While Tanforan may be losing tenants as it nears its closed, one spot that's lasted since the initial remodel is Sarku Japan. Known for their chicken teriyaki plate, that's been a go-to for me since the days I worked at the mall in the mid 2000s, til today when I need a quick lunch after shopping at target. While prices have raised over the years, $11 for a plate of teriyaki chicken, veggies and rice is still a solid deal. From a food court perspective, while not mind blowing, it's always consistent. Could it use some more sauce and seasoning, definitely, but ultimately, it does what it needs to do. Pro tips: pay the extra for a double portion of chicken for a more hefty meal, possible two meals instead of one. Also, when they're building your plate, definitely ask for a couple extra scopes of sauce on your food or else it'll be hella bland. read more

Sarku Japan - Japanese Near Me - San Bruno, California

DH and I have been watching 2 Oscar nominated movies daily at Tanforan. There is less than an hour between films, so we ate at Tanforan. Tuesday, you can get any teriyaki dish for a discounted price. I tried the shrimp and beef plate. It was ok, and a great value. I don't think I'll be back. There are so many great Japanese restaurants on the peninsula. read more

Sarku Japan - BEEF & SHRIMP TERIYAKI - Japanese Near Me - San Bruno, California

Honestly the last okay place open in Tanforan mall right now. Service is a hit or miss, they can be really nice and give you extra sauce. The ambiance is just the open seating area, where I've definitely had my fair share of creepos through the years. The food is nostalgic to me. Their noodles are my favorite, and I don't even know what kind they really are LOL Some days when they crisp up the chicken is when it's at its best. The veggies are just okay, steamed well. ALWAYS ask for extra sauce!! read more

Sarku Japan - Noodle Plate with Chicken Teriyaki and veggies - Japanese Near Me - San Bruno, California

This is the worst social I have ever ate in my life and I'm very serious when I say it .. rice was nasty , teriyaki chicken was overcooked. I made the mistake by not looking at Yelp profile of this place. STAY AWAY . Ps I literally had to throw away the whole order chicken and Two rolls . Made the same review on Doordash and possibly the picture of the food in the trashcan read more

I didn't realize this was mall food when I ordered from Door Dash! First it took almost two hours to get here. The chicken was in generic teriyaki sauce, no tempura. The Ca roll is gross and so are the pot stickers. Never getting food here again! read more

Possibly one of the most aggravating experiences I've had in recent memory. I'll preface that I had ordered through Doordash. Starting the Positives. The portion size was good and the serving size was huge. For the price it's definitely worth it. That's pretty much where it ends. The food itself tasted okie? passable? everything tasted the same and it was definitely on the greasy side. Now for the negatives. For a simple order of chicken and shrimp combo, I waited 3 hours. After an hour I decided to give them a call. No answer, straight to voicemail. However I could not cancel this order since they had already accepted it on their end. I proceeded to wait another 1.5 hours before they completed the order and the Dasher could deliver it. read more

Chicken Teriyaki 3 tender, slightly sweet, too much rice, too little chicken Ambience 3 read more

Bento boxes are a nice deal at about $12 for a meal. Comes with 4 California rolls. However the food is not tasty. Beef stir fry over rice was not yummy. Beef I cook at home tastes better than this. California rolls don't taste like anything. Vegetable side is chopped up tiny pieces of broccoli , boiled and not seasoned. read more

The worst service ever!!! I ask for rice, noodles and chicken and I had to ask again and they put it on top y left the box open and yelled at me "ITS READY" y had to close the box by my self, get a bag and utensils and I was scared to ask for soy sauce! WORST SERVICE!! read more

Sarku Japan - Food - Japanese Near Me - San Bruno, California

What a terrible downer on our last night by the bay. Rudest person ever. I was in line in back of another customer waiting and after a few minutes he shouted NO MORE ORDERS!!! He could have notified me earlier without shouting. Even the cooks looked at the situation in shock. Did they run out of ingredients or...Maybe he just wanted to close up fast but he handled the situation poorly. There was 20 more minutes before they closed- zilcho customer service. Goodness... can you tell I'm very bummed? Never ever been treated in such a manner. I hope management sees this review and trains this person better. He could have said it in a better way especially if no one else was behind me plus I had been waiting in line. Anti- Asian??? Seems strange for a Japanese take out to hire such an employee with no tact or respect for customers. So glad Pita Gyros greeted us with smiles, treated us kindly and took our order without a problem. Kudos to them. Good job Pita Gyros. read more

