Perfect spot for a birthday dinner. The chef made the experience fun and interactive. I loved the steamboat that he made from onions for the children and the chicken toss. The food was very fresh, my salmon was cooked perfectly. My first hibachi dining experience was amazing. read more

Sakura - Japanese Near Me - Charlottesville, Virginia

The atmosphere here is welcoming although the process feels slightly rushed. Enjoyed the entertainment. Had a party of 30 the staff was accommodating. The chefs were very creative with their entertainment. The food was pretty good. A lot in. My party was not impressed by the flavor, they thought it was not super flavorful. My only issue was the chicken was overcooked which stood out in the meal. I don't feel the meal needed any other sauces. I'm not sure if it's somewhere I'd return to. read more

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The chef was entertaining but the here was too much food served and seasoned heavily with oil and other seasoning. The people were nice .that served but not my preference read more

This was my dynamite roll? Everywhere else I've ordered this roll it was toasted, but this is just a bit lukewarm with two random cream cheese sticks on top :/ It said baked on the menu, so not quite what I was expecting. Fried rice and hibachi were delicious though. Hibachi came with white sauce as well read more

Sakura - Dynamite roll (and Alaska roll) - Japanese Near Me - Charlottesville, Virginia

The food was amazing I have been to many hibachi and this had by far the best fried rice, sadly they were out of milk and I could not get my mochi I was looking forward to, the sushi was exceptional I would come again. The sushi took forever like it had to cook btw I got the California roll. read more

Always divine! Perfect family spot to grab some quality food and good service while making memories.

Great Service, vibes and food. Social distancing and mask are required. I loved all the food. The steak was tough I couldn't chew it ie reason for 4 stars in-lieu of 5. Shrimp was DELICIOUS!!! Very friendly atmosphere and very clean. Will return when I'm in town again and try the lobster. read more

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There sushi here is sooo good I strongly recommend coming here the customer service excellent read more

Sakura - Japanese Near Me - Charlottesville, Virginia

I've been here twice. The first time it was alright nothing too crazy, the portions were not worth the price and the entire thing felt rushed. Unless if you're not with a huge group they could care less. The second time I went, the service was even worse. The cooks had nothing to do with it but there was a short lady (did not catch her name) who was beyond rude. I had to pay with Apple Pay, I followed her to the other side of the restaurant and she tried to ask me to leave a big tip and said I could only leave the suggest tips on the bottom. Which I was not going too because you cannot be forced to tip heavily if the service and portion size of the food was horrible. It was me with 2 other people and we ordered shrimp. Each of us got only 3 pieces of shrimp and it was shared among us and another group that was sitting besides us. I did not like the portions, the price, that waitress from that night at all. She then said "are you f-ing kidding me" as I left a very low tip. Usually I leave a pretty good tip anywhere I go but considering the fact that the entire experience was horrible along with the service I just could not. She then walked away and started gossiping to the other workers in the front and stormed off. read more

One of the few restaurants, in Charlottesville, open Christmas Day. Service was fast and friendly quality of the food not so much. We did teppanyaki and the show is a big part of the experience...Audience/guest participation makes a difference. We happened to be seated next to family who weren't really into the show, which in turn made our chef not have the energy to go all out. He performed the bare minimum. I ordered scallops and lobster. Scallops We're perfectly cooked, the lobster was tough as shoe leather. Margarine was the overwhelming flavor in the fried rice. Husband had steak and shrimp. Shrimp were overdone and rubbery. Ultimately this place is about the show and not the food. Go with a large group and the more energy you project the more it spurs the chef to perform. If you're a party of two seated with a group of quiet folk the energy isn't there. read more

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My family, friends and I used to visit Sakura quite often. Back when you could get the vegetarian dinner for like $15-$16 and be completely satisfied. As of lately that is no longer the feeling we leave with. My party of 5 decided to give Sakura another try while a family member was visiting and not only have the prices been touched once again but the portions seem to be smaller. There is no option cheaper than $18 any longer unless it's a kids meal and they won't let adults order that. The service was decent, had to wave our waitress down most of the time. With the amount they are charging you'd think they'd upgrade the scenery by now but it's still the same from when we'd dine there back when they first opened. read more

