2 /5 Tetiana Smith: I tried Sakari Yatai recently and was really disappointed. I ordered chicken gyoza, vegetable gyoza, chicken ramen, and rice with mushroom – but honestly, none of it tasted like proper Japanese food. The ramen was completely bland, the rice was awful (plain, flavorless, with strange sweet mushrooms and limp raw cabbage underneath). The vegetable gyoza was somewhat ok but not a great taste. Only the chicken gyoza was something to remember out of everything I tried, but I wasnt entirely sure that it is really had chicken inside.
The customer service from the man was terrible. The man running the place (a British guy, not Japanese) was extremely rude. I asked for a bag to carry my ramen since I had a long way to walk, and he made a big issue about giving me a simple bag worth a few pennies. He even told me that if I “didn’t swing the bag around, nothing would spill,” even though the ramen lid was not secure well enough and good places usually wrapped the soup bowls in the plastic to not have this back and forth debate about the penny plastic bag. When I finally got home, even with an extra bag, the soup had a little bit leaked. If I hadn’t insisted on a bag, all my food would have been covered in soup.
On top of that, when I was still deciding whether to order ramen, he abruptly told me “that’s £7.50,” basically pushing me to pay before I’d even decided. When I asked for some extra chilli oil sauce, he refused, saying that a drip of chili oil is inside the sauce he had already gave to me and it is there even though I wanted some extra chilli oil. The whole experience felt rude and careless from the guy.
The only asian lady there made me feel better. She has been smiling and gave me an extra sauce.
Because of her I put two stars if not her I will put a one star for the whole experience. After everything I didnt even want to say thank you, but only said because I wanted to be polite to an asian lady.
Overall, the food was bland with a question mark quality, the service from the man was awful, and it didn’t feel like Japanese food at all – more like some random British mix. I definitely do not recommend this place if you’re looking for real Asian food. The entire experience was unpleasant.