Sakura Restaurant (Kinjou Restaurant) — Restaurant in Colombo

Kinjou is one of the oldest Chinese restaurants in Colombo. They were unique becuase they served Japanese inspired Chinese food. As a kid I frequented this place with my family and I remember the food being so delicious, especially the Manchurian Chicken. Over the past few years this establishment went through a downward spiral and closed all their Kinjou branches and Japanese restaurants like Sakura and Kouchi. Now they are only open at their original location with Kinjou and Sakura sharing one place.

After a long period of not going here for food, I decided to give it a go again. The food was very disappointing. We got the mixed fried rice, Manchurian Chicken, Hot Buttered Cuttlefish and a Crispy Grouper with garlic sauce. Everything except the fried rice was bad. The side dishes had a bad oil taste and didn't have their former quality at all. My biggest disappointment was the Manchurian Chicken not having the same familiar taste and texture it once had.

The Japanese food however wasn't too bad but still wasn't great. I have tried their Ebi Maki, Sukiyaki and the Katsu Don. They have definitely lost their quality.

The ambiance has an old charming feeling to it but can do with an update. The staff was friendly and attentive, which was a plus point.

The prices however were expensive given the poor state of the food. One reason I think that they lost customers is because not getting what you pay for.

This is for the management of Kinjou and Sakura. I don't know what happened to you but I hope you figure things out soon. Kinjou and Sakura were once icons in the restaurant scene in Colombo and it is very sad to see the current state you are in. If you work hard to turn things around interms of food quality, you can definitely get it back to the former glory. You still have a loyal customer base who care about this place enough to see it...

My intention for writing this is to give some positive feed back on a great restaurant which has been under rated in this extremely competitive industry. We visited the restaurant after so long. To our amaze we were greeted by the manager Mr. Trevor Liveira who has been working there for over 32 years! The restaurant was extremely quiet and there was only one other table which was occupied. We were a bit skeptical about what to order because it’s been so long since we last visited this place. Off late I have seen for some unfortunate reason most of the pioneer restaurants are struggling to survive these days. The manager was very attentive and recommended some dishes for us based on our preferences and I must say the food was excellent despite how laid back the setup was. It’s a pity people aren’t going to this place much. I decided to write this note mainly to let people know food in here is still amazing and the prices are also decent enough. It was definitely value for money. Two of us ate two full meals for about RS.5200 which I think is quite alright given it’s proper Japanese...

Me and my friends are regulars at Sakura for 2 reasons:

The food which is fairly cheap and at the same time tasty.

You'll find a pretty good variety of Japanese food available at Sakura from sushi to ramen. There's even some decent sake available though this can be considered pricey since it's only a small bottle being offered for 150/=

The atmosphere. The place really carries a neat Japanese atmosphere but mixes a bit of the western atmosphere of Sri Lanka just for ease.

2 out of 3 dining rooms have tatami mats and where you can sit on ya knees (which is pretty tough seriously! if you can't then either just sit as you normally do on the floor or go for the dining room with chairs) and one of these rooms overlooks a traditional japanese garden.

Chopsticks are provided for each table and they even have traditional sake cups, however if you find chopsticks tough to use no worries they'll give you some spoons and forks.

Liked: Tempura Udon, Sake

Overall...