Sakura Yakiniku — Restaurant in Elmbridge

Without doubt, this was the worst experience both with regard to service and food of any Japanese restaurant I have eaten at, and I use the term Japanese with reservation, as the only thing Japanese about this establishment is it's name. I was advised, after complaining, that the cooking and sushi is prepared by Malaysian nationals. Why, I ask, with so much fantastic food to offer from their country of origin, choose to demolish that from another? To "start" we ordered Japanese Spinach Salad, £4.20. A tasteless bowl of greens, sitting in puddle of "swamp juice", and, Shojin Tempura £7.50, 6 pcs of mixed peppers, carrot, sweet potato, asparagus, courgette (the carrot and asparagus were conspicuously absent), along with, Ebi Tempura, £11.80 5 pcs of king prawn tempura. This mix of Tempura was presented with a batter so thick and greasy even KFC would be ashamed of. To follow, we ordered two Grilled Rib Eye Steak, @£19.50 each. The accompanying miso soup was brought before the "starters" and only one steak was served before we had attempted to complete our "appetizers". To be fair, after reminding them that we had ordered two steaks, they offered to take the one away and prepare two fresh ones but to add insult to injury, the resulting presentation was reminiscent of the scene from Charley Chaplain's The Tramp. Two servings of overcooked boot leather with more flavourless spinach and egg that was about as far removed from soft as any stretch of the imagination could conjure. Sakura Yakiniku was almost empty when we arrived so I can't even excuse this experience due to kitchen overload but, once again, to be fair, after complaining and requesting they, as a matter of good will, not charge for the food, they presented a bill for only the drinks we had. I was told that the cook/sushi "chef" had spent 10 years in Japan. Sakura Yakiniku, pull your socks up or rebrand and offer some authentic Malaysian fare using your acquired Japanese experience in cooking because this poor attempt at offering Japanese food is an...

I love Japanese food so I was hoping this restaurant visit would change my partner's mind about sushi. The sushi was fine but we ordered sushi and a hot meal (for him) to come together and waiting staff presumed the sushi was to start so left my partner without food for ages. Then when he queried what had happened to his food no one came back to explain so we were just left wondering if someone had again forgotten our request. I only found out when I got up and found who I presume was the (nice) manager and gently asked her. This was after they had seated us at a table in direct line with the draft from the front door which refused to close and which caused cold air to wash over us every time someone entered or left. I did ask my partner, who was seated closest to the draft, if he was ok and he said he was fine so we didn't ask to be moved but by the end of the meal I was freezing and sat with my coat on. The food itself was ok but was it great? No. I have had better sushi from the takeaway place near Kingston station. The pinot grigio was a poor example of this type of wine, tempered only by the fact that had been well chilled. Many pieces of my partner's steak were chewy with sinewy fat. The desserts were nice, however: light, fresh and not overly sweet. Such a disappointing evening for us on a rare date night. And when we got back our clothes asolutely reeked of the smell of cooking from the kitchens which was very surrpising to me 1. in this day and age for good aircon units and 2. from eating in a Japanese restaurant. It made me wonder if the frying oil was not being changed...

What a brilliant place!

We had craving for sushi and found this on Square Meal and thought we’d give it a try .. so glad we did.

Very friendly greeting. Great decor and funky lighting. All tables are set up for BBQ which we weren’t expecting so we changed our plan and had sushi to start followed by BBQ to test everything out!

From the first bite of yellowtail, we knew we had hit the jackpot. Fish that tasted like fish and wasn’t too cold, decent ratio of fish to rice, proper sticky sushi rice. DIVINE! Tried the tomago and unagi cos that’s what you’re meant to when visiting new place apparently.. but also had scallop, fatty tuna and seeet prawn. Followed up by the best spider roll ever.

Then onto the BBQ.. with a slight break to let us digest that we were offered. Loved not being rushed. We opted for the mixed BBQ selection: slices of steak, spicy chicken, 2 huge prawns and some pork belly together with a selection of vegetables. Great fun and nice to cook at your own speed. The BBQ selection came with sesame cabbage as a starter, bowl of miso soup and a bowl of rice.. we

We ordered another miso and some edamame as well as a South African Chenin Blanc.

There was a great selection of food, both sushi and BBq. Ambience was chilled. Service excellent and friendly. The food was delicious and very good value for money.

We will definitely return and would not hesitate...