Sakura — Restaurant in Franklin

Sushi is my first, second and forever love. I've strayed from coming here or restaurants alike in Franklin the times I've been around - but a weekend back in Charlotte frequenting several places had me deciding to give it a go.

I've tried, hard to enjoy this place - so much so, I've went 3 times in a week. 2 dine in 1 take out.

My distaste for this restaurant stemmed prior with frequent closings with no notification or indication as to when or why. Most recently when I tried to take my parents here for lunch to no avail. No updated voicemail, no sign on door - nada.

The sushi lunch special is nice, and the only time I would entertain the idea of frequenting this joint. The dine in experience is awful, from the start to finish. (Aside from the staff being friendly, it is not necessarily their fault this model is broke from the top down.) I waited far too long at the front to be acknowledged, greeted and sat and ended up having to get up myself to go to the front to close out.

Takeout, food was great. Online ordering system, not so much. Outdated, simplified with no ETA or update on order status.

3rd time, dine in. Food took over an hour to receive, maki lunch special. The tables around me weren't so gentle with the wait. I didn't mind as I was having sake and reading. What I do mind is that while the staff knows the sushi bar/backend is behind there is no mention made to the customers. No update provided, no check in for me. I would have likely ordered more sake and called it a wash, but I wasn't offered the opportunity as I sat waiting.

It's clear I find dining in here to be a terrible decision. What I simply cannot fathom is the chaos of children's toys and belongings scattered across what once was a bar in this restaurant. Like a living room floor thrown out across the common area. INCHES away from the rest of the bar and so very close to the sushi bar. Simply speaking, if the health department walked in, the sanitation grade would so greatly suffer.

I get it, pandemic is rough, childcare is expensive and we do what we need to scrape by. There have to be boundaries, though - there have to be rules. I came to a restaurant, not your children's nursery. If they are not at the bar at the time, sanitize the toys, move them away from food and drink and call it a day.

Overall, I hope this place turns it around. Franklin is desperate for culinary...

If you want good hibachi at a good cost, you’re at the wrong place, and DEFINITELY don’t try to order lunch here on a Sunday. I’ve called before and ordered lunch items and when I told them the item number that THEY assign to their dishes they say “we don’t use the numbers, you have to tell me the dish name” which is fine, whatever. Well I called to place an order for food at 12pm on Sunday and tried to order a couple lunch items, only to be told that they don’t serve lunch on Sunday’s, well that’s fine, I decided to order a hibachi with shrimp and another with shrimp & scallops instead, but guess what? On their website the hibachi says it’s $8.95 for both the shrimp and the scallop hibachi, so I placed the order only to find out while picking it up that it is going to cost me $41.53, what happened was their lunch hibachi costs more than their dinner hibachi, so when I said that I want hibachi they gave me the dinner price at lunch hour, they apparently have their dinner hibachi way at the bottom of their website where it’s priced differently but named the same thing, the only difference is that they have an L# in front of the lunch hibachi, but if they don’t use the numbers than why the heck are they even there? On their website they say the hours they serve lunch through the week but NOWHERE could I find that they do not serve lunch on Sundays, they must really be hurting to cheat people out like that. When I got there to pick it up I heard the price and was outraged, I said I’d pay because I didn’t want the food to go to waste, but I’m disappointed I did, the meal was bland and tasteless, the flavors through the vegetables on both hibachis were inconsistent, the amount of food wasn’t sufficient, overall it was a waste of $41.53, I could have spent less money on better food at any other restaurant and been...

We had not eaten at Sakura in a long time, looked at the online menu and was pretty excited about some of the offerings. Ended up ordering a dragon roll, seafood tempura, and a curry. The dragon roll is tasty but really unappetizing to look at. It's just a mess on the plate. But I ate it and enjoyed the taste. The curry is a different story though. It is nothing but sweet coconut milk and very large chunked vegetables, with very little meat. The big problem with this dish is that there is just zero flavor. Curry is something that when you take a bite you remember it, or you're you're super excited and want to take another bite. I took one spoonful it tasted awful like the person cooking it had no idea what they were doing, put the lid back on it and put it in the refrigerator. My wife said don't throw it out I'll eat it, so I left it for her. Same thing happened with her one bite and that was it. Sakura is a letdown and almost every way with any food other than some very basic Chinese dishes, and a few of their sushi offerings. It had been so long since we had eaten there that I had forgotten how low quality the food was. But, seemingly, people and Franklin enjoy it. And I guess they are looking to expand to a bigger restaurant. I wish them luck, but we will not spend money with them in the future. If you want good Curry you need to head to Thai Paradise or Delaya in Sylva. That is authentic Thai food at both of those restaurants. Securs a restaurant with a lot of resources at its fingertips to do a better job. They need to step up and I don't know it's just such lousy food. If you like this type of food good for you, but you've never really had good food I guess. I hate to say that, but it is beyond me how anyone can think something like their...