Sakura Shabu-Sushi & Yakitori

We got seated and they forgot about us for a good 20 minutes. Then asked for a server and he said someone will come but no one did and we waited for another 15 minutes. Wtf. Last time was so good. I’m giving this a two stars because they have really good broth but my gosh, SERVICE sucks.

This my first time having Shabu Shabu and it was amazing! Thuy was our server and if she hadn’t of helped us, I probably wouldn’t be writing this review. We wanted Shabu Shabu but had no idea how to do it. Thuy literally helped us through every part of making our food. She told us which meat to order how long to cook everything and was just all around helpful! Thank you Thuy, we will be returning!

nothing to go out of your way for but the sushi rolls & appetizers we got were decent! we took advantage of the patio seating with a fire pit which was perfect this night because they have heat lamps!
they have a full bar so we were able to get all our drinks in with the food
—spicy edamame: really packs a kick
—shrimp tempura roll: probably my favorite of the ones we ordered, but most of the rolls were similar, basically a california roll with other fish on top
—gyoza: i didn’t try this one hot because i came late
they are also open pretty late on weekdays so that was a PLUS

Not much options to choose from on the menu but they made anything I requested. Great place.

Place is chill environment. I like the choice of eating shabu inside or outside in the patio with a cute scenery.
I went in at 7 pm on a sunday after snowboarding. At first whole place was filled, but I managed to grab a seat at the bar with the sushi chef, which is cool because Fernando (the sushi chef) was quite amusing. He is a good laugh. My server, Thomas was also very attentive always refilling my drinks and getting me all the sauces i need. I’m a saucy person so hes was generous enough to refill my sauces in big proportions.
The tiger roll was delicious if you like tuna tataki and spicy tuna/​eel sauce/​crunchy shrimp tempura all fusioned together. The sakura cucumber was also bomb. It looks like cute sushi lollipop with no rice. Its very refreshing with a combination of fish inside (yellowtail, tuna, salmon) idr… with their special ponzu sauce as dressing.
I lovee their happy hour and their shabu veggies game has stepped up too. It looks more alive, full, and fresh now.

Great Shabu Shabu and appetizers plus the service and staff are awesome! Thanks Jesse and Joseph for the awesome service!

I like this place because of the dim lighting! I’ve eaten at the bar every time.
I Love the huge sushi portions they give you.
The servers are great!
Craving it now as I write this. I Might have to get a roll later!

I came in Sunday night and my service Richard was amazing! He recommended the spicy miso with rib eye and I LOVE IT! This place is kinda pricey but worth it

This was one of the first shabu places I’ve ever tried, and I’ve been to many since, but I always return because everything is on par.
Service is great — I’ve yet to experience an unfriendly encounter.
Food is my favorite of all the shabu places I’ve been to (about 6 – 8 at this point?). Spicy miso is the best I’ve had by far.
Drinks are good. I love the lychee and green apple sake!
Definitely a must-​try.

Its truly makes me sad to write this review because i loved this shabu place so much. I will give this place one more chance though. But for now they deserve the one review
Anyway, came here on a sunday around 5:30. Didn’t seem too busy, but everything was was so slow! All our stuff literally came out one by one. My mother accidentally knock over the soy sauce bottle so it was all over the table, I had to use all the napkin we had. Anyway, I had to ask the server for more napkin. he only bought out like 4… that wasn’t even enough for me to clean or enough for my family to use. So on, when he bought out our stuff every thing took like 5 min to received. First we got our soup… ten min after we got our veg… another 5 min we got our meat… another five min we got the onion, garlic, etc… and we’re still missing our rice –_​_​– which took another five min. like omfg. I was really trying to be patient because I felt bad that he was a new worker and they literally only had two stuff running. The place became pack around like 6 So I am moree pissed off at the owner. How can you let a new worker get into work like that without having a extra hand! –_​-​’ how inconsiderate of you.
So on, my boyfriend ordered a plain udon… He finally got it after like 45 min… Anyway, the miso soup tasted different for the shabu. I also believe they used a different quality of meat because the color and texture was different.
The Happy Hours are not all that. Even though the app was bogo the amount given was not worth it… DO NOT GET POPCORN CHICKEN HERE, even though it was bogo they literally only give you like 7 small as pieces. I am not even kidding you. it didnt even taste like popcorn chicken.

