Sakana Sushi & Asian Bistro

It was great! Casual, nothing fancy, but good food for fair prices. We came on a Saturday night at 7:45 pm and got seated right away — great service too.
Appetizer: Pork gyoza which were great and came with a tasty gyoza sauce. A classic.
Sushi: Sushi Bullet Roll — delicious but huge! Too big to fit in my mouth in one bite. Super good but messy.
Sumo Roll: This was our favorite! The mango salsa added a nice sweetness and the chili oil had excellent zing — it left our lips burning! Would order this again!

We ate here two weeks ago on Halloween and it was perfect. First of all, we were super disappointed that Highland Café was closed early due to Halloween. What a lame excuse and those employees better be at a party and not at home!!! Anyways, we stopped by Half Price Books before heading here. We were seated immediately and given advice on menu choices. I got the Cleveland roll and loved the asparagus crunchiness with tuna, salmon, and eel. My wife got the Godzilla roll with tuna, salmon, and yellow tail which was good too. My personal favorite was my wife’s separate order of unagi sushi. At the end, we were still hungry so got the Thai lettuce wraps. Plus, our waiter got us extra lettuce since we still had some leftover stuffing. Price was decent but then again sushi gets pricey. It could be worse but I thought the price was right.

I would give Zero stars if I could. I loved this restaurant. I looked back and we’ve spent a ton of money with them. The sushi is good and the ingredients are fresh. I am Celiac and they have contaminated my last three orders. The first delivery was comped, thanks after I got sick and after arguing with management. The second one I brought to their attention while we ate in the restaurant and I did not ask for anything in return. The wait staff simply shrugged her shoulders and walked away. This time I ordered gluten free Pad Thai and received a dish with Lo mein noodles and no peanuts, cilantro, or lime. I called and asked for a replacement for the delivery. I suggested they come and get the wrong food and bring the correct order. The management said «you guys keep trying to get free food». I said they could come and get the wrong food and he said NO. HORRIBLE MANAGEMENT who does not take ownership of their mistakes!!!

a quiet place tucked away in highland park. right next to the fames menchie’s froyo. service is always fast and friendly and the restaurant is clean.
the agadashi tofu is awesome here! and the portion is huge!
this place sometimes has a groupon available as well.
I tried all the happy hours rolls and was satisfied with almost all. fresh and flavorful with many of the classic combinations.
the only thing I was not a fan of was the stirfry udon, sauce had a little odd flavor, but was ok.
I will be back again!

Came in here for a light lunch and wanted some kind of tuna salad. I asked my server a few questions about the menu but he was new and unable to answer many of my questions. He didn’t offer to get anyone who could help me or find out for me, so I just selected something and went with it. The salad was good, but pretty small for the price. After I finished, I waited, and waited, and waited, and finally gave my credit card to someone else, as I had to get back to work and my server had disappeared.
I’ll give it another shot, because it was entirely a service issue and he was new.

We like sushi and this sakana has interesting rolls. I loved the seaweed salad. My husband liked the sashimi better than I did. And of course when we splurged for green tea ice cream the meal was complete. A great anniversary night out or any night for that matter.

Sushi good, nothing special. I’d eat there again because it’s close to my house. It’s a little over priced. We we’re the only people there & still waited 15 min to get out bill & close out. Tried the sea urchin I so not recommend that.

Always had good sushi here. Prices are a little bit high in my opinion, but reasonable during happy hour and for lunch. Four stars only since a couple of times had to wait quite sone time for our food, of had confused waiter.

Meh. the service is decent but not awesome. I think they are used to a certain customer base and getting away with more than they are worth because of their location. They are too lazy to take down their happy hour table tops in-​between happy hours (there’s a 2 hour gap or something), and when I mentioned it was confusing, they told me the chalkboard at the entrance should have been indication enough. Rude. I didn’t notice your chalkboard sign. Defensive businesses are just about as attractive as defensive people.

