out the meal. I'm a fan, and I'll be back. Where I would have spent $100 at Sushi Brokers for a mediocre meal and a few drinks, I can hit this place up for fab sushi, a great atmosphere, and a smaller check ;)
(5)
Chloe B.
We've visited Sakura twice since it's opening, and have been very impressed both times. The food is outstanding and the service is top notch. Highly recommended!
(4)
Mary K.
Was not impressed. My cali roll had so little cucumber in it that there was no crunch at all when I chewed. That's not good news for anybody. Also the menu said each roll was 6 pcs and really there were 8, so I ordered more food than I would have if I had known that an 8 pc roll was coming. Annoying. Also of the 3 TV's I spotted while I was sitting, each was playing a different INFOMERCIAL. wtf? My friend really seemed to like her specialty roll though and the server Kiera was nice.
(3)
Samantha H.
Went for a birthday dinner on a Thursday night. Staff was very welcoming and nice. Kids loved the teppanyaki dinner and the food was fabulous. 8yrs. old son said it was the best restaurant. Fried rice was fluffy and not overly spiced. The meat was very tender and the seafood was perfectly cooked. Never had to wait for service, the waitress was very attentive and understanding with the kids. Can't wait to go back, will be bringing the grandparents as well.
(5)
Monica L.
We went there for lunch and it was delicious! Very well priced too. The fish is fresh and the rolls are big and not all rice, like many other sushi places. The service was OK, they only had one server, so it took a while for her to take our order, but once we put it in, the rolls came out right away. The owner came up to our table and talked to us for a little while. I really enjoyed this place and will definitely come back!
(4)
Frank R.
Best sushi in area. Once they get the right service, this place will grow on word of mouth.
(5)
Azmom P.
Fantastic food and service! Nice atmosphere and very friendly :). Tried the rolls and went back for the Teppanyaki and the steak and chicken is tender and delicious. Great to have a great japanese place in North Phoenix/ Scottsdale. YAY!!!
(5)
Heather N.
I just had the most bizarre and disturbing experience at this place. Tuesday night. The restaurant had one table with 10 people, one couple at the sushi bar, otherwise completely empty. Went in with our two young kids to have teppanyaki.. The chef was friendly enough but not much of a show. The steak was good but the scallop was over done and salty. My daughter's udon came so salty that we had to send it back, it wasn't edible after adding an entire glass of water. The soup base was as if it came from the bottom of the barrel and they sent it out anyways since it was only going out to a 7yr. kid? so they thought, I think. They did get right the second time. The server's reaction was, oh too salty, as if it happened many times before. Even though the restaurant was empty, we had to ask for our water couple of times. The server was friendly enough but not stellar service. Ok, that's that part of it. The most bizarre part came when the check came. We had a prepaid value card worth 80 dollars. The waiter came and said that they wouldn't honor it. Then the owner came over, flipped her hand at us and said they won't honor and it's our problem. Of course we paid for the meal with 20% tip and left. However, after some thought, we just felt that the situation was so grossly mishandled that we went back to the restaurant to talk to the owner again about the situation. She was very rude and said that it was our problem and that this happened many times before. As customers, we would just like for them to acknowledge the situation and oh, I don't know, do some diplomatic approaches and may be apologize but stay firm.... instead, she started yelling and saying that it was our problem, huh? Ever heard of customer service? Geesh. Don't know how this mediocre at best restaurant with incompetent owners will survive with so much competition out there. Ok, off my soap box now, just sayin'!
(1)
Vince R.
Great food and great service! The lobster roll was awesome! Ask for Carlos for a waiter and you'll be set!
(5)
Amanda L.
My husband and I went the day after Thanksgiving, and while it wasn't busy, it was really good. We sat at the teppen table, and that is what I got, but my husband ordered sushi and was really happy. Having lived in CA for years with awesome sushi, we have had a tough time finding good sushi here in AZ, but this place was good. The owner came to chat with us and thanked us for our business. We can walk to the place, so we will definitely be back!
(5)
Dee W.
Service sucked and food was mediocre. We went on a weeknight to avoid crowds and there were only a few people in the restaurant - that should have been a clue! 4 people were seated at a teppanyaki table that sat 10-12 but the host said we had to have a reservation for teppanyaki. Later on the 2nd teppanyaki table opened up for two people. I have no idea why we were not permitted to sit at either teppanyaki table when they were mostly empty. Our service was awful! Ordering entrees over $25 each, I expect quality service. Rather than going around to the other side of the table, the waiter passed me my son's soup, salad and fork. Did not box our food after dinner and brought our check while chewing his own dinner! Food was just ok. I can get the same quality food at our neighborhood restaurant for 1/3 the price. And the iced tea tasted like instant tea. The entire experience was very disappointing!
(1)
Tait B.
The Mrs. and I popped in here after seeing an ad for 20% off with our movie ticket. We always love these places and my wife loves to sit at the hibachi tables. We were seated and were the only people at the table. The waitress was awesome checking our drinks and if we liked everything often but not too much. The chef wasn't the greatest ever but he did a decent job. The show was a little rushed the volcano was prebuilt and we couldn't hear anything he said. On the other hand everything was cooked perfectly and tasted delicious. I had the steak and chicken and Mrs. Me had the chicken and shrimp. It was a little pricey but these places are usually so it wasn't a deal breaker. The steak was cooked exactly rare just like it should be. The chicken was cooked through but still juicy, which can be hard to do. The shrimp was awesome, buttery with just the right hint of lemon. We didn't try any sushi this time but it looked good and the sushi chef seemed very good at what he was doing. The restaurant was pretty and they had Men in Black on the TV which we enjoyed. We will definitely be back for sushi and more of that good hibachi.
(4)
sean m.
Not too sure, but either most of the people on here haven't had good Sushi or they are a bunch of employees. The food here reminded me of Benihanas with worst service. The food had the quality typical of a chain (which it is) and the sushi was bland. We were hoping that whomever took over this place would come close to Ippei when it first started out, sadly it does not appear to be in the cards.
(2)
Tooraj B.
We tried Sakura for the first time before the Movies. Great sushi and attitude. Fresh fish and cooperative sushi chefs. The happy hour prices are also very reasonable although limited menu. I noticed higher Teppanyaki prices but will try next time.
(4)
Karrie B.
This restaurant is excellent! Have been there several times and they always exceed expectations. The food is delicious, have been there for sushi and teppanyaki and its always been great. It was very clean, the wait staff was wonderful as was the chef on our last visit. Price was great also and it was better than Benihanna. We will be coming back again and again.
(5)
Jonathan B.
Had the exact same experience this past Friday as Heather N did in her review on 4/30/13. We had $60 in prepaid gift cards that we legally obtained by some third party vendor. We paid the bill with them, the waiter told us they didn't accept them any more. The owner came out and could not have been more unpleasant, told us this was our problem and that if we didn't pay she would call the police. Not sure what the problem was, but apparently they no longer accept them; fine, but we paid for the gift cards in the first place and probably obtained them before they changed the policy. The owner did offer us 10% of a discount, which the waiter actually had the gall to ask us if we really wanted taken off the bill. We said yes. He didn't honor. We were so distraught by the whole experience, we didn't tip. Not like me at all nor is complaining about a place, but the service was so horrendous and unacceptable, I feel no other alternative is possible. Nearly thought about contacting my credit card company to stop payment. Not a chance I would go back, nor would I ever recommend anyone going to this place. Wouldn't do anything to support this ownership. Not how you treat customers under any circumstance.
(1)
B S.
Updated 9/4/14 Ugh ... SO DISAPPOINTED! We took our family for a birthday dinner and the beautiful restaurant and quality have died. I'm sorry to see what was once so promising make a steady decline. Yes, it was hot in the restaurant. Yes, the service was lacking and yes, the quality of the sushi has SERIOUSLY declined! The sushi bar wasn't even open on a Friday night! I'm sorry to say we will not be back and our children will certainly miss this restaurant.
(1)
Debra W.
Found this place on Yelp and was pleasantly surprised to find high grade sushi, large portions, creative dishes from sushi chef Yeung, very pleasant service and great wine selection! Being a foodie who loves wine pairing and dines out 99.9% of the time, we finally found our twice weekly sushi place!
(5)
Taylor Momo J.
This is not your normal sushi restaurant. Their menu is limited and pricey. A piece of tempura broccoli had raw dough in it. The carrot had some random hard piece that almost broke my tooth in it. The sushi didn't seem very fresh. There were only two other parties in there on a Wednesday night. Fish may not be rotating often. Eat at your own risk. Waitress and waiter err very friendly and provided good service. Soy sauce dishes at table had stuck together due to some dirty residue. No side plate was provided with appetizer or sushi so it was awkward to eat without a place to set your sushi piece.My friend thought the green iced tea was not good. The regular iced tea was refreshing. No sugar at the table. Soy sauce mini pitcher was left at table where the lid was removable. This doesn't seem sanitary. The nigiri sushi pieces' sizes were able. Sushi rolls size as expected. Could not get happy hour process with Groupon. Disappointing. Overall, do not plan to return. I got this place confused with Sakana sushi which has three or four locations and that place is easily 5 stars. This place gets 3 because the service kept it from getting a 2.
(3)
Tait B.
The Mrs. and I popped in here after seeing an ad for 20% off with our movie ticket. We always love these places and my wife loves to sit at the hibachi tables. We were seated and were the only people at the table. The waitress was awesome checking our drinks and if we liked everything often but not too much. The chef wasn't the greatest ever but he did a decent job. The show was a little rushed the volcano was prebuilt and we couldn't hear anything he said. On the other hand everything was cooked perfectly and tasted delicious. I had the steak and chicken and Mrs. Me had the chicken and shrimp. It was a little pricey but these places are usually so it wasn't a deal breaker. The steak was cooked exactly rare just like it should be. The chicken was cooked through but still juicy, which can be hard to do. The shrimp was awesome, buttery with just the right hint of lemon. We didn't try any sushi this time but it looked good and the sushi chef seemed very good at what he was doing. The restaurant was pretty and they had Men in Black on the TV which we enjoyed. We will definitely be back for sushi and more of that good hibachi.
(4)
Jake B.
Went here with a group of six people, with reservations for a Saturday night. We were seated right away, but there was clearly no need for reservations as there were several empty tables. The table next to us was having their food cooked, and nobody seemed to be excited or enjoying it. It soon became clear why this was the case. Our waitress came to the table once, after we sat there for about 20 minutes. She took our order, then brought a salad for each of us after another 10 minutes. We never saw her again until the end of the meal, when we had to ask someone for our checks. The chef came to start cooking, and we had to ask for our soup, which had of course not been brought out by the waitress. One couple had ordered a sushi roll, which also had not been delivered so they cancelled that. The food was not particularly good. The filets were all cooked to medium well, no matter how they were ordered. On the other hand, the shrimp did not seem to be cooked all the way. There were even items missing like a chicken breast, so the chef had to cook those at the very end. Since our waitress had not come back, we had to ask another person to refill the waters. This person was cleaning tables and had his hand in a bucket of what was presumably bleach water. He put that down, went to the back and started scooping ice into the pitcher without having time to wash his hands. We did not drink the water after it was delivered. When we were leaving, we told the owner about our problems with the meal and the terrible service. She offered us $10 off for our next visit (total for six people who just spent $150) and told us not to tell anyone about the problems we experienced. Don't worry, I won't tell. ;-)
(1)
Tanya K.
Not impressed...Sushi rolls are small, lots of rice but barely have any fish; flavorless. We also ordered shrimp udon. Broth was somewhat sweet, udon noodles overcooked, tempura shrimp greasy. Our waiter was nice. Way overpriced for the quality of food. Not coming back, waste of money.
(1)
Sandy B.
We were recommended to this restaurant by friends that are foodies and we are food snobs, for sure! The food was top quality and the service was great too. Having a business of our own ( and having read some previous revues) there may be some glitches when you are getting yourself together and people should be more tolerant. Ive gone there 4 times a week after working out at Lifetime fitness as its the perfect compliment to your exercise routine. If you have a legitimate problem the owners really aim to please and have their heart in their business. Lets keep great businesses in our community and not be so quick to criticize; the restaurant business is very hard work with extreme hours.
(5)
Haley H.
I was really impressed with this place. Even though it's brand new, I think it's going to be a huge hit. The food was delicious, very competitively priced, and the owners were kind enough to be present and take the time to chat with us. I had the spicy tuna roll (my very fave, and I've never had one better) and the Superman roll, which was new to me. Needless to say, I'll be back for that. It's an easy to hold, easy to eat, eel sauce covered sushi dynamo! The owner came by to check on us and have a little chat, the server was very friendly, and the onion soup (which is $1.50, btw) was a really great way to start out the meal. I'm a fan, and I'll be back. Where I would have spent $100 at Sushi Brokers for a mediocre meal and a few drinks, I can hit this place up for fab sushi, a great atmosphere, and a smaller check ;)
(5)
Chloe B.
We've visited Sakura twice since it's opening, and have been very impressed both times. The food is outstanding and the service is top notch. Highly recommended!
(4)
Mary K.
Was not impressed. My cali roll had so little cucumber in it that there was no crunch at all when I chewed. That's not good news for anybody. Also the menu said each roll was 6 pcs and really there were 8, so I ordered more food than I would have if I had known that an 8 pc roll was coming. Annoying. Also of the 3 TV's I spotted while I was sitting, each was playing a different INFOMERCIAL. wtf? My friend really seemed to like her specialty roll though and the server Kiera was nice.
(3)
Samantha H.
Went for a birthday dinner on a Thursday night. Staff was very welcoming and nice. Kids loved the teppanyaki dinner and the food was fabulous. 8yrs. old son said it was the best restaurant. Fried rice was fluffy and not overly spiced. The meat was very tender and the seafood was perfectly cooked. Never had to wait for service, the waitress was very attentive and understanding with the kids. Can't wait to go back, will be bringing the grandparents as well.
(5)
Monica L.
We went there for lunch and it was delicious! Very well priced too. The fish is fresh and the rolls are big and not all rice, like many other sushi places. The service was OK, they only had one server, so it took a while for her to take our order, but once we put it in, the rolls came out right away. The owner came up to our table and talked to us for a little while. I really enjoyed this place and will definitely come back!
(4)
Heather N.
I just had the most bizarre and disturbing experience at this place. Tuesday night. The restaurant had one table with 10 people, one couple at the sushi bar, otherwise completely empty. Went in with our two young kids to have teppanyaki.. The chef was friendly enough but not much of a show. The steak was good but the scallop was over done and salty. My daughter's udon came so salty that we had to send it back, it wasn't edible after adding an entire glass of water. The soup base was as if it came from the bottom of the barrel and they sent it out anyways since it was only going out to a 7yr. kid? so they thought, I think. They did get right the second time. The server's reaction was, oh too salty, as if it happened many times before. Even though the restaurant was empty, we had to ask for our water couple of times. The server was friendly enough but not stellar service. Ok, that's that part of it. The most bizarre part came when the check came. We had a prepaid value card worth 80 dollars. The waiter came and said that they wouldn't honor it. Then the owner came over, flipped her hand at us and said they won't honor and it's our problem. Of course we paid for the meal with 20% tip and left. However, after some thought, we just felt that the situation was so grossly mishandled that we went back to the restaurant to talk to the owner again about the situation. She was very rude and said that it was our problem and that this happened many times before. As customers, we would just like for them to acknowledge the situation and oh, I don't know, do some diplomatic approaches and may be apologize but stay firm.... instead, she started yelling and saying that it was our problem, huh? Ever heard of customer service? Geesh. Don't know how this mediocre at best restaurant with incompetent owners will survive with so much competition out there. Ok, off my soap box now, just sayin'!
(1)
Vince R.
Great food and great service! The lobster roll was awesome! Ask for Carlos for a waiter and you'll be set!
(5)
Amanda L.
My husband and I went the day after Thanksgiving, and while it wasn't busy, it was really good. We sat at the teppen table, and that is what I got, but my husband ordered sushi and was really happy. Having lived in CA for years with awesome sushi, we have had a tough time finding good sushi here in AZ, but this place was good. The owner came to chat with us and thanked us for our business. We can walk to the place, so we will definitely be back!
(5)
Dee W.
Service sucked and food was mediocre. We went on a weeknight to avoid crowds and there were only a few people in the restaurant - that should have been a clue! 4 people were seated at a teppanyaki table that sat 10-12 but the host said we had to have a reservation for teppanyaki. Later on the 2nd teppanyaki table opened up for two people. I have no idea why we were not permitted to sit at either teppanyaki table when they were mostly empty. Our service was awful! Ordering entrees over $25 each, I expect quality service. Rather than going around to the other side of the table, the waiter passed me my son's soup, salad and fork. Did not box our food after dinner and brought our check while chewing his own dinner! Food was just ok. I can get the same quality food at our neighborhood restaurant for 1/3 the price. And the iced tea tasted like instant tea. The entire experience was very disappointing!
(1)
Ben S.
It was terrible. The service was slow and the hibachi chef did not seem like he wanted to be there. The family sitting next to me and my parents asked the chef to do tricks and he barely did any and that is the whole point of going to a place like this. Very expensive and not worth your time.
(1)
Bill M.
Disappointed. Farhers Day dinner service was slow (the bartender served us despite wait staff on floor, the guy did his best, but eh). The prices are Scottsdale high. But all 5 of us were unimpressed with food quality and flavor. Ahi sashimi was delicate and tasty, thus the 2nd star. Sushi was meager for the price. Too many good sushi/teppanyaki restaurants out there to be wasting your time here.
(2)
vanessa m.
I absolutely love and know good sushi, and this was not. The rolls were small with lots of rice and very little fish. For a table of multiple people they put wasabi and ginger on only one plate! The service was terrible to say the least. Rude and was only there when she was not needed and never there when she was. The price did not match the quality.
