Sakari Sushi Lounge — Restaurant in Des Moines

For Friday night date night, we wanted sushi. After our go-to sushi spot (Wasabi Chi) was a bit too busy, we decided to check out Sakari Sushi Lounge on Ingersoll Ave. We've had it recommended to us a few times, and it made our after dinner plans of walking around Gray's Lake an easier drive.

We arrived, and were greeted right away. It was a little hard to hear the hostess because it is LOUD in here. A mixture of music and lots of bodies makes it a little deafening for dinner, but it smelled and looked good and we aren't super particular. We decided to sit at the sushi bar, since all other seating was full at the moment. Upon choosing our seats, one of the sushi chefs greeted us and let us know we could ask him any questions. He was nice and it made us feel welcome.

We had an actual waitress, which I was nice because I wasn't sure if sitting at the sushi bar meant we ordered straight from the chefs or not (we have been to other sushi restaurants where that is the case). She was very good, refilling drinks and was the perfect amount of attentive without hovering.

We decided to get their Dynamite appetizer, a salmon roll, a seafood roll, and the wild caterpillar roll. We also decided to get the smores roll and the mango mochi for dessert. (It WAS date night, after all!)

Dynamite: This was amazing. I was a little annoyed because the menu just says it's their best-seller, without stating was it actually is. You choose shrimp or crab (we chose crab), and the meat is surrounded with an abundance of cream cheese, fried up tempura-style, and drizzled with a yummy sauce. It was great, and I highly recommend it.

Salmon Roll: Eh. It's nothing special, but salmon rolls usually aren't. Next time, we will skip the regular rolls.

Seafood Roll and Caterpillar Roll: GREAT. They were perfectly made, tasted good and fresh, and looked really good. +A

Smores Roll: This "roll" is a rice krispie treat, with whipped cream, toasted marshmallows, graham cracker crumbs, and drizzled with chocolate sauce. It was super yummy. The only complaint I had was that the individual "rolls" were really big, so it was a little hard (and very messy) to eat. I would definitely give this a try as well!

Mango Mochi: The worst part of our whole experience. It was BAD. The mango ice cream inside the mochi was okay, but the mochi itself tasted horrible freezer burned. It was mealy, icy, and just gross. I would pass on their mochi!

Overall, we enjoyed our time at Sakari. Just keep in mind it's definitely a bar atmosphere, so be prepared for loud talking and louder music than your typical sushi place. Order the Dynamite, a specialty roll or two, and the smores roll. We still consider Wasabi Chi our current favorite sushi spot, but Sakari will be on our short list of good places to...

Went roughly 3 weeks ago for dine in dinner. We ordered a round of drinks to start, appetizers, and a heck of a lot of sushi. Service was horrible. Waitress’ attitude was nearly the same. Staff is intimidating and not friendly nor welcoming. Not to mention we went on a Saturday for a fun girls’ night and while the tables surrounding us and people seated at the bar received endless amounts of sake she failed to offer us one. Despite that, food was amazing. It’s such a great stop for food but I have recently had such horrible service that it makes the experience bad all around. As we were walking out the 3 hostesses failed to say anything to any of us!!! We walked out in silence without a “thank you” or “have a nice night”.

I kind of let that experience go and put it up to being a new routine for them as my last couple times in have been the same.

Tonight I decided to give it another go and called to order despite google/food apps saying they were closed. They were in fact open and the women told me I could place an order via phone or app. I opted for app and it did not work so I called in a few minutes later to place the phone order. (Mind you, literally 3 minutes later). It was 10:42 at this point and I called and she told me the kitchen closed. I asked what time that was at and she told me 10:45. I asked why it was only 10:42 and why I had called a brief 3 minutes prior and she would’ve gladly taken my phone order. Inconsistent and utterly rude. Needless to say I have experienced enough negatives that I will not be giving them service anymore despite the...

Went for lunch with friends. It wasn't busy. We were seated quickly. The staff are friendly. The menu has lunch specials and combos with pictures and descriptions. I ordered edamame and the chicken teriyaki bowl. It came with soup and salad. The miso soup was good. It was light and nicely flavored. The salad had a peppery cesar dressing. It was unexpected and out of place. I wouldn't choose it again. The teriyaki bowl turned out to be oyster sauce based and not teriyaki. And it wasn't even a good stirfry sauce. The chicken meat was like pre-chopped gyro stand meat. It was dry and difficult to identify in its very thick stirfry sauce; swimming in sauce. It's a Chinese stirfry. It's not a Japanese teriyaki bowl. I sent it back, and the staff removed it from my bill. I ordered a roll to replace the meal. It was fried. It was good-ish. I probably wouldn't order it again. My friend ordered the edamame and dynamite crab. It was poorly batter-fried imitation crab sticks smothered in various sauces. The edamame were good. They were seasoned with tajin. I may return to try something else if I feel like eating generalized "Asian" food,...