Sasa Restaurant

The ambiance is nice and they have incredible cocktail choices, but similar to many restaurants in WC, the food just doesn’t taste the same as places in SF or even Oakland. It’s like the Caldecott is a flavor siphon and what emerges out of the other end is a saltier, limper version of your favorite dishes. That said, some of the share plates that we ordered were decent. The kale salad with goat cheese – not in the least bit Asian, but delicious and healthy. We also enjoyed the meatball skewers and Salmon. The lettuce cups with tempura shrimp were puzzling, as were the duck bao, which was also kind of dry. The service felt a little rushed, like the server couldn’t wait to get rid of us, but if we arrived at the end of his shift, I don’t blame him. This seems like a solid place for a cocktail and a couple of bar bites, but I’m not so sure about a full on dinner.

We are working on trying to find a new «go-​to» sushi restaurant in the area and this has been the closest we have found. While it was a little pricey, the fish was fresh, the menu was inventive while still having classics, and we really liked the ambiance. Brick walls and low lighting made for a great date night. The cauliflower tempura was definitely a highlight; a little spicy, not greasy and really flavorful. We will definitely be back.

Love Marie at the bar, best bartender! The Yaki udon and shrimp tempura are my favorite. Food is overall great !

Super sad I am going to have to «break-​up» with this establishment. This is the third time I have had a sub-​average meal here. Not sure what has gone so wrong, a few years ago it was so good. Tonight my sushi roll was soggy, ugh! Sat at the bar, where the bartender threw out about 25 f-​bombs during the course of my short stay. Also listened to employees gossip about another employee. It felt like a night at Denny’s, until I got my bill. Also, when presented with the bill my credit card was not returned to me so upon retuning home and realizing, I had to cancel my card. Bad dinner with the toppings of inconvenience.

I like my little sushi place in Martinez (Hanabi) better. This place definitely wins in the ambiance environment and is a fun place to go out to eat with a group of friends but the food leaves a lot to be desired for my liking.

We went there last Saturday at about 6:20 and put our name in their wait list. They said they will text us as soon as a table for 2 opens. After one week we are still waiting to hear from them.

Really great quality sushi in Walnut Creek. It’s a nice «fusion» Japanese-​American restaurant with quality fish cuts. The rolls are well thought out, and filling! We went for a late lunch on a Wednesday so it was nice and quiet and just a general pleasant atmosphere. Highly recommend!

Well, the only reason I am here on Unilocal to convey this review is because our reservation was thru Opentable & SASA apparently lied about a major issue.
Never have dined at SASA so to say the least, we were rather excited to try this place out that had been highly recommended since we 1^st moved here 1 year ago.
Our reservation was at 5pm, but we arrived at 4:35pm. The place was pretty empty due to the early time (the Saturday night crowd had yet to arrive). We checked in with the ‘hostess’ & asked that we not sit too close to the door. Just took her sweet time & then proceeded to sit us at a table 5 feet away, in front, right at the right aspect of the door. We again asked if we could sit somewhere else, I mean there were SEVERAL booths available. She sauntered back to her podium, checked & returned saying the only place available was at the high top tables between the booths & the bar. We reluctantly agreed & were seated but before the waiter arrived, we both agreed we would leave as we felt we were not really given an adequate table at an early time when many, many, may were available. We told our waiter about this & of course he had to go check with the ‘hostess’. He returned saying we would be allowed to sit at one of the booths but that there was a 6:30pm reservation. We chose to leave. I understand table management with reservations are a high priority but we had reservations too & at 4:40pm, I believe 2 of us had ample & adequate time to dine & depart. We were not even given an initial explanation or option when we checked in. It was too bad as I said we were anxious to dine here after reviewing their menu.
My final thought on this is: the hostess really needed to be a bit more friendly & experienced in her duties. I also would like to say that after we checked in but did not dine here, the restaurant relayed to Opentable that we were negligent in our reservation which then prompted emails to us from Opentable to explain ourselves.
I see many 4 & 5 star reviews here & it sounds like we may have missed a good meal. Perhaps the owners need to take note of what one’s 1^st experience is when entering their establishment.
At any rate, we left, made our way to VaDe Vi & had a fabulous & memorable evening so I guess it all worked out for the best in the end, at least for us it did!

My husband and I are regulars here, the first tim e we came her was March last year 2015 for our son’s 18^th birthday party and everything came out just like how we wanted. Customer service was great, food was delicious and the atmosphere was also great. We have been coming here now once a month since last March and we are always pleased with everything.
You like Sushi and you don’t mind driving to walnut Creek? than come here to Sasa and enjoys a nice meal and drink.

