Sakura Asian Seafood Buffet

Got takeout here for the first time. Not good. I was so scared of the meat products that I got a lot of noodles and rice. Everything was bland or the flavors were not right, like sweet chow mein, and no-​flavor green beans.

This is probably the worst sushi/​Chinese takeout I’ve ever had. We ordered the Christmas maki and the Lover roll. Instead of having sliced tuna on top, there was ground up tuna smushed together to look like slices. The crunch was soft and spongy. We also ordered the Mongolian beef which was flavorless and watery. Not worth the few dollars you save by ordering here.

This place keep changing its new owner every couple years. Under this new management, I can tell they don’t have a clue what they are doing. Foods here are very limited, and the sushi meets an average standard for low budget sushi. Overall is ok for the price they charge. It is not the best and not the worst place I ever been to.

I have had lunch here half a dozen times. Each time I am suckered in by the price and the variety. I can’t say I have gotten sick afterwards but every time, there are some offerings that do look questionable. And I never eat as much as I would have liked to because I get slightly grossed out by what fare I have sampled. I have never seen a waitress that speaks more than a very select few phrases of English. And I get the feeling that they are all new arrivals, living together in cramped conditions for very little (if any) pay. That would explain their consistent lack of joy, or any sense or attempt of sharing a positive interaction with their customers. I am a naturally happy person and smile more often than not. These women don’t properly respond to basic accepted courtesies. I feel sorry for them, and my instinct suggests that they have endured severe & personal hardships before their arrival here in Northampton. Will I go back to eat there again? Yes (on average, once every six months). Will any of my family or friends willingly join me when I do? No. Am I looking forward to my next visit? Not really, no!

I am sad to write this because a couple years ago I absolutely LOVED coming here. I am not sure if my standards have changed drastically or the quality has declined substantially (most likely both) but as I sit in Sakura writing this review I am completely uninterested in another bite of food.
I feel they have cheapened the quality of nearly everything served to try to keep the price down. My favorite Asian dish, General tso chicken was presented as little gross bits of chicken floating in a thin soupy broth. Horrifying.
I genuinely loved the food here when they first opened but now it’s just completely unappetizing to me. I’m sorry Sakura, but I won’t be coming back on my own free will. The décor seems to have declined as well somehow. Forgive me but I don’t wish to stare at an overflowing trash can the entire time I eat.
On the Plus side, the wait staff is quick and friendly with drink refills and other things, which is why they get two stars instead of one.

After having dinner at Sakura tonight, we think it may be a very long time until we come back. The following is a quick synopsis of our frustration with this restaurant.
1. The food here has reached a new low! The quality/​quantity is terrible and the sushi was stale from being left out.
2. The seafood here is nearly nonexistent. The crab legs and shrimp are gone. The cocktail shrimp was also empty which was frustrating.
3. The wait staff here was rude and at one point a takeout customer returned to ask for a refund which resulted in an argument between the customer and staff.
4. The final straw was that my wife got Ill after our meal and I left feeling intoxicated. We didn’t drink but think there was MSG in the food.
Overall, no thank you and we won’t be back for a very long time.

We don’t go for most of the dishes here. I enjoy the scallion pancakes, crab rangoons and the maki, California rolls the most. Always fresh.

A favorite place to eat when I’m in NH. How can you beat the price for all the sushi? Plus, they have a wide selection of Chinese food too. Wonderful soups!

I’ll be honest, I come here for the value of the lunch special in the sushi bar and probably wouldn’t be a regular without it.
The food: The sushi is OK quality although you can sometimes tell that rolls have been sitting out for awhile. The sushi chefs take their time making new rolls, meaning that when one type of roll runs out it can sometimes be an hour before they make another roll.
I also have to mention the waitstaff. Initial service during lunch hours is pleasant and seating is quick. However during the course of your meal the waitresses will hover around the tables to the point of being overbearing. Most of the time they only ask if you would like a refill while their hand is reaching across your plate to grab your glass.

This place stinks!!! They told us our daughter was going to cost 5.99 when we finished they charged us 11.99. She ate rice a couple chicken fingers and cake. The scallion pancakes are awful !! The rest of the food is typical for a Buffett. The management did not resolve our problem and just walked off. The people clearing our table were not friendly at all. I would not recommend and we will never return!

