Sakura Sushi House

The first and the last time I will ever order from this place. The food is not fresh and tasted very bad. Customer service was horrible as well. It took over a hour for them to deliver. Even after an hour my friend and I were waiting to have sushi, which extremely horrible. We threw almost every roll away because it smelled bad and it was not fresh. To all sushi lovers out there, don’t waste your money here there are so many other sushi locations and their food is absolutely amazing. BAD SERVICE, BAD FOOD!!!

Living in Pasadena, there aren’t many delivery options for that sushi fix. I found Sakura a few months ago and decided to give them a shot. Not too bad! Cheap lunch specials and I can a roll or two for a quick fix. Everything was going fine until the other day when I was verbally attacked by the delivery guy for not tipping enough. Sakura has free delivery which is one of the main reasons I order from them. Yes, i’m cheap. Whatever. So the delivery guy gives me my food and begins to berate me for not tipping enough and complaining about how far he had to drive. $ 2 tip on a $ 30 delivery worth of lunch specials. Apparently i’m the asshole for deciding that i’m within driving range of the restaurant. This experience alone is enough for me to never order from Sakura again.
Beyond that, the quality of the food has gotten progressively worse. I’ve ordered the chirashi bowl from them and usually don’t mind because any raw seafood has come within an hour of order along with ice packs to keep them cold. The sashimi quality however has just gotten to the point where I couldn’t eat half the sashimi in the chirashi bowl. The tuna was especially questionable smelling rank and having a slightly spoiled taste and slightly mushi texture. Maybe it’s because I order for lunch that they feel like they can get rid of their leftover nearly spoiled cuts and pawn them on unsuspecting lunch patrons. I’ve had some amazing sashimi and i’m not expecting the absolute best grade of tuna but the crap they serve is definitely not acceptable.
Don’t waste your time on Sakura. There are several better establishments that will provide better service and quality of food. I guess I should have known better eating sushi at a restaurant that has a full canto café style menu too. Somehow I blame myself for making the poor choice of eating at Sakura for so long. Learn from my mistakes and look elsewhere for your sushi fix!

Been to tons of sushi places with my boyfriend and this ayce sushi place was just terrible. Honestly, none of the sushi tasted fresh. Even the fried rolls were no good. And the service was slow (Tuesday around noon) completely dead. Honestly never wrote a bad review but the food was so bad! It made me not want to eat sushi for months. Not exaggerating! Never will eat at a B rating place again.

Located in a scrungy strip-​mall adjacent to a laundromat and liquor store, Sakura Sushi House has a nice atmosphere inside — don’t judge the book by its cover. The fish is high quality and the flavor profiles are creative but not overbearing. Averagely priced for sushi ($ 12 – 15 per roll), the portions are not particularly generous.
TIPS: The service is very friendly but a bit slow, so leave plenty of time. Don’t go for the AYCE option, unless you love rice and want to eat mostly rice… you’re better off paying full price for the quality rolls and fish.

Ever since I tried this place, I keep coming back regularly. The prices are reasonable and they have all you can eat, which is the best option for sushi lovers like myself. The staff is really friendly and the restaurant is clean and cozy. They have many different options to choose from besides sushi like chicken teriyaki, salmon teriyaki, etc. It has become one of my favorite sushi places when I am in town. I would definitely recommend it to all. Try it out!

I’ve been a regular for quite a while, and although they’ve never been bad, what brought me back was the mediocre quality for a great price point. Certainly not the best, but like a one night stand, the decision to go for it is more of a matter of convenience and craving. Cheap and decent, y’know?
Throughout the years, the quality has fluctuated from 5 star top-​of-​the-​line to «slightly better than gas station sushi»
After having moved away from the area, I decided to return for a quick fling, for old time’s sake, and I was pleasantly suprised! There were other people seated at tables besides mine, a rare sight for the place! The service was stellar, as always, and as for the most important part, the food, I have to say honestly, that although it wasn’t the best I’ve had from them, seems to mark the end of the slump they’d been since they lost one of the best chefs they’d ever had.
Glad to see you back, you’ll always hold a special place in my heart.
Update: the ambiance used to be a 3/​10, but now that they’ve upgraded from the chintzy plastic servingware, this establishment is now standing at a solid ⁵⁄₁₀. Now, although ambiance is nice, it’s not very pertinent to the quality of the food. If you disagree, then remember the ambiance rating when making your decision. Happy chowing!

This place is good. Good service. Quality of the food is good. Food came out in a decent time. First time having a salmon skin that’s crunchy on the inside In which I’ve enjoyed. Food came in decent sizes, not too large So I can try out other food. We had the all you can eat special. For lunch $ 18.99 special, there wasn’t much option so we had to get the dinner $ 21.99 ayce (option was just the sashimi)
Cons: not much options on the menu for ayce, no free dessert /​miso soup/​teriyaki dishes, uni roll, sashimi salad, mussel cheese, no bake rolls, etc. So I wasn’t as satisfied as I would be like other sushi places. So I will give 3 stars because I wasn’t fully satisfied with their limited options.

