SATO — Restaurant in Buffalo

No less than the last 5 times that I've tried to dine here I've been denied seating and even take out for various reasons including randomly closing 2+ hours earlier than scheduled, and today for a private party. I recognize that showing up today when there is a private party is bad luck on my part and doesn't reflect badly on the establishment, but I believe the other 4 times I've been denied seating for early closings is a bit ridiculous. The only silver lining today is that we were able to take food to go this time. With all of that being said, I would have never come to the internet to complain if not for the fact that today when we walked in and yet again were denied seating due to a large party coming in an hour, we double checked and asked if we could be seated at the bar and were told no (party of 2). Just for you guys to allow a single man not associated with the party to dine at the bar in front of us while we waited for our takeout. Kinda crazy if you ask me. Not to mention not offering tonoktsu ramen to go because it's a "bone broth and gets weird when taken to go", even though your Main Street location has no problem serving it to go. This is so disappointing because you guys really do serve the best ramen in Buffalo, but you make it impossible to...

Someone recently posted to the r/Buffalo subreddit saying they were moving from California to Buffalo and were looking for ways in which the two places compare/contrast…

As someone who lived in both, I gave him some honest comparisons—the Pacific Ocean vs Lake Erie, places like Yosemite & Sequoia & Joshua Tree vs places like Niagara Falls & the Adirondacks…

For food, I said it’s a bit of a tossup—that there’s food in Buffalo you can’t find in comparable quality in California. Wings and pizza are a couple obvious examples.

On the same token, there’s food in California that you can’t find in comparable quality in Buffalo… Latin and Asian foods being prime examples.

My comment was immediately flooded with replies asking my opinion of SATO and how it compares….

I was ashamed to admit I’d never been here.

That has now changed and I’m happy to report SATO lives up to the hype.

The spicy miso ramen is on par with some of the best gourmet ramen I tried in Los Angeles.

The gyoza is a little oily, but delicious.

All the sushi I tried was great.

Very happy to have...

Great food, super inconsistent. Full disclosure, I managed one of their locations for a while years ago, so when I see their level of service in it's current state, it hits close to home. The food is, and always has been great (probably some of the best ramen in WNY), but this spot is plagued by inconsistent food. When food modifiers (extra ginger, spice bomb, etc.) aren't missed entirely, they are done with minimum effort. What triggered me to write this review at all, was seeing the few strands of pickled ginger thrown haphazardly onto the Veggie Ramen we ordered. Ginger that I know for a fact comes in a large container, ordered at relatively little cost. This is absolutely unacceptable for something that customers are paying extra for. I imagine cooks preparing food with disdain, doing the bare minimum in order to get the orders out of the kitchen. Thinking, 'this is what you get for ordering an hour before close'. Very sad. Hoping things improve, because this is the best ramen spot...