Sakura Garden

Devastated to find out this location closed. Such a good deal for all-​you-​can-​eat sushi and king crab legs. Unfortunately I think not enough people latched on to the buffet concept for this type of food. Unfortunate. It wasn’t skeevy. I hope they reopen some time!!!

I’m so sad that they are closed!
I loved eating their king crab legs, their dragon rolls, and seaweed salads!
Hope they reopen in the future soon!

Closed. Bought a Groupon just a few weeks ago. Phone is dis notched snd there’s a sign on the door at that says restaurant closed.

Living away at UCONN, I was looking for an unlimited sushi place that was similar to Sushi X, and I definitely found it here!
The sushi was SO DELICIOUS here. My boyfriend and I have been here a couple times already and the biggest thing that people seem to miss, is that you have to order sushi FRESH from THE MENU.
The buffet sushi is still pretty good, don’t get me wrong, but if you’re iffy about food that’s been left in the open, you should know that isn’t the only choice of sushi you get to choose from!
My favorite roll of all time was the godzilla roll and peanut avocado roll!
And if you’re sushi starts tasting bland from eating so many, it’s probably because you’re not utilizing the ginger they put on the plate. Each different sushi roll was SO good and different from the many types of rolls we ordered!

I’ve gone to Sakura a couple of times in the last two years or so. Everytime it had been okay. The hot buffet had a few good options, I enjoy the big shrimp and the soup.
The sushi is ehhhhh. Sometimes it’s good, but it has mostly been a disappointment. Every roll tastes the same after a while.
Beautiful décor. I mean stunning for west Hartford!

This place has a nice décor. The atmosphere is not too loud. The murals on the wall are very interesting to look at. However, the food is terrible. The buffet was just average. They offer basic sushi such as tuna and white fish. The rolls are filled with fried food and mayonnaise-​based sauces.
One of the better things is there is a menu you can order from. I had a hand roll of spicy tuna that was decent. However, it took forever to get water and order food.
This place is good for family and such, but for the money I paid and the quality of sushi I recieved it is not worth it for me.

I was really impressed!
This place is not only huge but offers a great variety of not only Sushi, but american and Chinese food.
Its all displayed buffet style. They offered the traditional, general tao, wontons, etc.
As with all buffet styles, you tell them that’s the plan and you serve yourself.
Food was good, was there at lunch and got pretty busy with the locals.
If you are into sushi, for $ 12.00 lunch deal, this is the place to go.
I filled up pretty fast, even with an empty stomach.
Look forward to going back

DON’T LISTEN TO THE BAD REVIEWS! I’ve been coming to Sakura Garden for YEARS. The food quality has not changed in my opinion. You can still order off the menu like always, food choices are still great. Staff service are good. I don’t see what has really changed! Yes they don’t offer eel sashimi anymore but other than that they still offer salmon sashimi and other great variety sushi choices. Dessert choices are still great. Ice cream mochi are amazing! I still come here with friends and all of us always leave very satisfied and full! Don’t let the bad reviews stop you from coming to try their food!

If you’re someone who loves eating large amounts of Japanese food/​sushi, more than $ 20 worth, this place is great. The food here is okay but none of the dishes were outstanding to me. It doesn’t make sense for me to come here, but it may be good for others. Great decorations, good service, nice variety of food.

What has happened to Sakura? Lunch used to be a great feast of interesting Chinese Buffett and all you can eat, made to order sushi.
Now…bland and depressing salads and fruits at the Buffett. The Chinese selections are fried on top of fried or plain strange. Imitation crab meat with cheese sauce?
There is also less variety.
No more ordering sushi off the menu. Buffett only of items with strange names. «Spicy Santa» was ok on a menu when you could read what was in the roll. Now, you have to try an flag down a sushi chef for an explanation. The items on the buffet aren’t refreshed fast enough for a quite large restaurant full of people. We were left to wait 10 min for the few rolls that looked good enough to eat. There was only one vegi option. We had to beg to get a basic cucumber avocado roll.
Finally, the bathrooms were disgusting. Always a danger sign making you wonder what else doesn’t get cleaned… in a place that serves raw fish.
We will miss the old Sakura. Not coming back.