Slightly below mediocre, but bumped up for Chinese donuts and a basketball hoop.
Lunch Buffet $ 7.99
Dinner Buffet $ 11.99
Weekend Buffet $ 11.99
When one has a 45 minute lunch break, what better way to spend it than at an AYCE buffet?
The venue is nothing special on the outside, and is actually quite easy to miss. On the inside, the venue tries to resemble a traditional Chinese building. It does so in a less than stellar way, which is perfectly acceptable for a cheap buffet. There is a basketball hoop in the parking lot, and one can challenge the employees’ children in order to work off the calories.
Options were actually better than expected. There were standard Chinese buffet dishes, including a couple seafood options, and sushi. A peak around the corner reveals another half of the buffet dedicated to desserts including pastries and ice cream.
Taste of the food was underwhelming, to say the least. Nothing tasted bad, per se, but I had no desire to obtain second helpings. Their second-​best tasting dish was actually their dumplings, which is something I rarely have at buffets. Their best dish, however, was their Chinese donuts. Easily among the top 3 that I have ever had. You better believe these are fighting words. They were freshly made, warm, soft, and sweet as sugar. I just hope that they are consistent with them.
Service was surprisingly good for an all you can eat buffet. The hostess was pleasant, and the waitresses were eager to provide refills.
(^_​^) Service
(^_​-​) Venue
(^_​^) Options
(-_​-​) Taste
(^_​^) Bang for buck
[2.5 stars, automatic +1 for Chinese donuts, rounded down to 3]
Glad I came, as the Chinese donuts were amazing. Would recommend for the occasional session of pure gluttony, but keep low expectations.

My fiancé had been bothering me to go here because they have buffet sushi. In my mind that tells me, go get some food poisoning! So I had been really hesitant about going. He finally wore me down and we went on a Saturday night. Not too busy, not so much in the way of décor (think run down 70’s retro greens) and we were seated right away. We wanted to order drinks from their bar so we had to wait until a waitress showed up which, being a buffet, could be awhile. We finally got to order drinks, I have no idea what they were but mine had vodka and juice. His was something that on the menu reminded me of a rum punch. We waited for the drinks to arrive which took some additional clarification for the waitress. Not her fault, English wasn’t her first language but she was nice enough to ask us to point to the menu for the drinks we had ordered. About 15 minutes later they arrive and after the first sip, I knew we were in trouble. These drinks are so cheap and insanely strong. Like $ 6 and I’ve got a killer buzz going on. We were very happy to say the least.
So we head to the buffet line and grab a plate. Standard chinese options: general tso’s, chicken and broccoli, etc. in the first section. Then the fried foods-​ex. crab rangoon (which were excellent but how hard is it to screw them up? 99% sure they’re frozen everywhere I’ve ever had them from) followed by sushi and desserts.
So I was very wary of the sushi. I have had really amazing sushi and sashimi all over the place so I knew I was seriously lowering the bar trying this stuff. Majority rice, minimal fish, but it didn’t taste like it had been sitting out for a while or that it had gone bad. It really wasn’t terrible but certainly not my idea of a good time. I was also really weirded out by the fruit sushi they had. That’s an abomination but I guess if you don’t know any better… sure why not.
Limited desserts, not enough chocolate based items for my taste. I hope I ate $ 12 worth of food but I do know I drank at least that much! Yay for cheap, slow handed bartenders! Side note-​no food poisoning after!

For $ 12.99 — don’t expect too much. Kinda like old country buffet with the quality same as if you go to panda express lo mein/​fried rice, general chau chicken but give a few more bucks you’ll also get snow crab, chilled shrimp and some low grade sushi. Service was good but I probably won’t be back again.

I am a lunch time regular at Sakura. sometimes I eat in, sometimes to go.
If you’re looking for a deal, the lunch to go is a bargain. $ 4.99/lb. You can pack quite a bit of food into $ 5.
Now, for a buffet, the Chinese food is mostly average. Nothing is a clear standout for me, it’s all good, but nothing to write home about.
The best part of the buffet is the Sushi (yes, Sushi.) Now, it doesn’t compare to a dedicated Sushi restaurant like Osaka or Zen, but for buffet sushi it’s pretty good! Fish portions are smaller, of course, but they have a wide variety and it’s all good. During lunch, they always have 2 guys behind the bar making it fresh. They burn through a lot of Sushi for a buffet.
So riddle me this: If I go to the local supermarket, I can get 2 rolls for $ 14, and they’ll be OK… Or for $ 4.99 a pound I can fill a takeout box with 20 different varieties of sushi from Sakura. Why would I eat the stuff at the supermarket?
Sakura is a good solid buffet, great for lunch, especially. A solid 4 stars.

This place is your standard buffet. Dirty. Questionable food. Stressed and unhappy staff. The price isn’t that great for the «value» of the food. The lunch pricing is more reasonable.
I was hoping it would be good for the kids, and offer a value for a dinner out, but one son barely ate, and the other got sick later that night from it.
Adding in the cost of a new bathroom carpet reduces the value of the meal tremendously.