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From my retail work days, Sarku Japan was always a go-to of mine when I found myself in the food court during a lunch break. I was walking through Tanforan Mall the other day and it was about lunch time and I was hit with the nostalgic feeling of purchasing something from Sarku again. I opted for the teriyaki shrimp bento box, which comes with steamed veggies, rice, gyoza, and 4 pieces of California roll. All the food is already made so there is no wait at all - they simply scoop your food into a plastic tray and you're on your way. The teriyaki shrimp is exactly as I remember it - the sauce is thick and sweet. The gyoza is also nicely fried. The rest of the dish - meh at best. The steamed veggies were overly steamed so they were on the mushy side and super bland. The CA roll was ok, but you could tell it wasn't fresh. For mall food, this place is ok but keep your expectations low. read more

Ordered the Chicken Teriyaki double orders last night. As I took a spoon full of the side veggies & chew on it. A stone pierced my gums. Not at all satisfying when you have to remove it when it was embedded in my gums at the back of my molars. read more

Sarku Japan - Fragment of the stone that lodged in my gums. Found with the side of veggies. - Japanese Near Me - San Bruno, California

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Love this place but man it's disgusting when you find a cockroach in your food. Please be aware what your eating! This is probably due to unclean grill read more

Sarku Japan - Cockroach - Japanese Near Me - San Bruno, California

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Came in on Friday at noon only to be turned away and said they're closed as they're cleaning up. We asked them what their hours were and when they are open they told us come back in a week. We also swung by last week at noon and no one was working even with the lights on. Might be shutting down or on strike? Very odd. read more

Edible food. Horrible service. Will not be back. Just from the way this place spells its name I should have known it would be bad. You can't even spell "Sarku" with the Japanese alphabet. We ordered 2 bento boxes (is it even a bento box without salad and soup?) with an add-on of 3 shrimp tempura. My husband repeated himself to the cashier over and over. The way the pickup station is formatted is disgusting. There is a belt rope keeping everyone who is waiting for their food, standing within inches of a row of trays of everyone else's food, with the cooks on the other side of the row. This is two whole rows of people breathing onto your plate while you wait in the middle of flu season in the midst of a new COVID variant. There is no space and it's cramped. The cooks are brash and basically just keep yelling and pointing. They called my #, I came up to get the food, they pointed at 3 open trays. I was confused because one of them was not even anything that we ordered. Then i pulled down the two bento boxes, and then they were yelling at me, I guess, because one of the bento boxes was not yet complete and I had to put it back up on the counter so they could finish making it. Meanwhile, what they prepared for us instead of 3 shrimp tempura which should only cost a few dollars, was an ENTIRE full shrimp teriyaki meal (~$12) which we did not want or need. They get one star for refunding our money for the meal we didn't order. We didn't bother to stay to wait for shrimp tempura and i'm glad we didn't because if the "potstickers" are any indication of what they would have been, I can do a better job at home just throwing frozen ones into the toaster oven. Frustrating experience all around. Regret not going straight to Panda Express. At least they'll close your food box for you at that spot before handing it over. TL;DR: If you want to pay for food you didn't order and then have dozens of poeple breathe right onto your food and then get yelled at and then have to get back in line because for whatever reason the utensils are nowhere near the pickup spot, this is the exactly the place for you. Enjoy! read more

Order chicken teriyaki noodles and got chicken teriyaki with rice it was there mistake and still charge me for noodles. Disappointed.

I was looking for a quite bite to each right before going into the movie theater and I came across Sarku and noticed how cheap their Chicken Teriyaki was and decided to give it a try. Chicken Teriyaki: Cheap (~$8) and you get quite a large portion of meat and food but good lord it is terribly bland. It isn't really hard to make non-bland teriyaki sauce but it lacked any taste. It was just bland chicken over rice and the sauce had no taste. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overall, you get what you pay for. Portion size is worth it but quality of the food is pretty terrible. It literally doesn't take much effort to just improve the sauce or maybe marinate the chicken a bit more with at least some salt or garlic powder or something. Also the service is terrible. The cooks dumped the chicken onto my plate and just walked away. No eye contact or any acknowledgement of me at all. I wasn't sure if I'm supposed to just close my box and leave or if they had something else to add. I also had to ask them to add teriyaki sauce. It's called teriyaki chicken... isn't it supposed to automatically come with it without me asking?? Anyways, I might be generous giving 3 stars but I round up from 2.5 stars. read more

Cooks threw food on tray, the soy sauce was watered down. Overall the food was very bland, and we side of sushi was warm!!! read more

