Sakura Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Millburn

This place came recommended to us, and we stopped by earlier this evening for dinner (our first visit). To be honest with everyone reading this review, we were barely greeted. Hardly! Not very friendly servers and/or staff at all. Not even close. Nevertheless, we sat down. Very pretty inside and with a fairly nice, clean, somewhat modern atmosphere. We weren't given any option for a glass of water, which was a tad bit odd, to say the least. Our chicken dumplings came out lukewarm at best. Not hot, especially for such a cold night. The hot rose tea, which came in a very small teapot, was $8, Which is a bit expensive for watered down, flavorless tea. My wife's chicken teriyaki also came out lukewarm at best. I tried to encourage her to send it back, so that they would prepare it a bit hotter for her, but she insisted on not saying a word. So be it. My udon noodle soup with chicken and vegetables, and a request for no mushrooms added, came out decent and hot. But there was nothing terribly special or exciting about it. And not nearly enough noodles to merit the $18 price. I think the worst part of our meal was the server, who was the very thin, short, female, who almost looked like she was 17 years old. She did not even swing by our table once to make sure everything was okay, or not! Unacceptable. I hinted to her that Japanese cuisine was fairly new to us, but she seemed to ignore my comment. She did seem a bit more attentive and friendly toward other tables. In Millburn of all towns, if you're going to charge these kind of prices, it should automatically default to come with outstanding, A+ service, and automatically, with hot dishes brought out to your table. Not lukewarm. We won't be returning. Sorry to say, this place is a bit of a rip off, and clearly, the owners are taking advantage of Americans. Plenty of better (and less expensive) dining options out there. Not...

I was in town for a show and happened upon this restaurant seeing the good reviews I thought I would have good food! Let me tell you I was very disappointed in the quality of food here. The service was fine and friendly and it looked like a nice spot but boy was the food not good. We ordered several sides and most we mediocre to bad. Even the water which has a lemon and I think mint in it was not even cold and tasted a little off. The pan fried gyoza tasted of the frozen grocery store variety. The tuna avocado cold appetizer was very okay shockingly lacked in good flavor. On the positive the fried calamari: not bad. My main was the thinly sliced pork belly hot platter over rice, kimchi, corn, and cabbage. I do love kimchi fried rice and dishes like it. This dish however was a weird combination and was mid to be honest. Kind of greasy and the rice wasn't quite the texture I was expecting. Overall I've had many good Japanese spots but this is one I would not go back to. The service was still nice...

Host/ server was super nice. However, I am far from impressed. I felt discriminated (which is a card I hate to pull). But yo, but some seasoning in your chicken fried rice. It was not discussing (yes it was), but was farrrr from great. Never have I had such bland fried rice and was not even given soy sauce to counter the awful effects of eating plain rice with very few pieces of chicken. Also, if you are going to add tofu or seaweed to my miso soup then ADD some tofu and seaweed. DO NOT just give me scraps of what might have been there. I get not everyone likes heat or authentic Japanese spices in this area… but at least give them an option or warn them of flat flavors. I will not be ordering from here again. Please take this as a critique to do better. The more I eat this the more mad I get about the waste of money I spent thinking I was going to get good tasting food from a known corporation. Plus, YALL ARE FAR TOO EXPENSIVE FOR THE FOOD AND FLAVORS I RECEIVED....