This review is based off of their Valentine’s Day pre fix menu. We highly recommend not to go here for their Vday prefix menu. The service was incredibly slow, took about 15-20 mins from when we first sat down from when our waiter came over to take our drinks order and a long wait between courses. This was 100% a cash grab event for the restaurant. The portions/quantity of food you are being served is basically nothing. It was 9 courses but the food was incredibly basic and small. They started you off with a cold/warm clam miso soup. Then moved to a 2-piece okra and of spinach tempura. Then they served you one piece of sushi for 3 of the courses, to a tiny salmon tartar cup. Then ended it with a decent size dessert. That for $98 before tax and a 22% Valentine’s Day surcharge - plain robbery. I understand this is a busy night for restaurants, and I have no problem paying $500 bill (for 3 people + drinks), we are active Michelin star diners, but when you are paying this amount, one would expect good/decent service and not walk out of the restaurant still hungry. We will not return and advise others to stay away for a Valentine’s Day dinner. Not worth it. You’d be better off going to another restaurant to spend your money and where the service is better and not slow. Incredibly disappointed.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 1
Janine Bos
Had the worst experience on Valentine’s Day. We had a reservation and still got seated 20 mins late. Then waited for another 15 mins at our table before asking someone to at least give us some water. We had to talk to the hostess to let her know we have not had a waiter come up to us since we got seated.
A waiter finally got assigned to us and my husband ordered his drink. They gave us free champagne for the wait. Cool. Let’s give them a chance. Another 15 mins later, we got our first course. There was probably 10-20 mins between each course. Up until the last 3.. they forgot about us again and waited for roughly 30 mins until we flagged our waiter who was trying his best to keep up with demands. This is a management issue as they put way too many tables in one section and expect the waiter to serve them all. Anyways, we told our waiter we haven’t gotten any of the courses for 30 mins so he brought them out at the same time which was at least nice.
What’s upsetting was when the bill came, they didn’t tell us that 24% gratuity was already included so we ended up tipping $50 more on top of the bill for one of the worst dinner experiences we’ve had. We were there for almost 3 hours and 2 hours of it was spent waiting.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 1
GEraldine
We love the food at Sasa, this Saturday night every table was occupied. Service, water at the table, soy sauce, sugar for coffee, had to be asked for, but otgherwise food delicious if a little slow.
Renee
Food was great, our server was fine. We ordered many items from the menu. Didn't appreciate getting asked if we were going to order more drinks and told if not we needed to leave for the next reservation.
Esther Linda
We took friends to try Sasa since they love Japanese food. We enjoyed several different rolls as well as Scallop Ceviche & Seared Albacore. Fresh and delicious. Presentation of food beautiful.
Jade
Went for a birthday dinner. Birthday girl was craving sushi and Sasa over preformed. She even said the sashimi “was like butter.”
Opentable Diner
Not a good night at Sasa. The new owner decided to hire a live DJ for the entire evening. It made no sense to have very loud music at 7PM. We complained to the manager. Other tables did too. Manager did nothing. Servers apologized. They had to deal with the noise too. They could not hear patrons.
Jena
Being that it was NYE I had no high expectations for this restaurant. My husband and I were blown away at how amazing the food was. We will definitely be back.
Courtney
We went for dinner on New Year's Eve and they had a DJ right when you walked in blasting very loud obnoxious music. I understand if it's 9 or 10 PM, but this was 7 PM with several families and older couples hoping to have a nice New Year's Eve dinner. You could not have a conversation with the person across from you without yelling. Everyone around us asked to lower the volume with no success.
Paul
Restaurant was nice and the food was decent but the lamb chops were overcooked. Worst part was our server, not interested, very aloof and didn't ask us once how our food was. It was a 5:30 reservation so the place wasn't packed up so just bad attitude.
We throughly enjoyed our dinner experience at Sasa! The service and food was outstanding!! We will definitely go back!!
Tien
Sasa is very expensive for the quality of the food that you get.
Ahi tuna parfait ($26) - This came out literally a minute after we ordered. Basically a tuna crispy rice, but the rice on the bottom was cold and soggy, likely. Tasted ok but I would not recommend this. For the portion of rice, avocado, and fish you should just get a sushi roll instead.
Agedashi tofu ($15) - 5 pieces of fried tofu with some mushrooms and bonito on top. Surprisingly bland.
Yakitori ($14) - 2 skewers of chicken (thigh?) with a slice of lemon on the side. There wasn’t a lot going on with this dish, it’s not clear if this was even grilled.
The sushi chefs were backed up according to our server. They were right— half an hour after our plates were cleared we decided to cut our losses and cancel the rest of our dinner and leave. Disappointing meal.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 1
Service: 3
Michelle M
Really delicious cocktails and their sushi was delicious. We ordered the Hakkaido.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Stacey Roberts-Ohr
I went with my husband for our anniversary. I liked the atmosphere and the service was fine.
The problem was the food. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great.
Miso cod- Generous portion, prepared perfectly. Under salted.
Agadadhi tofu- Nicely fried, under sauced
Softshell crab boa- overfried and lacked flavor
Geishi roll- overpowering spice
Skewer sample- Overpriced and meh
Onigiri- not crispy enough
This place is very, very expensive for what you get and while not bad, it's not very good. I think there are a lot better Izakaya restaurants in Berkeley and San Francisco.
We spent $180 without tip and I left feeling underwhelmed. Nothing to write home about. Lottie 's Ice creamery is next door. Wow, talk about good ice cream!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 4
Rodney Parker
The Agedashi Tofu is labelled as vegetarian on the menu, but it has katsuo (katsuobushi) on it, which is fish. The sauce on the scallop ceviche was overwhelmingly strong, but even that didn't cover the fishiness of the scallops. The scallop nigiri was good, though. Overall, very disappointed with the food.