Unfortunately, I ordered through DoorDash. The food was delivered late on top of arriving mushy. I can't even describe it. It was almost like my white rice was water down or something spilled on it just wasn't nice but I probably could blame DoorDash for the long delivery and the food arriving cold. It just was unedible. Tried plenty of times in the past at the mall and it tended to be OK so I'm thinking maybe the delivery service has something to do with an unedible food or maybe it was just they were busy because it was 5 o'clock in the evening and they were just over cooking the food, read more

Sarku Japan - Japanese Near Me - San Bruno, California

The service was HORRIBLE. The cookers didn't speak English so it was pretty hard to explain things. The food came less than it appears on the publicity for sure. Not recommended at all. read more

Delicious! Whenever I find a Sarku, I have to go for it since we don't have one in the Sacramento area. This place was perfect - fast and friendly service with fresh and amazing food! :) read more

For the price and amount of food that's given, I really don't understand the low-stars review. To be honest, the portion of the meal is huge considering the price. Food was okay, not the best, but not bad as well. It tasted just like what it advertised, teriyaki chicken/beef/shrimp. I came here a few times, will be back when I'm looking for large portion of good, comforting food. read more

Great value for a bento box! I got a chicken bento box for about 12-13 dollars. It came with rice, chicken, steamed salad/vegetables, California roll (4), and 3 potstickers. The potstickers were a little bland in flavor but were definitely crispy. California roll had a lot of imitation crab so it had more of that seafood taste. Love the chicken and the sauce! It's not a traditional bento style meal, but for all that food it is a great value if you're hungry! It is located in a mall food court. You can park at the target parking garage and walk right over! read more

Not sure why many hate on this place, not only is it good for mall food, it's good food in general. You get your moneys worth for the chicken teriyaki plate. They cook it right in front of you too so the service is quick and easy. Overall a great spot and definitely a preferred destination at Tanforan Mall. read more

Yes it's a 5 star compared to all the foods available in the majority food courts. I like the fast but delicious chicken and shrimp rice and noodle dishes. This is my favorite choice whenever I am at a food court. I like the Sarku Japan inside Tanforan. The free samples always seals the deal. read more

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Located inside the mall. This place is way cheaper than the korean place next door. And they cook the food in front of you. Hard to understand the cashier. Order the chicken and shrimp teriyaki combo with soba noodle. If you decided to get noodle instead of rice, they'll charge extra 0.50 for the noodle. I like their food here. Had a lot of flavor. You can order extra meat but it'll cost more. read more

Sarku Japan - Japanese Near Me - San Bruno, California

I've tried this place three times now and have been absolutely disgusted every single time. I don't know why I gave them a second and third chance. I just ate a shrimp tempura roll that was basically burnt cardboard wrapped in old rice, and I'm about to vomit. Never again. Blechhhhhh!!!! read more

I just order this beef bento and look at this nasty hair. seriously!!! Please never go back again I don't even wanna give them 1 star they don't deserve it. for me is 0 star. read more

Sarku Japan - Beef bento worse meal ever - Japanese Near Me - San Bruno, California

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This is probably one of the busiest restaurant in Tanforan Mall besides Panda Express! I like the idea of fresh made and you choose what meat or veggie goes in your plate. Best of all, they have sushi fresh made! The sauce is savory and you can always ask for more. I usually like to order California Roll and Teriyaki Chicken and shrimp with extra veggies. read more

Sarku Japan - Lunch time - Japanese Near Me - San Bruno, California

I haven't eaten here in months because of finding hair in my food two times in a row! I was never going to eat here again, but I thought I would give it another chance because I'm getting tired of the other mall food. Today, a tiny little cockroach crawled out of my chicken teriyaki... this place is disgusting! Never ever again will I eat here! read more

Sarku Japan - Japanese Near Me - San Bruno, California

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The chicken teriyaki and rice from here is actually quite good, and I would buy it again. However, I would much rather buy sushi somewhere else. I've been here only a few times, but each time the workers did not seem too happy to be there. One time, an employee was just placing the orders for people to take without even calling out the order, and I stood there confused for a few minutes until I kindly asked him if an order was mine. He just stared at me as if he was annoyed and didn't say anything, so I took my order and went my way. This was a while ago, so perhaps the staff is now different from my previous experience. Despite this, I am willing to try Sarku again because I did like the food, just not the customer service at the time. read more

Sarku Japan - Japanese Near Me - San Bruno, California

I ask for more sauce on my chicken teriyaki but it seems like they didn't listen to me. My food doesn't taste anything.

