Izakaya Sakura — Restaurant in San Diego

My 93 yr old Aunt took me here for lunch on my quick trip to San Diego. She chose Izakaya Sakura because my dad had hosted a family gathering here a few years back. She remembered it was good and thought it would be fun to eat at the sushi bar. It was indeed very fun!

The restaurant isn't very big but it does have a few tables inside, a sushi bar, and a few outdoor seats. My aunt had made reservations ahead of time for the sushi bar and it was probably a good idea as the place during lunch rush on a Saturday was pretty steady.

We sat at the sushi bar and asked the sushi chef, Kazu, to do a sushi lunch style Omakase. He was more than happy to do that. Kazu then proceeded to make us sushi nigiri after sushi nigiri.

I've been to many sushi restaurants and what made this special was not only the sushi but Kazu himself. We learned that Kazu was the owner and has had that location for 21 years. He also had lived/worked in Portland Oregon where I am from. As we talked and ate each of his wonderful creations, Kazu started to really tailor the sushi in his omakase for us. He started sharing special fish flown in from Japan that were generally reserved for the high end menu/dishes (like a fish cousin to Fubu and fresh raw Tako). It was like I was at a whisky bar and the owner just opened up his private collection for us to try.

The menu here is extremely reasonably priced for those looking for the standard Japanese fare. However, I would highly recommend going here to experience the chef's choice off menu omakase. Make sure to ask Kazu to start with the special ("Japanese") sushi cased on the left... That was pure taste bud heaven.

Overall this isn't the fanciest of Japanese locales. However, it is more homey and what I remember what it was like back in Japan at a sushi bar. On my upcoming return trip to San Diego my Aunt and I have already made reservations to come back to hang out with Kazu and order his off menu omakase again. You should too if you want a little...

I got extremely sick with Raw fish this Friday dinning. I never ever in my 20 years eating sashimi got that sick . I ve been to this place more than 5 times and there is a young gal tgat works there that she is super awesome. The first time I try this place our server was older lady that was extremely rude and racist I should say . But I wanted to give another try and the next six times we got lucky with the young gal. But Friday night our server was the same lady who is in her 70's she drop some water and didn't let us to finish the order of Sake. She came back only w one sake cup and again didn't let me to tell her we need more obviously there were 4 of us. I asked the other server at that point if he can serve us tonight due to her being extremely rude and unprofessional I m very surprised that owner despite the fact that many people left comment here of her racist personality still let her work there. I am just very curious since I never ever got sick from eating sashimi all my life if she intended to put something in my food or sake? I am going to contact the owner of this place directly about...

Experienced very bad and prejudiced treatment. On a business trip, got off the plane and came in at 9pm when they are still taking orders to get dinner, there was just one person in front of me for takeout orders. Waitress saw me, took order of person in front of me, then ignored me and went to serve tables. I just stood there waiting, she came by several times saw me again and kept ignoring me, and chatted with the person ahead of me in Japanese/Korean. Then 20 mins later the order for person ahead of me is ready, she gave to her and then told me sorry we’re closed (at 9:20pm, when store closing hour is 10pm and there were multiple tables of people still ordering drinks). I said why didn’t you tell me this 15 mins ago, she lied and said I didn’t see you. I replied everyone around at the restaurant saw me. She then said oh I thought you were here for pickup, but sorry we’re closed. So you could’ve asked maybe 15 mins ago if I was here for pickup or for to go? Now the other restaurants are closed too so I ended up getting fast food...