Sakura Sushi

I’ve been told many times «this is my favorite sushi in Des Moines.» It’s not bad the tuna roll with avocado was great. But beyond that seemed pretty average from there. Great Monday lunch special $ 20 get you all you can eat. My limit is two rolls so I passed on the special and tried two rolls and two pieces of sushi, one octopus and one eel. The eel was very good also, not my favorite in town tho.

Tonight was the first time I had eaten there and I had the Kobe Roll, it was absolutely delicious! The atmosphere was quaint and comfortable. Our waitress was so kind and helpful and gave me and my friend hugs before we left. I will definitely go back!

New favorite sushi place! Its hard to find good sasami in Des Moines but I finally found it! I’ve come here several times already and ordered the Sasami platter they offer and it is always delicious. I haven’t had any of their regular rolls but everyone I come with that orders them loves them.
Also if you are looking for a good priced martini, this is your place. They aren’t very expensive and I liked mine enough to order 3.
They also offer a All You can Eat special on Monday and other cool deals.

I absolutely love this place. I have tried most of their speciality rolls, but also love their daily lunch special. I also almost get Gyoza, as I feel best in town. Monday nights has all you can eat for $ 19.99 per person and the 3 rolls for $ 10.99 lunch special is great as they even have on the weekends. The staff is also very personable. I feel like I’m walking into a friend’s house everytime I walk in the door.

I’m very picky when it comes to sushi. My favorite sushi place is Waterfront but after trying some of the deep fried rolls here, this place comes very close to favorite :)

This is the best place I go to in des moines :) their food is fantastic and it’s affordable. Lulu and lala are the nice lady of this restaurant. I will definitely keep coming back.
Their best roll is crunchy 2 in 1.
For a healthy roll I like their shrimp with asparagus.
They also have some good deal on Tuesday and wednesday. So check it out.
I wish their place is bigger, they seem to have a lot of customers, and I know they deserve it. Keep it up sakura sushi.
From a happy customer

Awesome vibe in this sushi bar area some of the other areas were ok. The picture stickers and wall of papers was kind of weird and looked cluttered
The sushi was not the best I have had. But it was good and fresh. The ginger dressing salad was way over dressed. The miso soup was pretty good.
The tempura was wonderful with shrimp and sweet potato!
The prices were decent. Especially lunch specials. And apparently Monday they have all you can eat for $ 19.99.
Staff was friendly and filled our water glasses every time it was empty. But service was slow.
Overall there is a lot better places around the area. But it is decent.

Not a sushi guy… at all. I had the Katsu chicken and it was good. The other 3 in the family LOVED the sushi. What we all agree we loved even more was the service and the atmosphere! The ladies that work here were amazing and really fun and helpful. I’d go back again… that’s saying alot. :-)

We happen to go in on a Monday and took advantage of the all you can eat for $ 20. Very nice selection on the menu and the service was amazing!!!

My husband and I walked in at 9:30pm, my understanding is the restaurant did not close until 10pm. The 2 sushi Chefs rolled their eyes and hollered out to the manager and our server then came over with the manager to advise us that it was 9;30 and the kitchen is closed. We felt unwelcomed and rushed by everyone their. We sat for about 5 minutes and decided to get up and walk to the chicken coop for food, they had no issue welcoming us and being pleasant. By state law if your closing time is 10pm you legally have to serve even if customers were to walk in 3 minutes before you close. Also, we are daily regulars and will not be giving Sakura anymore business. Hopefully in the future you are careful about what you say to people.