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First off: we have some severe food allergies and a couple of picky eaters at that. The staff here are amazingly accommodating. I was able to eat my meal without others comprising their experiences. Food tastes great! read more

Sakura - Filet with fried rice and zucchini and carrots only. Veggies adjusted by request. - Japanese Near Me - Charlottesville, Virginia

Always good food. Service is also great. Been to many hibachi places around the US and this one is a favorite.

Had sushi here. Fish was... fine. Nothing special but seems to be a reasonable quality. Rice was hard and cold, which made the sushi taste like it was from the grocery store. Service was middling. Forgot multiple items from my order. Not worth the visit. read more

I had a really negative hibachi experience while I was here but it was not fault of the restaurant. Unfortunately when seated at the table I sat next to a couple that had no table manners. Between coughing all over my food and discussing throwing up left and right I was upset. The man looked sick and the woman kept talking about how she can't eat and kept piling all her food on her husband's plate, so it made me wonder why they were even there. They completely lacked any self awareness for how close they were to a whole table of people trying to enjoy the experience. I went over to the manager though who was very understanding and she had the kitchen staff make me fresh food so I could eat it in the comfort of my home. The food here is very good, and I very much so enjoyed my sushi roll. Everything tasted fresh and it's one of the best hibachi restaurants I've had in a long time. I'll definitely be ordering take out next time since I understand when eating at hibachi it is a gamble who you will be placed next to. Staff is also very respectful and attentive. The business was definitely very organized compared to some others I've seen out here, and also very clean. read more

Fun affordable place to eat. Family friendly, especially for hungry teenage boys. Food is humbly tasty and the chef is entertaining. Meals are made large by plenty of good noodles and fried rice. EZ parking and lots of seating. They worked us in without a reservation. I never could understand eating at a grill. And more, eating while they clean the grill. Popular place for large parties. I think tables hold 10. Chef will toss shrimp pieces for you to catch in your mouth. Good for date night read more

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Super nice people, and the food is great. They gave my girlfriend extra hibachi when she didn't order any, and even gave us a complimentary cheesecake for our anniversary. Considering what all is included with an entree, the price is very fair too. No complaints, definitely worth the visit. read more

Literally one of my regular and favorite stops in Cville. I'm always greeted with a smile. My order is always correct. The sushi chef is friendly, fast, and always offers new options that may not be on the menu. Try the sushi bar here. I don't about the steak and seafood, but the miso, sushi, ginger dressing, crabmeat salad, and hot sake are all delightful and fresh. read more

8/5/24- I called to order an entre and sushi roll combo. On their website, it clearly states what items are included in the entre. They did not honor their advertising. https://sakura-us.com/menu-charlottesville/ If I could give a negative, I would. read more

Celebrating my Father's and a close Aunt's birthdays, 11 relatives met at the restaurant and enjoyed the meal cooked right in front of us. It was a tad chilly in their but everyone had an enjoyable time! The service was more than excellent everyone was accommodating! read more

We had a great experience dining at the Hibachi Table. The food was very good with very large portions. The staff was very pleasant and our Chef put on a wonderful show for us. My husband had Sushi and really enjoyed that as well. The place was clean and everyone was very nice. . read more

This is a challenging review. We have been going there for years, and we always had great food. The last four times we were there, the food was not good at all. In fact, we reduced the amount of food ordered for a couple of visits and we still left food behind. I just was not good. It seemed to be related to one of the chefs not being there anymore. The service was excellent. We've not been back for a couple of months now, and I doubt we will go back. It was just bad. read more

Good food almost every single time. My daughters love the sushi and salmon from the cook top. My big complaint is the need for more servers. We came with a group of 13 (one check) for my kids birthday and could not get refills till we were almost done. read more

