Sakura — Restaurant in Virginia

Horrible experience. Rude staff. First time in my life, I didn't tip the server at all.

After waiting 40 minutes to be seated and (once at the table) an hour for the chef to cook; the filet was unseasoned and bad quality and my partner agreed it wasn't good. I didn't eat it, don't eat a ton of carbs and sat there with a full plate of food. The server was rude and was clearly not interested in customer service the whole time we were there. After sitting there for a while, I went to find our server, ask for our check and boxes and let her know my filet was bad. She came back with the table's checks and boxes and didn't acknowledge my earlier comment that I didn't care for my dinner or my sitting there with a full plate of food. I opened the bill put my credit card inside, noticed she was still charging me full price and told her that I didn't think I should pay $30 for this dinner but just wanted out of the restaurant at the point. The server was visibly irritated with me, took the check with my card to "find the manager".

The manager came over and offered to recook my meal but we had already been there for two+ hours. The server drops the new check and comments, "Well that should lower your price." I ignored it the comment and thanked her indicating that she should use the credit card I gave her earlier. Now here's where things really got bad...

The server is insisting I never gave her a card and I'm mistaken. We move to the front cashier stand with the server and manager. The server is insisting for five minutes that I never gave her a card. Flat out said I was wrong. I'm searching my wallet and asking her to please walk the restaurant because she had to find her manager and it could have fallen out. I'm checking my wallet, the seat, the server is standing there fighting with me. She's shaking her head and saying "No. No you did not." but won't leave the cashier stand to walk around and go look! A few more exchanges later, I am texting the members of my party who left for ice cream that I'm held up because they lost my card and begging our server to "Please go check the kitchen. you walked back there when you were looking for your manager and it could have fallen out." After a few more exchanges, she abruptly and rudely throws her stuff on the cashier stand counter and finally says, "Fine! I'll go check the kitchen for you."

When she came back two minutes later with my credit card and apologized, I couldn't look her in the eye because I was afraid of what I might say and didn't think it would be expletive-free. Instead I stared at the manager who at this point is apolozing and as I signed the bill, let her know this is the first time ever, ever that I will leave a zero dollar tip to a server. Two and a half hours later..

I won't be back. I would give it zero stars if I could. I don't care, want or accept...

Feedback mainly relating to Chicken and Vegetarian meals:

Been going for many years and always loved most of the food. Salad is always fresh and dressing delicious. Sauces all great. Soup always the right temperature and delicious. Service friendly.

I am no red meat and no seafood. Poultry only occasionally. The only problem I have encountered over the years is that the chicken is sometimes not cooked well enough - only the smaller pieces are tender enough to eat, always save the bigger pieces to reheat at home. This problem is worse when many people at the table order chicken and the pile is higher so less pieces cook well.

Last time I went, I thought I would order just veggies instead of chicken since I do love the normal veggies: broccoli, carrot, onion, zucchini.

Regretted this decision. First, because they had a separate bowl of veggies for the veggie meal, which included a ton of red and green peppers and celery. No one wants cooked celery. And peppers make everything else they are cooked with taste like peppers - I would not have ordered this had I known that it had peppers, so many peppers. Second, they served me the veggies before any of the meat at the table, like before the people who got medium rare steak, which meant the veggies were hardly cooked. And I didn't get a portion of the standard veggies that you would get if you got a meat like the rest of the table.

So I was stuck with almost raw veggies and rice. For $19. $4 more and I could have had the same amount of veggies I wanted to eat (since I didn't want the peppers or celery), that were actually cooked, and chicken too.

Learned my lesson. Just wanted to share for the...

I went here with my sister and her husband unplanned, not knowing that our dinner would take them to closing time. That said, we were seated promptly which was surprising on a Friday night. Just an FYI, they will not seat you until your entire party is present. Since we were a party of 3, we had other diners at our table as typical for a teppanyaki restaurant.

The atmosphere is loud and exciting. I loved it, but i can understand that it may not be for everyone. One of the staff members was going around to larger parties with a tambourine hyping them up which was fun. Teppanyaki is all about a fun and engaging dining experience, so I enjoyed all of this.

We started with come drinks. I had a katate punch which was very enjoyable. I also had a sip of the love potion #9 my sister ordered which, given a choice between them, id choose the love potion in the future. For my meal, I had the filet mignon and shrimp combo which came with an appetizer choice (I chose shrimp which essentially meant I got two extra pieces of shrimp with my meal), a house soup, a salad with ginger dressing, choice of fried or steamed rice, soba noodles, and vegetables. My plate was FULL when all was said and done. Overall a great value considering the price and the portion size. We all definitely took some leftovers home.

As I said, the staff was friendly, fun and engaging. Our chef was phenomenal. I would have appreciated it if a server came around more often for cocktail orders and refills of soft drinks, but thats really my...