My girlfriend our daughter and I just got back from the Restaurant and we almost didn’t go because my girlfriend had seen the bad reviews. We went along anyway and i admit it was quite quiet. We were served quickly and the staff were helpful. We did get different menus because we had a voucher, but we looked in the other menus and they were pretty much the same but just had a few things changed.

It was clear that there were some staff there who spoke very little English, and some staff spoke very good English, so picking the correct staff member to grab the attention of was very important.

The food pretty much arrived at the same time course by course and there was not a long wait. The food was so delicious, both my girlfriend and i wanted some bread to soak up the sauce. My girlfriend had the Teriyaki Fish of the Day and i had sizzling scallops. Our 13 yr old Daughter who was with us had Teriyaki chicken which she also enjoyed and made her so full she had to stretch out in the back of the car on the way home.

Both my girlfriend an i left feeling like we could have eaten a little more (partly because it was so delicious) but then on the way home realised that we were both quite full.

The decor and atmosphere of the place was great, really relaxed and it also had an outdoor area with wooden benches where you could eat. It had surf theme throughout, yet fairly understated and not tacky, and it worked really well.

The main reason i wrote this review is because i don’t think people should be put off by all the bad reviews. We nearly were and then ended up having a great meal there. We will be going back again.

A huge disappointment. My boyfriend and I were looking forward to a great dining experience instead we got; stupid wattresses, microscopic portions, below average cuisine and bloody hell, it was just shit!

We were seated and waited for 15 minutes just for the menu (which we had to request). asked for glasses of water and didn’t get served until 15 minutes later. spent most of the night waiting and only 5 minutes eating as there wasn’t much to eat. The katsu don was soaked in soy sauce right through all the rice, it was so salty i could barely finish it.

I eat a lot of japanese food and I’m convinced at can get better food in mall foodcourts. I still feel ripped off even though we used the grabone voucher.

never, ever go there

Never again… If you want to go here like my family and I, my wine glass was not clean at all. Out of 5 of us one of us received their entree and then main. all the rest of us 4 had to wait till she had finished… 2 of us got mains, and 2 of us got our entrees .. my husband got his entree after we had all finished and he finished his main.. OMG never again. The only reason we stayed was I had pre paid the group on voucher. I told my family to leave as I am now going to complain I was extremely upset. We went as a family to eat as one and not one of us sat down to eat together our meals. The male waiter was such a rude … I said I have paid for all 4 adults as for my grandson $15 meal I do not want to pay and told him why… He said how long does it take you to earn $80 ( that is what he lost when he went on group on) I thought that was very personal and I should of replied with * are you legally aloud in NZ… but I didn’t as didn’t want to lower myself to his standards. I said take my $15 since you need it that much but I will be telling everyone about you and the place you work… oh yes when I phoned to make the booking I advised them that i had the group on voucher, my son etc arrived first was given a menu, I arrived and gave my voucher then was asked to return the menu for another one! mmm the meals were so small we had to eat after leaving… you go to this place do not say I didn’t warn you!

This place is just around the corner of my workplace but I have never been there until I got a deal from GrabOne.

So I went there with 2 other people for dinner in August. Service was slow and parking wasn’t easy. I did manage to get a customer carpark at the back of the builidng, only becuase I walk past it every day and already knew that it exists.

One of us ordered a dinner box. Which came without the miso and sushi until we reminded the waitress. The other ordered a eel set special, which was average and more Chinese than Japanese. I ordered a takowasa chazuke and dynamite sushi. The chazuke was very tiny in portion for its price and tasted bland. The dynamite sushi was a rip off.

Two of us went home hungry. It was a rather unpleasant experience.

I had a grabone voucher to use before it expired and almost didn’t bother going here because of the terrible reviews. However, it seemed a waste not to use it so we went last night. I have to say that I was very surprised but happy because my experience was NOT bad at all. In fact, I left full and happy and will be going back again.

We were seated at the bar because the restaurant was full, this was really cool because we could watch the sushi chef making the sushi to order right in front of us.

We ordered the spider roll sushi (soft shell crab), the edamame beans, the grilled sizzling beef and teriyaki chicken udon soup. Seriously, they were all delicious. My boyfriend asked for a spoon so that he could finish off the sizzling sauce that came with the grilled beef. We were given 5 pieces of sushi and they were fresh and tasty. I have eaten at a lot of Japanese restaurants, this was nice.

Asahi on tap was an added bonus.

I’m really glad that I gave Sakanaya a try so that I could see for myself, in my opinion the negative reviews are not justified.

Absolute rip off.

We ordered the Chirashi don. It was $18.50 or $19.50, can’t remember exactly, but it was around there. It comes in a medium sized bowl and there was about half a bowl of rice in there in a shape of a ball, Sashimi pieces (about 5 pieces) were thin an flimsy with side bits of fish, a few shredded bits. It barely filled me up. Not impressed. The chirashi don at Narita is about $16.50 and it comes in a big bowl of rice with lots of decent sized slices of sashimi.

Beef tataki – was not bad, but a few slices were frozen.

Yum Yum sauce with Scallops. There were about 6 scallops, decent sized. But they were dry,and there was no yum yum sauce taste, it looked and tasted like what stir fried scallops would be like at a chinese restaurant. Scallops were immersed in oil on a hot plate with ginger and chives. $24.50.

Rolled sushi. Pieces looked like they were home made. Two pieces of sushi with salmon and sashimi had bones in them.

Green Tea which tasted like boiling water was charged $2 a cup.

Need I say more?

Please don’t go here. Even if you have a voucher. (by the way we paid full price) I love japanese food and I hardly ever write reviews. But this place is just appalling. Bad quality food and small portions.

Disgusting.

