I brought food on Friday May 16th wasn't very pleasing, rice mushy sauce too tangy. I asked for extra soft vegetables they never know what you are saying. Ending up with food poisoning 24 hours in ER Throwing up , stomach pain and nausea. The only food I tried to eat that day!! Never again! Hire people who can understand and speak English. read more

Sarku Japan is a chain restaurant that has the best delicious Teriyaki spot in Madison that is extremely underrated, hidden inside the food court of West Towne mall which constantly has never ending lines of people at Sarku Japan which tells you something! :) For mall food court standards, the food is excellent & the food is sizzling hot cooked freshly right in front of you by friendly courteous staff who work on getting the orders out promptly. With the long lines, you might be waiting awhile but definitely worth the wait!! I wish they had something a little bit more environmentally friendly to serve the food in but they often put the food in styrofoam for portability/to go orders. You get extremely large generous portions of delicious well seasoned/flavored Teriyaki meat such as beef, chicken, shrimp made with their famous signature teriyaki sauce that is made in-house that you can also get all together as a meat combo with delicious choice of mixed vegetables such as onion, cabbage, broccoli with rice all under $15 which is worth the value while satisfyingly filling you up! You definitely get your money's worth! My husband loves getting double the meat for a couple dollars extra but soooo worth it! However, lol if you decide to get extra shrimp you really aren't going to get much extra shrimp but honestly that is many places we have been to are like that with the skimpin' on the shrimp! Sarku Japan Teriyaki although nothing super fancy, it truly hits the spot and actually exceeds my expectations with great value & great taste for mall food court food!!! My husband and I love Sarku Japan!!!! read more

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Last two times I went there order was messed up. This time my boyfriend and I both asked for chicken and shrimp one without veggies and than didn't give us shrimp on one of them. I told them as soon as the food was done. She said she charged me for one chicken and shrimp and one chicken but when we were up there she repeated what I said and I confirmed it. Good food just wish they would learn how to listen. read more

For the price and the amount of food you get, Sarku Japan has some solid teriyaki chicken and shrimp combination with mouthwatering teriyaki sauce! This is probably one of the best mall food options available and the food will fill you up. If you're feeling extra hungry, ask for double meat for a few bucks more to get even more chicken or shrimp. My suggestion would be to try out just the teriyaki chicken or do a combination of chicken and shrimp. Keep in mind, the portion for shrimp tends to be on the low end, so you can basically count the number of shrimp in your food container. It does come only in a styrofoam take out container (which is not the most eco-friendly). It usually doesn't take as long if there's a line and they're grilling food for others, otherwise it takes a bit longer if you're the first order of the day. For what it's worth, I'd say it's worth getting once in a while especially if you're hungry before or after shopping at West Towne Mall. read more

Sarku Japan - Stand for Sarku Japan located inside West Towne Mall's food court - Japanese Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

Sign on the counter says 7oz of chicken come in a standard meal. I ordered 4 meals with double meat and couldn't have gotten more than 4oz per meal. Additionally, the workers made a mistake and made 2 of my meals with rice instead of noodles like I requested, so they split one portion of noodles between 2 meals. I found this extremely rude especially because another woman in line got double meat while they were remaking my other 2 orders and her meal was spilling over with meat, easily 2-3x the meat on my "double meat" meals. Portion sizes should not be listed if they are not going to be adhered to. The man with the arm tattoos who scoops the meat consistently shorts the portions and has driven my business elsewhere many times due to this issue. read more

Sarku Japan - Tiny portions of noodles are hardly even visible amongst my "double meat" - Japanese Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

I have never seen this place without a line. The always have the longest line---that should tell you it's the place to grab a meal at the mall. I always get the teriyaki chicken with fried rice. Portions are huge. Made fresh right in front of you. You can customize it if you chose. read more

Best chicken teriyaki in Madison. friendly staffs, Good quality food at affordable price. Come and taste if you are in West Towne mall. read more

Sarku Japan - Sarku Japan West town - Japanese Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

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While this is just a tiny chain-restaurant in the mall, I'm actually quite surprised that there isn't any reviews here. Maybe it's that people thought it didn't deserve a review or maybe it's that everyone's been here. Whatever the case, Sarku Japan offers great value for what you get. As you walk up to get in line for good eats, there's almost always an employee with some chicken samples for you to try. And you should have a sample because that will determine whether it's worth it or not for you since almost everyone gets the Chicken Teriyaki. For roughly $5 ($7 if you get a drink) you can get some delicious Chicken with rice and vegetables and can even upgrade to double meat for $0.99 extra. It's sizzled right in front of you, and the end result is absolutely delicious. Their chicken egg-rolls are quite good too, so make sure to look for specials where it's included. The only drawbacks IMO are the fact that it's in the mall and the limited menu. They have other items besides Chicken Teriyaki, but they're generally not ready-to-go and they don't taste as good. If you can get by these problems, then hopefully you'll enjoy Sarku as much as I do. read more

Food - I had the chicken teriyaki and the "maki", which is just a spring roll. They give you a very very filling portion of rice, veggies, and chicken. Price - Good price for what you get Service - This is in the food court of the West Town Mall, service = over the counter Pros - portion, taste, and just pure deliciousness when you top it off with some of the Chinese hot sauce they offer at the counter Cons - Almost none, only bad thing is that it is pretty greasy Overall - Recommended if you're wanting some good white/fried rice and chicken teriyaki to fill you up for most of the day read more