This review is based off of their Valentine’s Day pre fix menu. We highly recommend not to go here for their Vday prefix menu. The service was incredibly slow, took about 15-20 mins from when we first sat down from when our waiter came over to take our drinks order and a long wait between courses. This was 100% a cash grab event for the restaurant. The portions/quantity of food you are being served is basically nothing.
It was 9 courses but the food was incredibly basic and small. They started you off with a cold/warm clam miso soup. Then moved to a 2-piece okra and of spinach tempura. Then they served you one piece of sushi for 3 of the courses, to a tiny salmon tartar cup. Then ended it with a decent size dessert. That for $98 before tax and a 22% Valentine’s Day surcharge - plain robbery.
I understand this is a busy night for restaurants, and I have no problem paying $500 bill (for 3 people + drinks), we are active Michelin star diners, but when you are paying this amount, one would expect good/decent service and not walk out of the restaurant still hungry. We will not return and advise others to stay away for a Valentine’s Day dinner. Not worth it. You’d be better off going to another restaurant to spend your money and where the service is better and not slow. Incredibly disappointed.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 1
Had the worst experience on Valentine’s Day. We had a reservation and still got seated 20 mins late. Then waited for another 15 mins at our table before asking someone to at least give us some water. We had to talk to the hostess to let her know we have not had a waiter come up to us since we got seated.
A waiter finally got assigned to us and my husband ordered his drink. They gave us free champagne for the wait. Cool. Let’s give them a chance. Another 15 mins later, we got our first course. There was probably 10-20 mins between each course. Up until the last 3.. they forgot about us again and waited for roughly 30 mins until we flagged our waiter who was trying his best to keep up with demands. This is a management issue as they put way too many tables in one section and expect the waiter to serve them all. Anyways, we told our waiter we haven’t gotten any of the courses for 30 mins so he brought them out at the same time which was at least nice.
What’s upsetting was when the bill came, they didn’t tell us that 24% gratuity was already included so we ended up tipping $50 more on top of the bill for one of the worst dinner experiences we’ve had. We were there for almost 3 hours and 2 hours of it was spent waiting.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 1
We love the food at Sasa, this Saturday night every table was occupied. Service, water at the table, soy sauce, sugar for coffee, had to be asked for, but otgherwise food delicious if a little slow.
Food was great, our server was fine. We ordered many items from the menu. Didn't appreciate getting asked if we were going to order more drinks and told if not we needed to leave for the next reservation.
We took friends to try Sasa since they love Japanese food. We enjoyed several different rolls as well as Scallop Ceviche & Seared Albacore. Fresh and delicious. Presentation of food beautiful.
Went for a birthday dinner. Birthday girl was craving sushi and Sasa over preformed. She even said the sashimi “was like butter.”
Not a good night at Sasa. The new owner decided to hire a live DJ for the entire evening. It made no sense to have very loud music at 7PM. We complained to the manager. Other tables did too. Manager did nothing. Servers apologized. They had to deal with the noise too. They could not hear patrons.
Being that it was NYE I had no high expectations for this restaurant. My husband and I were blown away at how amazing the food was. We will definitely be back.
We went for dinner on New Year's Eve and they had a DJ right when you walked in blasting very loud obnoxious music. I understand if it's 9 or 10 PM, but this was 7 PM with several families and older couples hoping to have a nice New Year's Eve dinner. You could not have a conversation with the person across from you without yelling. Everyone around us asked to lower the volume with no success.
Restaurant was nice and the food was decent but the lamb chops were overcooked. Worst part was our server, not interested, very aloof and didn't ask us once how our food was. It was a 5:30 reservation so the place wasn't packed up so just bad attitude.
Restaurantji Recommends
We throughly enjoyed our dinner experience at Sasa! The service and food was outstanding!! We will definitely go back!!
Sasa is very expensive for the quality of the food that you get.
Ahi tuna parfait ($26) - This came out literally a minute after we ordered. Basically a tuna crispy rice, but the rice on the bottom was cold and soggy, likely. Tasted ok but I would not recommend this. For the portion of rice, avocado, and fish you should just get a sushi roll instead.
Agedashi tofu ($15) - 5 pieces of fried tofu with some mushrooms and bonito on top. Surprisingly bland.
Yakitori ($14) - 2 skewers of chicken (thigh?) with a slice of lemon on the side. There wasn’t a lot going on with this dish, it’s not clear if this was even grilled.
The sushi chefs were backed up according to our server. They were right— half an hour after our plates were cleared we decided to cut our losses and cancel the rest of our dinner and leave. Disappointing meal.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 1
Service: 3
Really delicious cocktails and their sushi was delicious. We ordered the Hakkaido.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I went with my husband for our anniversary. I liked the atmosphere and the service was fine.
The problem was the food. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great.
Miso cod- Generous portion, prepared perfectly. Under salted.
Agadadhi tofu- Nicely fried, under sauced
Softshell crab boa- overfried and lacked flavor
Geishi roll- overpowering spice
Skewer sample- Overpriced and meh
Onigiri- not crispy enough
This place is very, very expensive for what you get and while not bad, it's not very good. I think there are a lot better Izakaya restaurants in Berkeley and San Francisco.
We spent $180 without tip and I left feeling underwhelmed.
Nothing to write home about. Lottie 's Ice creamery is next door. Wow, talk about good ice cream!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 4
The Agedashi Tofu is labelled as vegetarian on the menu, but it has katsuo (katsuobushi) on it, which is fish. The sauce on the scallop ceviche was overwhelmingly strong, but even that didn't cover the fishiness of the scallops. The scallop nigiri was good, though. Overall, very disappointed with the food.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 4
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