Sakura Japanese Cuisine - Urbana

This was our first and last visit. The restaurant was empty on Thursday at lunch time, and we saw why. They also had at least 6 health violations on their November report. The atmosphere was fine, a bit dark, but the service was quite slow considering we were the only table present for our entire visit. The server was scrolling on his phone behind the empty bar.The water served was tepid and tasted odd. My husband got the chicken katsu which was tough and flavorless. He only ate half. I had the sushi combo. The salmon was pretty ok and everything else was not very good. Having a krab stick on a sushi combo tray is a cop out. The tamago was not good and the white fish was poorly cut. It’s hard to mess up a California roll, but it too was a bit too mayonnaisey and had a fridge taste. The wasabi was definitely the cheap horseradish paste and the ginger did not taste very fresh either.In summary, nothing was particularly fresh or of quality to justify the prices. The food aspired to mid.

Excellent place, I'm definitely going back sometime soon. I had the tuna poke bowl.

Awesome spot! Great customer service! A fun place for dinner and drinks. Friendly and helpful staff! A gem in downtown Urbana!

We tried the spicy salmon and the Las Vegas, both were excellent!

One of the best sushi experience we have ever had. We ordered shrimp shumai and chirashi. The shumai was steamed, not fried, which we loved, and it was so flavorful and you could really taste the shrimp. The chrashi was a work of ART. We have seldom seen other sushi chefs that put this much thought and effort into a chirashi. At $25, the chrashi had 14 pieces if sashimi (not including imitation crab and eggs), and also included some salmon roe. Worth every penny!! Our server, Maloban, was also very kind and responsive. One of the best dining experiences in town!!