Met my girlfriend for a birthday lunch on a Wednesday, got a lovely patio seat. It always amazes me once the holidays pass how WC becomes very mellow. I think we were the only ones on the patio at noonish (and it’s heated and enclosed).
We were offered drinks and since we ordered the lunch special, they brought miso soup immediately to start.
Since we both decided the «set A» lunch special sounded tasty, after soup followed a small green salad.
Our «set A» came with 2 tempura shrimp lettuce wraps, some chicken teriyaki a california hand roll and of course rice. Plenty of food! So fresh and really nice to have a little of everything!
Now it was my friends birthday, and even though we were both stuffed we decided we «MUST» share a desert. hehe…
So I let her pick, she decided on a bread pudding with bananas and a maple caramel-​ly syrup. oh and ice cream… Da Bomb!!! Oh Em Gee… make room for that desert!!! Soooooo good!!! What a meal. We threw in a pot of coffee to share for around 50 bones. Really nice meal.

I hardly ever write food reviews but I feel like with sasa I had to. Would’ve done it sooner since I’ve been dining here in more than 1 occasion, but just found the time now.
Where to start I would like to begin with how wonderful it is to come to a restaurant where from beginning to end the staff had always made me felt like home. So warm and full of smiles from each and every single one of them. That’s really hard to find and just says how much of good management comes into play here, you can tell by how the place is runned by how happy the employees are at a establishment.
The food though, my goodness the chef has totally outdone himself. Every dish that I’ve ordered had been super delicious. Make me crave it every week, hence why I’m such a regular of sasa’s food either it being dine it or take out. That says a lot!
If any of my friends/​family are in town and they never tried this place, I always bring them here. At the end of dinner they would always say that «we have yo come back». I’m a very picky eater, and I only eat the best so does the people I know.
Yes the $$$ can be a little steep, but you eat what u pay for. Quality!!! If you want to eat cheap then go to your local yo sushi or something, and stop complaining. This place is for people who truly enjoy food and is not scared to pay good $ for good food. Just my opinion. I have a very sensitive stomach and never once had this place gave me a tummy ache like some others would… so thumbs up!
Keep up the awesomeness sasa, I will be seeing u real soon…

Went in on a Friday night, first making an appointment on their website. Bill was our server, he was very nice and great with recommendations. He was very knowledgeable about the menu, and knew how all of the dishes were prepared which was great as I can not have several things. I ended up getting the spicy tune roll which was beautiful, and tasted great too. Our drinks never came, and he never came to check back on us, so I couldn’t tell them they hadnt come until we were already finished with our food. I absolutely love the ambiance inside of the restaurant and will definitely be returning! Would recommend as a great place to go on a date!

This place is an unmitigated pit, which likely manages as many stars as it does because it sacrifices quality ingredients for stupid looking fountains. For a place that holds itself out like Urasawa and charges inordinate amounts for below average sushi, the water works must be the draw – that or a clientele distracted by shiny things.
The drinks were bad, the food was bad, and the bill was particularly bad. The «housemade low sodium» soy sauce was… bad just doesn’t seem to adequately convey how piss-​poor this stuff was… to say nothing about the fact that the place found it necessary to try in the first place. Kikkoman costs a dollar per gallon and works fine for every other sushi place in America. Finally, the fact that they can’t deign to keep a tub of cream cheese somewhere in the back for the unwashed among us who enjoy the occasional Philadelphia roll. This place is the perfect combination of pretentiousness and poor execution. Well done!

I have definitely had better rolls — the All Season roll we ordered had soggy and therefore stretchy seaweed which made it hard to chew the roll pieces. However overall the flavors of this restaurant were tasty.
The nigiri that we ordered were unagi (delicious and tender) and hamachi (very good, not the best I’ve had in my life, but definitely high marks of approval).
From the meat market: Crispy Duck — misnomer. Not actually crispy, but shredded duck with delicious hoisin sauce beneath the duck meat on top of a bun. Delicious!
Additionally had the squash dumplings — alright, but not a fan of lots of fried dough to get to the filling, was not anticipating it to be crispy and deep fried. The filling was excellent however and the beurre blanc sauce underneath was nice. The tuna parfait was an 80’s blast from the past, but very well balanced and well flavored. Was happy.
Dessert: Green tea crème brûlée. Grain of salt for the flavor on this Bc green tea is very delicate and I have a cold I’m getting over. So I couldn’t actually taste much green tea flavor at all. But as a regular crème brûlée filling it was very tasty. The bad part, the cardinal sin of crème brûlée ruining to me (I freaking love crème brûlée. A lot. A lot. A lot.). The crispy top? That delicious sugar that is supposed to be cracked with the back of your spoon before you eat? It was not crispy. At all. Brûlée fail. So tasty custard. But crème brûlée? Nope. But still tasty dessert. However, all kitchens have off nights so since this my first night here I’ll give them the benefit of a rushed pastry chef’s doubt.
Overall, pretty good first impression. I’m looking forward to trying more, had fantastic service (!!! The reason for the fourth star to be honest), and the appeal of an ever changing family style Asian restaurant with this type of menu is irresistible.