I really liked this branch in comparison with the one in Lake Forest. The soup here is much less salty and had much less MSG. It also had a wider variety in terms of the menu. They serve shabu, sushi AND yakitori here. Basically, you can’t go wrong if you come here.
Their HH was pretty good, too. It was $ 3.50 for flavored sake and BOGO for appetizers when I went. My friend and I got the calamari and the edamame. The calamari was delicious! I couldn’t stop eating it. The edamame was nothing special, a little oversalted.
The yogurt sake we ordered was also underwhelming, but the shabu made up for it. I ordered the angus ribeye with sukiyaki (+$ 2). The sukiyaki was perfect! It was not too sweet, which is something I’m always afraid of. Sukiyaki is often a hit or miss at shabu places, or maybe I’m just really picky with my soups.
I didn’t get to try the sushi or the yakitori but it didn’t seem to be overpriced and a lot of people ordered the sushi. I will definitely be back to try the sushi.
They had TVs playing which made the atmosphere very relaxed.
I loved the service here! They were fast and friendly. They were very attentive, too. I had mentioned to my friend that I wanted more hot drops and a waiter who was walking by picked up on it and stopped in his tracks, asking me if he could get me more hot drops. I really appreciated that he didn’t just walk away despite hearing this. The waiters constantly came around to ask if we were doing okay, and returned with anything we needed very quickly.
Since we ordered appetizers, the waiters waited until we had finished our appetizers before serving our meat. I thought this was very thoughtful of them, but it may also have been because were seated at a very small table. Regardless, I appreciated their discretion. I will definitely be back!

One of my favorite shabu places. I recomend the salmon sashimi in the sukiyaki broth. I love the raw egg dip with that. They have buy one get one appitizers for happy hour which is usually later I think after 9 pm. There is hardly ever a wait and they have great service if it isnt busy. If its busy then just accept the fact that the service might really suck. Thankfully thats rare.

Sometimes when I’m on a budget and I’m feeling shabu, I go here. I think the prices are good here for their lunch/​dinner specials! They also have a nice happy hour with appetizers (buy one get one free, usually about 6 bucks a plate) and discounts on drinks. The appetizers that I’ve tried weren’t as tasty though, in my opinion. The tables are spacious enough compared to other places and the décor is nice. I’ve never seen this restaurant packed, so I’ve never needed to wait to be seated!

This place is open late night and they have late night happy hour– perfect after a late night gym sesh! I usually take advantage of their HH which is bogo appetizers. Not sure if there are discount on drinks, but there is a large bar once you enter.
garlic chicken– super spicy strong garlic flavor!
edamame– always good, perfect amount of salt
mussels– baked and smothered in the orange mayo sauce. 4 mussels only but very delicious.
gyoza– average taste, comes in a dipping sauce
crunch roll– usually pretty good and big size. the last time I had it, the tempura was kind of soggy tho.
salmon roll– also pretty good, big size. always a must order for us.
Shabu– I can’t remember anything bad about it. I’ll have to retry this again later.
Service is always excellent and friendly. The food comes out at a good pace. The bathrooms are clean. TV is always on, good distraction while we wait for food. I’ll be back!

I visited Sakura with my girlfriend who loves Shabu — shabu and mentioned how great the food is here.
It was a Huge disappointment this visit as the service was nearly non-​existent. Perhaps it was because we went during lunch time, not that the establishment was busy.
The food this time was mediocre and having nothing to drink mid meal and having to wait 20 minutes for a glass of water is just unacceptable.
Needless to say, neither of us will be returning.

I dropped by here a second time, and actually had food: I owed Sakura a review. It is located on Beach Blvd, just North of Warner in Huntington Beach. Unfortunately, I also discovered this place made my TST: Two Star 2sday List!!!
We ordered from all parts of the menu. For starters, we had guy yaki ($ 2.95 — salty beef; not pictured), and geso yaki ($ 2.50 /​squid legs). We also ordered a crunch roll ($ 10.95 — not my idea), and unagi ($ 5.25). Lastly, I ordered the combo Angus Ribeye (6 pieces) w/​scallop (10 pieces) — ($ 22.98), while my friend ordered a large Angus Ribeye ($ 21.98 — 12 pieces).
First of all, the yaki was kinda yucky. The guy was tough as was the geso. Kappo Honda and SSG Robata & Yakitori blow this place away, because they use real coals vs an electric cooker: 2 Stars. Secondarily, the sushi was very average. It is the kind of sushi you would expect from a place that serves rolls. There was no art in the sushi. The sushi chef was simply filling orders rapidly. Moderately priced Irassae in HB, is a much better option: 3 Stars. Lastly, the shabu shabu was OK. However, the pricing is high in relation to the portions. It was 15% higher compared to California Shabu Shabu in FV: 2.5 Stars.
Regarding the service, it was mixed. I arrived early, and it took a while for someone to get me a beer. In addition, my broth was not as hot as my friend’s, so I asked them to turn the heat up (twice). I was asked to wait — Wait for what?! You already brought me my meat and veggies!: 2 Stars. The ambiance is nice, but this is a big place. Additionally, most of the clientele don’t know shabu shabu, because most were eating the mediocre rolls: 3 Stars.
Sakura is overpriced, and serves mediocre food IMHO. There is no way I would return to this place that can’t compete w/​California Shabu Shabu (shabu shabu), Kappo Honda and SSG Robata & Yakitori (yakitori), and Irassae (sushi). I’d rather go to the foregoing places that specialize in their cuisine, vs a place that can’t master any.