(1)
Amanda M.
Worst service i have ever experienced. Not even worth one star!! We went because of the groupon - not worth it. We waited over an hour for our food, the order was wrong, never refilled our drinks. We complained to the manager who rolled his eyes then asked to speak to us outside.... Like we were in trouble. Will never be going back!!
(1)
Chris M.
Stop searching and just go. Now. Order the sunset roll and fall in love with it like I did. So perfect to get some sushi and then head into the Harkins 101 for a movie. Love it.
(5)
Lindsey B.
Mediocrity at it's best. The service was so-so and the quality of the food was pathetic. For the price of dinners at teppan restaurants, you expect high quality and that is not what we got here :(
(2)
Mihaela C.
I tried to go there tonight and right when we parked and got out of the car, their flashing open sign goes out. We got there at 8pm as their website and store hours listed on their front door advertises that they close at 10pm!!! Maybe it's time they updated their website and sign on the front door. I would have liked to have eaten there tonight as we were in the area but I won't be coming back since they don't like to stay open till the time they advertise.
(1)
Adrian R.
We came in on a Saturday night and we had the most absolutely awesome experience. We sat in the teppanyaki grills and our server got a wonderful sake sampler of all the sakes they carry. And our appetizer where a salad and soups and shiitake mushroom with crab where delicious. After 15-20 minutes the chef came out and cook us very delicious steaks and shrimp and veggies with fried rice and also he was very entertaining:) me and my family will be back.
(4)
Steve K.
Will keep this short and sweet. "Don't Go".
(1)
Jen B.
I don't usually write a review of a restaurant, unless it's stellar or completely awful. Unfortunately, when it comes to Sakura, it's the latter. My boyfriend and I decided to give this place a go, for a nice Friday night dinner. We are sushi lovers, so we were excited for a good meal. Our order was wrong, twice, and on the third attempt we told the server to just forget our last order. The sushi was subpar, and we were jokingly saying to one another, "well, I sure hope we don't get sick!" The miso soup was absolutely terrible. Carrots, celery & onion...in miso? Never in my 25+ years of sushi eating have I seen this...for good reason. Note to self: when a sushi restaurant can't get something so simple as miso right, you should probably skip the rest of the meal. Needless to say, we will never go back.
(1)
Desert D.
If it were possible to rate a zero, I would have. Let's start in the parking lot... 15, 1 hour parking spots right in front of the restaurant. What kind of eatery wants their patrons there for only 1 hour? Walked into a near empty dining room where we waited at an unstaffed host stand. The manager seated us after waiting for a bit and handed us a grease pencil to order our sushi on a laminated menu that he some dishes taped over. Real classy. Speaking of menus, the happy hour menu had the hours crossed out with a sharpie... Yikes times must be tough. 10 minutes after being seated, we he already decided what to order and marked up our sushi selections and the server finally made it over for our first greeting. Asked for a tito's and soda, to which she replied, we don't have Tito's. (It was listed as a choice on the scratched out happy hour menu) No joke, another 10 minutes went by and our water hadn't made it to the table, nor my cocktail. While waiting, we observed the table next to us send all of their food back as it was not to their liking and could only fear what was coming for us. Waitress finally came with our waters after all this and asked if we wanted our soups before everything else. Really? Shouldn't they have been there already? And is there even a bartender working, no cocktail in sight. Needless to say, we couldn't do it and had to leave after being there for over 20 minutes and only had 2 interactions with staff and all we had were waters!!! Close your doors Sakura. If you can't staff for a Friday night, you shouldn't staff at all.
(1)
Roxy H.
Last night my boyfriend and I were headed out to go see a movie and wanted a quick bite to eat before, I am a sushi junkie so we decided to try Sakura Sushi. We walked in and were seated very quickly but that was really where the positive ended in our experience. We ordered both a meal from the dinner menu - The Kalbi Beef, we were charged a split plate charge when we never requested it (an additional $7.95), the beef was dry and beyond salty. We then ordered items from their sushi menu, All of which were okay, typical california sushi, not very high quality. We were waiting for additional food items to be served when our waitress comes over and asks us if we are ready for our check when half of our food hadn't been delivered. We asked her if the rest of our food was going to be delivered, and about 5 minutes later everything else was delivered. It was obvious that she had made a mistake and I wish she would have acknowledged it, to make matters worse the wait staff just kept pushing our dirty dishes to the side of the table never clearing the dirty dishes as more food came to our table. Service was beyond poor, which was disappointing since our meal was over $100.00
(1)
Supersweet B.
Went to Sakura for lunch very hungry after looking for another sushi place that is located in the same plaza (GPS threw me off). Went in anyway and the entry area was very dirty. The place is pretty large and not one customer was in the joint. Also, I could smell old spoiled fish. I should have turned around at that point, but I didn't. Nobody was at the hostess desk to greet me. I gave it a few minutes and decided to look around the wall and saw an elderly man watching soccer and a young lady standing at the bar. I said, "Hello" so they would notice I was there and a guy that appeared to be the chef came out from the kitchen and seemed shocked that I came there for lunch. At that point the senior and lady turned around and also seemed shocked that I was there to eat. The chef sat me at a table so that I could watch soccer. Wait...I came for sushi not a tournament. I ordered iced green tea. Now that I was sitting closer to the kitchen, clearly something smelled terrible. Then I noticed a body laying down on several chairs at the sushi bar. Was someone intoxicated? Turns out there must have not been a babysitter available to keep the child who was napping at the sushi bar. At this point I decided to leave and save myself a night of sleeping on the toilet. I told the waitress/bartender that I had to leave and she asked if I wanted the tea to go. I agreed and gave her $20 for a $2.79 green tea. All of a sudden none of the staff knew where the change was kept. It took 10 minutes to get change. And, the incorrect change at that. I have to tell the waitress how much change she owed me. I know cash isn't used often, but waitstaff still needs to know how to count. The cup of tea leaked from the bottom into my console cupholder so I have no Idea how the tea taste. Probably a good thing. Headed over to the other sushi place in the same plaza--Yoshi Bento!
(1)
Tyler B.
Been sitting here for 40 min for a bowl of udon and one sushi role. Coupled with the fact that this place is tough to find or see from mayo... Food finally got there. Udon was ok but roll had sauce that was just straight mayonnaise. Not quick, not cheap, and more trouble than it's worth Cleaning chemical on hosted stand while I waited was nice to look at
(2)
Bryan K.
Very expensive and very average sushi. I love sushi. I eat sushi all the time. This place is charging $13 for special rolls that are nothing close to special. I won't be coming back here simply because I know what good sushi tastes like and how much I should be paying for it. A rookie sushi eater might live this place. I was not impressed and know of way better places like Masa in Gilbert. Way good sushi.
(3)
Jennifer M.
Even after the mediocre reviews, we decided to give this place a try. Sat night, 8:45pm, place was NOT BUSY. We waited, waited and waited at the hostess stand...a waiter grabbed something from the hostess stand, said hello. He didn't even flag anyone down to seat us! ...Then we did more waiting. I saw what looked like the hostess arguing with someone at the sushi bar... She finally looked over but it was too late. We made up our mind to leave. We were out the door walking to our car, when the hostess came out from the restaurant and asked if she could help us! By that time, our mind was made up...This is not a place we want to dine at! First impressions are EVERYTHING and that was a BAD first impression. After reading all the other reviews, Good Luck Sakura...I hope you work on your customer service, or you won't be around much longer.
(1)
Su-shien C.
After you read my review, you might be laughing so hard and pee in your pants. Not kidding. My son and I decided to come here after volunteering at Tranquility Trail Sanctuary and it was at the Sakura parking lot that I realized I had left my purse/wallet back at the sanctuary. Luckily, I had my iPhone so I was able to pull up the Groupon we were going to use for this meal. But I didn't know if Groupon would be enough to cover the meal so you guessed it, I was digging in the seats and pulling out all the emergency bills and pennies. I went into the restaurant cause my son was hungry and looking forward to the sushi and I did not want to disappoint him. What can I say, I'm a bit of a softie. So I asked the waitress what the Groupon covered and my dilemma and not surprisingly because there are so many cool and nice people in the world, the waitress said don't worry about it. The chick was the bomb! Full of understanding and general good vibes. Thanks to her, my son who is 8 happily ordered what he wanted (I did not eat I felt so mortified) and even though I did not have enough money to give this waitress a tip and promised to come back the next day to give her a tip, she graciously told me it was not necessary and still happily served us. It was really incredible. Unfortunately, I was so mortified about not being able to leave her a tip that I did not remember to note her name to give her credit here. In case the management is reading this review, she had long, black hair with bangs. Know what a great person you have working for you! XO
(5)
Laura H.
I really really hate to do this because I hope it was an off night (but reading reviews I'm not so sure). We were supposed to go somewhere else, but from the outside it got my attention so we switched to here. I walked in first and thought the restaurant was closed. It was awkwardly dark. No one in the front. No one at the bar. 3 people sitting at the sushi bar. An older man came over to seat me. The waitress came up and it was obvious from the first minute she had no idea what she was doing. Throughout the entire meal she was pretty much brain dead. I feel so bad saying this but she was probably the worst served I've had in years. Trying to get a drink was so painful that when it came to me wrong I didn't even want to attempt to get what I ordered. She didn't know the menu and couldn't give any suggestions. We all ordered sushi. It wasn't the worst I've ever had, but not good by any means. The salmon was a weird texture. It tasted very low quality or old. The positive is there were some different rolls on the menu. Price was high for drinks but sushi was pretty average, but when you factor in the fish quality it would be high. I don't know why I keep trying to find something better than sushi brokers and every time I'm disappointed. I hope the owners read these reviews and do something drastic to fix this restaurant or else I can't imagine it will last another month or two.
(1)
Randy D.
Food was good. Service was terrible. No one greeted us. We sat ourselves. When we did get service the sushi chef read our order back to us. He did not make everything on our list and disappeared. When we finally flagged someone down we asked to cancel the order. The sushi chef blamed a server even though we were sitting at the sushi bar. No one really apologized or did anything for us. We even had to wait several minutes for someone to run our card. First and last time for this place...
(2)
Frankie S.
I could have absolutely sworn that I had already written a review about Sakura, but it seems that my former review has magically disappeared! So I can't speak to the quality of the food, because after 20 minutes we were never even once approached for our order - but I will likely never be returning to find out! We stopped in at 8pm one evening after a movie with a party of six. It took about 10 minutes of standing awkwardly in the foyer before I finally flagged down one of the four employees sitting at the bar and asked to be seated. A nice lady promptly brought us water and then was never to be heard from again. I kept glancing back over at the bar hoping someone would catch my drift, but after 20 minutes we just gave up and walked over to Red Robin. Too bad.
(1)
Jamie R.
We went here for dinner on a Sunday evening and were very disappointed. We ordered the teriyaki chicken and chose to pay the extra $7.95 to share a single plate, since we didn't want leftovers. First we received our soups and salads. The soup was fine, typical mushroom soup. The salad was drenched in a very intense and salty dressing. I like a lot of dressing but it was so salty I couldn't finish my salad. The teriyaki chicken was served with fried rice and steamed veggies. It was all incredibly bland. Not what I expected at all. Worst Japanese food I've ever had, and not the cheapest either! Not worth the prices they charge at all.
Best sushi in area. Once they get the right service, this place will grow on word of mouth.
(5)
Azmom P.
Fantastic food and service! Nice atmosphere and very friendly :). Tried the rolls and went back for the Teppanyaki and the steak and chicken is tender and delicious. Great to have a great japanese place in North Phoenix/ Scottsdale. YAY!!!
(5)
Vanessa N.
I've never really had a bad experience at a teppenyaki restaurant before. Each has their own flair and characteristics that make them stand out from the rest. But this place, this place was repulsive! We walked in and saw a family of three sitting at a teppenyaki table. No drinks or appetizers had been placed at their table yet so we thought we scored on getting a seat at a table right away. But alas, they told us, their order had already been placed. Next table wouldn't be available for 20 minutes. Ok, that's fine, so we sat at a regular table. We ordered some iced tea and gyozas to start off. Tea was horrible to say the least. Gyozas seemed like they were frost bitten but the sweet sauce covered any ill flavorings. At the advice of the server, I ordered The Godfather roll. Now it wasn't too shabby, but for 13 bucks, I expected a little more flair, but it came out slightly boring. But thats when I noticed someone go over to that family of 3 and start taking their order. So much for already having put their order in!!! Wth?! Onward to the entrees. Now where do I begin... Tonight, they were offering a special on steak dinners which should have been a red flag, but I couldn't help but think BOGO?! Hell yea!! When our soups and salads came out, oh my, were they bad. The soup seemed to be the bottom of the stock. It was way too overpoweringly salty, cloudy, and just down right disgusting. Salad, I'm not a big fan of salads served at Asian resturaunts, so I don't have anything to compare to, but my husband said it was just as bad as the soup. After waiting what seemed like an eternity, our food finally arrived. And it was COVERED in pepper. I mean, drenched. Now, I love pepper. More than the average person, but that was intense. The fried rice lacked any depth in flavor, I mean, besides the pepper. The steak was tough and also fatty and held no flavor. The veggies, you can't go wrong with veggies right?! Wrong! Now, I don't make it a habit to spit food out at a table, but that was so raunchy, it came right out. It was so over salted, holy Hell. The shrimp was frost bitten and over cooked. Oh man, Our meal was such a miserable mess. And to top it off, service was sub par. The server wasn't bad, but the place was so understaffed, it was hard for her to keep up. And sadly, it wasn't all that busy, so I really don't know who to be mad at. Regardless, we won't be back. Sad way to start my weekend.
(1)
Jared S.
Went here for lunch after a movie and I must say, the food isn't really that great and it's pretty expensive. I ordered veggie tempura which was friend to hell! Tempura is supposed to be light and crispy, this looks like there was too much batter or something on it. I also ordered an avocado roll, which was nothing special. The seaweed was exceptionally salty. My friend got some chicken dish that was almost $25 and he said it was just ok. His Sprite also had no syrup in it. For the price they charge I would rate the food a 4/10.
(2)
Joan R.
We went in for lunch and had the lunch special for $10.95. We could choose 3 items. I had edename, tempura prawns and veggies and dumplings (gyoza). My husband had teriyaki chicken strips, tempura and dumplings. We enjoyed both of our lunches. Usually we go to Ah So or PF Changs in Happy Valley.
(4)
Mike O.
Long looking N-scotts for excellent (and value-priced) sushi and teppanyaki. Unfortunately after a year, Sakura is still off to a slow start. * angus beef grilled from kitchen or at your teppanyaki table is by far your best bet. great flavor and good quality beef! * beautifully hand-painted wall decor and carefully selected furnishings make this a one-of-a-kind and classy spot * great spot for your pre- or post-cine capri jam, especially if you love American-"Japanese" (could we say "Cal-Jap"?) rolls. I wish I could end the review there, but if I did, I would not be telling it like it is. Owners are such wonderful people are very well meaning, but the consistency and organization is just (still) not there yet. !!! Please send your proud and stubborn kitchen chef off to west bell road where he belongs. He will cost you your business !!! I just want (and will pay for) the best quality and freshest fish. Anything less I will send back. # overstocked food + rotation = the food which is actually served is never fresh. who are you saving it for?! # garde manger fridges are too cold -- are the prep dishes uncovered, I wonder? -- salad mixes are always just about to or just succumbing to frostbite # sushi fish is rarely fresh. wednesday is delivery day. with rotating stock, you still have to fight for the fresh stuff. # blechy seaweed, squid and octopus salds served in martini glasses. STOP THAT, GODDAMIT. Martini glasses are for martinis! They stink! HOW can you serve me that old and decaying $#@! ? ## fried rice does not have corn kernels, mini carrot spheres or peas. stop that. there is no corn in japan. ## powdered black pepper is dangerous in large quantities. it can be (and was) accidentally inhaled and is very painful ## freezer-burned shrimp for fried rice is over-peppered, dry and rubbery # lunch service almost always understaffed. one time, it was the poor guy's first day and there was no host, no manager, no floor manager, no barman and no busser. he did a great job of selling the 4 of us on draught beers, but the keg ran out after the 2nd glass. we (and the other tables, and our food at the pass, and the 2 four-tops who came in and then left when no one was there to greet them) waited for 10 minutes for him to reappear. what a shame! i tried very hard to recruit away master chef hiromasa kyodasan from that hellhole (and double-x blacklist) abyss to the south which shall not be named, but it didn't work out.
(2)
Star S.
Well, if you've never been to Teppan this could be a fun experience. Unfortunately, it's the exact same show from each Teppan chef at every table. Tossing an egg around, making a choo choo train from the onion and tossing pieces of shrimp into people's mouths (or in their faces as im that happened to two people in our group. Their prices are ridiculous and be prepared to spend a lot of money. They use frozen Gyoza ($7 for a bag of 50 or so) and charge $8-$9 for 5 of them. The service is slow and the waitresses talk crap about their tables (including yours) in another language. Getting drinks takes quite some time so I would normally recommend going to the bar, but that would depend on who's bartending. The music is fun and the patio is great!! The happy hour isn't too bad either.
(3)
David E.
Wow. Worst experience at a sushi place ever. When we returned the salmon egg because it ran down the side of the seaweed like snot and the sweet egg my 10 yr old ordered was frozen in the middle, the chef laughed at us. Never again !!
(1)
Jen H.
