Sakura Hibachi and Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Athens-Clarke County Unified Government

This is the first review I have had to write about a restaurant. Please read.

Literally one of the worst dining experiences I have had. Went there with a friend for lunch and ended up having to leave without eating because of the attitude of the chef who cooked our food. My friend and I ordered the same thing, he double checked our orders before starting and I agreed to the meal that he said. There was an older couple that was sharing the grill with us as well.

As he was cooking and handing out food, I realized that he had ran out of what I ordered. I ordered chicken and shrimp and he gave me salmon, something that the older couple had ordered. When I explained to him that the order was messed up, he starts to argue with me about the fact he double checked my order and that it was not his fault that I received the wrong order. Mind you, my friend was missing shrimp, the older woman had not gotten her salmon and in turn had gotten chicken, something I ordered. Therefore, it was not only my order that was messed up. So in fact, there was no way that it could have been my fault that I had gotten the wrong order or it be simply because I agreed to the wrong meal when he double checked.

Our server and the woman manager (?) came over when they saw us talking and I explained to them the situation. He speaks to them very quickly and makes sure that I cannot understand what he is saying. The woman offers to make my food in the back, which I was perfectly okay with. At this point, I was not even irritated with the situation, just hungry. After the two women leave, he proceeds to talk to me, blaming me for the situation and making rude remarks. I told him that I would not converse back and forth with him after seeing that he was visibly angry and aggressively handling everything. As a young woman, it caught me off guard that an older man was arguing with me about something like this and that the older couple did not find it inappropriate enough to step in. He then apologized to the couple and told them that their food would be free of charge (even though it was me who did not have any food, and took the salmon off my plate. But did not take away the lady’s food that she had not ordered.)

When he came back out with the raw food to cook again (thought they were cooking it in the back?)— he was throwing stuff around, cutting our food aggressively, not seasoning or adding much of anything, and he came out with the shrimp in the raw chicken juices, which should not be the case and should only touch after hitting the grill— I was honestly just taken back and over his attitude and the unprofessionalism. I expressed my distaste to the manager and asked her if I could just pay for the sushi and go. She was nice and apologized, saying that he was new and she understood that it was inappropriate for him to carry himself like that. The staff was all staring and making remarks under their breath as well. Mind you, it was only us 4 sitting in the hibachi area so they were not busy whatsoever.

I paid for the sushi and left. Honestly feeling super disrespected. I won’t say that race played a part, but I know that man would have never talked to the couple like that. I’ll let everyone find their own conclusion as to why he handled us so differently. Regardless, I will just spend my money elsewhere. Food was never that good to begin with and I had to be convinced to go that day.

Super unprofessional, hire chefs that don’t argue and verbally attack...

Bf and I got hibachi dinner last night and oh my god. This poor kid who was cooking our food did not know what he was doing. I knew it was going to be bad the moment he did his little cooking utensils dance flipping them around and kept messing up and nearly knocked over my bf Mai Tai drink tossing one at him on accident. He cracked egg shells in our rice with two eggs and tried desperately to find and pick them out, he ended up burning the eggs and the rice lol and He didn’t season my steak with salt and pepper and set it on my plate but remembered to season the other customers food before handing it to them. I had to tell him to season mine while also seeing our chicken was being burned on the grill lol I’m assuming he was new, but come on man you didn’t even season the vegetables with salt and pepper…I didn’t even bother to ask for it for him to do that after this point. I was pretty disappointed and don’t see myself coming back here. It was a Hispanic looking kid with a light mustache. Please do better or find another role to fill there. This restaurant had such good reviews, managers might want to check on their chef’s out...

First time eating here and I wasn't impressed. First we had made a reservation at another location for 7 at 5:30pm and when we showed up they said they didn't have one and that the wait was going to be an hour. So we called this location and they said they had room for us. When we arrived they didn't have the room and we had to wait 30 min to be seated. When we finally got seated my brother and I ordered drinks which we never got even though we told the guy who was taking our order 3 times that we were waiting on alcoholic drinks. Then when our hibachi chef showed up to make our food he over cooked everything and then we got barely anything for our meal. It was like we got served a lunch or even appetizer size meal when we are spending $25 or more for each plate. Finally we had to wait 20 min for our waiter to take our bill so we could pay and get out of there. From start to finish it wasn't a great experience and I know for myself I wont be coming back. Service and food was not worth the...