Saku

uh-oh…It’s closed.
The food was excellent and reasonably priced. The sake selection was the best in Kailua.
What I didn’t like was the chef who would come out from the back and glare at the diners. What was with that?! Hope he smiles more or stays in the back if he has another restaurant.

CLOSED! Total bummer… we drove there to have dinner last week and Saku was closed. There was a sign in the window saying thank you to everyone, but they closed their doors on May 30.
Narrowed the sushi choices in Kailua that’s for sure.

You’ve heard of molecular gastronomy, but Saku now specializes in historical gastronomy. Yeah, that’s right: it’s closed, but, like many other shuttered listings, Unilocal hasn’t changed the status yet. They’re working on it, though, so don’t worry. :)
Saku is good because they’re (were) open until 11:00 pm on Friday and Saturday night, and, in Kailua, that’s really late. The place was completely deserted when we came in at about 9:30 last Saturday night, so I’m actually surprised that they keep those hours.
Most of what my girlfriend and I ordered was pretty tasty, but the portions were small and the prices were tall. Also, they were out (one discontinued, and two sold out) of the first three things we tried to order. We actually really enjoyed our Vegetable Tempura, and these pork katsu skewer «thingies» with miso sauce were also really delicious. The biggest disappointment was, indeed, the Firecracker Roll. Danny C’s review says it all on that one.
I do, however, think that Saku’s right in line with Bistro A Un in the McCully Shopping Center. (Besides the fact that A Un is now celebrating their 7^th anniversary.)

I went to tuesday night. they started buffet for monday, tuesday and wednesday night. $ 25 for adult
sushi chef makes fresh nigiri and handroll, when I order to him.
also have crab legs, tempura, chicken, pork, etc.
I loved every food. taste so good!
$ 25 price good for me.
I recommend.
A+++++

I could write a long review, but nothing about this place was good. The sushi, the prices, nothing. Don’t waste your time or money.

My husband purchased a $ 50 gift certificate for $ 25 on a radio station for this place. We both LOVE Japanese food and were excited to try it out. This place is the worst place I have been to in a long time!!!
When we walked in it was stuffy, hot and smelled like burnt oil. I asked the sushi chef where the restroom is and he replied that they charge extra to use it. I know it was a bad cliché joke, but it set the mood for the entire night we had there.
I had to get my own menu after 15 minutes of staring at my husband wondering what the hell was going on! After looking at the menu I decided to get the combination sushi platter for $ 25. The picture looked decent even though it seemed a bit pricey. When the Waiter finally came by and took my order, I was bummed when he said that the picture was just a picture and they actually don’t give you everything that it shows. In fact it only gave about ¼ of what it showed plus a tekka maki! Just a few pieces of sushi for $ 25???
I went for the bento combination instead for $ 19. I picked Tempura and Ton katsu Pork. After a 45 minute wait my meal arrived. The Tempura had no batter… I mean none! The oil was spilling out of the batter lacking veggies and my shrimp was limp and the small amount of dough was, well… still dough. It looked raw! I sent it back, which I really hate doing.
I was hungry and annoyed and just wanted to leave. The worst part of the night was when some lady from the back came out from the kitchen and gave me dirty looks while speaking in Japanese to the sushi chef! I would never wish my worst enemy to dine at this rat hole! Gross, nasty, and a big fat ick! On a positive note, the waitress who work there is really sweet and did her part.

I felt for the young woman and man that where working there today. The tables where full and they where running around like crazy. Not prepared. A young man was sitting there for over 30 minutes for 3 take outs. He had a good attitude and took it in stride. They had run out of several things so we and the table next to us had to order something else, we could have used more water also, never offered. You felt the stress.
We ordered simple tempura soba and udon. The tempura was way under cooked. Not crispy. The soup lacked depth and flavor, luke warm. It was a shame. The poor girl also had to look in every bag she had to give me change.
I hope they get help and maybe the business will improve. I hate seeing a small business fold.

SAKE LOVERS REJOICE!
Manager Natsumi Ikeda keeps a stash of hard-​to-​find sake in the kitchen.
Mention «kakure-​zake» and out comes such fabulous selections as the big, bold Kamoizumi Shusen (best as nurukan), the phantom sake Koshi no Kanbai Tokusen, Masumi Arabashiri, etc. etc. etc.
Seems Kamoizumi’s Red Maple is in «season» at the moment.
As for food — the Teba is to die for.