I've never written a review on yelp, but I couldn't help myself tonight. We should've know we were in for it when at prime time on a Friday night, we were the only table occupied in the entire restaurant. The service was beyond terrible. Everything was slow and no one bothered to clear our dishes as we ate. Once our dishes reached volcano height the chef stacked them on someone else's table. The sushi we ordered was delivered without part of the ingredients. When we inquired about this the server responded, "oh he doesn't make it like that". Apparently the menu was mistaken. While I was hoping for a late comeback during the tepan potion of the dinner, I was again disappointed. The chef let the grill get too hot...perhaps it was because midway through the cooking he asked for a sprite which he promptly starting spiking with the sake from his food cart that he drank out of a styrofoam bucket. Classy...due to the overheated grill all of the food was burnt and overdone. Overall a very disappointing experience. By far the worst tepan I've ever had. We will not be returning.
(1)
Mike G.
Good good spoiled by penny pinching on the air conditioning. Enjoyed it but when your shirt is stuck to seat back it sort of takes the edge off. It's fairly high priced as well which you'd think would pay for the air conditioning. Even the poor young waiter who was otherwise doing a good job had sweat streaming down his face. Deb loved the scallops and the rainbow rolls. We won't be back.
(3)
Corey M.
So here goes.. Like some other reviewers, I have never had a bad experience going for teppenyaki ... but, what a disaster. So, we made a reservation for 6pm, and when we made it, the person taking the call made it sound like they were so busy, with limited availability. When we arrived, the restaurant was virtually empty, and with a scour (arriving at literally 6.01) the hostess snarled "we've been waiting for you".. Got to the table, at 6.02, and there were 2 other people waiting, I joked.. Sorry to keep you guys waiting. They laughed, but the last laugh was on us, because there were another 6 people joining our table with a 6.15 reservation. I ordered a drink, neat... when it arrived, there was a piece of something floating in the glass. I very quietly asked the hostess/manager as I'm learning to replace the drink. She took it back to the owner of the restaurant, and the chef, who inspected the glass, and discussed it.. then nothing. The waiter came over around 10 minutes later (we were all wondering what was going on at the table.. there was a mix of frustration and silliness because of how disorganized the place was).. No apology, the waiter asked if I would like something else.. I said sure, how about the same in a clean glass? (in a nice way).. Anyway, here is a summary of it all.. Food was really a 1/5, Took 50 minutes just to see food coming to the table? (this is cut up vegetables, and proportioned meat?) 1. my daughters chicken was placed on the grill frozen, and came like rubber. 2. The salad was ripped out of a bag, with some sub par Japanese dresing 3. The steak, was over cooked (even though we asked for it prepared rare 4. The salmon was fishy, and lacked any real flavor other than old stale fish. Bill comes, I was double charged for the drink, and the waiter out of his pocket took out the $5 saying he would have to pay. (go figure, I hand a dirty glass to the manager, and the poor guy has to pay)... Anyway, this place was better a couple years ago.. now its just awful (food, service you name it)... I do recommend looking elsewhere.
(1)
Andrea H.
My husband and I were on a date for a belated Valentine's Day. We had tickets to go see Varekai at us airways at 7:30. We arrived at Sakuras at 5:00, thinking we had left ourselves enough time to be entertained, have dinner and get to our real show with enough time to find parking, get through the ticket gate and find our seats. OMG were we wrong, 45 minutes later the guy who cooks the food still hadn't turned up. We finally jut got up, asked our waitress for our check and left. It's absolutely ridiculous to expect some one to pay around 30 dollars per plate and make them wait an hour before they can actually eat their food. You might think "oh, well maybe they were busy", when we walked in there were only three other couples in the entire place. The Sakura's in Flagstaff is 100% more classy and professional.
(1)
John F.
Their service was pretty good and they were always seeing if we needed anything or if the food was good which is never a bad thing. Maybe a little excess of attention since maybe asking customers if everything is fine every 5 minutes is too much? But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt since there was only a family and my table at the time so it was pretty much a ghost town on a weeknight. The atmosphere is a bit awkward since it seemed liked we were being watched by the servers. They were missing background music because it was too quiet. We decided to eat the teriyaki chicken shared plate which provided soup, salad, and shrimp or wontons I believe as well as additional rice and entree. The mushroom soup was meh and my date didn't like it. The salad was good for the most part if pre-mixed with it's spicy tangy dressing, too much dressing and the taste becomes too strong. The main meal was pretty good with the shrimp, rice, veggies, and chicken. The meal tasted good with the exception that we wished the chicken was more moist and came with teriyaki sauce. The fried rice was all right but it's nothing too special. Overall, this place can work to satisfy that hunger but it's not special or unique to come back to again especially for the price. Maybe because it's Scottsdale?
(3)
ryan a.
Great location, decor and that is where it stops. Lunch service was lacking in terms of water and bringing out the food without mistakes. The lunch took over an hour and the staff were unapologetic about the lack of service. The manager did try to make things right for lack of fried rice by offering some alternative appetizers but what Asian eatery fails to prepare enough fried rice? The food once served was great but the service and attitude / non attentiveness of the management was offensive especially given the location and crowd that eats in this part of town...
(1)
Mike B.
We tried the teppanyaki tables today, we had a party of six, the food was great as well as the service. The owners of this restaurant have to be the nicest restaurant owners I have ever met, they are very friendly. Hope to see the kimonos back on the ladies soon, they were very elegant, even though some people thought they were pajamas! very satisfied with food, service and prices, we will be back often,
(5)
Joy M.
First of all there is an awful sewage smell as you enter the restaurant. It is even worse in the bathroom. How can anyone enjoy their dinner when smelling sewage constantly? Soup came out barely warm. Salad had no dressing on it. Food was very bland and almost tasted like cafeteria food. The servers are very slow and take forever to bring you your drinks. There are way better teppanyaki restaurants in the area for the same price with much better service and tastier food. The owner really needs to work on his customer service skills and do sometrhing to get rid of the sewage smell or else his business will go downhill very fast. Would never recommend this place or go back again.
(1)
David M.
This place needs better management. The food took a while to come out. Our server said there was only one chef and apologized. He did try hard to please us and gave us a free starter. Nice atmosphere. Food was very good. Not likely to go back due the overall poor service however.
(3)
Stormi F.
YUMMY! We had the filet and chicken tepanyaki, it was outstanding! Our server was very attentive, I appreciate that. We started out with onion shoyu soup, very tasty. I always have this vision of dirty dishwater when I think of Asian soups, this was far from it. Simple flavors but delicious and warming. Our chef was gracious enough to allow me to take photos while he prepared our meal, it was a show for sure! The veggies were tender and grilled to perfection. The filet was tender, flavorful and prepared just how we asked. The chicken had a glazed exterior and juicy interior, just how it should be. We chose the fried lobster Cali roll. I am not a fan of sushi but I would've consumed the entire plate had I not been sitting next to my boyfriend who is just as big a foodie as I am! The spicy mayo and eel sauce complimented each other drizzled over the succulent lobster. The presentation was beautiful, very important since we eat with our eyes first. Next time I think we could share the combo filet/chicken along with the sushi, we certainly had leftovers. The foliage inside is a little strange but it's clean, quiet and not bustling with loud teenagers or screaming little ones. No offense I have 3 of my own but it was nice to eat in a peaceful soothing environment. We will visit again to try out other menu items, that's a given. Sakura is certainly worth a try!
(5)
Ann S.
Sakura has a really nice happy hour. I feel like no one knows about this place. We go on Friday for happy hour and get in and out, which I don't mind because I usually have my two children with me. There is something on the menu for everyone. They have tepenyaki too. Will definitley be back
(3)
Patreesha G.
Stopped in on a Sunday afternoon for an early dinner/happy hour. Let me start by saying our waiter Patrick was AWESOME and attentive. Prices were fair on the Happy Hour menu but not a lot to pick from. This is the 2nd time I've been there and the owner sits in the back of the restaurant (always eating) and always looking very angry. The wife of the owner is nothing but rude. Never once said hi and yells at the employees in front of customers. OMG!! Let me say it again - our waiter was awesome and it was really the only reason why we stayed. You guys really need to wake up and see what's going on in your own backyard. Not worth complaining to the owner when the owner is the problem. Never going back again.
(1)
Chris S.
There is a lot of competition in this space. I like to try different Teppan-style restaurants in the area, as each tends to have their own unique thing they do that makes them stand out. There is some nice art on the walls here, which was reportedly designed by the owner. The sushi prices ($12-$13 rolls) were on the high side, so we skipped it. My wife and I aren't huge eaters, so we like to split a main entree. Even though the menu threatened a $7.95 plate sharing charge, they didn't actually charge it. They also gave us a pass on the kids menu for our 13 year old (the menu says kids menu for under 9 only) The chef was uninspired, only putting in the motions it seems. The chef did forget our appetizer until the end after we questioned him about it. We also observed the older man/host with the limp yelling at the waitstaff in the back about silverware. Yelling doesn't motivate your team in the restaurant business. Your staff ends up hating you and talking about you on the other side of the restaurant (we saw that too) Overall, the fun energy that should be at one of these restaurants on a Saturday night just wasn't there. We did have some nice people at our table, so that was a positive. I'm tempted to drive another three miles next time and go to Benihana, or for sushi, Sushi Brokers.
(3)
Andi B.
I was supper excited to try this place after it came highly recomended. Really cheap quality sushi at pricey rate. They use tons of fake crab in everything and cover it in a little bit of fish or avocado. Took forever for our food to come out, and we were there before the dinner crowed. The sushi at Frys is way better then this place, and faster too.
(1)
Nicolette L.
Went on a whim Saturday night around 7PM after a movie at the Harkins. The space is large, bright and glossy, with female servers dressed in kimonos and a bizarre mix of instrumental music playing. There were only a few patrons when we came in, which was quite noticeable in the large space. Overall the combination was a little unsettling. We looked over the teppanyaki menu, and were a bit surprised at the prices which started at $20 a plate for steak and chicken. We asked the server about splitting one and ordering a side of rice, and he suggested getting a split plate for $7 more and a 1 and 3/4 portion so we went with that. It was therefore $30 for my husband and I to each get less than a full meal. First we each were brought a soup and salad. I did not like the soup in the least - it was extremely powerful with flavors of smoke and pepper and killed my taste buds with one sip. They really should warn you it's nothing like the miso soup it resembles. The salad was crisp, cold and fresh. We had to wait a while for our main dish, and when it finally arrived it wasn't what we ordered. We were brought filet and shrimp instead of filet and chicken. We waited a bit too long for the food to come back corrected to find the shrimp replaced with steaming hot chicken (good) with everything else now luke warm (including the filet). The quality and flavor of the food was really good. The filet mignon was tender, flavorful and cooked just right as were the chicken and veggies. Overall atmosphere, food and service were too much of a rollercoaster for me, especially for the prices, which is a shame because I actually really enjoyed the main dish. Not sure I'll come back.
(3)
sean m.
Not too sure, but either most of the people on here haven't had good Sushi or they are a bunch of employees. The food here reminded me of Benihanas with worst service. The food had the quality typical of a chain (which it is) and the sushi was bland. We were hoping that whomever took over this place would come close to Ippei when it first started out, sadly it does not appear to be in the cards.
(2)
Tooraj B.
We tried Sakura for the first time before the Movies. Great sushi and attitude. Fresh fish and cooperative sushi chefs. The happy hour prices are also very reasonable although limited menu. I noticed higher Teppanyaki prices but will try next time.
(4)
Karrie B.
This restaurant is excellent! Have been there several times and they always exceed expectations. The food is delicious, have been there for sushi and teppanyaki and its always been great. It was very clean, the wait staff was wonderful as was the chef on our last visit. Price was great also and it was better than Benihanna. We will be coming back again and again.
(5)
Eric J.
spent 29.45 on roll and 2 sides of rice at 4.00 a piece. we were the only ones in the restaurant on Saturday night. server did not even know what sushi was. lack of knowledge. they cancelled reverse happy hour my crossing off with a sharpy. over priced everything
(1)
joe l.
Saturday nite 6 pm only ones in restaurant. Literally. Atmosphere depressing, food overpriced and not very good. Chef didn't really know what he was doing, wine way too warm, just overall feeling of "blah". Waiter did good job. We give the over/under on closing at 6 months. Needs life injected.
(2)
P J.
If there was a way to give a zero star rating, I'd be more than happy to award it to this place. Read people's one star reviews, and there you have it in a nutshell. Went there for dinner and upon walking in, the entire place smelled like sewage. Sat down and I knew we were in trouble when I looked at the menu. We got a "warning" from our waiter about how long the food might take to come because they were so busy. The place wasn't even crowded at all. Another clue I guess. One look at the "cooks" in the front area visiting with their kids in and out of the place should have been enough. Yes, I saw you doing that. Nice. I also got a peek of the "kitchen" in the back. You don't want to see it. When the food came, it was a small bowl of iceberg lettuce with some ginger dressing and nothing else. A small bowl of soup with broth in it. OK, fine. But the entree was something from Denny's. No flavor at all. Had to cover it with pepper or anything I could grab. All the time and non-stop, loud music blaring from the bar area and very annoying. And, yes, the "owner" has no clue how to greet people when they come in, etc. Never said a word to me as we passed him entering. And that odor was enough to make me choke. Here's another one that needs Gordon Ramsay as soon as he is available. I doubt he could work with the owners though, as good as he is. They probably wouldn't listen anyway. Avoid this place like the plague. It's going out soon. If you want Japanese, go to a real one. There are plenty of wonderful ones in town.
(1)
S Y.
This is a really good place for the food and customer service. The staff was very attentive for my daughter's birthday. I would go back anytime and will soon with my friends. Great service and price for happy hour was really good too.
(5)
Lisa S.
It was probably the worst Sushi place we had. The rolls where not rolled they fell apart .They did not have a lot of selections on rolls. No interactions with the Sushi Chef. Way over priced. Would not recommend.
(1)
Anna N.
Not sure why I'm bothering to review this place, it will surely be shut down soon. After finding out Benihana was booked for the night, we decided to give Sakura a shot. On a Friday night at 7:30 there were only 5 other people in the place & after they left it was just us. The server was odd, telling us she was a vegetarian after we ordered steak & chicken. The food was decent, not as good as Benihana and VERY expensive. Don't waste your time or money here.
(2)
Adrian F.
Stopped by the other day for lunch to see what this place was all about. I'd been wanting to try it for a while, especially after I found out they do Bento for lunch! Everything was just normal (including the service) and the quality was so-so... I could tell that the fish wasn't the freshest, but then again I do live in the desert now so I don't have crazy high hopes in that department. Would I eat here again? Yeah probably due to the fact that it's located right across the street from where I work at Focal Point Hair Salon (shameless plug). Sometimes you just gotta have Bento, and sometimes it means settling for slightly lower quality than what you're used to!
(3)
Sophia K.
This place is straight up weird. I could see this place being super busy and booming with popularity, especially with those awesome teppan tables. But the outfit that the female servers wear is just a bit too creepy. I could do without those. The roll selection here is basic, but that's fine. I got the roll that was on special, it was basically a California roll with chopped up deep fried shrimp. I wasn't too hungry so it was nice that I didn't get a roll or food that I wanted to devour. Service was attentive here and the bartender was interesting. He asked my friend if she liked her drink because it was a drink he hadn't made in a while. I liked that. Other than that, this place is moderately priced, but not a place I'd go to on a regular basis. Mainly because of the oddity and this place is just weird. The drink specials look like a great deal, but unfortunately I wasn't in the mood to drink.
(3)
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Address :7000 E Mayo Blvd,Ste 1090
Phoenix, AZ, 85054
Takes Reservations : Yes Delivery : No Take-out : Yes Accepts Credit Cards : Yes Good For : Lunch, Dinner Parking : Private Lot Bike Parking : No Wheelchair Accessible : Yes Good for Kids : Yes Good for Groups : Yes Attire : Casual Ambience : Casual Noise Level : Quiet Alcohol : Full Bar Outdoor Seating : Yes Wi-Fi : No Has TV : Yes Waiter Service : Yes Caters : No
Mike B.
We tried the teppanyaki tables today, we had a party of six, the food was great as well as the service. The owners of this restaurant have to be the nicest restaurant owners I have ever met, they are very friendly. Hope to see the kimonos back on the ladies soon, they were very elegant, even though some people thought they were pajamas! very satisfied with food, service and prices, we will be back often,
(5)Joan R.
We went in for lunch and had the lunch special for $10.95. We could choose 3 items. I had edename, tempura prawns and veggies and dumplings (gyoza). My husband had teriyaki chicken strips, tempura and dumplings. We enjoyed both of our lunches. Usually we go to Ah So or PF Changs in Happy Valley.
(4)Adrian R.
We came in on a Saturday night and we had the most absolutely awesome experience. We sat in the teppanyaki grills and our server got a wonderful sake sampler of all the sakes they carry. And our appetizer where a salad and soups and shiitake mushroom with crab where delicious. After 15-20 minutes the chef came out and cook us very delicious steaks and shrimp and veggies with fried rice and also he was very entertaining:) me and my family will be back.
(4)Jen B.
I don't usually write a review of a restaurant, unless it's stellar or completely awful. Unfortunately, when it comes to Sakura, it's the latter. My boyfriend and I decided to give this place a go, for a nice Friday night dinner. We are sushi lovers, so we were excited for a good meal. Our order was wrong, twice, and on the third attempt we told the server to just forget our last order. The sushi was subpar, and we were jokingly saying to one another, "well, I sure hope we don't get sick!" The miso soup was absolutely terrible. Carrots, celery & onion...in miso? Never in my 25+ years of sushi eating have I seen this...for good reason. Note to self: when a sushi restaurant can't get something so simple as miso right, you should probably skip the rest of the meal. Needless to say, we will never go back.
(1)Desert D.
