I Love Teriyaki — Restaurant in Sacramento

My girlfriend and I have been coming to this specific location for nearly four years now and up until recently, the food and customer service has been a flawless experience. Always quick, always above average portions, friendly and competent staff, and a clean environment. Everything still applies with the exception of the past two consecutive visits. The time before last, I had called in to place an order for pickup, which I usually do, and I had placed an order for a chicken teriyaki plate, with double rice and no greens, and my girlfriend ordered the same with a different meat. Upon arriving to pick up the order, to eat outside, I had noticed the absence of the double rice portion, as well as there was salad and cabbage. Upon bringing this up to the staff, they were apologetic and agreed to fix the order and then took my food back and said it would be just several minutes. After about 8-10 minutes had gone by while I just sat waiting, I went to address the staff again about my order, in which their reply was that they were out of white rice and only had brown rice left and if I wanted white rice, it would be an additional 15-20 minutes. At this point I told them I would just take my original plate back because I didn't have the time to wait. They then told me they didn't have my plate any more and I would either need to accept the brown rice or wait for the white rice. By this time my girlfriend was pretty much done eating, and I don't know about anyone else's preference, but brown rice with chicken teriyaki? Nope... Anyways, I'm not the type of person that would be petty enough to take the time to complain and leave a negative review over a simple mistake regarding food, however, this is my second time back since then, and also the second issue with my order in a row now... This time it's my girlfriends food, and I specifically said beef for her choice of meat, three times due to what I believed to be her not understanding what I was saying for whatever reason. I also said not spicy. when I picked up the food, instead of beef, her plate was chicken and also spicy.. I've spent a dumb @$$ amount of money here at this establishment, and it's one of my favorite places to eat... Obviously, or I wouldn't dine here 2 or more times a week.. Sad to see the tentative...

The food was okay, but the employees are lackluster at best. No happy greeting, it's almost like they look at you and go: like okay so what do you want? Compared to a lot of other I Love Teriyaki's, this one is very disappointing. As a small business, you have to adapt to your clienteles request. It makes the dining experience more pleasant and shows that they really care about the bottom line. I came in craving for some salmon teriyaki. I asked for it to be served in a bowl, and they continually told me they don't serve it in a bowl it's only on a plate and they would just substitute salad for rice instead of giving me the salad which I didn't want. Look, they have other dishes in a bowl... Seriously? So the only difference is they don't want to give me a bowl instead of a plate... I've ordered it this way at other I Love Teriyakis and I've always been accommodated. Just give me a bowl with some teriyaki salmon. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure it out. The menu Isn't that large where it screws the whole process up for making the dish. Not only that, it's just a way of adding on a dollar or two more if you want! It's the way my small business works... You want something different or special, I just charge you a little bit more for it and most people are willing to pay. Lord have mercy, I know this place has been in business for a while but sometimes I wonder how long they will stay in business. I think it's just a movie theater that carries this place, so people that aren't really familiar with I Love Teriyaki either don't know the difference or they don't really care because they're all about the movie. My advice is, if they don't become more adaptable, just go to the Thai restaurant a couple of doors down which is an awesome place to eat, the employees are friendly, the soda fountain has more options, it's kept cleaner, and the food is very good! If you really have to have I Love Teriyaki, go to the location off of Sunrise and Coloma in Rancho Cordova on a weekday! The food is very good, they've been in business for a long time which says a lot, the employees are friendly, and the atmosphere is great! It's kept clean, and there's even a bar there where you can have a beer or sit...

Let's start with the food. The food is actually really good. I got the chicken teriyaki plate. The presentation was beautiful. I loved the teriyaki sauce, chicken, rice, and dressing on the salad. The chicken was sliced up perfectly, so I didn't have to cut it up myself. I didn't like that they gave me a tomato slice on the salad instead of just dicing it up. I also didn't like that they had corn mixed in with the macaroni— that was disgusting. The macaroni was plain, too.

Now the service... Ordering was easy, and we got our food quickly. Now, we asked for boxes to take the rest of our food to go, right? We put our food in the boxes, then went to the bathroom. We come back out and she's cleaning our table. Our boxes are missing. We asked what happened to the boxes, and she said she threw them out. Like what? Are you stupid?? This is the reason why I'm rating this place low.

As far as the atmosphere, the place would have been quiet if it wasn't for this family allowing their kids to yell, run around, throw toy cars, and use the restaurant's stand (that holds your order number) to bang on the ground.

The restaurant was very clean and bright, but the tables were definitely rusty on the bottom. The restrooms were clean, but it looked old...