Came here with two coworkers for lunch on a Wednesday (11:30) and surprisingly we were the only customers the whole time we were there. The food, price, and presentation were all pretty decent. They offer an AYCE option but it didn’t include all of the rolls on the normal menu so we opted out.
My coworkers ordered lunch combos (bento boxes). They both enjoyed the variety of the tempura but thought the meat was just okay (steak and salmon). All of us received a bowl of miso soup which was filled with a nice amount of seaweed.
I ordered the chirashi bowl and was pretty impressed by the quality of the fish. Very fresh and they gave a generous amount of fish. I wish they had sliced them thinner as I found it was somewhat hard to eat/​bite off. The presentation was very cute but because the bowl was so small it was difficult to get the rice on the bottom without fish falling out.
We ordered agedashi tofu (appetizer) and a roll wrapped in cucumber to share. The tofu was forgotten by the server and I almost wished we hadn’t asked about it because it wasn’t amazing. The pieces were thin and the breading was mushy. The roll was tasty but you couldn’t pick it up without it falling apart (no rice).

We found this lovely place on Unilocal.The food and service is soooooo great:) I will be back! The roll is really big and yummy

The prices are reasonable, the orders come out quickly, and our server was so friendly! We had all-​you-​can eat for dinner at $ 21.99 per person ($ 18.99 for lunch). Considering how much sushi my cousin and I devour in one sitting, this package saved us considerable money.
The sushi was great– really fresh and the rice-​to-​sushi ratio was appropriate (not too much rice). Definitely going again and bringing my girlfriends. The atmosphere, prices, and service makes this place stand out from the rest in the area and it’s only a few minutes from my place.
This is my new go-​to spot!

I understand that you can’t expect amazing sushi from a restaurant that offers AYCE, but the sushi quality at Sakura is very poor. The fish is not fresh and the sauces taste strange. I had to stop eating after a few pieces of sushi because I didn’t want to risk getting food poisoning. For the record — I never got food poisoning but I definitely would not have been surprised if I did. The service was great but that’s the only positive thing I can note.

Ordered takeout from here after seeing them on the Eat24 app and wasn’t that impressed.
We ordered a mix of sushi and hot items and they bagged everything together so that the cold items were warm when they got here. Warm (not room) temperature sushi is really weird.
The rolls were good but I couldn’t tell how fresh the fish was. The teriyaki bowl was actually chicken teriyaki on rice with a portion of salad and veggies — not great for my boyfriend who ordered it since he’s a meat and rice only guy — would skip this next time.
I’m guessing the rave reviews came from dine-​in guests. I’d try them again at their brick and mortar, but definitely skipping them for takeout.

My fiancé and I have ordered delivery from here a few times. We’ve mainly stuck to ordering from the sushi menu. The sushi is OK which is what you would expect from delivery.
Last night we made the mistake of ordering from the Chinese food menu. The Ma Pao Tofu was bland and uninspired. The vegetables in the fried rice looked like they were from a frozen bag, all the carrots were the same uniform cube and it had that bagged «vegetable medley» look. The vegetarian kung pao beef was spicy for no reason, it didn’t have a good flavor. A lot of the ingredients seemed to be low quality. Major disappointment. I doubt we’ll order from these guys again. After tasting their Chinese menu I’m questioning the quality of their sushi, too.

Well Sakura, I guess our love relationship could only last this long. Something down the line changed, was it me or was it you? I remember my first experience with Sakura was so astounding. The food was awesome, the service was great, and I just couldn’t figure out why there was only my table at lunch. Alas, things have changed.
Let’s talk about the service first. I think that Darren is most likely the owner or at least the person in the business who does a lot of the business decisions. He has always been so kind and consistent to me, my girlfriend, and my family. There is no one in his restaurant that works harder or wants it to succeed. He has always been polite and understanding and willing to be flexible. So, take these words I’m about to say as really constructive criticism for your restaurant that I know you really love.
The food has gone very downhill for the last few months. About six months or so ago, there was a new sushi chef working at Sakura. It was the very first time I took my sister to the restaurant and she was absolutely blown away by his take on your menu. She declared it the best sushi she had ever had. I agreed, and when we returned a week later and discovered that the sushi chef was on break, we still thought that the food would be good. The chef that was serving us that day was Darren’s brother. His sushi was a bit more clumsy and less elegant. Somehow the sushi that he put together was very uninspired.
As a result, for the next couple of months, I would call in and ask who was the chef for the day. Every single time it was Darren’s brother. Finally about three weeks ago, convincing myself that Darren’s brother might have improved, I set off with high hopes. As you can expect, the sushi was mediocre and our trip was disappointing. Darren was around and when I asked him what happened to that amazing sushi chef from before, he told me that he quit to become a truck driver and since then they didn’t find a sushi chef to replace him.
While I appreciate keeping family in the family business, it’s disappointing when you know that the restaurant can do better than what they have to do work with. I sincerely hope that Sakura will take the time to reevaluate and consider practicing to get things right. Then again, this is just one loyal customer’s input after all.