If it were possible to rate a zero, I would have. Let's start in the parking lot... 15, 1 hour parking spots right in front of the restaurant. What kind of eatery wants their patrons there for only 1 hour? Walked into a near empty dining room where we waited at an unstaffed host stand. The manager seated us after waiting for a bit and handed us a grease pencil to order our sushi on a laminated menu that he some dishes taped over. Real classy. Speaking of menus, the happy hour menu had the hours crossed out with a sharpie... Yikes times must be tough. 10 minutes after being seated, we he already decided what to order and marked up our sushi selections and the server finally made it over for our first greeting. Asked for a tito's and soda, to which she replied, we don't have Tito's. (It was listed as a choice on the scratched out happy hour menu) No joke, another 10 minutes went by and our water hadn't made it to the table, nor my cocktail. While waiting, we observed the table next to us send all of their food back as it was not to their liking and could only fear what was coming for us. Waitress finally came with our waters after all this and asked if we wanted our soups before everything else. Really? Shouldn't they have been there already? And is there even a bartender working, no cocktail in sight. Needless to say, we couldn't do it and had to leave after being there for over 20 minutes and only had 2 interactions with staff and all we had were waters!!! Close your doors Sakura. If you can't staff for a Friday night, you shouldn't staff at all.
(1)Roxy H.
Last night my boyfriend and I were headed out to go see a movie and wanted a quick bite to eat before, I am a sushi junkie so we decided to try Sakura Sushi. We walked in and were seated very quickly but that was really where the positive ended in our experience. We ordered both a meal from the dinner menu - The Kalbi Beef, we were charged a split plate charge when we never requested it (an additional $7.95), the beef was dry and beyond salty. We then ordered items from their sushi menu, All of which were okay, typical california sushi, not very high quality. We were waiting for additional food items to be served when our waitress comes over and asks us if we are ready for our check when half of our food hadn't been delivered. We asked her if the rest of our food was going to be delivered, and about 5 minutes later everything else was delivered. It was obvious that she had made a mistake and I wish she would have acknowledged it, to make matters worse the wait staff just kept pushing our dirty dishes to the side of the table never clearing the dirty dishes as more food came to our table. Service was beyond poor, which was disappointing since our meal was over $100.00
(1)Supersweet B.
Went to Sakura for lunch very hungry after looking for another sushi place that is located in the same plaza (GPS threw me off). Went in anyway and the entry area was very dirty. The place is pretty large and not one customer was in the joint. Also, I could smell old spoiled fish. I should have turned around at that point, but I didn't. Nobody was at the hostess desk to greet me. I gave it a few minutes and decided to look around the wall and saw an elderly man watching soccer and a young lady standing at the bar. I said, "Hello" so they would notice I was there and a guy that appeared to be the chef came out from the kitchen and seemed shocked that I came there for lunch. At that point the senior and lady turned around and also seemed shocked that I was there to eat. The chef sat me at a table so that I could watch soccer. Wait...I came for sushi not a tournament. I ordered iced green tea. Now that I was sitting closer to the kitchen, clearly something smelled terrible. Then I noticed a body laying down on several chairs at the sushi bar. Was someone intoxicated? Turns out there must have not been a babysitter available to keep the child who was napping at the sushi bar. At this point I decided to leave and save myself a night of sleeping on the toilet. I told the waitress/bartender that I had to leave and she asked if I wanted the tea to go. I agreed and gave her $20 for a $2.79 green tea. All of a sudden none of the staff knew where the change was kept. It took 10 minutes to get change. And, the incorrect change at that. I have to tell the waitress how much change she owed me. I know cash isn't used often, but waitstaff still needs to know how to count. The cup of tea leaked from the bottom into my console cupholder so I have no Idea how the tea taste. Probably a good thing. Headed over to the other sushi place in the same plaza--Yoshi Bento!
(1)Tyler B.
Been sitting here for 40 min for a bowl of udon and one sushi role. Coupled with the fact that this place is tough to find or see from mayo... Food finally got there. Udon was ok but roll had sauce that was just straight mayonnaise. Not quick, not cheap, and more trouble than it's worth Cleaning chemical on hosted stand while I waited was nice to look at
(2)Su-shien C.
After you read my review, you might be laughing so hard and pee in your pants. Not kidding. My son and I decided to come here after volunteering at Tranquility Trail Sanctuary and it was at the Sakura parking lot that I realized I had left my purse/wallet back at the sanctuary. Luckily, I had my iPhone so I was able to pull up the Groupon we were going to use for this meal. But I didn't know if Groupon would be enough to cover the meal so you guessed it, I was digging in the seats and pulling out all the emergency bills and pennies. I went into the restaurant cause my son was hungry and looking forward to the sushi and I did not want to disappoint him. What can I say, I'm a bit of a softie. So I asked the waitress what the Groupon covered and my dilemma and not surprisingly because there are so many cool and nice people in the world, the waitress said don't worry about it. The chick was the bomb! Full of understanding and general good vibes. Thanks to her, my son who is 8 happily ordered what he wanted (I did not eat I felt so mortified) and even though I did not have enough money to give this waitress a tip and promised to come back the next day to give her a tip, she graciously told me it was not necessary and still happily served us. It was really incredible. Unfortunately, I was so mortified about not being able to leave her a tip that I did not remember to note her name to give her credit here. In case the management is reading this review, she had long, black hair with bangs. Know what a great person you have working for you! XO
(5)Laura H.
I really really hate to do this because I hope it was an off night (but reading reviews I'm not so sure). We were supposed to go somewhere else, but from the outside it got my attention so we switched to here. I walked in first and thought the restaurant was closed. It was awkwardly dark. No one in the front. No one at the bar. 3 people sitting at the sushi bar. An older man came over to seat me. The waitress came up and it was obvious from the first minute she had no idea what she was doing. Throughout the entire meal she was pretty much brain dead. I feel so bad saying this but she was probably the worst served I've had in years. Trying to get a drink was so painful that when it came to me wrong I didn't even want to attempt to get what I ordered. She didn't know the menu and couldn't give any suggestions. We all ordered sushi. It wasn't the worst I've ever had, but not good by any means. The salmon was a weird texture. It tasted very low quality or old. The positive is there were some different rolls on the menu. Price was high for drinks but sushi was pretty average, but when you factor in the fish quality it would be high. I don't know why I keep trying to find something better than sushi brokers and every time I'm disappointed. I hope the owners read these reviews and do something drastic to fix this restaurant or else I can't imagine it will last another month or two.
(1)Frankie S.
I could have absolutely sworn that I had already written a review about Sakura, but it seems that my former review has magically disappeared! So I can't speak to the quality of the food, because after 20 minutes we were never even once approached for our order - but I will likely never be returning to find out! We stopped in at 8pm one evening after a movie with a party of six. It took about 10 minutes of standing awkwardly in the foyer before I finally flagged down one of the four employees sitting at the bar and asked to be seated. A nice lady promptly brought us water and then was never to be heard from again. I kept glancing back over at the bar hoping someone would catch my drift, but after 20 minutes we just gave up and walked over to Red Robin. Too bad.
(1)Jamie R.
We went here for dinner on a Sunday evening and were very disappointed. We ordered the teriyaki chicken and chose to pay the extra $7.95 to share a single plate, since we didn't want leftovers. First we received our soups and salads. The soup was fine, typical mushroom soup. The salad was drenched in a very intense and salty dressing. I like a lot of dressing but it was so salty I couldn't finish my salad. The teriyaki chicken was served with fried rice and steamed veggies. It was all incredibly bland. Not what I expected at all. Worst Japanese food I've ever had, and not the cheapest either! Not worth the prices they charge at all.
(1)Bao H.
I really wanted to give this place more stars, but honestly is more important. The place itself is well dressed. Very modern Japanese style. Felt like I was supposed to be ready to fight Lucy Liu in Kill Bill! I guess what I'm trying to say is the place is beautiful and well laid out. I can't say the same for the food. It was lunch time and I wanted to try the Chicken Liver, but they discontinued it because not enough people ordered it. Don't you people watch Andrew Zimmern!? You call yourselves foodies!!! Anyways, the next thing I asked was how was the Shrimp Flambé? Waiter: "it's just shrimp, sautéed", well I appreciate the honesty, but wow that's not a good way to sell me anything even if you think it's awesome! Pass! I'll stick with the Bento Box lunch special -- I went with the "D", which came was sashimi, gyoza, BBQ ribs, spicy tuna rolls, and white rice. Sashimi was my favorite cause well like the waiter expressed; it is what it is. The gyoza was okay, but definitely right out of the freezer. The BBQ ribs were way too salty and burnt! The spicy tuna rolls (see sashimi). I think they had decent white rice. Overall, not a great experience, but I can appreciate them trying. If anything I'll stop by for HH and order a couple of drinks, but I'll pass on the food for now. - Enjoy!
(1)Bryan K.
Very expensive and very average sushi. I love sushi. I eat sushi all the time. This place is charging $13 for special rolls that are nothing close to special. I won't be coming back here simply because I know what good sushi tastes like and how much I should be paying for it. A rookie sushi eater might live this place. I was not impressed and know of way better places like Masa in Gilbert. Way good sushi.
(3)Mike O.
Long looking N-scotts for excellent (and value-priced) sushi and teppanyaki. Unfortunately after a year, Sakura is still off to a slow start. * angus beef grilled from kitchen or at your teppanyaki table is by far your best bet. great flavor and good quality beef! * beautifully hand-painted wall decor and carefully selected furnishings make this a one-of-a-kind and classy spot * great spot for your pre- or post-cine capri jam, especially if you love American-"Japanese" (could we say "Cal-Jap"?) rolls. I wish I could end the review there, but if I did, I would not be telling it like it is. Owners are such wonderful people are very well meaning, but the consistency and organization is just (still) not there yet. !!! Please send your proud and stubborn kitchen chef off to west bell road where he belongs. He will cost you your business !!! I just want (and will pay for) the best quality and freshest fish. Anything less I will send back. # overstocked food + rotation = the food which is actually served is never fresh. who are you saving it for?! # garde manger fridges are too cold -- are the prep dishes uncovered, I wonder? -- salad mixes are always just about to or just succumbing to frostbite # sushi fish is rarely fresh. wednesday is delivery day. with rotating stock, you still have to fight for the fresh stuff. # blechy seaweed, squid and octopus salds served in martini glasses. STOP THAT, GODDAMIT. Martini glasses are for martinis! They stink! HOW can you serve me that old and decaying $#@! ? ## fried rice does not have corn kernels, mini carrot spheres or peas. stop that. there is no corn in japan. ## powdered black pepper is dangerous in large quantities. it can be (and was) accidentally inhaled and is very painful ## freezer-burned shrimp for fried rice is over-peppered, dry and rubbery # lunch service almost always understaffed. one time, it was the poor guy's first day and there was no host, no manager, no floor manager, no barman and no busser. he did a great job of selling the 4 of us on draught beers, but the keg ran out after the 2nd glass. we (and the other tables, and our food at the pass, and the 2 four-tops who came in and then left when no one was there to greet them) waited for 10 minutes for him to reappear. what a shame! i tried very hard to recruit away master chef hiromasa kyodasan from that hellhole (and double-x blacklist) abyss to the south which shall not be named, but it didn't work out.
(2)Star S.
Well, if you've never been to Teppan this could be a fun experience. Unfortunately, it's the exact same show from each Teppan chef at every table. Tossing an egg around, making a choo choo train from the onion and tossing pieces of shrimp into people's mouths (or in their faces as im that happened to two people in our group. Their prices are ridiculous and be prepared to spend a lot of money. They use frozen Gyoza ($7 for a bag of 50 or so) and charge $8-$9 for 5 of them. The service is slow and the waitresses talk crap about their tables (including yours) in another language. Getting drinks takes quite some time so I would normally recommend going to the bar, but that would depend on who's bartending. The music is fun and the patio is great!! The happy hour isn't too bad either.
(3)David E.
Wow. Worst experience at a sushi place ever. When we returned the salmon egg because it ran down the side of the seaweed like snot and the sweet egg my 10 yr old ordered was frozen in the middle, the chef laughed at us. Never again !!
(1)Jen H.
I've never written a review on yelp, but I couldn't help myself tonight. We should've know we were in for it when at prime time on a Friday night, we were the only table occupied in the entire restaurant. The service was beyond terrible. Everything was slow and no one bothered to clear our dishes as we ate. Once our dishes reached volcano height the chef stacked them on someone else's table. The sushi we ordered was delivered without part of the ingredients. When we inquired about this the server responded, "oh he doesn't make it like that". Apparently the menu was mistaken. While I was hoping for a late comeback during the tepan potion of the dinner, I was again disappointed. The chef let the grill get too hot...perhaps it was because midway through the cooking he asked for a sprite which he promptly starting spiking with the sake from his food cart that he drank out of a styrofoam bucket. Classy...due to the overheated grill all of the food was burnt and overdone. Overall a very disappointing experience. By far the worst tepan I've ever had. We will not be returning.
(1)Mike G.
Good good spoiled by penny pinching on the air conditioning. Enjoyed it but when your shirt is stuck to seat back it sort of takes the edge off. It's fairly high priced as well which you'd think would pay for the air conditioning. Even the poor young waiter who was otherwise doing a good job had sweat streaming down his face. Deb loved the scallops and the rainbow rolls. We won't be back.
(3)Corey M.
So here goes.. Like some other reviewers, I have never had a bad experience going for teppenyaki ... but, what a disaster. So, we made a reservation for 6pm, and when we made it, the person taking the call made it sound like they were so busy, with limited availability. When we arrived, the restaurant was virtually empty, and with a scour (arriving at literally 6.01) the hostess snarled "we've been waiting for you".. Got to the table, at 6.02, and there were 2 other people waiting, I joked.. Sorry to keep you guys waiting. They laughed, but the last laugh was on us, because there were another 6 people joining our table with a 6.15 reservation. I ordered a drink, neat... when it arrived, there was a piece of something floating in the glass. I very quietly asked the hostess/manager as I'm learning to replace the drink. She took it back to the owner of the restaurant, and the chef, who inspected the glass, and discussed it.. then nothing. The waiter came over around 10 minutes later (we were all wondering what was going on at the table.. there was a mix of frustration and silliness because of how disorganized the place was).. No apology, the waiter asked if I would like something else.. I said sure, how about the same in a clean glass? (in a nice way).. Anyway, here is a summary of it all.. Food was really a 1/5, Took 50 minutes just to see food coming to the table? (this is cut up vegetables, and proportioned meat?) 1. my daughters chicken was placed on the grill frozen, and came like rubber. 2. The salad was ripped out of a bag, with some sub par Japanese dresing 3. The steak, was over cooked (even though we asked for it prepared rare 4. The salmon was fishy, and lacked any real flavor other than old stale fish. Bill comes, I was double charged for the drink, and the waiter out of his pocket took out the $5 saying he would have to pay. (go figure, I hand a dirty glass to the manager, and the poor guy has to pay)... Anyway, this place was better a couple years ago.. now its just awful (food, service you name it)... I do recommend looking elsewhere.
(1)Vanessa N.
I've never really had a bad experience at a teppenyaki restaurant before. Each has their own flair and characteristics that make them stand out from the rest. But this place, this place was repulsive! We walked in and saw a family of three sitting at a teppenyaki table. No drinks or appetizers had been placed at their table yet so we thought we scored on getting a seat at a table right away. But alas, they told us, their order had already been placed. Next table wouldn't be available for 20 minutes. Ok, that's fine, so we sat at a regular table. We ordered some iced tea and gyozas to start off. Tea was horrible to say the least. Gyozas seemed like they were frost bitten but the sweet sauce covered any ill flavorings. At the advice of the server, I ordered The Godfather roll. Now it wasn't too shabby, but for 13 bucks, I expected a little more flair, but it came out slightly boring. But thats when I noticed someone go over to that family of 3 and start taking their order. So much for already having put their order in!!! Wth?! Onward to the entrees. Now where do I begin... Tonight, they were offering a special on steak dinners which should have been a red flag, but I couldn't help but think BOGO?! Hell yea!! When our soups and salads came out, oh my, were they bad. The soup seemed to be the bottom of the stock. It was way too overpoweringly salty, cloudy, and just down right disgusting. Salad, I'm not a big fan of salads served at Asian resturaunts, so I don't have anything to compare to, but my husband said it was just as bad as the soup. After waiting what seemed like an eternity, our food finally arrived. And it was COVERED in pepper. I mean, drenched. Now, I love pepper. More than the average person, but that was intense. The fried rice lacked any depth in flavor, I mean, besides the pepper. The steak was tough and also fatty and held no flavor. The veggies, you can't go wrong with veggies right?! Wrong! Now, I don't make it a habit to spit food out at a table, but that was so raunchy, it came right out. It was so over salted, holy Hell. The shrimp was frost bitten and over cooked. Oh man, Our meal was such a miserable mess. And to top it off, service was sub par. The server wasn't bad, but the place was so understaffed, it was hard for her to keep up. And sadly, it wasn't all that busy, so I really don't know who to be mad at. Regardless, we won't be back. Sad way to start my weekend.
(1)Jared S.
Went here for lunch after a movie and I must say, the food isn't really that great and it's pretty expensive. I ordered veggie tempura which was friend to hell! Tempura is supposed to be light and crispy, this looks like there was too much batter or something on it. I also ordered an avocado roll, which was nothing special. The seaweed was exceptionally salty. My friend got some chicken dish that was almost $25 and he said it was just ok. His Sprite also had no syrup in it. For the price they charge I would rate the food a 4/10.
(2)Andrea H.
My husband and I were on a date for a belated Valentine's Day. We had tickets to go see Varekai at us airways at 7:30. We arrived at Sakuras at 5:00, thinking we had left ourselves enough time to be entertained, have dinner and get to our real show with enough time to find parking, get through the ticket gate and find our seats. OMG were we wrong, 45 minutes later the guy who cooks the food still hadn't turned up. We finally jut got up, asked our waitress for our check and left. It's absolutely ridiculous to expect some one to pay around 30 dollars per plate and make them wait an hour before they can actually eat their food. You might think "oh, well maybe they were busy", when we walked in there were only three other couples in the entire place. The Sakura's in Flagstaff is 100% more classy and professional.