I'd give this place no stars if I could. We've been coming for many years and it just keeps getting worse. The past two years it's been really going downhill. The food is either overcooked or just doesn't taste right. Last night I ordered filet, shrimp, scallop... the filet was 100% lamb. The owner said it wasn't but as someone who grew up eating more lamb than anything else it's not hard to taste the difference. I don't know if they were sent this by accident or if they accidentally served it but it wasn't good. It always takes a while to get drinks refilled and it's just not as fun as it used to be nor does it taste as good as it used to. I'll be moving on to a different place that's for sure. read more

Place kept me n my boys waiting wY too long. not cool whatsoever. L restaurant. lowkey food fire tho. just wish the turnover was quicker #bruh read more

Sakura - Japanese Near Me - Charlottesville, Virginia

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Even though the food is always good, the service seems to be worse and worse each visit. This evening, our waitress was rude, as she has been during a couple other visits. She rushes and seems to have a constant attitude. Our table was never cleared of the dirty dishes. My ticket for just me was $80 because I ordered sushi, a hibachi combination, and extra veggies and noodles. Needless to say, I had a lot of leftovers to take with me. She brought me 3 little to go cups of yum yum sauce and I asked for 3 or 4 more since I was taking so much food home. I was told by her and the manager that I would have to pay $.50 extra per sauce. Really?!?! My ticket is $80 and you can't throw in $2.00 worth of yum yum sauce?!?!?! Wow. Very frustrating. read more

Large facility in a shopping center~ The inside is spacious and clean. Sushi bar is in the center, but most of the space is for hibachi. My hubby had hibachi while I had sushi. The sashimi had nice size fish, which seemed fresh and flavorful. They put a tad of pickled something on top of the fish that was infused with wasabi? Their wasabi seemed especially spicy!! But it's also been awhile since I've had sushi! Deserves more stars for this restaurant! They don't seem to be cutting corners in times of inflation read more

We enjoy the food!! But today we went and the server took the saki while my kid was in the restroom. The server threw it in the trash while the bottle was 2/3 of the way full and then when my kid came back and asked about her drink the server pulled it out of the trash and had the audacity to serve it to her!! And then to charge me for it?!! Are you kidding me?!!! We won't ever be back with service like that!! read more

This review is primarily for their hibachi experience. Sakura is the local hibachi meal and show restaurant of Charlottesville. It is a chain but they have other locations not close too close to Charlottesville. Food: The food is what earns the stars I give Sakura. I am a big fan of hibachi style food and was very excited to see a place close to home. The fried rice is a real winner and most for their meats my significant other and I have tried and found pack the right flavor, and due to being cooked to order have the right consistency. They have good portion sizes and I've never seen anything get burned. Hibachi meals include a small ginger salad, soup, rice, veggies, your pick of protein, and noodles. At times they skip the noodles which is frustrating and is inconsistent. Sometimes they serve them at lunch and sometimes they serve them at dinner and when they do it makes your bang for your buck even better. Portion sizes are far and often I find myself getting leftovers from my meal. The flavors and options are there and they can do gluten free for those who have allergies. Although I've seen the option utilities they kept bringing it up if anything was delayed and insisted that cooking that meal separately was why. The option may be there but the service made the girl clearly feel uncomfortable because they kept blaming any failures on that. Eventually the chef ended up flinging soy sauce covered rice all over the girls plate and she was unable to finish her meal. They did not offer a refund and asked her if she wanted to eat what it didn't look like the rice had touched. (That automatically made the place lose a star to me - your mistake you should correct). Service/environment: Due to the fact that this place does sushi and hibachi maybe the sushi experience is different but each time I go I am a little let down at how the service ends up going. Maybe they are understaffed but I know each time I struggle to get my water refilled. It may be little but during dinner shows were you're next to a hot stove top it's a let down. No one is ever rude but I do think you should be able to get your glass refilled or order another drink. The environment is typical hibachi restaurant, not really upscale but definitely not a hole in the wall. The waiting area is very small. If you end up waiting for a table and there is a large family or two you will probably not get a seat. You could sit at the bar but last time I did that in a party of two they forgot us and skipped over us so I probably wouldn't recommend that. Show: The "show" aspect of the meal is far from consistent. Certain chefs, at certain times, on certain days put on a great show. Others you can tell are just trying to get through it and do as little as possible. When you have a vivacious chef it's fun as they interact with you. Others, especially if the table is not completely full, just cook you meal as if you weren't in front of them and maybe add a knife spin. Sadly the inconsistency is disappointing. Overall, not terrible but far from my favorite place to go. If they had a to go hibachi menu I would probably do that. The food is consistently terrific but the service and inconsistent show makes the value hard to justify on a night out. Overall perfectly fine for a random birthday dinner or homecoming meal for teens but not somewhere I dine too frequently. Fingers crossed they do hibachi to go because that is really what I'd be after. read more