You have to beg the men cooking the food to stop laughing and making fun of you. It's a nightmare. The food is consistent. It's the men cooking. They are taunting you. When you ask them politely for something they find it an opportunity to have a laugh with their pals at your expense. I've gone there a million times. I've witnessed numerous other people going through the same thing. The food is good. That's the reason I've suffered through the ridicule. The food is freshly made, that's why they are successful. The food is really just above average. read more

Favorite food spot in tanforan. I always get the chicken teriyaki with double meat, and it comes with rice & veggies. So much yum! Their pricing is sneaky but a good business move if you ask me.... chicken teriyaki posted as $6.69, and then you add $1.69 for double meat and the total comes out to be $9.11. It sounds like a good deal until you get that total. Sometimes they plug it, sometimes they don't. How much food they give is inconsistent but I usually eat half and save the rest for later. read more

Sarku Japan - Japanese Near Me - San Bruno, California

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Teriyaki chicken was fantastic. Seared and cooked to perfection. Well seasoned, huge portion. Really couldn't ask for better meal at that price. The vegetable spring rolls were also delicious. Thank you for a great dinner! read more

tanforan inner cafeteria dining....order, grab and tray to table findings....choicing fair from sorabol 'n' panda express...typical foodcourt vendor battle...sarku japan selected...commence ordering....after $four.ninety-nine chicken teriyaki combo...plus...ninety-nine cents extra double meat...plus...fifty cents extra fried rice....plus...sixty-nine cents extra egg roll...plus...$one.fifty-nine soda...equal...$nine.forty-eight grand total after taxing... double scoop for double meat...hot pan'd dark meat chicken....browned 'n' dowsed in teriyaki saucing...crank of cabbage greens drenched in water...covered for steamed....premade fried rice...messy tossing of all....catch of old sitting egg roll...packet of radioactive neon red saucing....fair to say...dining not pleasant...consume only from hunger....thinking to self...could have spent $ten on far better quality....teriyaki chicken lunch....at local bruno japanese restaurants.... read more

Needed to grab something to eat ..... saw the line at this place...figured, it can't be bad, look at the line....should have read the yelp reviews first!!!! Long line only due to fact they are cooking your food. I thought WOW, they are cooking the food fresh, not serving you out of a heating pan...well just because it is fresh, doesn't mean it taste good. The food was very bland. I especially like the fact that they post pictures of the food you should be able to buy, like fried rice and noodles, but when I went to order they said they don't have that, they only have white rice..hmmm.... obviously those aren't picturesof their food. I ordered the chicken and shrimp. It was a decent portion but no flavor. My daughter ordered the tempura and the breading was bland and mushy. Wont eat here again, not worth it. read more

Sarku Japan, I've given you too many chances... I will not be going back ever again. I ordered the Tempura plate and I only got two shrimp tempuras and two chicken tempuras. Really? Just four for that price? I wasted fifteen minutes waiting in line for overcooked vegetables and rice. I wish they didn't let what they were cooking sit on the stove for that long. This place is just not sanitary. The guy was using the same cooking utensil to flip the raw meat and cooked meat today. YUCK Save your money and yourself a stomach ache! read more

Sarku Japan - Waited forever for 4 tempuras - Japanese Near Me - San Bruno, California

At Tanforan, this is my go-to place for food if I'm not feeling hella cheap. Yes, the wait in kind of long. Yes, lots of people are in line. Yes, it does take a while for the food to cook, HOWEVER, in my opinion- it's totally worth it. The chicken teriyaki thing is the only thing I have tried on the menu (besides a small coke ;D) and I have yet to stray from it. If you feel like your chicken looks too dry, tell the man to add some sauce to it. It really helps with the leftover rice in the end. Gives it a little flavor. My little tip for you guys: ORDER THE EXTRA MEAT. Trust me, you'll definitely need it. If you just stick to the regular order without it, you're gonna feel like you been ripped off. At least with the extra meat, the meal will look better. It's about a $1.09 for the extra meat, though. read more

For Food Court Food it is A-OK. The portion was great. The chicken was really flavorful, so glad I got the extra for only .99 cents more. The vegetables could use something more, a special buttery sauce maybe. I actually watched them prepare it in front of me which was cool. I might go back if I am in the area. read more

Sarku Japan - Combo 1: Chicken Teriyaki, Rice, Vegetables Plus Extra Chicken - Japanese Near Me - San Bruno, California