Sakanaya — Restaurant in West Lafayette

The inside of Sakanaya was beautiful; everything was very clean. We (party of two) had to wait ~45 minutes to an hour for a table, but I’m not holding it against Sakanaya for the long wait for multiple reasons: 1) This is their first week being open. 2) It was a Saturday night. 3) The inside is small and can only seat so many people. 4) We were walk-ins. The service was great; everyone we interacted with was polite and calm despite it being very busy. I am rating Sakanaya low because I was not impressed with the food. Their menu is one page, front and back, with the front being appetizers and sushi, of which there was only one vegetarian sushi option which didn’t sound appetizing to me. The other side was ramen and rice bowls. I wanted to try their garlic tonkotsu ramen, but it was two dollars more than their regular tonkotsu just for different broth and one other ingredient, and I remember it being around $17.85, which was very expensive—at least for me. I got the regular tonkotsu ramen and it was good, but I could go somewhere else that specializes in ramen (like Yatagarasu or Strings) and get better ramen with more ingredients for the same or cheaper price. My other party member got one of the rice bowls, which was about $15.00, and it came with rice, chicken, scallion, and sauce, which wasn’t a lot of ingredients for $15.00. We agreed the sauce was delicious, but there wasn’t enough of it, as it was light and sweet. Additionally, there were a few pieces of the grilled chicken in his bowl that were not fully cooked and were inedible. Sakanaya also caters to a college audience, being a few minutes walking distance from Purdue. I think the pricing is expensive for the audience, and it tries to do a lot of Japanese food but not very well. I likely won’t be returning because of what I mentioned earlier, that I could go somewhere else to get the same thing but better and less expensive, but I would suggest giving it a try yourself at least once. I wish there were more vegetarian options, especially...

I recently visited this location, and unfortunately, it didn’t live up to expectations. While it's part of a more popular main location, this particular spot left much to be desired.

The service was a major letdown. The waiter was not attentive at all and never came back to check in on our table after taking our order. We had to wait a long time just to get our checks, and we were never offered a refill on water, even though our glasses were empty for quite a while. While I understand that they may have been short-staffed, the lack of attention and follow-up was noticeable and frustrating.

Additionally, despite there being only three tables occupied at the time, we got the other table's order served to us first, and our food came out in no particular order. It felt like no one was properly managing the service flow.

As for the food, it was underwhelming. The dishes lacked the vibrant flavors I’ve come to expect from the main location. They felt flat and lacked seasoning, leaving me disappointed.

To top it off, the music was blasting a bit too loudly, which made it hard to enjoy our conversation and added to the overall chaotic vibe of the evening.

Overall, this location struggles to meet the standards set by the main restaurant. If you're craving a good meal, I’d highly recommend making the trip to the main location instead.

Rating: 2/5 stars Bad service, slow and disorganized, bland food, and noisy atmosphere. While it could be a staffing issue, it still didn’t make for a pleasant dining experience. I wouldn’t return unless I had no other options nearby.

The ramen was lacking in flavor, but the sushi (the Verve special...

Beautiful and smartly located right on the edge of campus inside the big new towers, us four guys found a gorgeous atmosphere with original handcrafted art pieces and decorative wall pieces hiding backlighting. This match the classy and smooth service we also had with the fine staff. There's a well curated mood here also at their home store a few miles north. Sadly the draft menu was not up yet, probably a good thing earlier in the day, we made good trying to takoyaki app, Black widow, Boston, and lobster rolls. The appetizer was fantastic though a bit doughy compared to others. Yatagarasu does this stuff better! The Boston and Black widow rolls, a bit bland, lacking the fresh zing of high quality sushi. The lobster roll helped make up somewhat, was fantastic, a curated blend of colors and textures tingling all the right notes. I have high expectations for Sakanaya considering fierce competition from Maru and many others. Kitami holds my hands with the best in the area, sublime variety and exquisite chef specials, will be interesting to see if Sakanaya can match with two...