Sakura - Japanese Near Me - Charlottesville, Virginia

Food and atmosphere was decent. Had a 7:45 reservation; however, wasn't served a single piece of food until 9:30 which was belligerent. Cant make this up. Staff wasn't even accommodating or nice. The hibachi show was extremely average - not worth a 2 hour wait with reservation. Thankfully I don't live around here so I probably won't be back. Good luck. read more

I am giving this place five stars because it really should have a better rating! I made a reservation for a Tuesday night to celebrate a couple birthdays. (Bonus that they give you a free slice of cheesecake for birthday!) This is the only TRUE hibachi style restaurant here in Charlottesville (where they cook the food in front of you with some fanfare thrown in.) Hubby was hesitant to come here due to the reviews, but we were all very pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food. I enjoyed my rib eye and shrimp hibachi entree, and hubby had the teriyaki chicken. My two toddlers were terrified of the initial show-stopper flame, but they enjoyed the rest of the mini dinner show. Our wait time was minimal, the place was clean, and the food was fresh, cooked to order, and plentiful! Slightly pricey but I think fair for what you get. read more

This review is for my visit in August 2018. We were a party of about 15. Our waitress worked hard to get our order out and she did a good job. The food was average hibachi-style food and new york strip steak was good. No real complaints there. A few reasons for the 3-star review: Cleanliness: A few of us noticed how sticky the carpet in this place was when we went to lift our feet off the floor. I was wearing slip-on shoes and they were literally stuck to the carpet and felt like my feet were going to slip out of the shoe. Seems like years of grease took its toll on the carpet. We also noticed some old food all over the corners of the floor up against the cooking area​. Really made me question the quality control and cleanliness standards of this place. The man behind the bar counter (I assume he's the owner due to the way he seemed to be scanning over the restaurant) kept his eyes fixed at our table, almost annoyed as he watched us. Overall, our waitress was the best thing about this place, it looked like she was new to waiting tables, but handled it all very well. She earned this place the stars for Sakura. Food was decent, but probably not worth the price. Having lived in Japan for many years, the only thing really Japanese about this place is the name, as the standards of quality were not near anything I've ever experienced in Japan culture. Given everything experienced here, I won't be returning. Advice: please implement "kaizen" into your business. Some attention to detail, raising the bar on quality, shampooing of carpets, and a smile will go a long way. read more

Pretty good sushi. Not the best ever but presentation was fun and it seemed to be fresh. Service was very attentive. read more

Sakura - Angel's hair roll and Hawaiian roll - Japanese Near Me - Charlottesville, Virginia

