Sarku Eatery

I used to love eating here. I got addicted to their teriyaki chicken with veggies and white rice. I went there this Monday excited to go eat and was so heart broken when i saw walls covering it. This was my favorite spot every time i went to the galleria I ate there. I will miss this place with the passion. :(

I have been going to Sarku’s in the Galleria for years, from the week they opened. They serve Americanized Asian fast food. So, this review and my Unilocal Star rating is from that perspective. I don’t think it is fair to compare them to Asian home-​cooked meals or nicer sit-​down Asian restaurants, so I won’t. Okay, enough POV disclaimers, on to the review.
A group of us walk laps around the Galleria every week for exercise and social interaction and naturally, we eat after exercising to make up for any calories we may have lost.
Sarku’s has a Wednesday special of their Chicken Teriyaki for a few dollars off and that is my usual choice. It is on the Japanese side (on the left as you enter) which makes dishes to order on a flat griddle. Usually I add mushrooms (extra charge) and get it over steamed white rice. I obviously like it very much since it is my default dish. The teriyaki sauce is pretty standard and they add a small amount of broccoli and other shredded vegetables. The best part of the dish is the real chopped-​up chicken which is covered in sauce during cooking, imparting a nice grilled teriyaki flavor. I like that the dish is not spicy as delivered because this allows me to ramp up the heat, or not, depending upon how I feel. Usually I add a fair amount of Sriracha sauce.
I have also eaten the same dish with Beef, Shrimp, and combinations of both. The Teriyaki sauce is so strong that it tends to overwhelm the Shrimp flavor, so I don’t order it much. The beef holds up better.
The right side of this Sarku’s (and possibly all Sarku Japan’s) is the precooked items and the Sushi. I recommend these items only if you are in a rush. Not that they are bad, just not as good as the made-​to-​order Japanese side. The lo mein is okay. The orange chicken is inconsistent, sometimes very good and other times terrible; I think this is based on how long it has been sitting– longer equals tougher and drier. Same goes for the egg rolls. The Beef & Broccoli is a better choice because it handles sitting well.
The Sushi bar is on the right, hidden in the back. I’ve only tried it once. I got the Philadelphia Roll with smoked salmon, cream cheese, and cucumber. It was average for fast food sushi, but still okay. (If I want sushi, I go to an expensive place.)
Service is usually perfunctory, sometimes better. My only real complaint is the same one I have with virtually ALL restaurants– inconsistency. The Grill Cooks, which change frequently, determine your experience. Some are excellent, give generous portions, and perfectly cook everything. Others fail in one or more areas. Since Sarku Japan is a franchise operation, this one is on the Sarku-​Galleria owners. Please train them better before unleashing them on us.

We got the Vegetable Delight and Vegetable Soba. The food was pretty bland, so we poured a crap load of hot sauce and then it was bearable. Friendly service though.

This place is pretty bland :/​noodles were limp and tasteless
The chicken options were all covered in flour and too hard. I told my sister this was a game cus it was that hard to find the meat in the chicken LOL when i did find it, it was duper tiny and tasted like jerky… Not what u want after walking around all day
I wilm be avoiding this place until they start to upgrade their menu and service

I went here for takeout — there was nothing special about this place. It’s ok.

I’ve used Unilocal for a pretty long time, though I have never felt the urge to write a review. That is until my venture into the vile eatery named Sarku. My girlfriend and I recently moved into the area and decided to take a stroll through the Galleria mall, we had been starving and decided to get something unique to the mall, passing by your typical mall fast food restraunts like Sparro and McDonald’s. A kind woman was giving away free samples outside, which I believe was their ‘orange chicken’, she seemed a little reluctant in giving us the sample, probably as a hint to not go inside and choose one of the other perfectly viable eating options. We snatched the samples from her small little red tray and headed inside.
Inside, there were two options, hibachi or your standard Americanized Chinese food. We hadn’t eaten all day so we picked the familiar lo mein and sauced up chicken. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention they had a ‘sushi bar’ which I probably would’ve tried out had I been in the mood, though thankfully, I wasn’t. We head up to the counter and I pick out some peppered chicken, General Tzo’s with lo mein, even picking up some egg drop soup, my confidence blindingly high that this was going to be decent meal. We arrive at the register, and the total comes out to around 16 dollars for two people and one drink, so it wasn’t too expensive.
We sit down with our tray and flimsy styrafoam take out containers and start eating. I started out with the eggdrop soup and I was immediately taken back as to his salty it was, probably loaded with MSG and then promptly putting it aside. Somehow it gets worse with the spaghetti lo mein, which I mean, how do you fuck that up? My excitement about this meal drops immediately as I taste the awfully slimy peppered chicken and sugar encrusted Tzo’s. I don’t think it would be an exaggeration if I said this was the worst meal I have ever eaten, or dessert, I’m still conflicted as to what that meal actually qualified as because everything other than the soup was remarkably sweet.
I look over at my girlfriend who is having an equally difficult time in eating this matter disguised as food and we both in unison decide we couldn’t eat anymore after about 30% into the meal.
TLDR: If you’re ever hungry at the Galleria, don’t ever, under any circumstances eat here. You’re much better eating off the dumpster outside Panda Express.

Food was a bit pricey, but ok.

I agree with Kellie S. Avoid it at all costs. I’ve been here twice and both times.

I had eaten here in the past and have steered clear for a while until I noticed an expanded menu when I was walking by. I’ve only tried the Japanese hibachi side since the upgrade, I’m not the biggest fan of chinese food.
Now they have brown rice and soba noodles. I just ordered chicken teriyaki with extra vegetables, mushrooms (you have to order them separately) and brown rice. It was definitely a large portion and it was good… not great… but fine.
Who remembers Yoshi in Addison? That is what it is like, just not as good.

Avoid at all costs! The pictures may look great but the food was just plain awful. No one with me was able to finish their food and we were all starving. My stomach hates me for putting it through such an awful experience.

Ugh. I needed to pick up a few things at the Galleria and was starving. Didn’t feel like a sandwich, McDonald’s or Taco Bell, so I entered here instead. BAD MISTAKE. The greasy, tasteless Chinese food here makes Egg Roll Express look like P.F. Chang’s. On top of that, the lady behind the counter was pretty rude when serving me and when I was paying. I should have walked downstairs and eaten at any of the other places instead.

I would not ordinarily bother you with a review of a mall fast-​food joint but this place is so awful I could not resist.
I don’t frequent the Galleria but occasionally a errand needs to be run and I use my lunch hour to stuff my face and make a purchase. Sarku has a Chinese and a Japanese side but I don’t recommend either. If the pyschopath from Saw forces you to choose one or the other to save your life go Japanese because at leats you can get it fresh.
This joint must have never purchased a dictionary with a definition of the word «flavor» in it. My recent visit involved a purchase of a 2-​item combo featuring peppered chicken and orange chicken, served with lo mein noodles. Luckily I received free soy sauce or this entire meal would have tasted like the styrofoam it was packed in.
The Japanese side doesn’t fare much better. I am a big fan of the beef/​chicken bowl and would even suck down some Yoshinoya if need be. Their version is hot since it is fresh off the grill but still taste bland.
It’s bad enough that the Galleria has too many high end store that offer little in the way of bargains but don’t compound the experience by throwing your money away at Sarku. If you must have Asian cusine go elsewhere. If you must eat in the Galleria try Five Guys for a burger downstairs or the Grand Lux Café