(1)John F.
Their service was pretty good and they were always seeing if we needed anything or if the food was good which is never a bad thing. Maybe a little excess of attention since maybe asking customers if everything is fine every 5 minutes is too much? But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt since there was only a family and my table at the time so it was pretty much a ghost town on a weeknight. The atmosphere is a bit awkward since it seemed liked we were being watched by the servers. They were missing background music because it was too quiet. We decided to eat the teriyaki chicken shared plate which provided soup, salad, and shrimp or wontons I believe as well as additional rice and entree. The mushroom soup was meh and my date didn't like it. The salad was good for the most part if pre-mixed with it's spicy tangy dressing, too much dressing and the taste becomes too strong. The main meal was pretty good with the shrimp, rice, veggies, and chicken. The meal tasted good with the exception that we wished the chicken was more moist and came with teriyaki sauce. The fried rice was all right but it's nothing too special. Overall, this place can work to satisfy that hunger but it's not special or unique to come back to again especially for the price. Maybe because it's Scottsdale?
(3)ryan a.
Great location, decor and that is where it stops. Lunch service was lacking in terms of water and bringing out the food without mistakes. The lunch took over an hour and the staff were unapologetic about the lack of service. The manager did try to make things right for lack of fried rice by offering some alternative appetizers but what Asian eatery fails to prepare enough fried rice? The food once served was great but the service and attitude / non attentiveness of the management was offensive especially given the location and crowd that eats in this part of town...
(1)Jennifer M.
Even after the mediocre reviews, we decided to give this place a try. Sat night, 8:45pm, place was NOT BUSY. We waited, waited and waited at the hostess stand...a waiter grabbed something from the hostess stand, said hello. He didn't even flag anyone down to seat us! ...Then we did more waiting. I saw what looked like the hostess arguing with someone at the sushi bar... She finally looked over but it was too late. We made up our mind to leave. We were out the door walking to our car, when the hostess came out from the restaurant and asked if she could help us! By that time, our mind was made up...This is not a place we want to dine at! First impressions are EVERYTHING and that was a BAD first impression. After reading all the other reviews, Good Luck Sakura...I hope you work on your customer service, or you won't be around much longer.
(1)Steve K.
Will keep this short and sweet. "Don't Go".
(1)Amanda M.
Worst service i have ever experienced. Not even worth one star!! We went because of the groupon - not worth it. We waited over an hour for our food, the order was wrong, never refilled our drinks. We complained to the manager who rolled his eyes then asked to speak to us outside.... Like we were in trouble. Will never be going back!!
(1)Chris M.
Stop searching and just go. Now. Order the sunset roll and fall in love with it like I did. So perfect to get some sushi and then head into the Harkins 101 for a movie. Love it.
(5)P J.
If there was a way to give a zero star rating, I'd be more than happy to award it to this place. Read people's one star reviews, and there you have it in a nutshell. Went there for dinner and upon walking in, the entire place smelled like sewage. Sat down and I knew we were in trouble when I looked at the menu. We got a "warning" from our waiter about how long the food might take to come because they were so busy. The place wasn't even crowded at all. Another clue I guess. One look at the "cooks" in the front area visiting with their kids in and out of the place should have been enough. Yes, I saw you doing that. Nice. I also got a peek of the "kitchen" in the back. You don't want to see it. When the food came, it was a small bowl of iceberg lettuce with some ginger dressing and nothing else. A small bowl of soup with broth in it. OK, fine. But the entree was something from Denny's. No flavor at all. Had to cover it with pepper or anything I could grab. All the time and non-stop, loud music blaring from the bar area and very annoying. And, yes, the "owner" has no clue how to greet people when they come in, etc. Never said a word to me as we passed him entering. And that odor was enough to make me choke. Here's another one that needs Gordon Ramsay as soon as he is available. I doubt he could work with the owners though, as good as he is. They probably wouldn't listen anyway. Avoid this place like the plague. It's going out soon. If you want Japanese, go to a real one. There are plenty of wonderful ones in town.
(1)S Y.
This is a really good place for the food and customer service. The staff was very attentive for my daughter's birthday. I would go back anytime and will soon with my friends. Great service and price for happy hour was really good too.
(5)Lisa S.
It was probably the worst Sushi place we had. The rolls where not rolled they fell apart .They did not have a lot of selections on rolls. No interactions with the Sushi Chef. Way over priced. Would not recommend.
(1)Anna N.
Not sure why I'm bothering to review this place, it will surely be shut down soon. After finding out Benihana was booked for the night, we decided to give Sakura a shot. On a Friday night at 7:30 there were only 5 other people in the place & after they left it was just us. The server was odd, telling us she was a vegetarian after we ordered steak & chicken. The food was decent, not as good as Benihana and VERY expensive. Don't waste your time or money here.
(2)Adrian F.
Stopped by the other day for lunch to see what this place was all about. I'd been wanting to try it for a while, especially after I found out they do Bento for lunch! Everything was just normal (including the service) and the quality was so-so... I could tell that the fish wasn't the freshest, but then again I do live in the desert now so I don't have crazy high hopes in that department. Would I eat here again? Yeah probably due to the fact that it's located right across the street from where I work at Focal Point Hair Salon (shameless plug). Sometimes you just gotta have Bento, and sometimes it means settling for slightly lower quality than what you're used to!
(3)Patreesha G.
Stopped in on a Sunday afternoon for an early dinner/happy hour. Let me start by saying our waiter Patrick was AWESOME and attentive. Prices were fair on the Happy Hour menu but not a lot to pick from. This is the 2nd time I've been there and the owner sits in the back of the restaurant (always eating) and always looking very angry. The wife of the owner is nothing but rude. Never once said hi and yells at the employees in front of customers. OMG!! Let me say it again - our waiter was awesome and it was really the only reason why we stayed. You guys really need to wake up and see what's going on in your own backyard. Not worth complaining to the owner when the owner is the problem. Never going back again.
(1)B S.
Updated 9/4/14 Ugh ... SO DISAPPOINTED! We took our family for a birthday dinner and the beautiful restaurant and quality have died. I'm sorry to see what was once so promising make a steady decline. Yes, it was hot in the restaurant. Yes, the service was lacking and yes, the quality of the sushi has SERIOUSLY declined! The sushi bar wasn't even open on a Friday night! I'm sorry to say we will not be back and our children will certainly miss this restaurant.
(1)Debra W.
Found this place on Yelp and was pleasantly surprised to find high grade sushi, large portions, creative dishes from sushi chef Yeung, very pleasant service and great wine selection! Being a foodie who loves wine pairing and dines out 99.9% of the time, we finally found our twice weekly sushi place!
(5)Sophia K.
This place is straight up weird. I could see this place being super busy and booming with popularity, especially with those awesome teppan tables. But the outfit that the female servers wear is just a bit too creepy. I could do without those. The roll selection here is basic, but that's fine. I got the roll that was on special, it was basically a California roll with chopped up deep fried shrimp. I wasn't too hungry so it was nice that I didn't get a roll or food that I wanted to devour. Service was attentive here and the bartender was interesting. He asked my friend if she liked her drink because it was a drink he hadn't made in a while. I liked that. Other than that, this place is moderately priced, but not a place I'd go to on a regular basis. Mainly because of the oddity and this place is just weird. The drink specials look like a great deal, but unfortunately I wasn't in the mood to drink.
(3)Bill M.
Disappointed. Farhers Day dinner service was slow (the bartender served us despite wait staff on floor, the guy did his best, but eh). The prices are Scottsdale high. But all 5 of us were unimpressed with food quality and flavor. Ahi sashimi was delicate and tasty, thus the 2nd star. Sushi was meager for the price. Too many good sushi/teppanyaki restaurants out there to be wasting your time here.
(2)Lindsey B.
Mediocrity at it's best. The service was so-so and the quality of the food was pathetic. For the price of dinners at teppan restaurants, you expect high quality and that is not what we got here :(
(2)Randy D.
Food was good. Service was terrible. No one greeted us. We sat ourselves. When we did get service the sushi chef read our order back to us. He did not make everything on our list and disappeared. When we finally flagged someone down we asked to cancel the order. The sushi chef blamed a server even though we were sitting at the sushi bar. No one really apologized or did anything for us. We even had to wait several minutes for someone to run our card. First and last time for this place...
(2)Mihaela C.
I tried to go there tonight and right when we parked and got out of the car, their flashing open sign goes out. We got there at 8pm as their website and store hours listed on their front door advertises that they close at 10pm!!! Maybe it's time they updated their website and sign on the front door. I would have liked to have eaten there tonight as we were in the area but I won't be coming back since they don't like to stay open till the time they advertise.
(1)Joy M.
First of all there is an awful sewage smell as you enter the restaurant. It is even worse in the bathroom. How can anyone enjoy their dinner when smelling sewage constantly? Soup came out barely warm. Salad had no dressing on it. Food was very bland and almost tasted like cafeteria food. The servers are very slow and take forever to bring you your drinks. There are way better teppanyaki restaurants in the area for the same price with much better service and tastier food. The owner really needs to work on his customer service skills and do sometrhing to get rid of the sewage smell or else his business will go downhill very fast. Would never recommend this place or go back again.
(1)David M.
This place needs better management. The food took a while to come out. Our server said there was only one chef and apologized. He did try hard to please us and gave us a free starter. Nice atmosphere. Food was very good. Not likely to go back due the overall poor service however.
(3)Stormi F.
YUMMY! We had the filet and chicken tepanyaki, it was outstanding! Our server was very attentive, I appreciate that. We started out with onion shoyu soup, very tasty. I always have this vision of dirty dishwater when I think of Asian soups, this was far from it. Simple flavors but delicious and warming. Our chef was gracious enough to allow me to take photos while he prepared our meal, it was a show for sure! The veggies were tender and grilled to perfection. The filet was tender, flavorful and prepared just how we asked. The chicken had a glazed exterior and juicy interior, just how it should be. We chose the fried lobster Cali roll. I am not a fan of sushi but I would've consumed the entire plate had I not been sitting next to my boyfriend who is just as big a foodie as I am! The spicy mayo and eel sauce complimented each other drizzled over the succulent lobster. The presentation was beautiful, very important since we eat with our eyes first. Next time I think we could share the combo filet/chicken along with the sushi, we certainly had leftovers. The foliage inside is a little strange but it's clean, quiet and not bustling with loud teenagers or screaming little ones. No offense I have 3 of my own but it was nice to eat in a peaceful soothing environment. We will visit again to try out other menu items, that's a given. Sakura is certainly worth a try!
(5)Ann S.
Sakura has a really nice happy hour. I feel like no one knows about this place. We go on Friday for happy hour and get in and out, which I don't mind because I usually have my two children with me. There is something on the menu for everyone. They have tepenyaki too. Will definitley be back
(3)Chris S.
There is a lot of competition in this space. I like to try different Teppan-style restaurants in the area, as each tends to have their own unique thing they do that makes them stand out. There is some nice art on the walls here, which was reportedly designed by the owner. The sushi prices ($12-$13 rolls) were on the high side, so we skipped it. My wife and I aren't huge eaters, so we like to split a main entree. Even though the menu threatened a $7.95 plate sharing charge, they didn't actually charge it. They also gave us a pass on the kids menu for our 13 year old (the menu says kids menu for under 9 only) The chef was uninspired, only putting in the motions it seems. The chef did forget our appetizer until the end after we questioned him about it. We also observed the older man/host with the limp yelling at the waitstaff in the back about silverware. Yelling doesn't motivate your team in the restaurant business. Your staff ends up hating you and talking about you on the other side of the restaurant (we saw that too) Overall, the fun energy that should be at one of these restaurants on a Saturday night just wasn't there. We did have some nice people at our table, so that was a positive. I'm tempted to drive another three miles next time and go to Benihana, or for sushi, Sushi Brokers.
(3)Jonathan B.
Had the exact same experience this past Friday as Heather N did in her review on 4/30/13. We had $60 in prepaid gift cards that we legally obtained by some third party vendor. We paid the bill with them, the waiter told us they didn't accept them any more. The owner came out and could not have been more unpleasant, told us this was our problem and that if we didn't pay she would call the police. Not sure what the problem was, but apparently they no longer accept them; fine, but we paid for the gift cards in the first place and probably obtained them before they changed the policy. The owner did offer us 10% of a discount, which the waiter actually had the gall to ask us if we really wanted taken off the bill. We said yes. He didn't honor. We were so distraught by the whole experience, we didn't tip. Not like me at all nor is complaining about a place, but the service was so horrendous and unacceptable, I feel no other alternative is possible. Nearly thought about contacting my credit card company to stop payment. Not a chance I would go back, nor would I ever recommend anyone going to this place. Wouldn't do anything to support this ownership. Not how you treat customers under any circumstance.
(1)Eric J.
spent 29.45 on roll and 2 sides of rice at 4.00 a piece. we were the only ones in the restaurant on Saturday night. server did not even know what sushi was. lack of knowledge. they cancelled reverse happy hour my crossing off with a sharpy. over priced everything
(1)joe l.
Saturday nite 6 pm only ones in restaurant. Literally. Atmosphere depressing, food overpriced and not very good. Chef didn't really know what he was doing, wine way too warm, just overall feeling of "blah". Waiter did good job. We give the over/under on closing at 6 months. Needs life injected.
(2)Taylor Momo J.
This is not your normal sushi restaurant. Their menu is limited and pricey. A piece of tempura broccoli had raw dough in it. The carrot had some random hard piece that almost broke my tooth in it. The sushi didn't seem very fresh. There were only two other parties in there on a Wednesday night. Fish may not be rotating often. Eat at your own risk. Waitress and waiter err very friendly and provided good service. Soy sauce dishes at table had stuck together due to some dirty residue. No side plate was provided with appetizer or sushi so it was awkward to eat without a place to set your sushi piece.My friend thought the green iced tea was not good. The regular iced tea was refreshing. No sugar at the table. Soy sauce mini pitcher was left at table where the lid was removable. This doesn't seem sanitary. The nigiri sushi pieces' sizes were able. Sushi rolls size as expected. Could not get happy hour process with Groupon. Disappointing. Overall, do not plan to return. I got this place confused with Sakana sushi which has three or four locations and that place is easily 5 stars. This place gets 3 because the service kept it from getting a 2.
(3)Andi B.
I was supper excited to try this place after it came highly recomended. Really cheap quality sushi at pricey rate. They use tons of fake crab in everything and cover it in a little bit of fish or avocado. Took forever for our food to come out, and we were there before the dinner crowed. The sushi at Frys is way better then this place, and faster too.
(1)Nicolette L.
Went on a whim Saturday night around 7PM after a movie at the Harkins. The space is large, bright and glossy, with female servers dressed in kimonos and a bizarre mix of instrumental music playing. There were only a few patrons when we came in, which was quite noticeable in the large space. Overall the combination was a little unsettling. We looked over the teppanyaki menu, and were a bit surprised at the prices which started at $20 a plate for steak and chicken. We asked the server about splitting one and ordering a side of rice, and he suggested getting a split plate for $7 more and a 1 and 3/4 portion so we went with that. It was therefore $30 for my husband and I to each get less than a full meal. First we each were brought a soup and salad. I did not like the soup in the least - it was extremely powerful with flavors of smoke and pepper and killed my taste buds with one sip. They really should warn you it's nothing like the miso soup it resembles. The salad was crisp, cold and fresh. We had to wait a while for our main dish, and when it finally arrived it wasn't what we ordered. We were brought filet and shrimp instead of filet and chicken. We waited a bit too long for the food to come back corrected to find the shrimp replaced with steaming hot chicken (good) with everything else now luke warm (including the filet). The quality and flavor of the food was really good. The filet mignon was tender, flavorful and cooked just right as were the chicken and veggies. Overall atmosphere, food and service were too much of a rollercoaster for me, especially for the prices, which is a shame because I actually really enjoyed the main dish. Not sure I'll come back.
(3)vanessa m.
I absolutely love and know good sushi, and this was not. The rolls were small with lots of rice and very little fish. For a table of multiple people they put wasabi and ginger on only one plate! The service was terrible to say the least. Rude and was only there when she was not needed and never there when she was. The price did not match the quality.
(1)Jake B.
Went here with a group of six people, with reservations for a Saturday night. We were seated right away, but there was clearly no need for reservations as there were several empty tables. The table next to us was having their food cooked, and nobody seemed to be excited or enjoying it. It soon became clear why this was the case. Our waitress came to the table once, after we sat there for about 20 minutes. She took our order, then brought a salad for each of us after another 10 minutes. We never saw her again until the end of the meal, when we had to ask someone for our checks. The chef came to start cooking, and we had to ask for our soup, which had of course not been brought out by the waitress. One couple had ordered a sushi roll, which also had not been delivered so they cancelled that. The food was not particularly good. The filets were all cooked to medium well, no matter how they were ordered. On the other hand, the shrimp did not seem to be cooked all the way. There were even items missing like a chicken breast, so the chef had to cook those at the very end. Since our waitress had not come back, we had to ask another person to refill the waters. This person was cleaning tables and had his hand in a bucket of what was presumably bleach water. He put that down, went to the back and started scooping ice into the pitcher without having time to wash his hands. We did not drink the water after it was delivered. When we were leaving, we told the owner about our problems with the meal and the terrible service. She offered us $10 off for our next visit (total for six people who just spent $150) and told us not to tell anyone about the problems we experienced. Don't worry, I won't tell. ;-)
(1)Tanya K.