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of their fish here. Being spoiled by extremely good sushi in the Northwest, I expected something of the "old-and-rotten" quality in the East coast where fish are not readily available. I came here on a rather quiet, Thursday night, and the wait staff and chef were super attentive. This restaurant is huge, so there should be no problem accommodating crowds that want to come in on a weekend. We chose the sushi bar over the teppanyaki, so I cannot comment on the latter. We started off with their real California roll (i.e. made with real crab meat), spicy tuna roll, a spicy tuna hand roll, salmon roll, rainbow roll, and a seaweed salad. Interestingly enough, this place was the first place ever to offer a California roll with real crab meat. It was indeed a treat. Is there unagi here made with butter here? Because, seriously, that's what it felt like. It melted in your mouth, and they toasted it so it was warm. After all of this, we ordered some more unagi, a dragon roll (which has unagi sliced on top; are you feeling the trend with the unagi here?), and some salmon nigiri. All of which were of incredibly quality. I could easily eat this sushi all day. I should note that I came here not that hungry; I am incredibly weak-willed when it comes to portion control with sushi. The sushi chef was incredibly nice and talkative, as well. After we had established that we were from out of town, I think he felt more generous and gave us the biggest slab of eel/salmon that night. I can't decide whether I love him or hate him because it was getting hard to put down by the end of the night. But it was so delicious? I would say, on average, the sushi here is above average price per person. If I were on a tight budget, I would not recommend this place to eat. read more

Sakura - Eel roll, unagi, seared salmon, and salmon nigiri. - Japanese Near Me - Charlottesville, Virginia

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This review is primarily for their Sushi bar, not their Hibachi grill/experience. I sat down at the Sushi bar and placed my order. The sushi chef was very friendly, and the service was good. But the fish was quite disappointing. I ordered a chirashi, which came with three pieces of five types of assorted fish (salmon, yellowtail, tuna, etc.). The presentation of the dish was nice, but maybe a third of the fish that I ate was ice cold, with a bit of that icy hardness to it as you chewed on it. The fish that weren't semi-frozen lacked the desirable freshness that you would hope for in your sushi. I would want to try their Hibachi, but I wouldn't want to come back here for their sushi. read more

Got takeout for dinner and though it was tasty, they failed to give me the soup that came with my order. Also don't understand why you get noodles when you dine in and not for takeout. For $45 seemed like they skimped on stuff, so I don't think I'll get takeout from them again. Dine in last visit was good and entertaining so I haven't totally crossed them off my list...yet. Restaurants need to be careful if they want to maintain customers. read more

This place used to be pretty good. It was always overpriced, but at least the food and service were decent. Unfortunately, that just isn't the case anymore. This is likely another casualty of the labor shortage, but the staff at Sakura have clearly adopted a policy of "IDGAF" about customer service. They willfully leave half of the restaurant unused, while allowing very disorganized waits to pile up in the front. The lady who manages seating, bill payment, and takeout has obviously worked hard to harden her demeanor and free herself of any emotion or susceptibility to the disappointment of others as she goes about her work how she sees fit, ignoring customers and unapologetically getting around to service if and when it suits her. We most recently watched an empty, set table (in the half of the restaurant that was actually operational) sit unused for several minutes before we made enough eye contact with the hostess to get the clear message of "I will get around to seating you whenever I damn well feel like it" and giving up. I presume that the food still tastes pretty good, but even at its best, it was never worth this much trouble. read more

Come hungry, leave happy! I can only review on the hibachi portion as I did not have sushi. The chef was great, friendly, and very entertaining. This is one of the best hibachi grills I've ever been to because you can get lobster. I got the filet mignon and lobster to try it. I was very impressed with both. You get a ton of food: soup, salad, appetizer, vegetables, rice, entreé, and noodles. Love it! read more

Sakura - Heating up the grill. - Japanese Near Me - Charlottesville, Virginia

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Sakura was THE SPOT! I have had hella birthday dinners, and been to hella birthday dinners here. Today, I went to Sakura for yet another Birthday dinner... WORST EXPERIENCE! I got there at 7 O'clock and left at 9 O'clock. They messed up my bill four times! I should not have waited an hour to pay my bill and leave. The whole place is going down hill. There was a new waitress, and she was the only one really on the floor working. There were many waitresses who stood in the corner sitting on their phones not doing shIt. Until the service is better.. I will not be returning. read more

We've been here many times and we have always had a great experience. I prefer the ribeye and hot sake. The veggies are always top notch and the chefs are very entertaining. read more