Saburo's Sushi House Restaurant

Leave the Kids at Home (small crowded space) & Get there Early (there's a wait)... but ALL worth it! Best Sushi in Portland! more

sushi to die for more

A couple of weeks ago my wife said she wanted to meet me for dinner at this sushi restaurant we hadn't tried but she said her fellow employees had raved about. I went on Citysearch and read the most interesting group of reviews. It seems that it was either the worst in the world or the best. The wait was said to be an hour, the sushi was terrible and the service awful from the downgraders. First, the wait: There is a reason people are willing to wait. This town has never been known as a waiting town, so that should tell you something. The wait worked out because next door is a charming wine bar with a couple of decent microbrews, and you just hop up from time to time to check their list that is posted outside. This restaurant is a hole in the wall. Many of the reviews commented that you had one shot at ordering. It seems that these people thought that with all the people waiting, they should linger, order a little, and then order a little more...get a grip aristocrats...this is not an aristocratic restaurant which you might have noticed when you looked in. What they do have is terrific sushi in HUGE portions for the price. Is it the best in the world? Well no, that would be in Tokyo, or New York(Nobu), but it was fantastic. Not even comparable to most of the sushi places in this town like the conveyor belt joints like Marineapolis. Yes you will probably over order. Unfortunately for us our 17 year old son was around when we got home and he cleaned us out. Darn, no breakfast. We were stuffed and the whole bill with beer was $50 with tip. My son ate for free a full meal. The service was very good and polite, but they do want to accommodate the many people, that are waiting patiently, as possible. If you can't read and mark the wrong things on the menu(think Florida voting) at least in this case you will get a new dish that you will probably like, not George Bush. So if you like great sushi and don't have a broom up there, you will love this place. I have been back twice since then and am going tonight. Four times in two weeks and I live 10 miles away!!!! more

The last few visits to this restaurant made me to decide to write a review. The services were extremely poor. My son ordered a tempora shrimp, but they gave us a tempera shrimp noodle. We told them it was a wrong order, but the server said we marked our order wrong. It's not their problem. But the way, the order system is rediculous, you can easily mark it wrong. Any good restaurant which cares about customer will gladly to give you the right dish that you want to order. The noodle was horrible. We also ordered oysters in half shelves. I never seen the raw oysters was so big and so horrible. For your information, the smallest oysters are better. I really did not want to eat it. Again, they did not care. The Sashime dish was very disappointed as well. It looked it was the leftover trims. When you pointed it out to the server who said that's the way it was. The worse part was we all got very sick the night we went home. I think the health dept needs to inspect their facility because we were sick twice. Just because they gave you a bigger portion doesn't mean they should treat their customers this way. They keep raising their prices. They think their customers love their food so much that they can apply the strangest rules to them, such as you can only order once, so most people tend order more than they should. They only accept one check or one credit card when you pay. Why do they care how the customer pay? It is too inconvenient to them? You want the big portion, do yourself a favor, go the Asian grocery stores where you can buy the sushi grade fish yourself. They are frest and cheaper. To stay in business, most restaurants provide good food and GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE. I wonder how long Saburo will stay in business if they continue treat customers so poorly. I will NOT go there again! more

How in the world did this place get rated so highly? I tried it based on it's high rating on CitySearch and my mouth actually feels assaulted. It smelled funny to begin with and it tasted worse. Old fish, mushy rice and imitation crab should say it all... but if you count artistic display I could go on. The rolls were sliced sloppily and each piece varied greatly in thickness and a couple of the rolls were thicker than my wrist - unable to be picked up with chopsticks. It tasted and smelled so bad I could not eat it. I was reminded that sushi is an art that not everyone can do. DON'T EAT HERE IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT SUSHI!! more

The fish was fresh and the flavor was ok to fair, but personally I think the size of the portions was a downside. When I go out for sushi I like trying as many different kinds of nigiri as I can , and maybe a couple of rolls. But there, after 2 or 3 orders of nigiri and sharing a roll with my friend, I was too full to try anything else and had to take the rest of my food home. Most sushi dishes, like rolls and nigiri, are supposed to be eaten in one bite (one exception being hand rolls of course). Some things just shouldn't be super sized My other problem with this place was, unlike most good sushi restaurants, you can't add anything to your order. You have one shot to order your food and if you do decide you want to add one or 2 more items, they will make sure you know that you are a huge inconvenience to them. I really didn't appreciate this considering I waited 45 minutes to get seated, and another 20-30 to put my order in Yeah I know, this is supposedly normal for that place. But honestly for me, it wasn't worth the wait at all. Sure, it's definitely cheap for the portion sizes, but personally Id much rather spend a little more for better service and be able to have a little more variety. more

