Waka Sakura Sushi Restaurant

Checked out this place this past Saturday for lunch. Wait time was 30 min. Not too bad. They had a good amount of items on the menu. Service was good. Understandable on how to use the tablet or scan the QR code to use your phone to order items. Thumbs up on the mt. poke w/uni bowl, fried oyster, savory japanese steamed egg, and their crepes.

Update: 28 Feb 2024 It’s heartbreaking to update a review that’s not so positive. We dined here for the second time but it was disappointing. The service was disorganized and customers were having to wait 60-90 average time for dinner. You are discouraged to have your name written down to dine in. The reason is that they cannot accommodate the volume of patrons. By my observation, there was one hostess/cashier/manager, one server, one busing the tables, and I don’t know how many were working in the back kitchen. Half the tables were closed down at 6:00pm. I highly recommended that the management focus on the staff level especially on the weekend and dinner time. This restaurant recently open and it should not be this inefficient. I understand that hiring maybe an issue but it should have been considered by the management team to have a fully staff restaurant before going on full operations. Some notes on our dinner; my hot udon did not come out after 30 minutes. When the bowl of udon was finally served, it was luke warm. I had asked to take the order back and cancel it. 15 minutes later they came back with another bowl. I don’t know if my request was ignored or it was just another mistake since one server was handling the expedited service of the restaurant as well. Also, my check came 15 minutes after I had requested it twice. The manager made a mistake by giving my receipt to another patron. The manager did not come over nor made any explanation for the delay of service, it was the server came by and mentioned this. No apologies were given due to the mistakes. They were too exhausted to even have small talk with the customers. I will give this place another try and see if there are any improvements. Hope this review is taken into consideration by the management! ————————- The place was definitely a traditional style setting much like in mainland Japan ???????? We enjoyed picking our orders at the table! The place was quiet and intimate (it’s inside the new Don Quixote store in Kapolei). We will definitely be back! Thank you

Try to come here on a not so busy night! Most of your basic things are somewhat affordable, but this is certainly a place to get something a little extra. Their seared items and wagyu items have that delicious smokey taste! As you can see, we got the Mt Poke, which seemed good in concept, but I do like my rice and fish a little more proportioned haha.. Still makes a great picture! They only have the dark colored rice, which i think is because they use an aged vinegar. To me, i prefer it over regular sushi rice, but everyone is different. Loved the spicy, smokey seared salmon, but their regular ahi / maguro nigiri was real good. I'll probably come here more often than Genki, just because I like their fish quality and cut a lot better. We really needed another GOOD sushi place here in Kapolei, because Doraku just ain't it. The service was okay, they forgot our drinks, but they're understaffed and busy so I get it. Food was fast though!!

Well, the wasabi is excellent. If you absolutely must go, I would recommend the salmon kids set. For the money, that's the only thing worth it. Oh and BTW, in every sushi dish, the rice is brown. Not brown rice, seasoned brown.

The sushi was very good. Food came out fast and it was very high quality! There was excellent service as well, staff are friendly, and prices are reasonable.

The food is fresh. The service is wonderful. And they now serve alcohol! Everything so good. No complaints here. I'll be back. Rice is interesting and good. But the Wasabi is a show stealer. I didn't expect that.

*update: fyi , especially to those negative comments here…..DON’T expect Japanese service, it’s Hawai’i here. No offense lol And DON’T think it’s a fancy sushi restaurant, it’s a conveyor belt kind restaurant. The brown rice for sushi is Japanese red vinegar sushi rice , it’s not as strong as white sushi vinegar and it’s not the regular brown rice. Unfortunately , price is not as cheap as genki but some fish are better quality. And I believe they use better rice machine too because it’s so soft like someone actually hand shaped it. I went here more than 5 times now and only 1 plate the ahi was cut wrong way. Overall I still enjoy coming here. 4/15/2025 @11:30am Tuesday For 2 people, no wait line They welcome with nice irasshaimase! Choice for order food by touch panel or your own phone with QR codes I used touch panel. Easy to use. Slide to left and right. Very clean and my server was good Sushi came fast Their sushi rice is amazing. They use red vinegar and it’s so good They have a bowl of sushi rice on the “special service “ selection. And they have good selection of non fish items too. Salmon and hamachi, as good as everywhere else Fresh ahi, ika, scallops were exceptional , very good! Ahi mmmm yummy The price of plates differs , but mix and match, it’s around $5 a plate. Unless you only like beef, uni and ikura lol They all said nice “arigatou gozaimashita!” So that was very nice I will definitely come back again!

I really love the food and service here. Never slow to serve us, very friendly, nice and clean, relaxing music, and always top notch sushi/shrimp tempuras to go along with it. Keep up the good work!