While visiting the bay area, we (my sister and I) traveled to Walnut Creek for lunch with our Aunt. This is her favorite restaurant and I can totally see why. The restaurant is very classy, nicely appointed and had a warm and comfortable overall feel.
We ordered a number of small plates to share, edamame, vegetable rolls, chicken lettuce wraps, chicken meatballs, ceviche… and of course wine. Everything was very fresh and tasty.
Price wise, it was a little on the high side. However, considering we ordered 6 glasses of wine (not each… I do have my limit), maybe it wasn’t that bad.
There are places to park everywhere — but it was like 2:00 and we had a dickens of a time finding an open spot. I think that’s just how it goes in the area — but be prepared to spend a little extra time searching for a place to park.
The service was excellent.

Came here for my sisters birthday dinner. Overall a great dining experience
We really liked the vibe of the restaurant, our waitress was very attentive and we thoroughly enjoyed the meal.
We have sushi often so opted for non-​sushi dishes. Went with our waitress’ recommendation and ordered something from each category to share.
In the Raw — Seared Albacore which has a great flavor with a bit of a bite (particularly if you add the jalapeños to your fork. yum!
From the Field — Rainbow Cauliflower — a surprisingly large serving of very flavorful cauliflower
Robatayaki (skewers). We tried the salmon and the chicken teriyaki. enjoyed both. Chicken was moist and flavorful and the salmon had a really yummy green sauce — can’t remember what was in it but would get again.
Fish Market — lettuce wraps. Delicious!
Meat Market — crispy duck steamed buns. Also great.
After all this we were very satiated but it’s a birthday after all so duh. got desert!
salted caramel pot de crème to share and they treated my sister to the Green Tea crème brûlée. loved both.
Will definitely come back again!
Only downsides
We asked for water they brought bottled — we would have been fine with good old Tap water but got charged for bottled.
It’s VERY LOUD — maybe it was where we were seated but we found it hard to hear.
Our bad… we rarely eat fried food and ordered 2 such dishes Made for a heavy meal.

Came here for dinner on a Tuesday night. $ 10 sushi rolls! These rolls were very big and enough to share. We also tried the tempura cauliflower. The cauliflower was crispy and cooked well. The sauce that came with it tasted like a bland ranch dressing and could have been better. The crispy duck was phenomenal! So so tasty! We also had the albacore tuna raw starter. Lots of flavor profiles that worked well on the plate. I had a glass of sparkling Rose that was quite tasty, not sure on the name, but I believe it’s the only one on the menu. Our waitress was informative and made some excellent menu suggestions. We will definitely be back to try more of Sasa’s $ 10 happy hour specials. Cheers.

My fave restaurant in Walnut Creek. Super trendy fun ambience and amazing food. Ate here Omikaze a few times and I have to say, it never disappoints. It is a taps style place, some small and large plates meant for sharing, but trust me, you get a group of friends together, you get there, you chill, drink some moscow mules, which are the best I have ever had anywhere, and just have fun!
It is definitely a bit pricey, so its a once in a while treat, but Vita is a GREAT server and if you sit at the bar, the bartenders don’t let you get lost in the shuffle. They are attentive and Johnny on the spot.
I have tons of pics I should post of the food here, but they have everything from Sushi, to pork belly, to oysters, to short ribs, to salad, etc… Definitely worth it.
TIP: it is on Main street in Walnut creek, so parking can be treacherous or non-​existent, however, in the alley behind Sasa, there is parking (with meters) for about 20 cars. Get there early enough and you can find a spot.
Also, Sasa is close to everything… shopping, theaters, movies, other restaurants. Just a cool place.

Went for a girl’s night out last night — Tuesday night. You must try on a Tuesday night — they have these great bar specials for $ 10.
I got a delicious salmon ceviche. But not like any ceviche you have ever had. It was like de-​constructed salmon ceviche. So there were the fried wonton chips, pieces of salmon nigiri, and almost like the rest of the ingredient for ceviche but presented almost like a garnish/​salsa-​like. It was fantastic!
I also got the N. Main roll — very delicious.

Case of lost identity. Conceptionally I thing this was meant to me a fusion Japanese restaurant. At lest I hope it is. This is my 3^rd time here and I am not impressed at all. We had a few appetizers including blue fin tuna sashimi and shishito peppers.
The main courses were more tapa style. Short ribs were horrible, dry. The ribleys, although tasty were every basic. There really was nothing on the menu that was special. The basic items of sashimi were not great. If you are looking for Japanese, go somewhere genuine. I would probably give the food a 2.
The service was definitely the saving grace. The waitress was attentive although the schpill of sashimi was ok, clearly they know nothing about Japanese food.
Parking was another concern. It is on the Main Street and st parking was very scarce. The restroom was ok. If you want true Japanese go somewhere else. The ambience was ok. Until next time, ciao!