Sakura

My husband had a dragon roll which was not that great since it felt like you were eating overcooked rice. My meal was decent but steak was rubbery and I got fried rice instead of steamed. Server was on top of our drinks but looked miserable like he didn’t want to be there.

We were the only people dining. Had to leave before we got our food because I had to be back at work. Don’t come here for lunch if you only get an hour for lunch.
**This was about 2 years ago. Never posted it.

I just had probably the most weird/​awkward/​bad service I think I’ve ever had. I ordered an order of chicken fried rice, chicken hibachi and a shrimp tempura sushi roll over the phone. The guy on the phone was very nice and told me it would be ready in thirty minutes. I already thought this was strange for a Japanese restaurant considering those are really easy meals to cook. I arrive thirty minutes later and there is no one workers around. There’s one man in the restaurant eating, but I don’t see anyone who works there. After standing at the cashier stand for a few minutes, someone comes up and tells me to have a seat and wait for the food to be ready. I have worked in many restaurants, so I try to be really understanding. The music is really low and I hear everything the workers are saying in the back. The man then tells the cook to make the food, I am guessing it wasn’t even ready yet. He then calls someone and tells them to come in to cook the sushi. I am thinking, ok? I had been there for about thirty minutes already waiting. 30 more minutes later the food is ready. I heard the two workers talking about my food and they seemed confused, but I had waited total of an hour and a half for TWO ORDERS OF FRIED RICE AND ONE SUSHI ROLL, so I just wanted my food and to leave. If I didn’t have a sick boyfriend at home who just wanted fried rice, I would have left long ago. While I’m waiting, it’s just the weirdest atmosphere I’ve ever been in. There were no new customers, no one would make eye contact with me or tell me why the hell it was taking so long to make some damn rice and a sushi roll. The man finally tells me the food is ready and the total is 11.99…11.99 for all of that? I didn’t say anything because I honestly just wanted to get out of there. I get home and there’s an order of steak fried rice (when I ordered chicken), LITERAL SHRIMP TEMPURA (fried shrimp) NO SUSHI, and a lot of teriyaki chicken and not much rice. Also no fortune cookies, I know that is small. but come on, who doesn’t like getting a fortune cookie. I look at the ticket and it clearly says all that I ordered, but somehow this is what we got. I am so confused considering there was only one other person in the restaurant. I am surprised because there are good reviews on this place, but being completely empty on a busy weekend in Auburn is not a good sign. The man who took my order and I paid with was very nice, but I don’t think he had any help whatsoever. I felt bad for him. Will not be returning.

My family went to Sakura for lunch today. We ordered four sushi rolls and a lunch combo with chicken teriyaki. I rated Sakura with two stars for a few reasons.
We waited about 45 minutes for our food. Besides takeout, we were the only people in the restaurant for quite a while.
The sushi chef left the eel sauce off of the Rock & Roll roll. This is a mistake of a novice sushi preparer. They corrected mistake by giving us a carafe of the sauce.
The sushi was very warm. While its flavor was fine, it is definitely not refrigerated properly.
Finally, the restaurant has a two foot section of paint hanging from the ceiling. This is unprofessional and needs to be repaired.
All in all, Sakura is a place to skip rather than try.

Can’t speak to the service because I always get take-​out for lunch. But the Teriyaki Chicken is AWESOME! Slightly different from the hibachi dishes I’ve had elsewhere, but in a good way. More flavorful, better veggies, and possibly the best fried rice I’ve ever had. This is more like «restaurant-​quality» instead of the fast-​food hibachi that is more pervasive. Seems to be prepared with attention to detail and care. They also have really delicious spring rolls. They’re a tad bit stingy with the wonderful pink sauce (cups aren’t filled all the way), so ask for an extra. (They call it «brown sauce.») I haven’t sampled much of the menu and haven’t tried the sushi yet, but I can totally vouch for the hibachi items! It’s my new favorite lunch place.

The food was ok but it was a scary overall dining experience. When our food came out the health inspector had just started lecturing the owner on sushi temperature and them altering their own health score… luckily I had fried rice so I wasn’t worried (so far so good lol) but it was rather disconcerting. We were the only customers so it was very easy to hear what the health inspector was saying… and the waiter didn’t address the awkward situation… making it even more awkward. Probably not going back… if they’re still open that is. Good luck!

