Sakura Express

The food was great for the price and the service was friendly.

My friend and I stopped in here for a break while shopping. We were happy about the prices and the large rolls. For a quick outdoor mall sushi place, the quality was decent. The female cashier was very friendly and accommodating, and she even visited tables to make sure the diners were happy. We have patronized all kinds of sushi places, from high end to buffet style, and this place was good for a casual quick bite. We shoukd have shared the rolls too, because we had to take left overs.

I was so hungry and craving Japanese food so I was super excited there was a Sakura right next to Swarovski where I work!
But the portion was super teeny and it didn’t make me full at all :(I got a beef teriyaki bowl, which was delicious, but it was $ 10 and I’m still hungry right now.
The employees are nice and the food is good though!

I really need to stop assuming restaurants have online menus and take more pictures of menus. Sigh. Anyway, my mum and I came here for lunch when we were checking out the Paseo Nuevo Shopping Center in SB. As usual, this is a Japanese restaurant owned by Koreans. The lady behind the counter was really friendly but the male employee (co-​owner?) was definitely less so. We ordered at the counter and were given a number for our order. The food is a bit pricey, but my mum wanted Asian food so this is where we ended up. Since it was a nice day, we took a seat at a table on the patio and waited for our food and water to be brought to us.
When the lady took our order, she had asked if we wanted anything to drink. I told her two waters, please, and she acknowledged my request. And yet the water never came… not cool.
After a while, the male employee brought us our food. My mum had gotten the Beef Curry Bowl and I got the Dragon Roll. He also brough us utensils and one napkin each. He dropped my napkin on the floor, so he picked it up and walked away. I thought he was going to bring me another napkin, but he didn’t. We chalked it up to him being weird and also very unfriendly. Is he the same unfriendly owner that the other Unilocalers have been ranting about? While he wasn’t outright rude to us, I can totally picture him being rude to customers.
As for the food… my roll was okay. It wasn’t great, it wasn’t bad, it was just fine. But my mum did not like her beef curry bowl at all. She thought the meat was mediocre and the curry was bland. She was not a fan of the food at all. While I don’t think this place merits just one star, at least not in my experience, they definitely can’t get higher than two stars, since they really were just meh.

Not worth one dollar I paid! Half my food was cold, small portion for the $$ and dirty place. Our table was cleaned with a rag that smelled badly, food took A LONG TIME to arrive at our table. Avoid this place if possible!

The food is ok and you got what you paid, they are cheaper than other places. But I do not like the owner who works there, he is cold and not always friendly to customers. I feel not enjoying to eat there so I won’t go back again.

This place is totally underrated here on Unilocal!
Now was it the best or classiest sushi place I’ve ever eaten at? No. However, it is FAR from the worst.
The service was great. I’m pretty sure it’s more casual than a sit down place, hence the express in the name. But instead of telling us that we were doing it wrong when we just sat down at a table instead of ordering up front at the counter, the cashier came around and took our order like it was a sit down establishment. THAT is good service. On top of all that our orders were hot, fresh, and fast!
Next, quality of food. Will I remember this meal for the rest of my life? No, especially since I ate with my parents, yet I will remember this meal when I compare it to the next time I have sushi. It was tasty and filling. As my fingers write this review my stomach is satisfied.
Finally, the deal factor. THAT’S THE BEST PART! I’m a 22 year old male straight out of college, so I eat like a garbage compactor. This joint was perfect for me! Their meal deals cannot be beat. For $ 12 I got a ninja roll, tempura, salad, rice, and miso!
If you cannot tell from my excessive ranting and exclamation point usage I’m happy about my meal here and think the haters need to chill.
The only aspect it could improve upon would be cleanliness, that would reduce the so called, «hole in the wall» feel.
Other than that, get at me foodies!

This place is horrible even wit the new ownership as they kept the old chef who is horrible. The tea was served with the tea bag in it imagine a Japanese restaurant not brewing it’s tea how ignorant to leave the tea bag in the cup and charge $ 2,00 for it a to add insult to it and the shrimp was frozen and hardly cooked in the tempura roll with tiny pieces and mostly crab meat. and the owner was so rude when questioned he refused to even ANSWER I have never experience such arrogance in my entire life and I am from NEW YORK!!! Please don’t eat here It is for tourists who don’t know what they are getting into— horrible food –Imations of good sushi and other Japanese dishes go to Shintori or Arrogato or Kyoto all are on State Street and good! and nice people own them!!! t. This place is ridiculous.— convenient when shopping but up surd in every way!!! Did you ever hear of a restaurant owner not talking to you I never did these new owners are arrogant and didn’t tell the truth they were embarrassed!!! THE CHEF_​_​_​who laughed himself listening to the dialogue when I found out — – they said they had a new Chef and they had the SAME!!! old amateur one!
This is a ridiculous situation when the food is awful and the owners and not good people and the Chef is a terrible cook– nothing is right there!