This place is going downhill ever since last year, the portions started to get smaller and smaller, and the wait staff became very un-​friendly and most of them barely even spoke english. So they could not even take my order.
My biggest complaint is that they stopped offering scallops. They never had red clams, and there was no eel sashimi? I had to order eel sushi and just eat the eel? apparently eel sashimi is no longer available.
This used to be one of my favorite places to go for sushi. When it first opened it was delicious and always fresh. One of our friends even had his birthday party there. I went back 2 months ago and it was a big mistake. The price continues to increase and the portions and varieties of the food continues to decrease while the wait staff gets worst and worst every time I go.

It’s worth 1.5 stars, I am generous by rounding it up to 2.
I have been a regular dinner (approximately once a month) here since around 2 years ago and it was at the level of 3.5−4 stars back then.
Unfortunately it has been trending downwards ever since.
Back in the times, the service was decent and they alway kept an eye for your needs unless there was a full house of diners and were too busy to keep full attention. The sushi bar was a much better place, the sashimi was fresh, thick cut pieces. Orders were unlimited and oyster and shrimps were served at the buffet regardless whether it was lunch and dinner. The buffet itself was fresh and rarely was there any food over cooked. $ 25 was expensive, but still worth the price back then.
Now it’s like the tail of two cities. HUGE comparisons are easily made. Things were pretty much the exact opposite. The food at the buffet was generally over cooked, I occasionally see fruit flies at the buffet bar, oyster is no longer served at lunch. Even if they were served at dinner, both the shrimp and the oyster were not fresh and the serving is way smaller. The sushi and the sashimi became way smaller as well. The raw fish pieces were no longer fresh and oily. And they even limit the pieces you can order now, what a joke! The service got worse too, it’s no longer above average.
I would prefer to dine at the royal buffet at Manchester considering that they pretty much serve a similar quality of food but nearly charge twice as much over here. Or even the Ichiban at Farmington ave does it much better at this given price range. Not recommended.

I have been here a few times since it’s first opened and the experience has always been pleasant UNTIL a recent visit.
FOOD: The sushi quality at the buffet area has definitely gone down. I made the mistake of picking a fried sushi roll that was covered in batter and deep fried (not sure exactly what it is called but I decided to go for it because I enjoyed it in other sushi places) and boy, was it DISGUSTING! I had spit it out. I expected it to be somewhat warm but it was so COLD and whatever that was inside was mushy and inedible. The rest of the food I had was mediocre. I really wanted to continue liking the food here but sadly it was just awful. I ended up getting some type of stomach bug later that day and I suspect it was from the food I had here because I hadn’t eaten anything else after.
SERVICE: What happened to the past servers??? The waitress we got with the boy cut hair was so inattentive and unfriendly to us the entire time. It made us wonder whether or not she even wanted to be there (probably not, but at least pretend and be polite to your customers!) I used to be a waitress so I understand you may have bad days but don’t show it to your customers and ruin their experience there! SO RUDE!
CONCLUSION: I feel bad giving this place a bad review because I really enjoyed eating sushi here in the past however, after my last visit, I will not be going back here anytime soon… especially not after that stomach bug and the awful service!