This past week, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit a good friend living in Des Moines. The first day there, she offered up Sakura Sushi as a dining recommendation as it was just down the street. After eating mozzarella sticks at an Applebee’s the night before when I got in late (I regretted the decision two bites into the first stick), I was ready for something lighter and fresher. Unfortunately, Sakura Sushi missed the mark for me.
When you walk in, there’s not a whole lot. The walls are plain, there are some booths and few tables, a bar stands against one of the walls, as does a small fish tank. There are some unexplained, unframed photographs on the walls of what I assume were patrons at some point.
I will say that the service was excellent. It warms my heart when a restaurant that deals primarily in the sale of raw fish will work to accommodate a vegetarian — making recommendations, checking ingredient lists, making substitutions, etc. So hats off to the staff for not making me feel like a burden! The food was all delivered quickly and our servers were wonderfully kind.
I ordered the lunch special, which comes with miso soup and two sushi rolls. I choose the avocado and sweet potato tempura rolls. Additionally, we ordered tempura vegetables. The miso soup came out first. It was savory and got big points in my book for being vegetarian (miso soups are often not veggie-​friendly), and I really enjoyed it. It was my favorite part of the meal. Then came the tempura vegetables. These were quite large pieces of vegetables that were battered and fried. The dipping sauce on the side was sweet and kind of acidic, but the dish didn’t seem to come together. The vegetables probably could have been drained better or seasoned with at least some salt, or maybe cut up into smaller, more manageable pieces. The sushi, unfortunately, was the biggest letdown for me. To me, it was uninspired with undercooked rice and nothing to make me enjoy my eating experience.
I don’t know what else Des Moines has to offer sushi-​wise, but for my next visit, I will likely be trying out other places.

Oh Sakura, how I love thee. Whilst searching Unilocal for other deliciousness I realized I am a horrible human being for failing to review one of my favorite spots in Des Moines. I come here often with friends and my newly converted sushi lover boo and I’d like to live here every Wednesday night when their special rolls are only $ 9.99! (And yes, you can do take out and get the special – it’s crazy there that night!)
Spicy girl is a staple and the ‘Super Women’ is as delicious as it is adorably misspelled. The Sweet Potato Tempura roll is amaze balls but I’m pretty sure I’d eat my hand if it had tempura on it so I may be biased. They have all the classics (Philadelphia, California, Alaska, etc) at reasonable prices and the food comes out quick! Their miso soup rocks and their ginger salad dressing is to die for.
The ambiance isn’t fantastic (is a converted storefront) but the wait staff are sweet and attentive and they serve alcohol (my true favorite food). There are big, happy fish in a tank that I feel slightly weird making eye contact with while I eat their cousins but they are so cute and they fit in well. If you sit at the bar you can watch the sushi being made and it well simultaneously amaze you and make you feel thoroughly inept in the kitchen. All in all, this is one of my favorite sushi spots in Des Moines and it’s right down the street! Mmmm suuuuuushi!

Friendly staff! Consistently good sushi! Go to place for us!
We enjoy coming for lunch since they good have deals on lunch. We always end up buying a speciality roll or two, so it is more than $ 10 per person. But you could come away full under $ 10.

I hate to do this, but the food just wasn’t up to par…
the rice was hard, and the fish pieces were thin. I could see thru some of those fish pieces. I gave an extra star because of their service. They were still attentive even though they had a large party of some sort.
the mixed tempura– why was this served cold? the vegetables were freshly fried, but the shrimp was cold. This makes me wonder if they just pulled it from their batch of shrimp tempura for sushi rolls…
Ninja roll– the mango was different, which gave it a good flavor. The fish pieces were sliced too thin on top
sakura roll– it was good, but not anything to rave about.