I think the last couple of reviews are very accurate, this place it not good. Poor flavours, poor presentation, poor knife skills. All and all you’re better with a heat and eat microwave meal from countdown.

I was not surprised to see “one-*” comments here added recently.
I used a GrabOne voucher. There were 3 of us – and one voucher was just funny, but a waiter told – just one voucher for 3 persons…

Food was not bad but was not either outstanding definitely. Average, very average. Portions – VERY small. Paying over $60 for food (I do not count any alcohol) and left a restaurant hungry – this is ridiculous. And there was a feeling I was ripped off, don’t know why

I give two stars because I have seen worse places

I went to this restaurant on the 29th May to celebrate my mum’s birthday and thought that was a good Japanese Restaurant. However we were all very disappointed with the services and the foods! There was no parking on road-side and they said that there was parking behind the restaurant but it was all full. We got seated but had to wait for more thank 10mins just to get the menu and we had to go up and ask the waiter ourself! Food was way over priced and it was not even nice. I order a pack of teriyaki and avocado sushi but the rice was very sticky and wet which tasted disgusting. However my boyfriend’s katsu was eatable but still has a lot of fat on the chicken (unlike other places I’ve tried which is lean and crispy). We asked for water instead of other drinks but we did not get served that until we were about to leave!!! Overall, we had to pay about $50 extra which is very disapointing considering I purchased 4xGrabone vouchers (total valued $105). Never ever going back there again…our party ended up getting other food on our way home.

Sakanaya certainly gives a bad name to GrabOne, not to mention all Japanese restaurants! My husband and I had the misfortune of buying a couple of GrabOne vouchers to be used in this restaurant. As soon as we were seated, we were asked if we had a voucher. We noticed that we were probably the only ones being asked although there were at least 3 or 4 other parties at the restaurant. We wondered if the food served will be different if we were using the voucher vs those paying the full menu prices. Anyway, I ordered a sashimi bento & my husband ordered a chicken katsu set. Both portions were miserably small…not enough even for a small eater like myself! The few measly pieces of sashimi I had appeared to be more like off-cuts of a fish…certainly do not qualify as sashimi, & they are not fresh! The chicken katsu tasted a little better but it was no other than a piece of thin crumbed chicken schnitzel, not the usual thicker & juicy piece of meat used for katsu. All in all, it is a rip-off even at Grabone price. Certainly not looking forward to using our second voucher in this restaurant. Urgh!!

Was meant to celebrate a birthday here but everyone went home hungry. We spent $167 including Grab One vouchers for six people and did not order entrees – the mains were entree sized though. Very dissatisfied and felt cheated.

Worst experience with a deal voucher – the portions were tiny and the prices were too high for a casual beach-style restaurant. We ordered four bowls of rice (each containing about 5 spoonfuls and each costing $2.50), four dishes and two bowls of udon soup for 6 people but ended up needing another bowl of rice and another dish. The waitress got our order wrong and insisted that we ordered two teppanyaki chicken dishes and also insisted that we buy drinks with our voucher (although it was not stipulated in the terms of the voucher). The quality of the food was below average – the beef in the udon soup was too rare for our liking so we asked for it to be cooked again but it ended up being terribly overcooked and spilt as if it was microwaved. Overall a bad experience and the restaurant has been poorly promoted.

The food was way too overpriced. With very small portions. We had a Grabone Voucher so we did’nt have to pay as much but if we did’nt have the voucher the total would have been $140 for 4 meals. The staff were friendly but the service was slow.

Don’t waste your money here we had the worst experience ever in Japanese restaurant in Auckland.
My husband and I went there with the Grab one coupon. We didn’t make reservation because it is in mid week and we were there at the opening hour of 5:30pm. Upon arrival we were told that the opening hour is 6:00 (well the Grab one coupon and the restaurant website says 5:30) and we had to wait for 30minutes to place an order. There were 6parties, all had the grab one coupon, before 6:00. We didn’t want to wait longer for our dinner to be served so we decided to have light meal and quickly ordered Tekka Don (Tuna on bowl of rice) and Chirashi Don (mixed sashimi on bowl of rice). Well, our order came and we were astonished! Only 4pieces of thinly thinly sliced sashimi on very small portion of rice you can eat in three mouthfull!! We ate in 1minute and left the restaurant to go dine at another restaurant.
We never had such poor presentation of Japanese food in Auckland and we, as Japanese, were very sad and ashamed. Please don’t evaluate Japanese food by the standard of this restaurant because it is much lower than cheap take away sushi pack.
Please avoid this restaurant if you want to eat decent Japanese food. You can eat delicious Sashimi/Suchi at other Japanese restaurants in Auckland with quality food and service without your disappointment.

Tiny, over-priced portions. I paid 16.50 for a minute bowl of tuna on salmon on rice.

My partner, who ordered spider roll sushi, was given spicy tuna sushi by mistake. After she pointed this out the confused server eventually conceded and took it to the correct table. 30 minutes later (on a fairly unbusy night), she bought the correct (limp, devoid of filling) sushi.

10 minutes later, my partner (who is Japanese) overheard the staff saying they had taken her tofu to the wrong table! 15 minutes later they finally brought our tofu. Along with my tiny, over-priced bowl of tuna on salmon on rice.

At the end of the meal, WE (not the staff) said “thank you”. Terrible service, meagre, overpriced portions. Never again.

Had some variation of services on different occasions (language barrier with waitress once), Sakanaya is a consistently good Japanese restaurant with a seafood focus (& a surf theme). Fair price and dessert was great also.

Sakanaya is larger than it looks from the street, and has a few interesting menu choices and specials.

Their portion sizes are generous, and the quality is great.

The Japanese/ surf theme of the restaurant means that seafood is a specialty there.

A nice change from the Queen Street alternatives, and you can use their customer car park out the back (great news on busy Symonds Street!)