Be aware of this restaurant !
It was a big mistake to eat lunch in Sakura Express today. I went in there and ordered a vegetable hot and spicy Asian ramen and It was over $ 7 (including tax). I was expecting a bowl of fresh ramen like we usually get from other Japanese restaurants, but I was wrong and so disappointed. It came out exactly like the Korean instant noodle that I eat at home. I made a complaint and was yelled by the male owner. Like what other reviewers said, the male owner was totally rude and their food was horrible. Don’t expect their food to be freshly made, especially the raman, which is made from an instant noodle package that only costs $ 2 a pack.

Nothing special. Not the best taste. It’s as basic as it can get. Plus it wasn’t that clean.
Pros:
They were fast. It only took about 2 minutes. Great if you’re on a quick break from work or if you just want something light and quick.
They have good pricing (but most sushi places do anyways)
The cons
Don’t expect the bet service in the world
Don’t look in the kitchen. It’s a little out of order :)

I’ve never regretted not checking Unilocal reviews so much in my life. My heart also sank when I found out that the Kahuna Grill in the same plaza serves teriyaki platters. I should’ve gone there instead! I’ve never even tried that place, but there’s no way it could’ve been worse than Sakura Express.
One star because the food was edible, I guess, and the lady behind the counter seemed fairly nice, I guess. But don’t be fooled by their extensive menu; this place needs to get its act together. I sure as hell don’t go to these bootleg Japanese places expecting authenticity or quality. I usually go to these places for something decent, inexpensive, and filling; not to get blatantly ripped off.
I’m shocked at how this place is surviving in the swanky Paseo Nuevo Plaza. It’s a little more on the upscale side in terms of shopping centers, so I guess I expected more. I usually have no qualms about a grimy, no frills hole-​in-​the-​wall place, because it’s those kinds of places that can bust out some of the best food. But this place makes the Panda Express in the same plaza look like the «gourmet» Chinese food it claims to be. I could’ve spent less there and got a better deal, too.
I know the rent has to be expensive in Paseo Nuevo, but come on. Sakura Express isn’t overpriced; it’s a straight up scam. Their combo «meals» consist of a small rice bowl of mostly teriyaki sauce and 6 tiny half-​assed California rolls OR a wilted (possibly MSG-​laden) salad, plus a a drink. Their veggie bowl was an absolute joke. A few rinky dink pieces of broccoli, a bit of overcooked carrot, and a shitload of corn crapped on with an even bigger shitload of teriyaki sauce.
My mom got the teriyaki chicken bowl, and it was a slap in the face knowing that she paid about the same price for hers. The chicken bowl definitely wasn’t worth the $ 9 either, but it was obviously way more substantial than a $ 9 bowl of canned corn swimming in teriyaki sauce. The chicken tasted slightly burnt and there wasn’t a whole lot of it, either. I don’t even wanna know what it would be like to pay $ 12 for their beef or salmon. Oh hell no!
You know something’s up when someone says that the rice was the only good part of the meal. Enough said. I don’t say this often, but this place needs to close down already and make room for something better. Even a Yoshinoya would be an improvement.

Was hungry and needed something quick. Wish I would have just gone hungry.
This place was dirty and cheap. Two words that should never be associated with sushi. I got an albacore roll. Every other time I have had albacore, it has been a white color. This fish was brown/​black/​grayish???
The fish was obviously low quality and had gone bad. First of all if you eat at a good sushi restaurant, you will never get bad fish because it is sold so quickly. Even if a good sushi restaurant is slow, they would never serve fish past its prime. Because hmmmm maybe they care more about people returning to eat there and people not getting food poisoning then making a lousy 8 bucks!
This really disturbs me, also Sakura tried to disguise this black albacore with a sauce spread all over the roll.
Not impressed!!!