NEVER COME HERE!!!
This place cannot has more than 1 star, the food is TERRIBLE but the service is AWFUL!
Sushi and Sashimi-​The waitress takes 10 minutes to bring us the soy sauce and there’s a limit no more than 15 sashimi. Wat kind of buffet it is if there’s a limit? Also it takes 20 minutes wait for our sushi come out, even we just ordered 15 piece of squid!!!
Service-​The waitress are so retarded, no one is serving in the area because all of them are talking near the sushi bar. We need to wait at least 5 minutes to see a waitress!
Sushi roll-​They have RIDICULOUS sushi roll! They put all the cheap stuff in it. All lettuce and avocado in it? Also tofu skin and cucumbers. U kidding me? How can u guys be so creative!!!
After we order the sushi once, they told us «no red clam, ok?» Wat kind of service it is! U guys even didn’t say sorry!
Buffet-Don’t think u can eat even half of the price u paid, they are only gonna stuff u all the cheap things! U pay over 30 bucks on it only get Chinese buffet which u can go to royal buffet for 10 bucks. Again, they serve a lot of cheap food: fried wonton, dumplings, fried noodles, fried rice, a lot of greasy food to make you fool.
Pepper steak rib-can’t even chew, tastes like rubber
Salmon boat-​wat kind of stuffs in it!!! Can’t even taste
Udon-​cheap stuffs in it again! The udon is melted when u eat. Gross!
Cheesecake-​just a thin slice cheese on top of it u can’t even taste the cheese!
Mochi-​hard as rock! Oops my teeth!
Fruits: their fruits are so popular, all the FRUIT FLIES wanna be frds with them!!!
Never be back!!!

A solid 3 star A-​ok experience. The first time the groupon came around, I decided to skip it because of the lukewarm reviews and my own reservations about a sushi buffet. But when it came up a second time, I decided I would try it out with my mom.
My first impressions were good– the décor is dark, modern, with fake cherry blossom trees and creative lighting. The sushi stations are all manned by sushi chefs, relieving my fear of unattended trays of sushi being left out for hours. And beyond the sushi buffet, there is a hot food buffet, stocked with a lot of what you’d typically find at a Chinese buffet with some Japanese dishes mixed in.
The sushi is average. I sampled one piece of white tuna sashimi that had an unpalatable chewiness to it, and decided to stick with the rolls that were probably somewhere in the same league as grocery store sushi; adequate, but lacking in the flavor and creativity you’d find at a more upscale restaurant.
My mom was bold enough to do for the shellfish and found the oysters to be subpar. And as Alfred F mentioned– crab legs *still in the shell* battered and deep fried. What? But I probably had about 10 delicious crab rangoons and enjoyed a mug of miso soup, but was too full from sushi rolls to do much sampling of the hot bar. Between the two buffet stations, there are tons of choices and probably something for everybody.
I wish the waitress had explained the menu, or I wish I had asked. From what I deduced, there are some additional fancy rolls that you can order and have brought to your table that may have been more exciting than the rolls I had.
Overall I thought the buffet was tasty and fun, but I’ve definitely had better sushi. And is it crazy that I consider a lack of fruit flies and NOT getting sick from a sushi buffet to be a triumph?
For the $ 25 price tag I’d probably prefer to go somewhere else, but if I were super hungry and in the mood to sample lots of different things, I’d hit up Sakura again.

How is this place in business?! T-​E-​R-​R-​I-​B-​L-​E. Terrible. DO NOT COME HERE.
I was excited to try Sakura Garden, and when a Groupon popped up I immediately scooped it up, and I felt like I won the lottery. Mistake.
The décor is top notch, fancy pants, and makes you feel like you’re going to get a great experience based on appearance alone. But haven’t we all learned to never judge a book by its cover?
We were seated and asked for our drink order. Headed to the buffet.
Fruit flies, on fruit flies, on fruit flies… ON MY FOOD. God I should have walked out immediately… but I mean… I can tough things out… as long as the food tastes good.
Terrible Taste.
I walked through the buffet section swatting away fruit flies in my path, there are many cold and hot «asian fan favorites» to choose from. For lunch, the portions they put out are relatively small, which i thought was great (food wouldn’t be sitting out too long). However, it really didn’t matter if the food were fresh from the wok or sitting for hours, it was disgusting. Hands down the worst asian food i’ve ever had, ever!
There is also a sushi buffet and a made to order sushi option, however, I’ve had sushi at Stop & Shop that was better than this place. Miniature pieces of tasteless sushi that look NOTHING like the pictures they feature in the menu. This menu should be on an episode of MTV’s Catfish, I’ve been fooled.
In total, we got one plate from the hot/​cold buffet and one plate from the sushi buffet/​made to order. And although its call you can eat, you couldn’t pay me to eat more.
In fact, I PAID TO NEVER EAT HERE AGAIN. My groupon was worth $ 35 for which i paid $ 17. I had read the Groupon wrong and you’re only able to use it for dinner, whoops my fault. HOWEVER, we HATED HATED HATED this place so much, we asked if we could NOT use the Groupon deal and simply take the value of what i paid. They wouldn’t do it, and said it would only be worth $ 15. FINE! AS LONG AS I NEVER HAVE TO COME BACK HERE AGAIN.
Stay away. (pictures of fruit fly infestation pictures added)

