Sakura Ichiban Restaurant

Used to frequent this place for takout meals for my executives. On more than one occasion the order was incomplete and there was one teriyaki that came as veggie but should have been chicken. It happens with large orders, no big deal.
However, when I called back to let them know that I am missing things from my order, they insisted that I must be wrong. (Tell that to my one executive who is without lunch while the others are eating around him,)
After some back and forth it is decided that she will place another order with the kitchen and that I will have to run back out to pick it up since they don’t deliver.
When I arrive to pick up the food, a lady comes from the kitchen, says something to the server and now I am again questioned on my honesty of the missing items from my order. I assure them that I had checked it over.
They bring the bag of food and hand me a bill. Um. I am now being charged for the new teriyaki because I failed to bring back the veggie one with me to the restaurant as proof. Not wanting to argue any further, I paid the bill and went back to office to deliver the remaining items to my execs.
Needless to say, with so many sushi options in the area, I will think twice about ordering here again.
It’s just bad business practice to argue with a customer who gives you regular business.

Awful service. Messed up on my order when I made it clear as to what I wanted and didn’t. All I wanted was a roll but they brought out udon noodles (which I originally cancelled) AND tampura which I never ordered. So I had to send it back but said I can eat the tampura. But little did they tell me that a few pieces of deep fried vegetables cost $ 10+tax. They still expected me to pay the full price of a mistaken order. Food was very mediocre. Spicy salmon roll was not spicy or crispy. Very bland in flavour. I left unsatisfied and with 3 times more out of my pocket than I was supposed to. I will never come back.

Classic Japanese restaurant. Great deals for food and combo options. Layout is very nice where you’re able to sit in more private sections if needing intimacy or you can choose to sit at Counter or open tables. Service is pretty good, everyone is nice and friendly, sometimes takes awhile but everyone is always polite and fills you in on everything. No complaints here! I like how it borders st james park great location!

I came here for lunch .
The waitress was very slow, the miso soup was very salty, so we had to ask to change it and got the same bowls with added water. Green tea was cold. The meals were not delivered at the same time. Which extended the lunch time. Finally paying for the meal took more than 5 minutes .
It feels the the service priority was given to the takeout customers and not to the seating customers. Wrong !
Set a second cook for take out and arrange additional paying terminal.

Ordered take out from them, very enjoyable experience. Strong recommend the party tray with sashimi and sushi. Their sushi rice is nicely cooked, not very sticky or stiff. And their sashimi is very fresh and nicely cut. The raw fish is nicely attached to the rice and they don’t fell off when you pick it up with chopsticks. Their bulgogi is also very delicious and I never get tired of it.

I went here for lunch today with a friend and was so disappointed. It was about 1pm and there weren’t many people seated, but they did have a fair amount of take-​out traffic.
I ordered the beef udon and an East roll, and my friend got a couple of their basic sushi rolls. It took about half an hour for the food to come out, which was not ideal because I was absolutely starving. The udon noodles were much longer and thicker than I’ve ever seen, and it was next to impossible to eat them. The broth was decent but the beef was an off-​putting texture. My sushi roll was pretty good, but you can’t really mess up a tempura shrimp roll with avocado.
We had to flag down another server to get soy sauce and dipping bowls, and nobody ever asked us if we wanted a refill on our drinks. The service was frustratingly slow and impersonal, and I definitely did not feel that I received a good value for the price.

Delicious sushi. Fast, fresh, great friendly service. I’d recommend the green dragon roll, or just about any of their lunch specials. Most are under 10 $ and include rice, salad, and miso soup. The bulgogi is delicious, the tempura is perfection, and really, you can’t go wrong with just about anything on the menu.