It was a mistake coming here. I found this place off points of interest on my gps. It was the closest Japanese place at the time I placed my search. I was in Santa Barbara with some relatives for a few hours. We went to see the mission and drive around. We got hungry and my relatives are a bit older and are pretty traditional and have very strict food preferences. So Japanese or any other type of Asian cuisine would have sufficed. I picked this place on a whim, thinking, ok– this place sounds fine. WOW, we should’ve gotten back in the car and driven somewhere else. Times like this I wish I checked Unilocal prior to coming here.
Usually, I like having some good ol’ quick/​fast food with no fancy stuff, which is what I expected from this place, but geez, this place was pretty disgusting. It looks unkept and unclean. It’s far from swanky and far from general standards.
The food is no different. I got the beef teriyaki bowl because I was afraid to get anything else. I definitely would not eat anything uncooked from this place. The teriyaki sauce drenched the rice and carrots and there was barely any beef. But I guess that worked out well because the beef was pretty gross. My food came out cold. The other food we ordered didn’t look very good either.
The reason why I disliked this place the most was because of the customer service by (who I assume was) the owner. It was some Asian gentleman taking the orders. There were six of us who ordered and there must have been a mix up with the orders. My mother went inside to ask about the status of our orders. From outside I could hear the owner yelling something about how that was all that we had ordered and some other rude things. Lucky, my mom is practically deaf in one year so she probably didn’t notice or care that he was yelling at the top of his lungs. Then later, the owner comes outside with the receipt and points at it saying that was all we ordered. Regardless of who was in the wrong, who does that? Yells at customers. AND THEN goes outside to yell more. Wow. That guy was surely a gentleman.
To summarize: this place is horrible and the owner is a complete jerk. I advise starving or moving on to someplace better with decent food and decent service.

Two stars because my rolls and edamame didn’t poison me. One star for cleanliness. Gordon Ramsey would have a bitch fit if he walked in and saw how dirty the place is. Never again. Gross, gross, gross. I don’t know how they can run a business like this. They are renting prime real estate in Santa Barbara and the place looks like the kitchen of a frat boy house in I.V. Maybe instead if sitting in front of the computer all day the people working there should get to work cleaning all of the grime off of the surfaces and organizing all of the crap that just lays out in piles.
I am so glad I didn’t get anything with fish.
I seriously think the health department should come in.

The owner yelled at my three-​year-​old client with special needs for getting soda in his water cup. He aggressively grabbed the cup and threw it in the trash and then began to yell at the child. The mother apologized and explained she would only fill up her cup halfway but he was still so mad, he threw their food on the table at them.
I’ve eaten there once before and the food was pretty subpar but after this experience with my client, I’m pretty sure no one should ever go there.

AWFUL. I didn’t know a rainbow roll was supposed to be such an exciting array of browns, blacks, and grays. Oh, and as far as the staff – You’re better off trying to have a conversation with the old fish laying on the sloppy rice mushed into a ball.

It’s a hole in the wall at the mall. It looks like a hole in the wall at the mall. Why is everyone so surprised that their food tastes like it came from a hole in the wall at the mall? It’s cheap. It’s decent. I only get the spicy sashimi bowl and the ‘B’ lunch combination. They’re only $ 10 and it’s a lot of food. Don’t get too adventurous and you’ll be fine.

We were shopping on State St. and looking for a quick bite to eat. The menu sounded good so we went on in. Right off the bat, the owner (or the Asian man who seemed to be the owner) was instantly unfriendly. We placed our order and waited for our food. As the sushi «chef» was preparing someone else’s order, my Mom commented to him that it looked good. The owner then said to her, «You can wait for your order outside» as he shooed her away. Wth?! What kind of customer service is that? We are patrons of your business and this is how you treat your customers? It’s a small storefront sure, but no one else was in there but us!
We sat outside and waited for our food. I went back in to ask for a small cup. The minute I walked in, the owner looked up at me then put his head back down as if no one walked in. I asked him for the cup and he just lazily motioned to them.
What horrible customer service. The food already is subpar and your «customer service» hardly does anything to help your business. I’d never return here again. One star for mediocre food and that’s about it.

Weak little fish. I’m leaving.
Showgun Roll (California roll with Yelloyail and avocado) was the size of a silver dollor and the fish was a thin as two quarters. And that’s about what I would pay for it. Not the $ 8.99 on the menu.
Leave now. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $ 200.00.

I’ve been here a couple times because of the Axxess deals, to support local Korean business owners and because their food looks and smells so good when you’re walking by. I will be honest and say their food looks and smells a bit better than it is.
And while I wasn’t particularly impressed with any of the rolls, they have this tofu they battered and deep fried that was a m a z i n g. I’ve never ever had tofu like this (and I’ve had a LOT of tofu) but for deep fried fare it was surprisingly light.
Then I had a few of their rolls and was supremely disappointed. The sushi falls apart on the way to your mouth and I found myself chopsticking clumps of rice and tiny shards of cucumber into my mouth. But hey, sometimes you’re stuck in Paseo Nuevo and have a hankerin’ for some fast, affordable sushi.