Hana Tsubaki (East Sacramento)

food: 2.5/5

experience: 1/5

overall: 2/5

Hana Tsubaki is little known by those outside East Sac but definitely a neighborhood family favorite. We pass by it all the time. The interior is pretty small so you can eavesdrop on people across the room. Always fun when the conversation dies.

First experience here my mom was raving about how great it was. I was excited to try but was trying to eat healthy at the time so I ordered the sukiyaki with chicken. Little did I know that "with chicken" meant about fifteen nickel-size pieces.

The dish was 30% bean sprout, 30% onion, 20% broth. Not bad in flavor but not too filling. We told the waiter and the owner came by and cooked some more chicken for me free of charge which was nice.

We also got the tuna tataki appetizer.

Decent, a small portion but to be expected. It's just grilled albacore. It has ponzu sauce (soy sauce) on it though so I can't get it anymore.

We came back years later and naturally I wanted my signature chirashi dish. Unfortunately they only give nine pieces of fish in their chirashi (for $23!) so I got the sashimi sampler, which was eight pieces for seventeen bucks. Not much better.

They did give me more than eight pieces (twelve), but damned if these aren't literally the smallest slices of sashimi I've ever seen. The sashimi is fine, though it was not as cold as I'd have liked.

I also wanted to try their sushi but their selection didn't look too appealing. It's a limited menu of very basic rolls. I played it safe with the rainbow roll which is usually good no matter where you get it.

This roll is decent, nothing great. Just a california roll with fish and sauce on top. The actual roll filling is pretty scant. There's a lot of rice and not a whole lot of anything else. Definitely not the best rainbow roll I've had.

The issue with the food here isn't so much the quality as the quantity. For the price tag it's not a very good investment and I definitely left unsatisfied. It sure isn't cheap here. It is Japanese food after all, and it's East Sac.

Service is not too great. We asked for lemon in our water; never received it. All my food was brought out first while my mom waited for hers. When I asked if hers was coming soon, the owner (I think) rudely said "yeah" and turned away. Parking situation could be better since it's always packed, I guess because it's a neighborhood favorite. Just one of those joints people latch onto in spite of how mediocre the food is.

Done with this place.