Went here with my kids, which was a mistake. Because ²⁄₃ of them were not young enough to qualify for kid prices… but not old or big enough to eat anywhere near what I paid for them. But my bad… why am I taking 3 young girls to an all-​you-​can-​eat sushi restaurant, anyway? I enjoyed it, although I more or less rolled myself out after desperately attempting to make up for what my daughters weren’t eating. They liked the non-​sushi choices best, like teriyaki beef and tangerine chicken. But all in all, I think I’ll stick to more traditional, less expensive a-​la-​carte sushi and chinese restaurants from now on.
Service was excellent, by the way. Our waitress was very nice and attentive throughout the meal, and we didn’t feel rushed in any way. She even brought over several samples she thought we’d enjoy.

Still fabulous. Hand rolls are awesome! And crab legs, nom nom nom~
FYI: They only accept
voucher at dinner even though it doesn’t indicate that on the coupon.

This was my first visit to this establishment.
1. Nice place at first glance, clean and put together nicely.
2. I came by myself I had a group on voucher, thank God.
3. The buffet is nice, there are some interesting items on there, my likes: pickled octopus, seaweed salad, dumplings, the raw oysters, the crab legs, frog legs, and shrimp. Dislikes: all the sushi was bad, most didn’t even look good, the raw clams where too big (ewww you could not eat these raw they are too big !!) the soups looked bland, the noodles looked mushy, the other items seemed like typical Chinese buffet food not Japanese??? I filled up on the things I liked, but for the price without the voucher this place is a big disappointment. Ive had better sushi at the buffet in Manchester. So if you want good sushi stick to the sushi places in Manchester, Hana and the buffet in the shop rite plaza. Ijs

Two important new facts…
#1: Sakura has lowered their prices, and not a moment too soon. Let’s face it, $ 29 for dinner at a place like this is too expensive… even in West Hartford. They’re now $ 22 for dinner Mon-​Thur, and $ 25 throughout the weekend. Lunch prices are a very reasonable $ 13 and $ 16 respectively.
#2: The sushi bar now has a take-​your-​own sushi buffet built in front of it. They’re all things you can order individually too, but if you just wanna try one or two pieces of something new, it’s a nice option.
And I STILL don’t understand why everyone gets all up in arms over «too much rice» with the sushi. Hello? If you think that’s true, it’s called SASHIMI. And it’s a buffet, so you can have as much as you want! Order five pieces, order ten, order twelve! Order the whole goddamn slab of fish if you want!
Favorite Specialty Rolls: Fantastic Roll, Sakura Garden Roll, Rainbow Roll, Sunny Kiwi Roll.
Not So Much: Spider Roll, Dragon Roll, Mango Roll.
Again, the magic of the buffet comes into play here, because if we didn’t like it, we stopped eating it! And then we ordered more of what we did like!
As long as you play the system right, you’ll get a good value, and the food you eat won’t perceptibly be any different than any other sushi place in Connecticut.