Saburos | Sushi House Restaurant — Restaurant in Portland

I’ve been eating here for over a decade, and it’s always been an odd mix of pleasant qualities and poor. Portions, breadth of selection, quality, and execution is consistently good. I literally remember only a single slice of fish over the course of fifteen years that was less than supple and moist. But even when they were a dine-in restaurant before this virus obsession took the world out to lunch, they always seemed overworked and overwhelmed; drained, inflexible, and even somewhat afraid. Maybe that’s just how it looks to someone from a different culture, but I’ve never seen anyone who works here smile.

The space is tight, which doesn’t seem to match the volume of orders or portions they’re always sprinting to fill. They have no apparent flexibility or patience to absorb the slightest perturbation. Asking for soy sauce seems to throw them into panic. And their train wreck of a website, apparently designed by a sushi chef, only makes more problems for them now. I made the mistake of pointing out one of the many issues it has on a hot day a couple of weeks ago and was immediately accused with full rage of trying to defraud them. In the three minutes we spent healing hearts after the eruption, 30 bags had lined up for the scowling army waiting at the door. So much pressure! But why? Are they taking too much of a loss providing so much fish? Of course I love it, but no sushi restaurant I’ve ever visited serves so much, and considering fish are apparently almost gone from grocery stores, rivers, and oceans now, it’s my first guess as to a primary problem.

In any case, I empathize deeply with her resentment, as the moral fiber of our city has been decimated in the past decade by money hoarders who seem to have been raised in a war zone where it’s every person for themself. I’ve no doubt this restaurant is often defrauded and otherwise abused. Saburo’s is once of the few remaining gems of the Portland that I used to be proud of, and I’m sure they face great pressure to maintain what must surely be a work of honor to them. These people moved here a long time ago and established a successful business that flourished for years. They need help, especially from a web designer, and I’m sad to say I’m not sure they possess the humility or even time to breathe to accept it. Please let us help you, dear friends! None of us can...

They deserve negative stars after what I had to go through. Never will I ever waste my time and money at this poorly ran establishment. Customer service here is horrible and online ordering is a nightmare. I tried to make an online order and their system apparently crashed before i could place the order. Or so I thought! The money went through to them but the order still couldn’t be placed. I decided to drive there and figure out what was going on. They apparently had no record of this transaction in their system even though I pulled up the OnPoint app on my phone and showed the manager that 73.50 had been taken out of my bank account by the restaurant. After explaining myself, the manager wouldn’t let me place another order unless I paid for it. I then asked to be refunded the money I spent instead because why pay for something twice? The manager then told me because they have no record of the transaction, I couldn’t be refunded. She suggested that I contact THEIR third party bank that they use and ask them for the refund because the bank handles all of the transactions. I asked if she could do it since it’s her restaurant and her bank but she said no and she wouldn’t take the time to address it. I decided to take manners into my own hands and do just that. The bank that I called said that they can’t pull up records of the restaurants transactions since I am not a member with them or their restaurant. Moral of the story is don’t order online from here because they will not help you in anyway. The customer service is dreadful and I’ve never been more disrespected by an establishment in my life. Good thing a new sushi spot opened up by my house! They have successfully earned my business for years to come and I refer all of my friends and family to go there. Can’t see Saburos lasting much...

I am in full agreement with the other reviews about the sushi pieces being HUGE. This is Texas sized sushi, can't even eat in one bite sushi. And the prices are incredibly reasonable for the amount of sushi... But I think the reason the pieces are so large are cheap is because the quality is not the best. The pieces are way too large, and also overfilled with rice. The rice used was also not good sushi rice. It was incredibly gummy and the rolls would just glob together in your mouth making it difficult to chew through. The pieces of fish used were not at all trimmed of connective tissue, again making it difficult to eat as you couldn't bit through it and it would then get stuck in your teeth. The couple next to me also complained to the server about not being able to chew through pieces of their sushi. The quality of the fish also wasn't great, and the prep of everything looks very thrown together and quality just isn't a concern. One of the rolls I ordered had a large piece of avocado that was completely rotten. There is no way the person making the roll could not have seen it, and they decided to use it anyways. I had to scoop it our of my roll before eating it. One of my pieces also had a congealed piece of skin mixed in. I ended up deconstructing all my rolls to only eat the decent parts and remove half of the rice. This place is a very large restaurant, and very busy. The service is actually excellent, and they crank out the rolls at a great pace. I think the emphasis is just to get the rolls out as quick as possible to serve all the patrons, and quality just isn't a concern. People are generally happy because you get huge pieces of fish for a great price and that's definitely not a bad thing. But if you are looking for quality over quantity, I wouldn't...