Not impressed...Sushi rolls are small, lots of rice but barely have any fish; flavorless. We also ordered shrimp udon. Broth was somewhat sweet, udon noodles overcooked, tempura shrimp greasy. Our waiter was nice. Way overpriced for the quality of food. Not coming back, waste of money.
(1)Sandy B.
We were recommended to this restaurant by friends that are foodies and we are food snobs, for sure! The food was top quality and the service was great too. Having a business of our own ( and having read some previous revues) there may be some glitches when you are getting yourself together and people should be more tolerant. Ive gone there 4 times a week after working out at Lifetime fitness as its the perfect compliment to your exercise routine. If you have a legitimate problem the owners really aim to please and have their heart in their business. Lets keep great businesses in our community and not be so quick to criticize; the restaurant business is very hard work with extreme hours.
(5)Ben S.
It was terrible. The service was slow and the hibachi chef did not seem like he wanted to be there. The family sitting next to me and my parents asked the chef to do tricks and he barely did any and that is the whole point of going to a place like this. Very expensive and not worth your time.
(1)Haley H.
I was really impressed with this place. Even though it's brand new, I think it's going to be a huge hit. The food was delicious, very competitively priced, and the owners were kind enough to be present and take the time to chat with us. I had the spicy tuna roll (my very fave, and I've never had one better) and the Superman roll, which was new to me. Needless to say, I'll be back for that. It's an easy to hold, easy to eat, eel sauce covered sushi dynamo! The owner came by to check on us and have a little chat, the server was very friendly, and the onion soup (which is $1.50, btw) was a really great way to start out the meal. I'm a fan, and I'll be back. Where I would have spent $100 at Sushi Brokers for a mediocre meal and a few drinks, I can hit this place up for fab sushi, a great atmosphere, and a smaller check ;)
(5)Chloe B.
We've visited Sakura twice since it's opening, and have been very impressed both times. The food is outstanding and the service is top notch. Highly recommended!
(4)Mary K.
Was not impressed. My cali roll had so little cucumber in it that there was no crunch at all when I chewed. That's not good news for anybody. Also the menu said each roll was 6 pcs and really there were 8, so I ordered more food than I would have if I had known that an 8 pc roll was coming. Annoying. Also of the 3 TV's I spotted while I was sitting, each was playing a different INFOMERCIAL. wtf? My friend really seemed to like her specialty roll though and the server Kiera was nice.
(3)Samantha H.
Went for a birthday dinner on a Thursday night. Staff was very welcoming and nice. Kids loved the teppanyaki dinner and the food was fabulous. 8yrs. old son said it was the best restaurant. Fried rice was fluffy and not overly spiced. The meat was very tender and the seafood was perfectly cooked. Never had to wait for service, the waitress was very attentive and understanding with the kids. Can't wait to go back, will be bringing the grandparents as well.
(5)Monica L.
We went there for lunch and it was delicious! Very well priced too. The fish is fresh and the rolls are big and not all rice, like many other sushi places. The service was OK, they only had one server, so it took a while for her to take our order, but once we put it in, the rolls came out right away. The owner came up to our table and talked to us for a little while. I really enjoyed this place and will definitely come back!
(4)Frank R.
Best sushi in area. Once they get the right service, this place will grow on word of mouth.
(5)Azmom P.
Fantastic food and service! Nice atmosphere and very friendly :). Tried the rolls and went back for the Teppanyaki and the steak and chicken is tender and delicious. Great to have a great japanese place in North Phoenix/ Scottsdale. YAY!!!
(5)Heather N.
I just had the most bizarre and disturbing experience at this place. Tuesday night. The restaurant had one table with 10 people, one couple at the sushi bar, otherwise completely empty. Went in with our two young kids to have teppanyaki.. The chef was friendly enough but not much of a show. The steak was good but the scallop was over done and salty. My daughter's udon came so salty that we had to send it back, it wasn't edible after adding an entire glass of water. The soup base was as if it came from the bottom of the barrel and they sent it out anyways since it was only going out to a 7yr. kid? so they thought, I think. They did get right the second time. The server's reaction was, oh too salty, as if it happened many times before. Even though the restaurant was empty, we had to ask for our water couple of times. The server was friendly enough but not stellar service. Ok, that's that part of it. The most bizarre part came when the check came. We had a prepaid value card worth 80 dollars. The waiter came and said that they wouldn't honor it. Then the owner came over, flipped her hand at us and said they won't honor and it's our problem. Of course we paid for the meal with 20% tip and left. However, after some thought, we just felt that the situation was so grossly mishandled that we went back to the restaurant to talk to the owner again about the situation. She was very rude and said that it was our problem and that this happened many times before. As customers, we would just like for them to acknowledge the situation and oh, I don't know, do some diplomatic approaches and may be apologize but stay firm.... instead, she started yelling and saying that it was our problem, huh? Ever heard of customer service? Geesh. Don't know how this mediocre at best restaurant with incompetent owners will survive with so much competition out there. Ok, off my soap box now, just sayin'!
(1)Vince R.
Great food and great service! The lobster roll was awesome! Ask for Carlos for a waiter and you'll be set!
(5)Amanda L.
My husband and I went the day after Thanksgiving, and while it wasn't busy, it was really good. We sat at the teppen table, and that is what I got, but my husband ordered sushi and was really happy. Having lived in CA for years with awesome sushi, we have had a tough time finding good sushi here in AZ, but this place was good. The owner came to chat with us and thanked us for our business. We can walk to the place, so we will definitely be back!
(5)Dee W.
Service sucked and food was mediocre. We went on a weeknight to avoid crowds and there were only a few people in the restaurant - that should have been a clue! 4 people were seated at a teppanyaki table that sat 10-12 but the host said we had to have a reservation for teppanyaki. Later on the 2nd teppanyaki table opened up for two people. I have no idea why we were not permitted to sit at either teppanyaki table when they were mostly empty. Our service was awful! Ordering entrees over $25 each, I expect quality service. Rather than going around to the other side of the table, the waiter passed me my son's soup, salad and fork. Did not box our food after dinner and brought our check while chewing his own dinner! Food was just ok. I can get the same quality food at our neighborhood restaurant for 1/3 the price. And the iced tea tasted like instant tea. The entire experience was very disappointing!
(1)Tait B.
The Mrs. and I popped in here after seeing an ad for 20% off with our movie ticket. We always love these places and my wife loves to sit at the hibachi tables. We were seated and were the only people at the table. The waitress was awesome checking our drinks and if we liked everything often but not too much. The chef wasn't the greatest ever but he did a decent job. The show was a little rushed the volcano was prebuilt and we couldn't hear anything he said. On the other hand everything was cooked perfectly and tasted delicious. I had the steak and chicken and Mrs. Me had the chicken and shrimp. It was a little pricey but these places are usually so it wasn't a deal breaker. The steak was cooked exactly rare just like it should be. The chicken was cooked through but still juicy, which can be hard to do. The shrimp was awesome, buttery with just the right hint of lemon. We didn't try any sushi this time but it looked good and the sushi chef seemed very good at what he was doing. The restaurant was pretty and they had Men in Black on the TV which we enjoyed. We will definitely be back for sushi and more of that good hibachi.
(4)sean m.
Not too sure, but either most of the people on here haven't had good Sushi or they are a bunch of employees. The food here reminded me of Benihanas with worst service. The food had the quality typical of a chain (which it is) and the sushi was bland. We were hoping that whomever took over this place would come close to Ippei when it first started out, sadly it does not appear to be in the cards.
(2)Tooraj B.
We tried Sakura for the first time before the Movies. Great sushi and attitude. Fresh fish and cooperative sushi chefs. The happy hour prices are also very reasonable although limited menu. I noticed higher Teppanyaki prices but will try next time.
(4)Karrie B.
This restaurant is excellent! Have been there several times and they always exceed expectations. The food is delicious, have been there for sushi and teppanyaki and its always been great. It was very clean, the wait staff was wonderful as was the chef on our last visit. Price was great also and it was better than Benihanna. We will be coming back again and again.
(5)Jonathan B.
Had the exact same experience this past Friday as Heather N did in her review on 4/30/13. We had $60 in prepaid gift cards that we legally obtained by some third party vendor. We paid the bill with them, the waiter told us they didn't accept them any more. The owner came out and could not have been more unpleasant, told us this was our problem and that if we didn't pay she would call the police. Not sure what the problem was, but apparently they no longer accept them; fine, but we paid for the gift cards in the first place and probably obtained them before they changed the policy. The owner did offer us 10% of a discount, which the waiter actually had the gall to ask us if we really wanted taken off the bill. We said yes. He didn't honor. We were so distraught by the whole experience, we didn't tip. Not like me at all nor is complaining about a place, but the service was so horrendous and unacceptable, I feel no other alternative is possible. Nearly thought about contacting my credit card company to stop payment. Not a chance I would go back, nor would I ever recommend anyone going to this place. Wouldn't do anything to support this ownership. Not how you treat customers under any circumstance.
(1)B S.
Updated 9/4/14 Ugh ... SO DISAPPOINTED! We took our family for a birthday dinner and the beautiful restaurant and quality have died. I'm sorry to see what was once so promising make a steady decline. Yes, it was hot in the restaurant. Yes, the service was lacking and yes, the quality of the sushi has SERIOUSLY declined! The sushi bar wasn't even open on a Friday night! I'm sorry to say we will not be back and our children will certainly miss this restaurant.
(1)Debra W.
Found this place on Yelp and was pleasantly surprised to find high grade sushi, large portions, creative dishes from sushi chef Yeung, very pleasant service and great wine selection! Being a foodie who loves wine pairing and dines out 99.9% of the time, we finally found our twice weekly sushi place!
(5)Taylor Momo J.
This is not your normal sushi restaurant. Their menu is limited and pricey. A piece of tempura broccoli had raw dough in it. The carrot had some random hard piece that almost broke my tooth in it. The sushi didn't seem very fresh. There were only two other parties in there on a Wednesday night. Fish may not be rotating often. Eat at your own risk. Waitress and waiter err very friendly and provided good service. Soy sauce dishes at table had stuck together due to some dirty residue. No side plate was provided with appetizer or sushi so it was awkward to eat without a place to set your sushi piece.My friend thought the green iced tea was not good. The regular iced tea was refreshing. No sugar at the table. Soy sauce mini pitcher was left at table where the lid was removable. This doesn't seem sanitary. The nigiri sushi pieces' sizes were able. Sushi rolls size as expected. Could not get happy hour process with Groupon. Disappointing. Overall, do not plan to return. I got this place confused with Sakana sushi which has three or four locations and that place is easily 5 stars. This place gets 3 because the service kept it from getting a 2.
(3)Tait B.
The Mrs. and I popped in here after seeing an ad for 20% off with our movie ticket. We always love these places and my wife loves to sit at the hibachi tables. We were seated and were the only people at the table. The waitress was awesome checking our drinks and if we liked everything often but not too much. The chef wasn't the greatest ever but he did a decent job. The show was a little rushed the volcano was prebuilt and we couldn't hear anything he said. On the other hand everything was cooked perfectly and tasted delicious. I had the steak and chicken and Mrs. Me had the chicken and shrimp. It was a little pricey but these places are usually so it wasn't a deal breaker. The steak was cooked exactly rare just like it should be. The chicken was cooked through but still juicy, which can be hard to do. The shrimp was awesome, buttery with just the right hint of lemon. We didn't try any sushi this time but it looked good and the sushi chef seemed very good at what he was doing. The restaurant was pretty and they had Men in Black on the TV which we enjoyed. We will definitely be back for sushi and more of that good hibachi.
(4)Jake B.
Went here with a group of six people, with reservations for a Saturday night. We were seated right away, but there was clearly no need for reservations as there were several empty tables. The table next to us was having their food cooked, and nobody seemed to be excited or enjoying it. It soon became clear why this was the case. Our waitress came to the table once, after we sat there for about 20 minutes. She took our order, then brought a salad for each of us after another 10 minutes. We never saw her again until the end of the meal, when we had to ask someone for our checks. The chef came to start cooking, and we had to ask for our soup, which had of course not been brought out by the waitress. One couple had ordered a sushi roll, which also had not been delivered so they cancelled that. The food was not particularly good. The filets were all cooked to medium well, no matter how they were ordered. On the other hand, the shrimp did not seem to be cooked all the way. There were even items missing like a chicken breast, so the chef had to cook those at the very end. Since our waitress had not come back, we had to ask another person to refill the waters. This person was cleaning tables and had his hand in a bucket of what was presumably bleach water. He put that down, went to the back and started scooping ice into the pitcher without having time to wash his hands. We did not drink the water after it was delivered. When we were leaving, we told the owner about our problems with the meal and the terrible service. She offered us $10 off for our next visit (total for six people who just spent $150) and told us not to tell anyone about the problems we experienced. Don't worry, I won't tell. ;-)
(1)Tanya K.
Not impressed...Sushi rolls are small, lots of rice but barely have any fish; flavorless. We also ordered shrimp udon. Broth was somewhat sweet, udon noodles overcooked, tempura shrimp greasy. Our waiter was nice. Way overpriced for the quality of food. Not coming back, waste of money.
(1)Sandy B.
We were recommended to this restaurant by friends that are foodies and we are food snobs, for sure! The food was top quality and the service was great too. Having a business of our own ( and having read some previous revues) there may be some glitches when you are getting yourself together and people should be more tolerant. Ive gone there 4 times a week after working out at Lifetime fitness as its the perfect compliment to your exercise routine. If you have a legitimate problem the owners really aim to please and have their heart in their business. Lets keep great businesses in our community and not be so quick to criticize; the restaurant business is very hard work with extreme hours.
(5)Haley H.
I was really impressed with this place. Even though it's brand new, I think it's going to be a huge hit. The food was delicious, very competitively priced, and the owners were kind enough to be present and take the time to chat with us. I had the spicy tuna roll (my very fave, and I've never had one better) and the Superman roll, which was new to me. Needless to say, I'll be back for that. It's an easy to hold, easy to eat, eel sauce covered sushi dynamo! The owner came by to check on us and have a little chat, the server was very friendly, and the onion soup (which is $1.50, btw) was a really great way to start out the meal. I'm a fan, and I'll be back. Where I would have spent $100 at Sushi Brokers for a mediocre meal and a few drinks, I can hit this place up for fab sushi, a great atmosphere, and a smaller check ;)
(5)Chloe B.
We've visited Sakura twice since it's opening, and have been very impressed both times. The food is outstanding and the service is top notch. Highly recommended!
(4)Mary K.
Was not impressed. My cali roll had so little cucumber in it that there was no crunch at all when I chewed. That's not good news for anybody. Also the menu said each roll was 6 pcs and really there were 8, so I ordered more food than I would have if I had known that an 8 pc roll was coming. Annoying. Also of the 3 TV's I spotted while I was sitting, each was playing a different INFOMERCIAL. wtf? My friend really seemed to like her specialty roll though and the server Kiera was nice.
(3)Samantha H.
Went for a birthday dinner on a Thursday night. Staff was very welcoming and nice. Kids loved the teppanyaki dinner and the food was fabulous. 8yrs. old son said it was the best restaurant. Fried rice was fluffy and not overly spiced. The meat was very tender and the seafood was perfectly cooked. Never had to wait for service, the waitress was very attentive and understanding with the kids. Can't wait to go back, will be bringing the grandparents as well.
(5)Monica L.
We went there for lunch and it was delicious! Very well priced too. The fish is fresh and the rolls are big and not all rice, like many other sushi places. The service was OK, they only had one server, so it took a while for her to take our order, but once we put it in, the rolls came out right away. The owner came up to our table and talked to us for a little while. I really enjoyed this place and will definitely come back!
(4)Heather N.
I just had the most bizarre and disturbing experience at this place. Tuesday night. The restaurant had one table with 10 people, one couple at the sushi bar, otherwise completely empty. Went in with our two young kids to have teppanyaki.. The chef was friendly enough but not much of a show. The steak was good but the scallop was over done and salty. My daughter's udon came so salty that we had to send it back, it wasn't edible after adding an entire glass of water. The soup base was as if it came from the bottom of the barrel and they sent it out anyways since it was only going out to a 7yr. kid? so they thought, I think. They did get right the second time. The server's reaction was, oh too salty, as if it happened many times before. Even though the restaurant was empty, we had to ask for our water couple of times. The server was friendly enough but not stellar service. Ok, that's that part of it. The most bizarre part came when the check came. We had a prepaid value card worth 80 dollars. The waiter came and said that they wouldn't honor it. Then the owner came over, flipped her hand at us and said they won't honor and it's our problem. Of course we paid for the meal with 20% tip and left. However, after some thought, we just felt that the situation was so grossly mishandled that we went back to the restaurant to talk to the owner again about the situation. She was very rude and said that it was our problem and that this happened many times before. As customers, we would just like for them to acknowledge the situation and oh, I don't know, do some diplomatic approaches and may be apologize but stay firm.... instead, she started yelling and saying that it was our problem, huh? Ever heard of customer service? Geesh. Don't know how this mediocre at best restaurant with incompetent owners will survive with so much competition out there. Ok, off my soap box now, just sayin'!
(1)Vince R.
Great food and great service! The lobster roll was awesome! Ask for Carlos for a waiter and you'll be set!
(5)Amanda L.
My husband and I went the day after Thanksgiving, and while it wasn't busy, it was really good. We sat at the teppen table, and that is what I got, but my husband ordered sushi and was really happy. Having lived in CA for years with awesome sushi, we have had a tough time finding good sushi here in AZ, but this place was good. The owner came to chat with us and thanked us for our business. We can walk to the place, so we will definitely be back!
(5)Dee W.
