Sakura Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Saint Paul

I have been coming to this restaurant for at least 13 years and today was the first day that I feel I actually have something bad to say about this restaurant. It was my girlfriends birthday today and I wanted to take her to my favorite sushi/Japanese cuisine restaurant. We arrived about 1 hour before the lunch hour ended and the restaurant closed. Our server barely paid any attention to us even though we were literally the only customers in the restaurant. On two separate occasions another gentleman tried to take our silverware assuming we were finished (one of the times was before we had even ordered any meals). The entire time it felt as though we were a nuisance to have to serve at all. Our sever forgot my tea three times as she was apparently supposed to be eating her lunch with the rest of the crew (that was closing down the restaurant before it was time). Then they proceeded to ensure that we ordered our dessert before we were finished eating as they were closing. Our server rarely checked on us and other workers were continuously staring at us with the "why aren't you finished and out of here" look on their face. Had our server been more apt to check on us we could have easily ordered and finished our meals well before the 2:30 pm restaurant closing time. We were then given our check and as I looked over to the table kiddy corner to us, our server (along with the rest of the staff) was eating a meal rather than coming to collect our bill. I sat there silently and waited patiently for about 10 minutes (it was now 2:39 pm) and finally as each of them had turned around to stare at us one of them got up to collect our money and bring me change. I have never in my life felt so unwelcome and I must say I am extremely disappointed as I have always recommended this restaurant to my friends and my family and I frequent this restaurant at least a few times a year. While I plan to go back again my greatest sadness is that I know full and well that the owner of the restaurant was sitting at a table in clear view of us the entire time we were there. I guess that is why I decided to write a review rather than contacting the restaurant to speak with management as I know it would probably not be heard. I hope that the staff understands that if they had just served us as they would have had it not been so close to their closing time, we would have actually been finished with our meal and left happily well before 2:30 pm.. the time the restaurant was scheduled to close. I will always give this restaurant my business as I have been coming for a long time and have never in my life been treated so poorly. I just hope that this never happens to anyone else. My server definitely did not earn the 20% tip I left for her.. considering she couldn't not even leave her lunch to collect payment for our meal after making direct eye...

Definitely some of the best service I've ever encountered. My visit was in December, and as soon as I was seated I was brought a hot cloth to warm up my hands, which was awesome. I was seated by a window, but it wasn't cold at all due to the heaters along the windows. They're decorated for Christmas, and had Christmas music playing, but considering the amount of Christmas events going on downtown St. Paul this weekend, I don't know if they play Christmas songs all December. I've not yet reached my limit this year, so that was okay.

My server was very polite, friendly, and helpful. As a strict vegetarian (not vegan, just no animal by-products that harm the animal) I sometimes have difficulty figuring out what I can eat at restaurants- at many asian restaurants, the concern is fish sauce or oyster sauce in sauces, or fish ingredients to flavor miso broth. When I asked the server about some of the veggie-based appetizers, he told me the sauces contained fish sauce, so I was able to avoid them.

I ordered the vegetable tempura, but forgot that it came with miso soup, and so I didn't ask about it. The server came back to tell me that the miso does have fish flavoring, so I was able to just skip it- the opposite of my usual experience at Japanese restaurants of getting miso I didn't realize was included- not a problem for most people, I know- and either not having a chance to ask about it or getting a confusing response. Got the green salad with ginger dressing, which was good.

The tempura batter wasn't as bready as I was used to, but it was delicious. The herb on top (parsley?) was also tempura fried, which was amusing and was like the extra fried batter bits at the bottom of orders of batter fried foods. The server told me that the sauce usually contained fish ingredients, but that he'd had them mix up some sauce without it for me, which is another of the most helpful things a server has done for me ever.

Finished up with some ginger ice cream, which was bright and spicy like strong ginger snaps with bits of candied ginger in it.

Overall it was a great experience with prompt and fantastic service and delicious, me-safe food. Would recommend to anyone who has cold hands or likes...

I went when it was not busy, right at the opening of the resturant's day. Ordered green tea- the waiter came, heavily plopped it on the table just out of reach for me on the far end of the table. Not only that, it came in a greasy cup. I ordered the Combination Bento Veggie/Shrimp tempura. The starter was a broth soup- which the broth was good (a bit light, clear) but the mushroom slices in it were too fresh flavored, and not savory at all. They were not traditional mushrooms for this soup as they were most definitely the slices of white button mushrooms. The waiter once again plopped it down on the table just out of reach for me (what's up with the heavy hand and not putting the food in front of me?). It looked good at first- but soon I realized that I never received the veggie tempura part of my meal. The seafood tempura I had been given was battered in a non-traditional batter- more like an onion ring than the delicate tempura I enjoy. It was average flavor, nothing to write home about. The side salad was literally the same as what you get out of a bag at the supermarket- iceberg lettuce with a few scrapes of carrots and cabbage in it. The side chicken was in a sweet sauce that was absolutely bottled and pre-made. There was nothing to write home about this meal except my disappointment in both the food and the heavy handed service. I was made to feel unwelcome as one of the first customers arriving that day through underhanded service and food. I do not recommend spending...