Saketini — Restaurant in Mesa

Hard to look past the flaws inherent in the operation of Saketini after meeting their night manager for the first time. Taking my adult kids there for years and turning a blind eye to the run down conditions and always grungy bathrooms, dilapidated tables that wobble and chairs that make a horrendous screech, and chefs/cooks/handlers that can't always seem to wash their hands after smoking has come to an end.

Usually enjoyed the friendly waitresses. Then we went on what would turn out to be my last time. I got there and asked them to set up for ten total patrons. Guy behind the counter barks to go wait by the door. The restaurant is half empty yet grungy as usual with no one cleaning the obvious issues. Years of coming here told me the facility issues were unlikely to be addressed anytime soon. Not a great impression if customer service is your goal.

This guy, don't know his name, gauges in the ears if that helps, strings a few wobbly tables together. We sit and my daughter shows up. She wasn't drinking that night and brought her own water.

Saketini has poor water, cloudy, bad taste served in cups that do not inspire confidence. Guy with gauges says something about state law and outside food and drink. We assure him it does not cover water. Besides, his water sucks and the rest of us are drinking from the bar and we'll gladly prove it's water in the hydro-flask if need be. He won't budge. We hail a waitress that had served us days earlier and knows our proclivity for food, cocktails and generous tips. He won't budge.

Asked to see the manager...the barker starts yelling again. Hard to see why these guys can't fix up their establishment, clean their bathrooms, buy new service wear or invest in a WATER FILTER with this kind of leadership.

That night manager was much smarter to just push what turned out to a $370.00 dollar tab to Ra Sushi up the road. Allowing the Ra staff to enjoy the corresponding tip was good for them, not so much for Saketini staff. And he did it for something we would have gladly proven was innocuous, even if a bit frigid H2o. In the end Saketini does not charge for water anyway!

Losing my $1,500.00 in annual business wont hurt the owners. But do you think I'm the only one that will not return to an establishment that ignores customer satisfaction, customer experience, cleanliness, acceptable water, poor smoker's hygiene and the use of good business sense?

No, no...I'm sure that inspires EVERYONE...

Let me preface with I have been coming here for a very long time, and it at one point was my favorite spot to get sushi. It’s close to me, the food was amazing, and they are usually open later than most sushi restaurants. The service slowly took a hit with some new staff, I never really faulted them though. I would just learn to not go in at certain times to avoid the bad servers. If the service is a little slow that’s fine if the food is worth it, but not anymore. Ordered a dragon roll it’s always been my go to, and it’s always been good. That was actually still okay tonight, however the cherry blossom roll came covered in what I’m guessing is honey mustard? I’ve ordered it before multiple times and never had that happen. After asking the server if that was normal or on the menu she said it was, but offered to take it off and put in one without honey mustard. I’m thinking to myself that everything is fixed. Until I get my replacement roll which was essentially a brick of cream cheese with the top of the roll being normal without the honey mustard this time. As you can see in the photo the piece laying on its side is what it was supposed to be, no cream cheese. This was some weird filler they did to cut cost I assume? I couldn’t tell you how we got from honey mustard to a brick of cream cheese but we did it. After plucking out all that, I ate the scraps of the roll and got out of there. As I head out I check the menus again to make sure I’m not crazy to find out my server lied to me I couldn’t find anything on the menu saying the roll was going to come with any sauce on it. I really don’t like that I’m leaving such a poor review of my favorite sushi bar but I am hoping this will help them rectify quality issues as I’ve been more tolerant up to this point. If someone’s first impression was this I guarantee they would never come back. I’m sorry for having to do this, and there are some extremely talented chefs there who have done this for 14+ years. It’s just been such an inconsistent experience this past year and...

BEWARE OF SCAM!!!

The food was ok but we definitely feel the restaurant is dishonest about their pricing and tries to scam unwary customers. We were automatically charged an $85.94 tip for a $286.47 (post-tax) bill. That is a 30% gratuity that they magically added to our bill. When we asked about the tip the server told us they charge a 25% gratuity for parties of 10 or more but this was never disclosed to us, their menu only state "A gratuity of 18% for parties of 5 or more." The server also mentioned that this was a new policy and they haven't added it to the menu yet... (I find that kinda fishy and extremely unethical). After doing the math we realized they charged us 30% rather than 25%. We then asked the server about this charge and after a few minutes of discussion they finally agreed to refund us the difference and charge us the 25% rather than the 30%. Then we noticed that we were charged $48 for four shrimp tempura rolls which was listed on their menu for $8 per roll so it should've been $32.

For the server to tell us they couldn't split our bill because it would be too troublesome for her, it doesn't seem to me they deserve the 25% tip to begin with.

I would recommend people to stay away from this establishment and if you happen to try this place anyways make sure to double and triple check your bill because they will try to take...