This review is going to focus on the All-​you-​can-​eat special that is offered here on Mondays. I believe this is the only establishment in the Des Moines area that offers an All-​you-​can-​eat sushi option. (I’m talking about real sushi, not the ones offered in buffets, because those are not qualified to be called sushi)
The All-​you-​can-​eat option is basically $ 20 per person for all regular rolls and they also created around 8 or 10 «semi-​special» rolls that is available as well. Here is something I want to clarify because I was confused at first but asked for clarification. The All-​you-​can-​eat menu you receive is split in half with the bottom half saying «For $ 10 a roll you can order these», then there’s a sticker on the menu that says «Everything is included». Basically, on the pink All-​you-​can-​eat menu they give you, everything is included!
Now the sushi itself, yes it tasted good, but nothing extraordinary. One thing I suspected they would do, which they did, is pack extra rice on the rolls to get you full quicker. The more we ordered, the more I noticed this. I mean, I can’t be mad at them because this is obviously a safety feature for them to not lose money, I hear that. Obviously we can’t pick the rice off because they will comment on wasting which according to other reviewers, they take seriously; we just ate what we were given.
On the menu it states any left over sushi will be charged to the patron $ 1 per piece. (You can take those pieces to go). I feel this could be implemented if there was an excessive amount wasted, but with other reviewers stating there is zero-​tolerance, we were nervous about it and just ate everything we ordered.
I’ll try to remember everything we ordered, Spicy Tuna, Spicy Salmon, Yellowtail, Golden Spider, Eel avocado, Eel Cucumber, and a couple deep fried rolls which I forgot the names of.
One thing I would also like to mention, there is an automatic gratuity fee charged if you choose the All-​you-​can-​eat option. I believe it was 18% gratuity charged automatically, it was not stated on the menu, but they told us when we got our bill.
I would probably not do the All-​you-​can-​eat again, it was interesting to try once here. I will just stick to the ones offered in Minnesota, where you can get everything off the menu and even Sashimi.

If you want massive amount of mediocre sushi go on a Monday– they have all you can eat sushi (not specialty rolls) for $ 19.99 per person. I went with my boyfriend last Monday and we were not impressed. We sat at the sushi bar and usually ask the chefs what is fresh that day/​what they recommend, etc but they were not very engaging. The sushi was presented well, but was nothing special. Some of the rolls fell apart, and they just weren’t that flavorful.
Overall, a decent place to take your very hungry boyfriend for sushi and not pay through the nose for it.

Returned for their Wednesday $ 10 special rolls, and ordered the Godzilla Roll (Spicy crabmeat, avocado, crunch, topped eel — $ 11.95), Rock N’ Roll (Shrimp tempura, cucumber, topped with spicy tuna — $ 11.95), Mountain Roll (crab meat, cream cheese, jalapeño, cilantro, deep fried topped with spicy tuna — $ 12.95), and the Super crunch (deep fried spicy crab, avocado, cream cheese, jalapeño, with eel sauce on top — $ 11.95). The godzilla, rock n’ roll, and mountain roll were delicious, and the super crunch was okay, IMO.

Pricey for the amount of ingredients in the sushi. I’m from Atlanta, so it’s difficult to compare. However, the angry dragon roll was great with just the right amount of cream cheese. And the spider roll was perfect! The Shumai wasn’t as warm as I would like but it wasn’t frozen.
Order the spider and angry dragon!

Mmmmm… no thanks.
Went tonight for dinner, and there were so many things that were lacking. It seems like there is only one waitress for the entire restaurant so, and she can only do so much. Service is very slow. I’m all for taking my time and enjoying drinks, then appetizer, then main course, but it shouldn’t take 30 minutes to get an appetizer on the table.
My husband got the beef noodle soup, and it was not very satisfying. I think there may have been two slivers of beef, then noodles and a bland broth.
I got the Green Dragon roll & the Black Dragon roll, both about $ 12. They were good rolls, but not a very good value for the price.
So, overall it seems like they need to hire more staff to handle their customers. It’s also way to expensive for the quality of food served. If I pay $ 2/​piece of roll, it really should knock my socks off.

My fiancé and I often come on Mondays for all-​you-​can eat sushi. I wish the all-​you-​can eat price included miso soup and salad like many other all-​you can eat sushi specials at other Japanese restaurants.
The sushi here is fantastic, I love some of their creative rolls, and their sushi menu is extensive. On a recent trip my fiancé tried one of their creative rolls and wasn’t a big fan, and left 3 pieces of sushi at the end of his meal and got charged $ 3! I think that if an excessive amount of sushi is left on the plate, it’s ok to charge the customer, but 3 pieces of a roll he didn’t like isn’t that much, and we usually come here EVERY Monday, and this makes us question whether or not we want to go back again!