Service sucked and food was mediocre. We went on a weeknight to avoid crowds and there were only a few people in the restaurant - that should have been a clue! 4 people were seated at a teppanyaki table that sat 10-12 but the host said we had to have a reservation for teppanyaki. Later on the 2nd teppanyaki table opened up for two people. I have no idea why we were not permitted to sit at either teppanyaki table when they were mostly empty. Our service was awful! Ordering entrees over $25 each, I expect quality service. Rather than going around to the other side of the table, the waiter passed me my son's soup, salad and fork. Did not box our food after dinner and brought our check while chewing his own dinner! Food was just ok. I can get the same quality food at our neighborhood restaurant for 1/3 the price. And the iced tea tasted like instant tea. The entire experience was very disappointing!
(1)Ben S.
It was terrible. The service was slow and the hibachi chef did not seem like he wanted to be there. The family sitting next to me and my parents asked the chef to do tricks and he barely did any and that is the whole point of going to a place like this. Very expensive and not worth your time.
(1)Bill M.
Disappointed. Farhers Day dinner service was slow (the bartender served us despite wait staff on floor, the guy did his best, but eh). The prices are Scottsdale high. But all 5 of us were unimpressed with food quality and flavor. Ahi sashimi was delicate and tasty, thus the 2nd star. Sushi was meager for the price. Too many good sushi/teppanyaki restaurants out there to be wasting your time here.
(2)vanessa m.
I absolutely love and know good sushi, and this was not. The rolls were small with lots of rice and very little fish. For a table of multiple people they put wasabi and ginger on only one plate! The service was terrible to say the least. Rude and was only there when she was not needed and never there when she was. The price did not match the quality.
(1)Amanda M.
Worst service i have ever experienced. Not even worth one star!! We went because of the groupon - not worth it. We waited over an hour for our food, the order was wrong, never refilled our drinks. We complained to the manager who rolled his eyes then asked to speak to us outside.... Like we were in trouble. Will never be going back!!
(1)Chris M.
Stop searching and just go. Now. Order the sunset roll and fall in love with it like I did. So perfect to get some sushi and then head into the Harkins 101 for a movie. Love it.
(5)Lindsey B.
Mediocrity at it's best. The service was so-so and the quality of the food was pathetic. For the price of dinners at teppan restaurants, you expect high quality and that is not what we got here :(
(2)Mihaela C.
I tried to go there tonight and right when we parked and got out of the car, their flashing open sign goes out. We got there at 8pm as their website and store hours listed on their front door advertises that they close at 10pm!!! Maybe it's time they updated their website and sign on the front door. I would have liked to have eaten there tonight as we were in the area but I won't be coming back since they don't like to stay open till the time they advertise.
(1)Adrian R.
We came in on a Saturday night and we had the most absolutely awesome experience. We sat in the teppanyaki grills and our server got a wonderful sake sampler of all the sakes they carry. And our appetizer where a salad and soups and shiitake mushroom with crab where delicious. After 15-20 minutes the chef came out and cook us very delicious steaks and shrimp and veggies with fried rice and also he was very entertaining:) me and my family will be back.
(4)Steve K.
Will keep this short and sweet. "Don't Go".
(1)Jen B.
I don't usually write a review of a restaurant, unless it's stellar or completely awful. Unfortunately, when it comes to Sakura, it's the latter. My boyfriend and I decided to give this place a go, for a nice Friday night dinner. We are sushi lovers, so we were excited for a good meal. Our order was wrong, twice, and on the third attempt we told the server to just forget our last order. The sushi was subpar, and we were jokingly saying to one another, "well, I sure hope we don't get sick!" The miso soup was absolutely terrible. Carrots, celery & onion...in miso? Never in my 25+ years of sushi eating have I seen this...for good reason. Note to self: when a sushi restaurant can't get something so simple as miso right, you should probably skip the rest of the meal. Needless to say, we will never go back.
(1)Desert D.
If it were possible to rate a zero, I would have. Let's start in the parking lot... 15, 1 hour parking spots right in front of the restaurant. What kind of eatery wants their patrons there for only 1 hour? Walked into a near empty dining room where we waited at an unstaffed host stand. The manager seated us after waiting for a bit and handed us a grease pencil to order our sushi on a laminated menu that he some dishes taped over. Real classy. Speaking of menus, the happy hour menu had the hours crossed out with a sharpie... Yikes times must be tough. 10 minutes after being seated, we he already decided what to order and marked up our sushi selections and the server finally made it over for our first greeting. Asked for a tito's and soda, to which she replied, we don't have Tito's. (It was listed as a choice on the scratched out happy hour menu) No joke, another 10 minutes went by and our water hadn't made it to the table, nor my cocktail. While waiting, we observed the table next to us send all of their food back as it was not to their liking and could only fear what was coming for us. Waitress finally came with our waters after all this and asked if we wanted our soups before everything else. Really? Shouldn't they have been there already? And is there even a bartender working, no cocktail in sight. Needless to say, we couldn't do it and had to leave after being there for over 20 minutes and only had 2 interactions with staff and all we had were waters!!! Close your doors Sakura. If you can't staff for a Friday night, you shouldn't staff at all.
(1)Roxy H.
Last night my boyfriend and I were headed out to go see a movie and wanted a quick bite to eat before, I am a sushi junkie so we decided to try Sakura Sushi. We walked in and were seated very quickly but that was really where the positive ended in our experience. We ordered both a meal from the dinner menu - The Kalbi Beef, we were charged a split plate charge when we never requested it (an additional $7.95), the beef was dry and beyond salty. We then ordered items from their sushi menu, All of which were okay, typical california sushi, not very high quality. We were waiting for additional food items to be served when our waitress comes over and asks us if we are ready for our check when half of our food hadn't been delivered. We asked her if the rest of our food was going to be delivered, and about 5 minutes later everything else was delivered. It was obvious that she had made a mistake and I wish she would have acknowledged it, to make matters worse the wait staff just kept pushing our dirty dishes to the side of the table never clearing the dirty dishes as more food came to our table. Service was beyond poor, which was disappointing since our meal was over $100.00
(1)Supersweet B.
Went to Sakura for lunch very hungry after looking for another sushi place that is located in the same plaza (GPS threw me off). Went in anyway and the entry area was very dirty. The place is pretty large and not one customer was in the joint. Also, I could smell old spoiled fish. I should have turned around at that point, but I didn't. Nobody was at the hostess desk to greet me. I gave it a few minutes and decided to look around the wall and saw an elderly man watching soccer and a young lady standing at the bar. I said, "Hello" so they would notice I was there and a guy that appeared to be the chef came out from the kitchen and seemed shocked that I came there for lunch. At that point the senior and lady turned around and also seemed shocked that I was there to eat. The chef sat me at a table so that I could watch soccer. Wait...I came for sushi not a tournament. I ordered iced green tea. Now that I was sitting closer to the kitchen, clearly something smelled terrible. Then I noticed a body laying down on several chairs at the sushi bar. Was someone intoxicated? Turns out there must have not been a babysitter available to keep the child who was napping at the sushi bar. At this point I decided to leave and save myself a night of sleeping on the toilet. I told the waitress/bartender that I had to leave and she asked if I wanted the tea to go. I agreed and gave her $20 for a $2.79 green tea. All of a sudden none of the staff knew where the change was kept. It took 10 minutes to get change. And, the incorrect change at that. I have to tell the waitress how much change she owed me. I know cash isn't used often, but waitstaff still needs to know how to count. The cup of tea leaked from the bottom into my console cupholder so I have no Idea how the tea taste. Probably a good thing. Headed over to the other sushi place in the same plaza--Yoshi Bento!
(1)Tyler B.
Been sitting here for 40 min for a bowl of udon and one sushi role. Coupled with the fact that this place is tough to find or see from mayo... Food finally got there. Udon was ok but roll had sauce that was just straight mayonnaise. Not quick, not cheap, and more trouble than it's worth Cleaning chemical on hosted stand while I waited was nice to look at
(2)Bryan K.
Very expensive and very average sushi. I love sushi. I eat sushi all the time. This place is charging $13 for special rolls that are nothing close to special. I won't be coming back here simply because I know what good sushi tastes like and how much I should be paying for it. A rookie sushi eater might live this place. I was not impressed and know of way better places like Masa in Gilbert. Way good sushi.
(3)Jennifer M.
Even after the mediocre reviews, we decided to give this place a try. Sat night, 8:45pm, place was NOT BUSY. We waited, waited and waited at the hostess stand...a waiter grabbed something from the hostess stand, said hello. He didn't even flag anyone down to seat us! ...Then we did more waiting. I saw what looked like the hostess arguing with someone at the sushi bar... She finally looked over but it was too late. We made up our mind to leave. We were out the door walking to our car, when the hostess came out from the restaurant and asked if she could help us! By that time, our mind was made up...This is not a place we want to dine at! First impressions are EVERYTHING and that was a BAD first impression. After reading all the other reviews, Good Luck Sakura...I hope you work on your customer service, or you won't be around much longer.
(1)Su-shien C.
After you read my review, you might be laughing so hard and pee in your pants. Not kidding. My son and I decided to come here after volunteering at Tranquility Trail Sanctuary and it was at the Sakura parking lot that I realized I had left my purse/wallet back at the sanctuary. Luckily, I had my iPhone so I was able to pull up the Groupon we were going to use for this meal. But I didn't know if Groupon would be enough to cover the meal so you guessed it, I was digging in the seats and pulling out all the emergency bills and pennies. I went into the restaurant cause my son was hungry and looking forward to the sushi and I did not want to disappoint him. What can I say, I'm a bit of a softie. So I asked the waitress what the Groupon covered and my dilemma and not surprisingly because there are so many cool and nice people in the world, the waitress said don't worry about it. The chick was the bomb! Full of understanding and general good vibes. Thanks to her, my son who is 8 happily ordered what he wanted (I did not eat I felt so mortified) and even though I did not have enough money to give this waitress a tip and promised to come back the next day to give her a tip, she graciously told me it was not necessary and still happily served us. It was really incredible. Unfortunately, I was so mortified about not being able to leave her a tip that I did not remember to note her name to give her credit here. In case the management is reading this review, she had long, black hair with bangs. Know what a great person you have working for you! XO
(5)Laura H.
I really really hate to do this because I hope it was an off night (but reading reviews I'm not so sure). We were supposed to go somewhere else, but from the outside it got my attention so we switched to here. I walked in first and thought the restaurant was closed. It was awkwardly dark. No one in the front. No one at the bar. 3 people sitting at the sushi bar. An older man came over to seat me. The waitress came up and it was obvious from the first minute she had no idea what she was doing. Throughout the entire meal she was pretty much brain dead. I feel so bad saying this but she was probably the worst served I've had in years. Trying to get a drink was so painful that when it came to me wrong I didn't even want to attempt to get what I ordered. She didn't know the menu and couldn't give any suggestions. We all ordered sushi. It wasn't the worst I've ever had, but not good by any means. The salmon was a weird texture. It tasted very low quality or old. The positive is there were some different rolls on the menu. Price was high for drinks but sushi was pretty average, but when you factor in the fish quality it would be high. I don't know why I keep trying to find something better than sushi brokers and every time I'm disappointed. I hope the owners read these reviews and do something drastic to fix this restaurant or else I can't imagine it will last another month or two.
(1)Randy D.
Food was good. Service was terrible. No one greeted us. We sat ourselves. When we did get service the sushi chef read our order back to us. He did not make everything on our list and disappeared. When we finally flagged someone down we asked to cancel the order. The sushi chef blamed a server even though we were sitting at the sushi bar. No one really apologized or did anything for us. We even had to wait several minutes for someone to run our card. First and last time for this place...
(2)Frankie S.
I could have absolutely sworn that I had already written a review about Sakura, but it seems that my former review has magically disappeared! So I can't speak to the quality of the food, because after 20 minutes we were never even once approached for our order - but I will likely never be returning to find out! We stopped in at 8pm one evening after a movie with a party of six. It took about 10 minutes of standing awkwardly in the foyer before I finally flagged down one of the four employees sitting at the bar and asked to be seated. A nice lady promptly brought us water and then was never to be heard from again. I kept glancing back over at the bar hoping someone would catch my drift, but after 20 minutes we just gave up and walked over to Red Robin. Too bad.
(1)Jamie R.
We went here for dinner on a Sunday evening and were very disappointed. We ordered the teriyaki chicken and chose to pay the extra $7.95 to share a single plate, since we didn't want leftovers. First we received our soups and salads. The soup was fine, typical mushroom soup. The salad was drenched in a very intense and salty dressing. I like a lot of dressing but it was so salty I couldn't finish my salad. The teriyaki chicken was served with fried rice and steamed veggies. It was all incredibly bland. Not what I expected at all. Worst Japanese food I've ever had, and not the cheapest either! Not worth the prices they charge at all.
(1)Bao H.
I really wanted to give this place more stars, but honestly is more important. The place itself is well dressed. Very modern Japanese style. Felt like I was supposed to be ready to fight Lucy Liu in Kill Bill! I guess what I'm trying to say is the place is beautiful and well laid out. I can't say the same for the food. It was lunch time and I wanted to try the Chicken Liver, but they discontinued it because not enough people ordered it. Don't you people watch Andrew Zimmern!? You call yourselves foodies!!! Anyways, the next thing I asked was how was the Shrimp Flambé? Waiter: "it's just shrimp, sautéed", well I appreciate the honesty, but wow that's not a good way to sell me anything even if you think it's awesome! Pass! I'll stick with the Bento Box lunch special -- I went with the "D", which came was sashimi, gyoza, BBQ ribs, spicy tuna rolls, and white rice. Sashimi was my favorite cause well like the waiter expressed; it is what it is. The gyoza was okay, but definitely right out of the freezer. The BBQ ribs were way too salty and burnt! The spicy tuna rolls (see sashimi). I think they had decent white rice. Overall, not a great experience, but I can appreciate them trying. If anything I'll stop by for HH and order a couple of drinks, but I'll pass on the food for now. - Enjoy!
(1)Frank R.
Best sushi in area. Once they get the right service, this place will grow on word of mouth.
(5)Azmom P.
Fantastic food and service! Nice atmosphere and very friendly :). Tried the rolls and went back for the Teppanyaki and the steak and chicken is tender and delicious. Great to have a great japanese place in North Phoenix/ Scottsdale. YAY!!!
(5)Vanessa N.
I've never really had a bad experience at a teppenyaki restaurant before. Each has their own flair and characteristics that make them stand out from the rest. But this place, this place was repulsive! We walked in and saw a family of three sitting at a teppenyaki table. No drinks or appetizers had been placed at their table yet so we thought we scored on getting a seat at a table right away. But alas, they told us, their order had already been placed. Next table wouldn't be available for 20 minutes. Ok, that's fine, so we sat at a regular table. We ordered some iced tea and gyozas to start off. Tea was horrible to say the least. Gyozas seemed like they were frost bitten but the sweet sauce covered any ill flavorings. At the advice of the server, I ordered The Godfather roll. Now it wasn't too shabby, but for 13 bucks, I expected a little more flair, but it came out slightly boring. But thats when I noticed someone go over to that family of 3 and start taking their order. So much for already having put their order in!!! Wth?! Onward to the entrees. Now where do I begin... Tonight, they were offering a special on steak dinners which should have been a red flag, but I couldn't help but think BOGO?! Hell yea!! When our soups and salads came out, oh my, were they bad. The soup seemed to be the bottom of the stock. It was way too overpoweringly salty, cloudy, and just down right disgusting. Salad, I'm not a big fan of salads served at Asian resturaunts, so I don't have anything to compare to, but my husband said it was just as bad as the soup. After waiting what seemed like an eternity, our food finally arrived. And it was COVERED in pepper. I mean, drenched. Now, I love pepper. More than the average person, but that was intense. The fried rice lacked any depth in flavor, I mean, besides the pepper. The steak was tough and also fatty and held no flavor. The veggies, you can't go wrong with veggies right?! Wrong! Now, I don't make it a habit to spit food out at a table, but that was so raunchy, it came right out. It was so over salted, holy Hell. The shrimp was frost bitten and over cooked. Oh man, Our meal was such a miserable mess. And to top it off, service was sub par. The server wasn't bad, but the place was so understaffed, it was hard for her to keep up. And sadly, it wasn't all that busy, so I really don't know who to be mad at. Regardless, we won't be back. Sad way to start my weekend.
(1)Jared S.
Went here for lunch after a movie and I must say, the food isn't really that great and it's pretty expensive. I ordered veggie tempura which was friend to hell! Tempura is supposed to be light and crispy, this looks like there was too much batter or something on it. I also ordered an avocado roll, which was nothing special. The seaweed was exceptionally salty. My friend got some chicken dish that was almost $25 and he said it was just ok. His Sprite also had no syrup in it. For the price they charge I would rate the food a 4/10.
(2)Joan R.
We went in for lunch and had the lunch special for $10.95. We could choose 3 items. I had edename, tempura prawns and veggies and dumplings (gyoza). My husband had teriyaki chicken strips, tempura and dumplings. We enjoyed both of our lunches. Usually we go to Ah So or PF Changs in Happy Valley.
(4)Mike O.
