Sakura Restaurant — Restaurant in Richland

Will not return and am very sad. I have been going here for 15 years. Tonight saddened me as a restaurant worker and goer.

My mom & I each ordered sushi. Each our own roll. I ordered it asking for specifically gluten free soy sauce and confirming there wasn’t any soy on what I ordered. I checked even though I knew that roll was safe cause I have been there many many times since my gluten allergy began ten years ago. This is like the only safe thing there as a gluten free person, but I love it — the sashimi roll. He brought out a big gallon of gluten free Tamari soy sauce and poured into my dish. Then when they brought the rolls out for our dinner they were on the same plate and my roll was set on top of the soy sauce drizzled all over my mothers roll.

My roll had regular soy sauce all over it. And the waiter said, oh I’m sure it’s fine.

Then I tried to explain it was an allergy not a preference and we told him to just order a new roll on a new plate.

They still made us pay for both. I wanted to speak to the manager, but my mother chose to be kind. Maybe it’s my fault for trying to eat sushi as a gluten free person in Tri-cities.

I am in shock they made us pay for their mistake and I have never seen them bring all the dinner ordered by different people on one single plate. It could have been because we came in at 7:30 on a Tuesday night… they close at 9… wouldn’t want to put them out.

Before I left I asked if he understood i had an allergy because I worried about this happening to others and he just said oh I thought some people just like the gluten free one better.

In the other news their tequila...

Sakura is an excellent lunch spot and a solid choice for Chinese takeout.

My family has been ordering takeout from here since PF Chang's closed down and the food has always been good. We've had an error or two over the years but we always double check before leaving the restaurant and the staff have replaced or added on to our order every time at no charge.

I frequent Sakura for lunch and I absolutely recommend it. The restaurant gets busier in the evenings, and with limited seating the wait can be long. But in the afternoon, I can't think of a single instance where I didn't walk right in and sit down at a table. The food here is excellent, and I can't push the lunch specials hard enough. Choice of soup, entree, and fried rice all at a lower price than a certain Panda-themed fast food chain.

The only criticism I would have is that the service is just passable. If you're looking for southern hospitality you won't find that here. Which is not to say the staff are unfriendly, just concise. And there have been a few instances where I've been sat waiting for a check, or for the wait staff to pick it up again, long enough that I could have had another meal.

That aside, I obviously like the place or I wouldn't keep coming back and wouldn't have taken the time to write all this down. To make a long review brief: Great food at a good price. Go for the lunch specials (11-3 M-Sat), just don't expect to have a conversation with the wait staff.

UPDATE 2023 Since this review was written they have hired a few new wait staff and have been considerably more friendly and welcoming....

Lunch combos are definitely cheap and you get quite a lot for the price of $10 wasn’t expecting that much on my plate, but it’s honestly nothing special. Would rather have panda express than the food here.

The pork fried rice was hard (came w the meal)

The wonton “soup” was three wontons and a bowl of oil it did not taste good (came w the combo)

4/5 of us had a beef entree w the combo that was good very yummy props to that. The other was lo mein that was good as well.

The service was okayyyy, the server was nothing but nice but I just thought she was running around a lot making unnecessary extra trips

The food came out to us separately even though we wanted to eat together as a family, three of the soups were done by the time the other two was brought out. Completely understand that it gets brought out to you hot but other dine in restaurants bring food out together and has no issues with heat. The server also never had a tray. I feel maybe using a try would help w/ the excess amount of trips to tables. The sushi was okay aswell but again nothing special

Overall rating is like a 3.5 its not bad but its definitely not a craving spot and other asian restaurants in town are much better in my opinion.

Got a first date, need somewhere cheap and a sit in? This the place!...