Sakura Terra back

The food was okay, but doesn't equal the price. For a small restaurant, they take forever on bringing you food and water/drinks. Also, a lot of the things on the menu (in the store, not the online menus) were not available either because they ran out, or because they discontinued the item. We saw one of the waitress use the menu book to push away crumbs of food from the table to the ground, and just placed the menu back in the pile without cleaning it. The experience was so bad that we just left a $5 tip.

My husband and I came here after our maternity photoshoot, so we didn't have a reservation or anything, but they were able to seat us upon arrival. We got there around 6:30pm. It took about 5 minutes for the workers to notice we were standing at the entrance, and took a while to have our orders taken. The place wasn't packed or super busy, but felt that the service was a bit slow. I am pregnant so I did opt out of eating raw things, and the waiter didn't seem like he knew what to recommend based on that restriction. Nonetheless, my husband enjoyed his omurice which had the rice flavored in tomato/ketchup, which was nice. I had a soft-shelled crab roll and miso butterfish and both were decent but not memorable. I did however enjoy the dessert at the end which is their homemade Sakura Terrace ice cream inside a shelled cone with mochi and red bean. Omurice and dessert are solid here. Didn't get a chance to try the raw fish, so will have to visit again to give feedback on that. Men's restroom is located outside of the building and the Ladies' is located by the entrance. There's a parking lot so parking was not an issue too.

Sakura Terrace is a modern authentic Japanese shop. The interior is more orthodox and clean, with plenty of wood. The food is presented with visual pizazz, almost imitating a Michelin starred restaurant. The taste is truthful and down to earth. No unnecessary garnish. Solid and fresh ingredients. Prepared with deifnite care. First of all, Sakura Terrace is absolutely a 5-star restaurant. If you haven't been here in Waikiki, please just go. Reasonable prices. Awesome taste. You'll have a great time. But obviously there are areas to improve and this is where I get a bit critical (in a positive way). The overall food is so "simple" that it feels like a very dedicated amateur is imitating a high-end restaurant. Just to be clear, the food is great and is truthful to the freshness of the ingredients. I love this. But there's something about the imbalance between visual garnish and the overall taste & texture balance. All Japanese restaurant caliber can be judged with their tamago. I ordered specifically the tamago for my appetizer and I could see the imitation put in but it was far from the perfect, sweet, soft, silky tamago I would expect from a top-class Japanese joint. It certainly looked like it though. Kudos to the chef and ask him/her to continue honing their skills. In the meanwhile, let's all go enjoy a hearty meal.

Their service is pretty good. Each dish is very big portion and reasonable. We have to come back again. There is private room, terrace, bar and dine in. Sashimi moriawase is 5kinds of seafood sashimi, very thick cut. Omurice is ketchup rice and scrambled egg and demi sauce, pretty good. Saba shiotaki is very fatty and juicy and big. Sakura flavor monaka ice cream doesn’t have enough flavor. I couldn’t taste and smell any Sakura.