I’m updating with an extra star because the staff is incredibly friendly.
Food is still decent, and definitely great for the price & when you’re hungry.
The best deal is at lunch time (cheaper) and if you take it to go, they weigh it by the pound and it’s a great deal, especially if you don’t want a lot.

Had a friend recommend this place and I have to say the food was great and the people very nice… I would recommend this place.

We took a chance thinking this was the same Sakura as the one in Westport CT (they appear to have nearly identical menus). Big mistake. Avoid at all costs. If you want good Japanese food or Sushi, try Osaka or Moshi Moshi. Signs of trouble on a Sunday afternoon:
1. Crumbling cement and trash near the front door
2. Fish tank in entryway so murky, filthy and green you can’t see the fish or even the back of the tank
3. Table, floor and windows not very clean — dried food particles, dust, etc.
4. When we ordered Sushi from the menu, our waitress looked stunned (most people on Sunday apparently come for the all you can eat buffet). She seemed unfamiliar with what was on the menu and abruptly left us, apparently to find someone who could actually make what we were ordering. After locating someone in the back (we watched the interaction from our table), she returned, twice, to clarify what we wanted.
5. The buffet was mostly bland and or fried food, some of which looked like it had not been made that day. The buffet sushi looked like it had been sitting out for quite a while (and this was early in the day).
6. The a la carte sushi my partner ordered, when it finally came, was non-​descript and CONTAINED CREAM CHEESE IN VIRTUALLY EVERY roll that she had ordered. One roll had been made, essentially inside out from what it was supposed to be. Seafood ingredients were not fresh.
We feel lucky that we didn’t get sick.

We’ve been coming to Sakura since they first opened. They started out great — lots of fresh seafood, terrific sushi selection, lovely vegetable options — then slipped a bit over the last, oh, year and a half or so – way more cooked sushi options than raw, rarely any tuna, sad fish-​to-​rice ratio, dwindling seafood options, food didn’t seem as fresh, noticeably shrinking crowds — BUT BUT BUT! They’ve picked up their game in recent weeks. So much so that I felt a review was warranted.
Something has changed, and Sakura seems to be once again on the rise. Hooray! This is a great lunch option if you’re looking for something that you can drive to and park easily, or want a quick in/​out (it’s a buffet, so you don’t have to wait to order, wait for food to be prepared, etc.), or are feeling finicky and prefer a little bit of this and that rather than committing, or just want to gorge yourself on sushi and are ok with it being mediocre rather than exquisite. And when I say «mediocre,» by no means to I mean «off» or «funky» or «ew»… the sushi is fine, but it’s just not fine-​dining sushi. Of course, this is coming from someone who is not above grabbing a California roll at the grocery store, so… I guess I have a pretty broad range of acceptable when it comes to sushi!
Anyhow… Service is always extremely friendly, the dining room is clean and comfortable, the prices are great, and the food is decent. Better than decent if you’re grading on a buffet scale. There are always several veggie options, which I really appreciate. Nicely prepared basics such as baby bok choy, gingered green beans, sauteed Chinese spinach, Chinese eggplant, mushrooms, sauteed bean sprouts, and more. They have a section of the buffet with the more customary Asian buffet finds of the fried and starchy variety (egg rolls, spring rolls, crab rangoons, chicken fingers, scallion pancakes, dumplings, etc.), but it’s really nice that you aren’t stuck with those if you want something lighter and fresher. There are always a handful of decent protein & veg stir-​fry options, fish, soups, a cold salad and fruit bar, desserts, and the far side of the sushi buffet is all vegetarian sushi selections.
I am encouraged by the swelling crowds of late, because with higher volume comes a higher turnover of food and thus fresher selections for all of us to enjoy. Keep it up, Sakura!

I don’t know what these other reviewers are talking about. Sakura is simply the best. I used to go all the time as a college student, and just ate there yesterday on my first trip back as an alumn. There is such a wide selection of foods, all of which are very good. The sushi is what you would expect to find on a buffet– a bit more rice than at an a la carte place, but still very fun to eat. They also had added (at least when I was there) a new feature where you can add crab legs to the buffet for an extra $ 2. $ 2 for crab legs– what a great deal. I had two plates of them and I can say they were delicious. I wish I live closer so I could come back more often.
Very very reasonable prices as well. The dinner buffet with crab legs is only $ 14. I have no idea where you could get reasonably good sushi for even close to that, not to mention the array of other foods they have to offer.