This was the 3^rd time I’ve been here, and it might be my last. We came because my bf wanted shabu, and I wasn’t feeling it so I went for the sushi and apps. I got 3 handrolls, asian garlic wings, and baked mussels.
The handrolls tasted off to me, it didn’t taste like traditional handrolls. I got spicy cali handroll, philly handroll, and crunchy handroll. The crab meat tasted funky, which was in both cali and crunchy handroll. The philly handroll, i just wanted to try because i love a regular philly roll. But their cream cheese tasted weird too and because it was in a handroll form, the cream cheese wasn’t evenly distributed. I would eat some rice and salmon, and my next bite would be just cream cheese and rice. Wasn’t a great experience with the sushi.
The asian garlic wings just wasn’t what I thought it would be, but maybe it was my fault for not understanding the title? I’m used to asian chicken wings to have that kind of sweet honey glaze with some asian spice to it, like most asian wings are. But these wings were straight up garlic. And when I say garlic, I mean enough to kill all all of the Cullen Clan (lol reference to Twilight if you didn’t get it: P) Anyways, their wings were WAY too garlic-​y and had no taste of «asian» in it for me. I tasted buffalo wings with a lot of garlic, and I hate buffalo wings.
As for the shabu, I didn’t really eat, but had a little taste here and there. My bf got the spicy miso broth, and it was okay, but wasn’t great. It tasted extremely spicy, in the way that makes you want to cough and down your water. I thought the broth didn’t have much flavor besides the excess amount of spice.
The only good thing I actually enjoyed was the free item we got for checking in. We checked in and got a free dessert of Fried Banana and vanilla ice cream. They only allow one check in per table, but that’s okay, it was enough for us.

Good food. Nice ambience. Fast service. We went for happy hour hand rolls and shabu shabu.
Jalapeño poppers ⁵⁄₅
Crunch Roll ⁵⁄₅
Baked green mussels ⁵⁄₅
Shabu Shabu broth Sukiyiki ³⁄₅
Broth spicey miso ⁴⁄₅
Philadelphia hand roll ⁴⁄₅
Tempura ⁵⁄₅
Ribeye was cut too large. But flavor was good. ⁴⁄₅
All in all it was good.

I’ve only ordered shabu shabu here, not the sushi. Sakura is my favorite Huntington Beach spot for shabu shabu because I feel that the meat and veggies are fresh and prices are fair. They recently added more booths inside, making it a bit nicer. There are a few TVs, a sushi bar, and outside seating as well. Service has always been attentive and there is a full menu, a sushi menu and a yakitori menu.
Broth choices are miso, spicy miso and seaweed. They offer the typical hot drops and condiments along with chili oil are on the table. Something different here is that the soup base is on the table as well for when you’re ready to pour the broth into the bowl, so that you are able to add as much or as little as you want. Veggies are the typical offerings, and my favorite meat is the Prime Angus Ribeye. It is so tender and there are few fatty pieces. It practically melts in your mouth.
Check in on Unilocal for a free tempura banana dessert! It is the perfect end to the meal and comes out nice and warm with a scoop of ice cream and whipped cream drizzled with chocolate sauce. Check their website for their frequent happy hour times and deals.

I love shabu shabu! I really recommend the Spicy Miso broth with hot drops in the soup (it’s really spicy so beware — I get 4 drops then 2 each in the ponzu sauce).
The servers are always sweet and attentive. I love their happy hour:
Mon & Tues: 5pm-​close
Wed & Thurs: 5 – 6:30pm, 8pm-​close
Fri & Sat: 5 – 6:30pm, 9pm-​close
Sun: 5 – 6:30pm, 8pm-​close
I always the the Angus Ribeye Beef (lunch is $ 14.50 & dinner is $ 19.50 for the Large which is 9 pieces). Get the Premium Angus Ribeye Beef if you like a fattier cut for your meat.
Overall, I love coming here! Enjoy!