Thank GOD this place took over for the very out-​of-​place KFC that used to occupy the site! This is a much better use of the space and the happy hour is not to miss since you can get two glasses of wine, an appetizer and 2 rolls for about $ 20. There are lots of unique options to choose from on the menu too, but my favorite is the Dancing Dragon roll — it’s the perfect mix of flavors with a little sweet, a little salty, a little sour and a little spice. Sakana is a great little gem in the heart of Highland Park. It’s not too trendy, so you don’t feel like you’re on display or that you have to fend off throngs of hipsters to get in, everything is reasonably priced, and it’s far enough away from Uptown that you won’t have to wait in line for an hour to get seated!

I’ve been looking for a place with tuna/​salmon sushi plate so I won’t have to order by the piece. Enter Sakana and its Tuna or Sushi Love platter. Ohhhh yes, I have found my new favorite thing. It’s 8 pieces of tuna or salmon sushi and one spicy tuna or spicy salmon roll. On one platter! All for me!
Now, listen, I don’t plan to ever have anything else at this restaurant, so my five stars is literally just for that platter, the edamame (it’s hard to mess up edamame, lbr), and the super-​cute bottle of orange soda imported from Japan.
By the way, if you’ve never had a Japanese orange soda, do yourself a favor and get one. Even the Fanta in Japan is amazing, because they actually bother to balance the flavoring and ingredients so it’s nowhere near as cloying and heavy as orange soda is here. Japanese soda is light and refreshing, and I highly recommend it as a general positive life choice. Plus, y’all, the bottle has a marble in it you can annoy the other patrons with, and yes, I’m five, shut up.
My friend had some rolls. I honestly forgot to ask what he thought of his order because I was so happy. He ate it all and didn’t mention any complaints, so they were probably good.
The parking lot signage is weird and confusing, though. Why are the spaces split up between businesses with confusing arrows and signs? Because Highland Park, I guess. Good luck figuring it out. Or just park on the street.

I am writing this in-​restaurant right now. I absolutely love this place. It’s the highest-​quality sushi in the Twin Cities save Fuji-​Ya in Uptown. I’ve been here three times and each time it was delicious. The service can be slow based on number of patrons, but I think this is true of all sushi restaurants. I’ve gotten the Godzilla and King Kong rolls each time and they are expensive but to die for. The ingredients are fresh and high quality and the presentation is amazing. My fried shrimp, eel, and lobster were freshly prepared, which that cannot be said for many other sushi places.
One warning I will leave you with is that sometimes they close early if the customer traffic is slow. It’s best to call ahead if going late. A caveat about calling ahead is that I had to call four times tonight before I actually got a human to answer. Also, they apparently don’t have their voice mail box set up, so you’ll get a message that makes you question the validity of the number. Do not despair, just keep calling.

Amazing sushi. I went there during happy hour, the price is very reasonable. Definitely would visit again.

Went here after a friend suggested it as well as there was a groupon deal. We went here on a Tuesday night and of course during happy hour. Although the groupon isn’t valid on the happy hour menu but the server was nice to split the happy hour stuff and the regular price stuff for us. So we were able to get the Happy Hour price on the appetizers. It looked like a pretty nice sushi place in Highland Village, very mellow relaxed place to go. The happy hour deals were awesome definitely a fan of their calamari but not so much of their chicken satays (wasn’t flavorful and the sauce wasn’t peanuty enough). I got the king kong roll and my goodness it was king kong. It was one of the best half fried roll that I’ve tasted. My bf got their kung pow beef something… it was pretty good there were huge chunks of beef and very fresh veggies. Overall the experience was good and the food was very tasty. The only thing was that the price was a little steep. In my opinion the kung pow, wasn’t worth $ 20. Next time I might just try their hh food instead and see how it goes.

Just the right blend of laid back and class. The sushi itself is well presented and delicious. I tried the smoked salmon sashimi and it was destined for my memory banks from the first bite. The rolls were also above average and I can highly recommend anything with eel. Only mild complaints (and they are minor): overly salted edamame and it seemed like it took a while for the food to arrive. Service was great.

Always excellent sushi. I tend to think its a little over priced, but, it’s very good. We split the Sakana sushi plate and a Winter roll with the calamari as an appetizer. All very good. Fresh, buttery, succulent fish. Tonight, Friday, the place was full, good for them. The wait staff was friendly and helpful, as always. If you can catch a Groupon for this place, it is well worth it. Just remember to tip on the full bill, not the Groupon discount.