Long looking N-scotts for excellent (and value-priced) sushi and teppanyaki. Unfortunately after a year, Sakura is still off to a slow start. * angus beef grilled from kitchen or at your teppanyaki table is by far your best bet. great flavor and good quality beef! * beautifully hand-painted wall decor and carefully selected furnishings make this a one-of-a-kind and classy spot * great spot for your pre- or post-cine capri jam, especially if you love American-"Japanese" (could we say "Cal-Jap"?) rolls. I wish I could end the review there, but if I did, I would not be telling it like it is. Owners are such wonderful people are very well meaning, but the consistency and organization is just (still) not there yet. !!! Please send your proud and stubborn kitchen chef off to west bell road where he belongs. He will cost you your business !!! I just want (and will pay for) the best quality and freshest fish. Anything less I will send back. # overstocked food + rotation = the food which is actually served is never fresh. who are you saving it for?! # garde manger fridges are too cold -- are the prep dishes uncovered, I wonder? -- salad mixes are always just about to or just succumbing to frostbite # sushi fish is rarely fresh. wednesday is delivery day. with rotating stock, you still have to fight for the fresh stuff. # blechy seaweed, squid and octopus salds served in martini glasses. STOP THAT, GODDAMIT. Martini glasses are for martinis! They stink! HOW can you serve me that old and decaying $#@! ? ## fried rice does not have corn kernels, mini carrot spheres or peas. stop that. there is no corn in japan. ## powdered black pepper is dangerous in large quantities. it can be (and was) accidentally inhaled and is very painful ## freezer-burned shrimp for fried rice is over-peppered, dry and rubbery # lunch service almost always understaffed. one time, it was the poor guy's first day and there was no host, no manager, no floor manager, no barman and no busser. he did a great job of selling the 4 of us on draught beers, but the keg ran out after the 2nd glass. we (and the other tables, and our food at the pass, and the 2 four-tops who came in and then left when no one was there to greet them) waited for 10 minutes for him to reappear. what a shame! i tried very hard to recruit away master chef hiromasa kyodasan from that hellhole (and double-x blacklist) abyss to the south which shall not be named, but it didn't work out.
(2)Star S.
Well, if you've never been to Teppan this could be a fun experience. Unfortunately, it's the exact same show from each Teppan chef at every table. Tossing an egg around, making a choo choo train from the onion and tossing pieces of shrimp into people's mouths (or in their faces as im that happened to two people in our group. Their prices are ridiculous and be prepared to spend a lot of money. They use frozen Gyoza ($7 for a bag of 50 or so) and charge $8-$9 for 5 of them. The service is slow and the waitresses talk crap about their tables (including yours) in another language. Getting drinks takes quite some time so I would normally recommend going to the bar, but that would depend on who's bartending. The music is fun and the patio is great!! The happy hour isn't too bad either.
(3)David E.
Wow. Worst experience at a sushi place ever. When we returned the salmon egg because it ran down the side of the seaweed like snot and the sweet egg my 10 yr old ordered was frozen in the middle, the chef laughed at us. Never again !!
(1)Jen H.
I've never written a review on yelp, but I couldn't help myself tonight. We should've know we were in for it when at prime time on a Friday night, we were the only table occupied in the entire restaurant. The service was beyond terrible. Everything was slow and no one bothered to clear our dishes as we ate. Once our dishes reached volcano height the chef stacked them on someone else's table. The sushi we ordered was delivered without part of the ingredients. When we inquired about this the server responded, "oh he doesn't make it like that". Apparently the menu was mistaken. While I was hoping for a late comeback during the tepan potion of the dinner, I was again disappointed. The chef let the grill get too hot...perhaps it was because midway through the cooking he asked for a sprite which he promptly starting spiking with the sake from his food cart that he drank out of a styrofoam bucket. Classy...due to the overheated grill all of the food was burnt and overdone. Overall a very disappointing experience. By far the worst tepan I've ever had. We will not be returning.
(1)Mike G.
Good good spoiled by penny pinching on the air conditioning. Enjoyed it but when your shirt is stuck to seat back it sort of takes the edge off. It's fairly high priced as well which you'd think would pay for the air conditioning. Even the poor young waiter who was otherwise doing a good job had sweat streaming down his face. Deb loved the scallops and the rainbow rolls. We won't be back.
(3)Corey M.
So here goes.. Like some other reviewers, I have never had a bad experience going for teppenyaki ... but, what a disaster. So, we made a reservation for 6pm, and when we made it, the person taking the call made it sound like they were so busy, with limited availability. When we arrived, the restaurant was virtually empty, and with a scour (arriving at literally 6.01) the hostess snarled "we've been waiting for you".. Got to the table, at 6.02, and there were 2 other people waiting, I joked.. Sorry to keep you guys waiting. They laughed, but the last laugh was on us, because there were another 6 people joining our table with a 6.15 reservation. I ordered a drink, neat... when it arrived, there was a piece of something floating in the glass. I very quietly asked the hostess/manager as I'm learning to replace the drink. She took it back to the owner of the restaurant, and the chef, who inspected the glass, and discussed it.. then nothing. The waiter came over around 10 minutes later (we were all wondering what was going on at the table.. there was a mix of frustration and silliness because of how disorganized the place was).. No apology, the waiter asked if I would like something else.. I said sure, how about the same in a clean glass? (in a nice way).. Anyway, here is a summary of it all.. Food was really a 1/5, Took 50 minutes just to see food coming to the table? (this is cut up vegetables, and proportioned meat?) 1. my daughters chicken was placed on the grill frozen, and came like rubber. 2. The salad was ripped out of a bag, with some sub par Japanese dresing 3. The steak, was over cooked (even though we asked for it prepared rare 4. The salmon was fishy, and lacked any real flavor other than old stale fish. Bill comes, I was double charged for the drink, and the waiter out of his pocket took out the $5 saying he would have to pay. (go figure, I hand a dirty glass to the manager, and the poor guy has to pay)... Anyway, this place was better a couple years ago.. now its just awful (food, service you name it)... I do recommend looking elsewhere.
(1)Andrea H.
My husband and I were on a date for a belated Valentine's Day. We had tickets to go see Varekai at us airways at 7:30. We arrived at Sakuras at 5:00, thinking we had left ourselves enough time to be entertained, have dinner and get to our real show with enough time to find parking, get through the ticket gate and find our seats. OMG were we wrong, 45 minutes later the guy who cooks the food still hadn't turned up. We finally jut got up, asked our waitress for our check and left. It's absolutely ridiculous to expect some one to pay around 30 dollars per plate and make them wait an hour before they can actually eat their food. You might think "oh, well maybe they were busy", when we walked in there were only three other couples in the entire place. The Sakura's in Flagstaff is 100% more classy and professional.
(1)John F.
Their service was pretty good and they were always seeing if we needed anything or if the food was good which is never a bad thing. Maybe a little excess of attention since maybe asking customers if everything is fine every 5 minutes is too much? But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt since there was only a family and my table at the time so it was pretty much a ghost town on a weeknight. The atmosphere is a bit awkward since it seemed liked we were being watched by the servers. They were missing background music because it was too quiet. We decided to eat the teriyaki chicken shared plate which provided soup, salad, and shrimp or wontons I believe as well as additional rice and entree. The mushroom soup was meh and my date didn't like it. The salad was good for the most part if pre-mixed with it's spicy tangy dressing, too much dressing and the taste becomes too strong. The main meal was pretty good with the shrimp, rice, veggies, and chicken. The meal tasted good with the exception that we wished the chicken was more moist and came with teriyaki sauce. The fried rice was all right but it's nothing too special. Overall, this place can work to satisfy that hunger but it's not special or unique to come back to again especially for the price. Maybe because it's Scottsdale?
(3)ryan a.
Great location, decor and that is where it stops. Lunch service was lacking in terms of water and bringing out the food without mistakes. The lunch took over an hour and the staff were unapologetic about the lack of service. The manager did try to make things right for lack of fried rice by offering some alternative appetizers but what Asian eatery fails to prepare enough fried rice? The food once served was great but the service and attitude / non attentiveness of the management was offensive especially given the location and crowd that eats in this part of town...
(1)Mike B.
We tried the teppanyaki tables today, we had a party of six, the food was great as well as the service. The owners of this restaurant have to be the nicest restaurant owners I have ever met, they are very friendly. Hope to see the kimonos back on the ladies soon, they were very elegant, even though some people thought they were pajamas! very satisfied with food, service and prices, we will be back often,
(5)Joy M.
First of all there is an awful sewage smell as you enter the restaurant. It is even worse in the bathroom. How can anyone enjoy their dinner when smelling sewage constantly? Soup came out barely warm. Salad had no dressing on it. Food was very bland and almost tasted like cafeteria food. The servers are very slow and take forever to bring you your drinks. There are way better teppanyaki restaurants in the area for the same price with much better service and tastier food. The owner really needs to work on his customer service skills and do sometrhing to get rid of the sewage smell or else his business will go downhill very fast. Would never recommend this place or go back again.
(1)David M.
This place needs better management. The food took a while to come out. Our server said there was only one chef and apologized. He did try hard to please us and gave us a free starter. Nice atmosphere. Food was very good. Not likely to go back due the overall poor service however.
(3)Stormi F.
YUMMY! We had the filet and chicken tepanyaki, it was outstanding! Our server was very attentive, I appreciate that. We started out with onion shoyu soup, very tasty. I always have this vision of dirty dishwater when I think of Asian soups, this was far from it. Simple flavors but delicious and warming. Our chef was gracious enough to allow me to take photos while he prepared our meal, it was a show for sure! The veggies were tender and grilled to perfection. The filet was tender, flavorful and prepared just how we asked. The chicken had a glazed exterior and juicy interior, just how it should be. We chose the fried lobster Cali roll. I am not a fan of sushi but I would've consumed the entire plate had I not been sitting next to my boyfriend who is just as big a foodie as I am! The spicy mayo and eel sauce complimented each other drizzled over the succulent lobster. The presentation was beautiful, very important since we eat with our eyes first. Next time I think we could share the combo filet/chicken along with the sushi, we certainly had leftovers. The foliage inside is a little strange but it's clean, quiet and not bustling with loud teenagers or screaming little ones. No offense I have 3 of my own but it was nice to eat in a peaceful soothing environment. We will visit again to try out other menu items, that's a given. Sakura is certainly worth a try!
(5)Ann S.
Sakura has a really nice happy hour. I feel like no one knows about this place. We go on Friday for happy hour and get in and out, which I don't mind because I usually have my two children with me. There is something on the menu for everyone. They have tepenyaki too. Will definitley be back
(3)Patreesha G.
Stopped in on a Sunday afternoon for an early dinner/happy hour. Let me start by saying our waiter Patrick was AWESOME and attentive. Prices were fair on the Happy Hour menu but not a lot to pick from. This is the 2nd time I've been there and the owner sits in the back of the restaurant (always eating) and always looking very angry. The wife of the owner is nothing but rude. Never once said hi and yells at the employees in front of customers. OMG!! Let me say it again - our waiter was awesome and it was really the only reason why we stayed. You guys really need to wake up and see what's going on in your own backyard. Not worth complaining to the owner when the owner is the problem. Never going back again.
(1)Chris S.
There is a lot of competition in this space. I like to try different Teppan-style restaurants in the area, as each tends to have their own unique thing they do that makes them stand out. There is some nice art on the walls here, which was reportedly designed by the owner. The sushi prices ($12-$13 rolls) were on the high side, so we skipped it. My wife and I aren't huge eaters, so we like to split a main entree. Even though the menu threatened a $7.95 plate sharing charge, they didn't actually charge it. They also gave us a pass on the kids menu for our 13 year old (the menu says kids menu for under 9 only) The chef was uninspired, only putting in the motions it seems. The chef did forget our appetizer until the end after we questioned him about it. We also observed the older man/host with the limp yelling at the waitstaff in the back about silverware. Yelling doesn't motivate your team in the restaurant business. Your staff ends up hating you and talking about you on the other side of the restaurant (we saw that too) Overall, the fun energy that should be at one of these restaurants on a Saturday night just wasn't there. We did have some nice people at our table, so that was a positive. I'm tempted to drive another three miles next time and go to Benihana, or for sushi, Sushi Brokers.
(3)Andi B.
I was supper excited to try this place after it came highly recomended. Really cheap quality sushi at pricey rate. They use tons of fake crab in everything and cover it in a little bit of fish or avocado. Took forever for our food to come out, and we were there before the dinner crowed. The sushi at Frys is way better then this place, and faster too.
(1)Nicolette L.
Went on a whim Saturday night around 7PM after a movie at the Harkins. The space is large, bright and glossy, with female servers dressed in kimonos and a bizarre mix of instrumental music playing. There were only a few patrons when we came in, which was quite noticeable in the large space. Overall the combination was a little unsettling. We looked over the teppanyaki menu, and were a bit surprised at the prices which started at $20 a plate for steak and chicken. We asked the server about splitting one and ordering a side of rice, and he suggested getting a split plate for $7 more and a 1 and 3/4 portion so we went with that. It was therefore $30 for my husband and I to each get less than a full meal. First we each were brought a soup and salad. I did not like the soup in the least - it was extremely powerful with flavors of smoke and pepper and killed my taste buds with one sip. They really should warn you it's nothing like the miso soup it resembles. The salad was crisp, cold and fresh. We had to wait a while for our main dish, and when it finally arrived it wasn't what we ordered. We were brought filet and shrimp instead of filet and chicken. We waited a bit too long for the food to come back corrected to find the shrimp replaced with steaming hot chicken (good) with everything else now luke warm (including the filet). The quality and flavor of the food was really good. The filet mignon was tender, flavorful and cooked just right as were the chicken and veggies. Overall atmosphere, food and service were too much of a rollercoaster for me, especially for the prices, which is a shame because I actually really enjoyed the main dish. Not sure I'll come back.
(3)sean m.
Not too sure, but either most of the people on here haven't had good Sushi or they are a bunch of employees. The food here reminded me of Benihanas with worst service. The food had the quality typical of a chain (which it is) and the sushi was bland. We were hoping that whomever took over this place would come close to Ippei when it first started out, sadly it does not appear to be in the cards.
(2)Tooraj B.
We tried Sakura for the first time before the Movies. Great sushi and attitude. Fresh fish and cooperative sushi chefs. The happy hour prices are also very reasonable although limited menu. I noticed higher Teppanyaki prices but will try next time.
(4)Karrie B.
This restaurant is excellent! Have been there several times and they always exceed expectations. The food is delicious, have been there for sushi and teppanyaki and its always been great. It was very clean, the wait staff was wonderful as was the chef on our last visit. Price was great also and it was better than Benihanna. We will be coming back again and again.
(5)Eric J.
spent 29.45 on roll and 2 sides of rice at 4.00 a piece. we were the only ones in the restaurant on Saturday night. server did not even know what sushi was. lack of knowledge. they cancelled reverse happy hour my crossing off with a sharpy. over priced everything
(1)joe l.
Saturday nite 6 pm only ones in restaurant. Literally. Atmosphere depressing, food overpriced and not very good. Chef didn't really know what he was doing, wine way too warm, just overall feeling of "blah". Waiter did good job. We give the over/under on closing at 6 months. Needs life injected.
(2)P J.
If there was a way to give a zero star rating, I'd be more than happy to award it to this place. Read people's one star reviews, and there you have it in a nutshell. Went there for dinner and upon walking in, the entire place smelled like sewage. Sat down and I knew we were in trouble when I looked at the menu. We got a "warning" from our waiter about how long the food might take to come because they were so busy. The place wasn't even crowded at all. Another clue I guess. One look at the "cooks" in the front area visiting with their kids in and out of the place should have been enough. Yes, I saw you doing that. Nice. I also got a peek of the "kitchen" in the back. You don't want to see it. When the food came, it was a small bowl of iceberg lettuce with some ginger dressing and nothing else. A small bowl of soup with broth in it. OK, fine. But the entree was something from Denny's. No flavor at all. Had to cover it with pepper or anything I could grab. All the time and non-stop, loud music blaring from the bar area and very annoying. And, yes, the "owner" has no clue how to greet people when they come in, etc. Never said a word to me as we passed him entering. And that odor was enough to make me choke. Here's another one that needs Gordon Ramsay as soon as he is available. I doubt he could work with the owners though, as good as he is. They probably wouldn't listen anyway. Avoid this place like the plague. It's going out soon. If you want Japanese, go to a real one. There are plenty of wonderful ones in town.
(1)S Y.
This is a really good place for the food and customer service. The staff was very attentive for my daughter's birthday. I would go back anytime and will soon with my friends. Great service and price for happy hour was really good too.
(5)Lisa S.
It was probably the worst Sushi place we had. The rolls where not rolled they fell apart .They did not have a lot of selections on rolls. No interactions with the Sushi Chef. Way over priced. Would not recommend.
(1)Anna N.
Not sure why I'm bothering to review this place, it will surely be shut down soon. After finding out Benihana was booked for the night, we decided to give Sakura a shot. On a Friday night at 7:30 there were only 5 other people in the place & after they left it was just us. The server was odd, telling us she was a vegetarian after we ordered steak & chicken. The food was decent, not as good as Benihana and VERY expensive. Don't waste your time or money here.
(2)Adrian F.
Stopped by the other day for lunch to see what this place was all about. I'd been wanting to try it for a while, especially after I found out they do Bento for lunch! Everything was just normal (including the service) and the quality was so-so... I could tell that the fish wasn't the freshest, but then again I do live in the desert now so I don't have crazy high hopes in that department. Would I eat here again? Yeah probably due to the fact that it's located right across the street from where I work at Focal Point Hair Salon (shameless plug). Sometimes you just gotta have Bento, and sometimes it means settling for slightly lower quality than what you're used to!
(3)Sophia K.
This place is straight up weird. I could see this place being super busy and booming with popularity, especially with those awesome teppan tables. But the outfit that the female servers wear is just a bit too creepy. I could do without those. The roll selection here is basic, but that's fine. I got the roll that was on special, it was basically a California roll with chopped up deep fried shrimp. I wasn't too hungry so it was nice that I didn't get a roll or food that I wanted to devour. Service was attentive here and the bartender was interesting. He asked my friend if she liked her drink because it was a drink he hadn't made in a while. I liked that. Other than that, this place is moderately priced, but not a place I'd go to on a regular basis. Mainly because of the oddity and this place is just weird. The drink specials look like a great deal, but unfortunately I wasn't in the mood to drink.
(3)