Sakura Sushi Teppan — Restaurant in Surprise

We are from out of town and wanted hibachi. Hibachi is my absolute favorite dinner and was excited to try this place right now the road from our rental. We went to Sakura on Bell Rd. the outside looks very nice and walking in they had a beautiful koi fish pond. Once we were seated at out table our the waitress came over and greeted us. She was an absolute jem! She was attentive and explained different options on the menu. We don't remember her name but she is from California. If it wasn't for her we would have left in the middle of dinner because of the chefs behavior. The soup was barely warm and the salad was a typical hibachi salad with a vinegar type of dressing. The fried soft shell crab was nasty. It was scaly, fishy, and stringy. Not sure what type they used but definitely never had that type before. My husband is a seafood pro, he eats and cooks it all the time and we're from Florida. When the chef came out he was not friendly at all. He barely greated us nor did he act like he enjoyed his job. The "live" cooking show was mediocre at best. He had rice all over the place, and it was burnt. The only thing he did that was enjoyable was the broccoli toss in the mouth and he did a pitiful onion volcano. Other then that it was boring and a waste of time, he literallydid nothing else. The meat was good, but could have used more "Coca-Cola" and he burnt the veggies too. The portions were so small that if I enjoyed the food, we would not have a take home box, but we took a box to feed the dog and not waste the food. The chef made the entire table uncomfortable by pointing to his tip jar several times, waiting for a tip and then getting a bigger attitude when he wasn't tipped. Tipped extra for what????? There was no show and he burnt most of the food. The yum yum sauce was bland and had a weird salty flavor. The others at the table all talked about how uncomfortable he made us feel and got visibility angry for not tipping him. Just incase people do not know how tipping works in this type of restaurant, I will explain. The chefs get a guaranteed percentage of the sales from the table on top of a chefs wage. Tipping the chef shows them that they went above and beyond and you appreciated their art. The server gets server wages (not minimum wage or livable wage) and has to tip out the chef. So, the tips on your check are split between the chef and server. Usually the tip is 10% of the table total sales and the server will get the rest. So if you only tip the chef, then your server technically still has to pay the chef out of their own pocket the 10% of the total sales. The chef does not tip share his tips with the server. We will not come back to an entitled chef who thinks by cooking burnt food and having a ugly attitude is acceptable. For some reason it will not let me add pics for reference to show the messy table of rice and burnt food and several pics of our chef clearly not wanting to be there....we had kids at the table and they were also uncomfortable by his demeanor...

We have eaten at this restaurant since they opened and visited very frequently pre Covid. However, due to Covid-19 we are not eating out but have done food to go from places. I typically don't leave bad reviews but I hope this gets the owners attention. This is the 2nd time in the last month I have gotten food to go. The staff is amazing and the gentleman and gal who helped me both time's we're very friendly and accommodating so this review is not to reflect them.

However, I want to bring up a couple of issues, number one there no longer is a happy hour which is fine as it is the restaurants choice to no longer offer that but a little disappointing as all other sushi restaurants offer one.

Number two, Which is my biggest issue is the new sushi chef. Both time's I have come in recently and ordered to go for lunch, I requested my meal have a substitution of a spicy tuna roll rather than a spicy crab as I just do not like the taste of it and rather than it going to waste I requested spicy tuna. Being that they are both the same price on the sushi menu I don't really see an issue with this. I have done it for all these year's i have been coming in. The new sushi chef refused both times, but on top of that continues to yell at the staff infront of the customers. The first time even yelling at the manager on staff, to the point that I the customer can see him yelling and pointing at them as well as us.

The food is very good and that is why I chose to come back again this last time but I think at this point we may be done with Sakura. I have been a long time customer, even visiting Hayashi when it was on Litchfield and Bell and the other Hayashi out in Goodyear.

I not only am leaving this review in hopes the owner sees but for the poor staff having to deal with the rath and terrible attitude of the sushi chef. It made it extremely uncomfortable for us as well as the staff and mind you, no where does it say no substitutions. I would even consider paying an upcharge to switch out my roll but to be told no and have the staff yelled at about it is really not what I consider good customer service.

I would think in a time as uncertain as now, loyal customer's would be important. As a business owner, I am sorry to the staff having to be treated that way and I hope this gets rectified for the...

Sakura has the absolute worst customer service ever, and thats including the man manager! If you are wanting take out, I would HIGHLY recommend going somewhere else!!!!!!!!! I would recommend going to UNI Steakhouse and Sushi at Bell and Litchfield. We have been going there for years. They have amazing food, and great customer service!

My husband and I decided we would try Sakura, however we have 2 toddlers ages 1 and 2. So we wanted the option of take out. We could not find a menu online so we figured we would stop by get a menu, and order while we picked up our groceries from frys clicklist. That way our food would be warm when we got home. Wellllllll I call to order and they inform me that they do not take orders over the phone. Okay!?!?! Then why did someone not tell my husband that in the first place, when he asked to take the menu out to the car? So you have to literally walk in and order, and then sit and wait for your food to be prepared. Not convienant or ideal with kids in the car, and AZ Summers!

The next kicker is that I wanted to order 1 filet mignon plate, 3 rolls, and 1 kids plate, approx $80 in food. However after we made the effort to drive back over there, we were informed by the manager that you have to dine in to be able to get the child's plate. His response was NO exceptions! Hmmmm, well first don't insult my intelligence! Anyone who has worked in customer service knows that there is ALWAYS exceptions! Also I am not going to order an adult size plate including salad and all, for a 1 and 2 year old, what a waste that would be!!

Seems to be very apparent that Sakura and their staff have plenty of business, and generate plenty of revenue so that they don't need or want to accommodate customers who prefer take out.

Someone please enlighten and remind your manager and owner that this is Surprise not Scottsdale!! I would be amazed that there is enough revenue comig into that place that you dont need to appreciate nor accept take out customers. Time will tell!! I bet they don't stay open long with this type of customer service! Good...