Sarku Japan — Restaurant in Virginia

I usually love this place, but after having 3 seperate and disappointing experiences a few weeks apart, I'm starting to look for a new Japanese restaurant.

The rice in my bento box was overcooked into sticky mounds, to the point the grains of rice werent even distinguishable. The chicken was barely browned, and only had the faintest teriyaki flavor. I used to love how the sauce from the chicken would leak down into the rice and add so much flavor, but now they dont add any overtop the chicken. It tastes like they only use the tiniest bit to cook the chicken with and then put it on the rice bare. It was dry and I ended up adding the dressing from the salad just so I could have something to go with it. One of the dumplings I got had no filling at all. I'm not sure if they make them in the store or if they come from a distributor- and it wouldnt have been an issue if the rest of my meal was satisfactory- but it was a defintie cherry on top.

My sushi was unevenly cut and fell apart when I grabbed it with my chopsticks. They didnt supply soysauce with it unless I asked, on all three occasions. They've also changed suppliers from Kikoman to some cheap brand that uses dye to achieve the dark color and has a very weak, salty flavor.

The staff was friendly except for the manager (?), who was treating them poorly and at one point accidentally charged a customer for his free teriyaki, and when the customer asked if he could get a refund, he refused and instead told him the next time he could come in he could redeem his ticket.

I've always had such great meals from Sarku, I hope to see them come back from this. Hopefully it's just damage control from Covid budgeting but I dont think I'll be eating from their restaurant...

Horrible customer service, as a worker in the food industry i understand if the server gets the order wrong (it happens) but doing nothing about it is crazy. This young Hispanic guy at Dulles town center took my order and got my order with no chicken maybe he didn't understand but then once i got my food i went to go tell this other curly head young worker and he just check my receipt and did nothing he just said he couldn't do anything. Then i got mad and went again because what the hell is that customer service, i told the guy that took my order and said you got it wrong and he just said no i didn't. I even had a witness with me to tell him as well. The one who took my order looked like he was new because i grew up going to that place , my first time seeing that guy and the first time i had a problem in this place. I didn't want to make a big scene so i just left with the incorrect food. If you want your order wrong ,go to this place that has horrible customer service. This bothers me because I'm paying a good 25$ just to get something i didn't...

So I have been here only three times. The first two times were great. The Japanese man that works there was making the sushi and looked like he was calling the shots. Sushi was great and so were the bento boxes. The service was not great. The Hispanic women that work there do not greet you, smile and barely acknowledge you.

The third time I decided to go I thought, not a friendly atmosphere but the good is good.

Well, the Japanese guy was not there and there were two Hispanic women making the sushi. I was a bit concerned but thought ok, they may have been trained. Nope, the sushi was bad and looked like it was just thrown in the boxes. The fried rice was more like oily rice.

Never again. Sometimes people need to stick with what they know. These Hispanic women should not be making Japanese food. Never again.

Bad service, bad food Bad service, good sushi only if the Asian...