Like any good restaurant that doesn't take reservations, pick your time to avoid the crowds. 15 minutes before opening is always our choice, so we get served quickly. Generous portions of quite excellent sushi, sashimi, rolls, specials and noodle dishes. Casual, neighborhood vibe. We love it! more

This place has good sushi and the size of some of the rolls is huge. I tried quite a few of my favorite rolls like Unagi (eel), California, Spicy Tuna - all of them were good. The salmon raw sushi was also good. In general, all of the sushi was decent to pretty good. The vegetable tempura was just okay. Would definitely go there again (only wished it was closer). The downside of the place is the wait - about 45 minutes or more on Friday evening. However, the service is quite fast, the wait is primarily from the place being small (in other ways, cramped). The other thing that I found weird with the place is that you have to get all of your order in one shot - so, we just ended up ordering more than what we consumed and had about 2-3 servings of sushi as to-go (which was the case with many other customers). Street parking is plenty. Pros: Quite cheap and good sushi Cons: Wait time, take only one order more

SABURO's will be closed July 4th to July 7th for Independence Day. Pros: CLOSED DAYS Cons: CLOSED DAYS more

Saburo is a very popular sushi place. With their bigger than life sushi, it's hard not to be the talk of town. Aside from how huge their sushi are, I don't think there's anything special about Saburo. The place is cramped, the wait is horrendous, the service is not superb, and the taste is so-so. Regardless, I would eat at Saburo again, but I wouldn't be the one who suggested it. Pros: Great value! Cons: The wait, the service, and the taste is alright. more

I was first introduced to Saburo?s when I was 14 and started taking Japanese in high school. Our sensei took us on a field trip to Saburo?s. I even remember the first thing I ever had, the yakitori. Pros: the sushi Cons: toro is seasonal, only one location more

I would go here a few times a week if I could! Very good quality, down to earth staff, and huge portions of mouth watering sushi. Worth the wait! Although it would be 5 star without it. Pros: Fresh Sushi, creative menu, huge portions Cons: Sometimes there is a bit of a wait... more

We will be closed on Nov. 24, 2011 observing Thanksgiving and Dec. 24 to Jan. 1st 2011. Have a wonderful Holiday. Pros: Off from work! Cons: No sushi for ten days :(! more

Good quality & large portions. Pros: food quality & quantity Cons: wait lines (part of the charm I guess) more

This place has lost their mind. I've been MANY times and last time I went will be the very last EVER. 1st - Waited for about an hour to get seated 2nd - Could get a refill on my soda 3rd - The creamy scallops tasted off. When I told them they advised the ""the quality is good and they will not take it off my bill"". Who does that? It was definitely off and yet they wouldn't take it off my bill. There are much better options in PDX for sushi than this ego bloated sushi shop. DONT GO ! ! ! Pros: Large Portions Cons: Long Wait, Terrible Service, Iffy Sushi Quality more

We were a table of five on a Friday night. We ordered a bunch of nigris and sushi rolls. First, we were seated in the back room which was in the same spot as the restroom so it smelled like bad bathroom odors. Then, we were served by a bunch of people who kept rushing us to order food and served us water in dirty, cracked platic cups. Once we received the sushi we ordered, we were thoroughly disgusted. It had to be the lowest of the lowest quality of sushi I have ever tasted. There was wayyy too much rice than one needed. The rolls were the width of my wrist. Some people enjoy the fact that they can get large amounts of sushi for really cheap, but this place is scam. They don't even give you sushi grade sashimi. This is like the Costco of sushi....it's exciting to see the quantity for the price, but the quality is subpar! Pros: Large portions for someone with a large apetite Cons: Long wait, too much rice, lowest grade sushi, bad service more

I frequent sushi restaurants often and I always leave Suburo's having had a great experience. Sushi is always good and there is a lot to choose from on the menu. Pros: Always fresh, always tasty Cons: Long wait to get in more

I love to go eat sushi here but I just wish it was bigger. I really have to plan my night to go there because you might wait for awhile but it is worth it. Pros: Huge fresh portions Cons: Long lines more

My GF and I have gone twice now to Saburo's. We do like this place because the food is tasty, it's very affordable, and the portions are enormous. The 1 hour wait isn't even that bad if you're up for putting your name on the list and grabbing a drink at the Lompoc while you wait. Pros: Ridiculously large portions Cons: Wait to be seated (avg 1 hour) more

I love this place. I split 50/50 with my date cause I'm cheap. I never spend over $12 and leave full. The quality is fantastic. The wait is worth it! My only complaint is the Inari is too sweet. There salad is amazing! Pros: quality & quantity Cons: Inari is a bit sweet more