This place is a hidden gem in Monrovia. Every time I go here I’m reminded of how good the food is. I make a habit of taking the owners recommendations when ordering. His dish choices are always unbelievable! Big time thumbs up here!
Just a heads up, they have great coupons to this place at
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This place is a hole in the wall and a hidden gem! It was recommended to me by a friend and it was so worth trying! The ayce sushi deal is the best. The salmon tastes so fresh and the service is fast and reliable. Our server was so nice! Since it was our first time there, he allowed us to try the Lion King Roll even though it’s not typically on the ayce menu and it was a flavorful Hite to eat! Dragon roll was delicious! I love that the ayce sushi comes with complimentary miso soup and oranges at the end!
Mochi ice cream was also really good! They make it look like a sundae for you by adding some whipped cream in the middle with a cherry on top!
My sister and I left extremely satisfied and happy. The service was probably one of the best I’ve had :)

This place is amazing! The ambiance is calming and fun, the employees are extremely nice and attentive. Never having to ask for a refill on drinks is so nice! Mu girlfriend and I have made this place a regular meal destination, and we have become regulars to the employees. That know I get the All You Can Eat (AYCE) special, and she gets a Bento Box.
The quality of the food is beyond amazing, we have never had a bad meal there! The Sushi Chefs are incredibly talented and they are truly artists! We recently went in and had dinner, I had my normal AYCE, and my GF had the Bento Box A with A Golden California roll… again not a thing to complain about, that are always willing to modify as my GF is not a fan of Avocado they are always willing make the rills for her without the Avocado!
It has gotten to the point where I have had all the Sushi on their menu and at the end of our last meal I did not know what to get so I asked the Chef to surprise me, he asked my favorite fish and a few other questions and he made this amazing dish that for lack of a better term looked like a flower there were two made with Tuna and two with salmon, they were both made with Mango, cucumber, crab meat, flying fish ROE, and a drop of Sriracha for flavor!!! They were amazing Ive included a pic!
DONT PASS THIS PLACE BY!!! You will regret it!!!

I had come here for lunch with my coworkers and noticed that it was actually pretty empty. I had ordered the chirashi box (sashimi over rice) and it was pretty good. Everything here was nothing more or less than my average expectations.
It was great knowing that they could accommodate to the fact that my coworker wanted the E1 lunch special. But since she doesn’t like raw fish, they were kind enough to make an exception and substitute he first roll with a crunch roll. It didn’t seem possible at first but then the waiter went to the back and asked and got the okay.
After we had ordered our food, we decided we wanted to order the Lion King roll as well. Our waiter simply told us «it would take too long,» which made it really awkward. Again, in the end we still got it and it came out in a decent amount of time (it seemed the same as any other roll).
So aside from the awkward moments with the waitress, I say this place is nothing out of the ordinary. Not amazing, yet not terrible.

We were craving sushi and the fiancé has been wanting to try Sakura for a whole. The AYCE dinner is $ 21.99, but the selection is kind of limited.
The sushi chef kept missing items from each round of of our AYCE selections (half of our nigiri first round; two rolls second round).
The quality of the fish was ok, but nothing was super great. The best tasting nigiri was surprisingly the white tuna (which I normally don’t like). The fish to rice ratio is actually kind of generous!
For the rolls, I kind of wished you had that option for half rolls or hand rolls to try more items. I love salmon skin rolls, but they are so much better as a hand roll!
One roll that stood out was their sweet potato & eel tempura roll. It had way too much sweet potato and you couldn’t taste the eel over the soggy tempura batter.
If you go for the AYCE, you might be disappointed when you start noticing that half of their speciality rolls are not on the AYCE list. The best part of their AYCE was the nigiri being generous pieces of fish in proportion to rice. I wish that they had more speciality flavors like garlic tuna or something spicy for a garnish sauce like other sushi restaurants.
Unilocal 100 Challenge — 63 of 100

We came here for lunch and my coworker is allergic to avocado. Thankfully they got our orders correctly as I love avocado.
Yummy Roll was actually pretty good with hamachi on top. Shrimp was small but had a nice texture unlike the softer ones I’ve had at other places. Spicy mayo sauce was not that spicy but if you’re not used to eating spicy foods, it has a bit of a heat.
Spiderman Roll was pretty good but topped with panko crumbs and I didn’t particularly like their unagi sauce. The crab itself was coated with breadcrumbs rather than tempura.
Not bad with a coupon for buy 2 rolls, get one of lesser value (like crunchy roll) free, but I wouldn’t make it a point to eat there again. Service was pretty cool and they revamped the place since it was a Shanghai place before.