Worth driving over the Pali for… even in the rain.
Food: While it’s not on the lunch menu, they will make their chicken wings for you anyway. I am not sure if there was a dusting of cornstarch or flour, but it was so delicately crisp and moist. The subtle shoyu and sesame sauce made it divine.
I had the curry udon which was very good. Noodles were chewy and the curry had chunks of beef, chicken and veggies, but all soft like they had been stewing together for awhile. The curry sauce was not too strong, but had good flavor.
My friend had the oyako donburi, which had a great delicately balanced sauce. Not too sweet or salty. Harmonic flavors all. *sigh*
Service: Very nice and patient. The lunch menu is quite small, but for some reason we couldn’t make up our minds. I liked that they brought this bright green tea at the end of our meal without us having to ask (I guess it’s free, because it wasn’t on the bill either). The water flowed.
Ambiance: Clean and sparse. You can sit at the wooden tables or at the sushi bar. There is a section off to the side that can open into the restaurant or serve as a private room.
Overall: Even though the lunch menu was not extensive, the quality of the food was great and I will definitely be returning. Prices are also reasonable and it was a nice place to eat and relax with friends.

We went a few weeks back with my neighbors. The ambiance and service was superb. I think I even met Matsumi whom everyone speaks highly of and who invited us to be part of some sort of repeat customer club (via emails). She recommended a green apple sake which was remarkable and then served us miso soup, which tasted like miso soup anywhere. It would’ve earned four stars here for the excellent and attentive service, for the large variety of high quality sakes and for the sake recommendation.
Unfortunately, when it got to the sushi, I was disappointed. I ordered saba sashimi with sushi rice and my neighbors ordered the combo rolls. The pieces were very very small for the price. I think I had about 6 pieces of sashimi for $ 12 – 14, so it came out to $ 2 for each piece and I want to say that each pieces was at most 2.5 inches long and very thin.
The combo rolls are edible, but a little on the ‘not enough stuff in the middle’ side. You have to dip it in soy sauce or else it just tastes like rice with a faint taste of fish.
Now, I don’t eat very salty, but I find the mark of a great sushi place is if they put a perfect amount of wasabi or stuff in the middle so I don’t have to dip it in soy sauce. This was not that kind of restaurant.
Shoot for other things on the menu. The sushi is so-​so. They might have other great things on the menu, but sushi is not their specialty.

Very disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, I did like my food, but the PRICE was outrageous. I ordered the Vegetable Sushi Roll — for $ 12.00. When I got my dish, I asked if it was right. It was 5 tiny pieces of cucumber rolled vegetables (no rice?). I have had this same thing before at the former Sushi Kai and Tokoname and it is only $ 4.00. I could not believe how SMALL the serving was for $ 12.00 (at lunch!). It was such a rip off.
I will not eat here again because it is so expensive for the amount of food. I can get the same thing down the street for a ¹⁄₃ of the price.
My other friend didn’t even order anything after she saw how small mine was.

I don’t know if I had a bad experience here because it was an «off-​night,» but either way the food wasn’t all that great. The rolls were really small. and the pricing didn’t make sense to me.
There was a big party coming in later that night; I guess and I just felt rushed into the back corner of the room.
Still, I can think of a million other places I’d like to eat at other than this place.

So, three and a half stars actually…
Saku is located in that bad luck spot that has seen three Japanese restaurants in the past two years, the other two being Sushi Kai and Shiso Zen.
The thing I liked most about the place was the service, especially our waitress (I think her name was Matsumi). She was super sweet, friendly, cute, awesome, and damn near as perfect as a server could be! When the food was taking a wee bit long to come out (although not quite long enough to get irritating), she apologized sincerely and brought us out free miso soup to tide us over!
The food itself was pretty good, but there wasn’t anything that was really outstanding. The plum sake (not on the menu, but recommended by our awesome server) was really good– it tasted like juice. They also had these cute little gyoza-​like thingies that housed a tiny piece of cheese wrapped in shiso. They were good, and kinda unique, but they were really teeny tiny, and they only give you three pieces for five bucks.
The atmosphere is pretty cool– everything is all red and black and white, kinda like Shokudo, but more warm and homey feeling, not all metallic and trendy. There was mellow jazz playing, which was nice, when you could hear it above the roar of conversation– it was freaking loud in there (actually that was the first thing I noticed when we walked in).
But, all in all, it’s a nice place. We’ll go back. I wanna try this other drink they have made with oolong tea, lemon juice and calpico. I don’t think there was any alcohol in it, but it sounds pretty good.
Matsumi (I really hope that was her name!!) actually took the great customer service all the way to the door when we left– literally! She walked us to the door and said good-​bye as if we were leaving her house! I even saw her chase after another customer, an older guy who was dining alone, so she could give him a kiss good-​bye! How sweet is that?!