The reason I only give one star here is not only because you need to wait for the food like forever, but also because their service is extreme BAD!!! We had a waiter served us at the beginning, after we complained about the long time waiting (almost ONE hour, we could have left at that point but we were trying to be nice), he apologized and help to ask them to make it quicker. However, after we wait for another almost 30min for our second dish, we ask an Chinese waitress to cancel the rest of dishes we ordered since this waiting is getting rediculous (there were only two of us dinning in their restaurant at that moment, there is no way for us to understand why it takes FOREVER!), but guess what?! When this waitress brought with the second dish to our table, she’s almost try to just throw it to us! PLUS a very bad attitude just because my friend asked her why it took so long, she’s almost yelling at us said «I don’t know! I just came here!!!»…
To be honest, me and my friend, we both were shocked at that point. We were supposed to have a nice dinner together and went to a campus party to have fun. BUT thanks to this horrible experience here, it totally ruin the mood!!! We should have talked to their manager but since we wasted too much time there and we had to rush to the party so we didn’t.
Being slow is one thing, hire a waitress serve your customers like that is even worse. If you really need my recommendation for this restaurant, I will say go there and finger cross that you won’t have the same waitress serve for you, and also make sure you have your entire leisure time to wait for the dishes, then the food may taste better. Good luck!

The best Chinese food I ever had in US. The boss (chef) is so nice. The food material is fresh and great-​quality, the taste is very typical sichuan flavor. Awesome!!! Strongly recommend Xiangguo Xia, Hongshao Rou, Tudousi, Xiaochaorou, Suancaiyu, etc. Every dish is very delicious! I would rank it as top 1% Chinese food restaurant!

Was pleasantly surprised. Opened the door to find an empty restaurant expecting the worst. But the food was fresh and well prepared and the service was great. Highly recommended!

First of all, you have to know that that’s a Japanese restaurant owned and run by Chinese guys… Of course the food is delicious because obviously Chinese people are amazing at food… but still… it’s not a real «Japanese» restaurant…
Second, the food is not that perfect… someone called it «the best sushi in auburn»…are you kidding me? Go to some other Chinese restaurant (yes Chinese restaurant!!!)and you can easily find better! However, I’m not saying it’s bad. It’s pretty good sushi honestly… but I’m not that dramatic like other reviewers… if you give a five stars, plz be serious about it. You may confuse other customers… and the water… I ordered lemon water three times… I got normal iced water… is it that hard to put some lemon slices inside? Right?
Well, at least I have to say the restaurant looks good. Can you believe they have a piano in a Japanese restaurant (a Chinese restaurant actually…)? It’s quiet and nice and you can have pretty good music here… so…
If you really wanna try this place, I won’t say no… but if you wanna choose your favorite sushi restaurant, well at least sakura is not my choice…

Best sushi I’ve had in Auburn!
We went around lunchtime and were seated immediately, though that process was a little awkward. The host/​waiter asked how many were in our party (just two) then told us to just sit anywhere. But he engaged us from across the restaurant, so yeah, we were shouting. People looked up uncomfortably. Aside from that, he was really sweet and attentive once we were seated.
I ordered the miso soup, veggie fried rice, and a rainbow roll. My mom ordered the teriyaki chicken lunch special which also came miso soup and a seaweed salad, and a California roll on the side (she’s not 100% sold on the sushi thing yet).
The miso soup was on the salty side and I didn’t really like that, but strangely I couldn’t stop myself from emptying my bowl. I was really surprised. My mom agreed that it was oddly addictive.
Everything else was really really good! We will be back.
Ps: I was a bit confused by the table setting. It was set beautifully but it was also awkward. The waiter never removed the plates on the table but also never set anything on them… he would just shift them around to accommodate the plates of food that he brought. Eventually they just ended up off to the side? Everyone else in the restaurant seemed to have done the same thing.

This was the most awkward restaurant experience I have ever had! The boy who seated us told me that we were the first customers they had all day. That scared me a little. We ordered green tea for our drinks and the boy came back and asked if we wanted earl gray or some other kind. No! We are in a sushi restaurant I want green tea. The waiter came back to the table with two water goblets of hot water with green pomegranate teabags floating in them! My husband asked if they had teacups and the waiter told us no they have no teacups. A restaurant that serves hot tea but doesn’t have teacups is ridiculous. He ended up drinking ice water because the glass was too hot to hold! We ordered sushi, miso soup, and edemame. I can now say that I’ve eaten edemame with salt AND pepper, odd but ok. Our very inexperienced waiter then brought our miso soup. We could hear the microwave in the kitchen, which was weird, and when we got our soup it was cold! Even when he took it back, warmed it up some more, and brought it back it was still lukewarm! The sushi, spicy tuna rolls, salmon, and masago was just ok. Instead of spicy tuna, it was a tuna roll with a spot of schirachi on top. I know we were far from the ocean, or any body of water there in Auburn, Alabama, but if you are going to have a sushi restaurant do it right!!! And train your waiters! This young man was so inexperienced it was almost laughable!

Simply the best! Don’t tell anyone ;) my new favorite place. Try the Yum Yum Roll not fried.

Great sushi and sashimi, perfectly cut slices not to thick not too thin.
Run by real Japanese people, nice and helpful staff.
Will come here again!