This place is awesome. I can never compare any other sushi with theirs. Neat, clean and cosy place, perfect for professionals. Very fresh sushi, and when I say fresh, it means the type of fresh you barely get anywhere else. I go to this place often, and every time I leave with a big smile on my face and my tummy feels the happiest! :-)

I used to really like this restaurant, but have noticed it go slightly downhill. They have 11.95 lunch specials which come with a lot of food — a miso soup, salad and a bento box. You can get a choice of two items in the bento box such as a California roll/​chicken terriyaki.
The quality is average, but I think everything is overly salted — especially the miso soup. It’s salt on salt.
The food comes out within 15 minutes, so no complaints there.
It’s difficult to flag down a waitress even though the place is so small. There’s nothing more irritating than having to chase down the waitresses to pay.
I don’t think I will come back. Kirei is just down the street, and it’s so much better at a comparable price.

Awesome service — beautiful quiet Japanese atmosphere — romantic and private — DELICIOUS!
It’s also really cool to be in a sushi restaurant that’s actually Japanese, not Korean.

i live across the street so im bias but consistent good quality food, yes higher prices but im willing to pay for convenience, service is always good since im a regular

I’ve ordered the same Chirashi for lunch from this restaurant for the last 3 years. lol. So you know I love this place. It comes to $ 12.37 with taxes and for some reason the waitress always seems to make it .47 one day and .37 the next. Anyways I digress.
The meal comes with the usual side order of salad and miso soup. First thing is the salad — looks great and fresh, never had a problem with their preparation or freshness. They don’t cut the lettuce but tear it with their hands so to preserve the freshness, since cutting it usually browns the edges and you can see it. Nice and cold lettuce, taste crisp and fresh, I do find that they do tend to have more water than the other places.
Second, was the miso soup, which was hot and nice. The broth was good and tasty, you can definitely taste the benito fishy taste in there. You got to be careful and not burn yourself because it’s so hot. I usually open the lid and start on the salad before the soup. Nice little tofu and seaweeds in the broth, nothing special or spectacular here, on par with everyone else and a good starter to my lunch.
Next up is the Chirashi, which is the best part of the meal. The bed of rice is fresh and room temperature, I would like to have a warm bed of rice but that’s kinda hard to ask when you have to do take out and walk back to your office and eat. The sashimi are moist and fresh most of the time I order, they some times put octopus and munk fish and other types in my Chirashi, but not always which is the only bad part.
The usual Salmon, fake crab, tuna and that other white fish I can’t remember what they call it, were good. I rarely see them mess-​up this part of the meal, but on occasions like Mondays where they start to dethaw their fish I can smell that refrigerator odour consistent with fish that stayed overnight in their freezer.
They store their vegetables in ice cold water to keep the freshness, which is very smart and keep the freshness through out the day. I definitely like their choice of decoration which are carrots and dicons that they shred into thin strings that place in the meal.
The décor is quite nice, with Japanese motifs throughout, and the waitresses do wear kimonos and are cute as well. They recently undergone some renovation and the place seemed a little updated but the looks and feel is the same.
Would given it a 5 stars if it weren’t for the inconsistent sashimi I get. But hey it’s the best Chirashi I’ve had so far.

I went here with the wife yesterday and I must admit I was surprisingly pleased with this place even though we had been years earlier. It’s not that I was blown away (it’s a pretty typical looking sushi restaurant; Bamboo plants, rice paper booth walls that look like you could jump through them, etc), however there were a few small things that stood out.
1. The service as fairly prompt.
2. With the sushi dinner ($ 17.50−19.50) there are a couple of extra starters other than the miso and salad most places give.
a. a cube of giggly tofu with sauteed onions (1^st)
b. a little bowl with small fork full sized amount of noodles in broth (like those cup-​a-​noodles type noodle only not junky) (2^nd)
(…and this is the one that got me thinking.)
3. the shrimp sashimi wasn’t rubbery and ghetto. Usually this is the worst part of any sushi dinner I’ve had, but this shrimp was still fresh and crisp. I was surprised.
The only thing I noticed was that the sushi wasn’t really «cold» when it arrived. It was room temperature and I’m not used to that. It was however pretty fresh, and the pieces were larger than normal.
We walked in on a Tuesday around 7pm and there were lots of empty tables. I suspect you could stroll in here most weeknights without a reservation and get a seat. Its not really busy.