Hurray, another great sushi place. I think I’d come here over Raku because of the convenience and demeanor of the staff. Raku’s staff has never been rude to me, but they just seem happier here.
I ordered sushi (I don’t do the weird 100 kinds of fish in a clown car type rolls) and it was very fresh. I ordered yellowtail and they gave me a cut from the belly. Delicious. Another standout was the giant clam they had on special.
I look forward to being back to try some of the happy hour specials.

We usually do take out from Sakana but have dined there several times over the last year. We usually order sushi and some appetizers and the food has been consistently good. The sushi is fresh, well composed, and tasty.
My only complaint is its pricey. For two of us we usually spend $ 50 for takeout, $ 75 when we dine there. The cost limits how often we actually order from them.

We went to Sakana last night for the first time and had an excellent experience. We got there a little before 7 p.m. on a Monday night and the place was pretty empty. That made me a little wary but not too worried. It gradually filled up as the night went on.
The space looks nice inside and the booths are comfortable. Service was prompt and friendly. The food was very good.
Two things made it a 5 star experience
1. We had an excellent server. She was very helpful with recommendations on both drinks and food and really seemed to know the menu inside and out. She even steered me away from one my initial choices which I really appreciated. I think it really says something when a server is willing to say «That’s not my favorite thing on the menu, maybe you should try this instead.»
2. The food. We had gyoza for the appetizer, which was a great version of gyoza but wasn’t unique or anything. The Nigri was good and very fresh (I’m saying ‘fresh’ compared to other MN sushi places). The Maki were amazing. I think often all the different maki taste very similar to each other with only slight variations. We ordered 4 different rolls and they each tasted wonderful and completely different from each other. The Winter Roll was my favorite.
Two things to know:
1. The rolls here are huge. Much larger than I’m used to. I can normally order pretty perfectly and be full without anything leftover. I would definitely have ordered one fewer roll last night if I had known quite how large it was going to be.
2. The prices are a little higher than other sushi places in the Twin Cities. I didn’t find it to be unreasonable and it won’t keep us away, but it was a little on the expensive side. I do think it reflects the higher quality ingredients, the uniqueness of the food and the size of the portions.
Other reviewers have commented on the parking situation, which is surprising to me. For a place in the middle of the city I thought the parking lot was quite large. And there is plenty of street parking available. Many restaurants in St. Paul don’t have much parking at all so don’t let that keep you away.

Some of the best, but most expensive, sushi I’ve had in the twin cities. Even my 5yr old noticed the difference in qualify of their fish — hence my $ 100 «lunch date» with a child half my size who initially claimed he was not hungry.
Bonus points to the sushi chef behind the counter for answering the million questions my son had for him.

I was beyond excited to try this place. I LOVE Japanese food and my tummy has noticed the lack of it since I moved to Minneapolis. So when I was running errands in the area, decided to come here based off the 4 star reviews!
Hm. The service was okay. After asking if I was ready to order (I wasn’t) he disappeared for a while before coming back to take my order. I finished playing a couple rounds of games on my phone and was staring out the window by the time he got it. Now, take this review with a grain of salt, because I took the bento lunch box route, so it might not be the authentic experience. I wanted to know what a chicken in steamed bamboo would be like but the description was basically what the menu said, chicken in a steamed bamboo. So I went the safe route with chicken teriyaki.
However, I did notice that their description of the California roll is crab meat, avocado, cucumber. It is imitation crab. That makes a big difference and restaurants should make sure people know that before ordering especially when they’re not cheap rolls here! I got the chicken teriyaki, which came out like boiled chicken with teriyaki sauce drizzled over it. The garlic sauteed veggies that were under the chicken were VERY tasty though. The vegetable spring rolls were okay, they were fried nicely? The salad tasted a bit too bitter and the veggies didn’t taste all that fresh — it didn’t have that crisp to it that I’m used to.
All in all, it cost $ 15 for lunch (bento box was $ 10.95) which was more than I would’ve liked to have spend on a lunch like that.