Yes, I've written pretty much the same reviews at the different locations... I love love love Sarku's teriyaki chicken. I think is the best teriyaki... Anywhere including in Japan lol 昔から大好きです！！日本人の方も是非試してくださいねー read more

This is pretty good food right in the Food Court of West Towne Mall. If you are here shopping around and don't feel like racking your brain for where to go get your next meal, this is it! First up, they offer samples of their teriyaki, one of their specialties. Give it a try, you can always decide if you want to place your order with them afterwards. Chances are you would, because it's freshly stir-fried and warm. Besides chicken, beef, shrimp or a combination of meat and shrimp are all on their menu, together with a couple of appetizers and vege options. It's nice watching your food getting cooked. They make it right in front of you AFTER you order, which means everything is freshly-cooked and hot right off the pan!! It is definitely not common in food courts to say the least, which makes Sarku so wonderful. For the healthy eaters out there, they offer a hefty serving of fresh vegetables to go with your combo, complimentary! read more

Oh, my God. I have no idea if the other reviews are from friends of the owners or if people in this town have no idea what good asian food is. We came in from Chicago and looked on Yelp for a Japanese place (we really were looking for a hibachi restaurant, but none came up.) We believed the great reviews. IT'S IN A MALL FOR A REASON!! It's terrible mall food-court food at it's worst. Granted, we didn't get the teriyaki chicken that other reviewers were raving about, but we DID get the teriyaki shrimp. Meh to the fifth degree. We got it to go, so they dumped a ton of incredibly bland, tasteless fried rice in a styrofoam container. Ontop of that, they dumped the "grilled vegetables." People, this was 95% cabbage - almost all filler. There were two small sprigs of dry brocolli, which was something, I guess. Then came the shrimp. Oy. They were already cooked BABY shrimp, that the "cook" put on the grill to warm up, dumping a ladle of the tasteless teriyaki sauce on it. It's a good thing I asked for some soy sauce, because that plus a bunch of hot sauce I put on it was the only thing that gave any taste whatsoever. Oh, and the "maki roll" is a stale spring roll. Not good at all. Honestly, people. In what world can this be considered good, much less very good or great?! The workers WERE nice, although they were hispanic, which also should've tipped us off... read more

Probably the best teriyaki chicken you'll find in Madison for the price it's at. Compared to the other two options for Asian food at the West Towne mall you'll get the best bang for buck from Sarku. I wouldn't recommend any of their other menu items though, and for some reason I always confuse "Chicken and Shrimp Tempura" for Chicken teryaki and shrimp tempura - which it is not. It's chicken nuggets and 2 small pieces of shrimp. Not recommended. read more

The food is amazing and we love grabbing a quick bite here My son is so picky and he will definitely eat here!

Solid chicken teriyaki. For the record their "daily special" is ALWAYS chicken teriyaki (lol?), or at least every time I've been there (at least 10-20 times). There's always a food sample which is nice since I can satisfy a little sarku craving even without buying a whole chicken teriyaki meal. Double meat chicken teriyaki is basically what I get every time. I have deviated on occasion and tried shrimp teriyaki, but that was slightly bland and definitely not as good. The fact that the chefs make everything fresh adds to the experience for sure. Also it's about as far from authentic japanese as one can get. I don't know why some people think they're getting japanese food from here. The only thing remotely japanese about the entire chicken teriyaki meal is the sauce, which I bet isn't even that genuine. Teriyaki is never actually made with chicken either. It's classic tasty quick mall food that's more American than Japanese, deal with it. read more

I loved it, they gave A LOT of food and a big cup of whatever you wanted to drink. The food doesn't taste as well reheated, so prepare your stomach! read more

I'd eat here everyday if possible. The food is great and the staff are funny and courteous.

This is my absolute favourite place to get food in the food court at the West Towne Mall. The food is perfect and amazing. You will not regret choosing Sarku. You might see someone giving out samples, make sure you give it a try, you will love it. Their is commonly a long line, which sucks but what are you going to do about it. And im not going to lie, its sometimes hard to understand the employees, but they do a good job. But when i have only a few bucks on me i cant grab sarku, since it will run you around $7-9 for a meal. read more

This is my go-to place whenever I visit the mall. It always has a line but you will find it worth the wait. Food is good and staffs are friendly. And it's interesting to watch them prepare your food. read more

This used to be on of my favorite places to eat at the mall. I haven't eaten here for a while thought, and, some time in the past couple of years they decided to use lower quality chicken and I can no longer recommend it. Even when the drop the chicken on the grill, you can see just a meaty mass full of skin and connective tissue instead of chunks of chicken. When the chicken is cooked, you end up with tiny pieces of meat, grilled skin, and sometimes larger pieces consisting of smaller pieces of meat connected with skin - very unpleasant to eat. They also stopped offering chicken samples like they used to do (I believe there are simply wouldn't stay on a stick because of meat quality or it would be a tiny pieces). I also just sampled the chicken from Kato's Cajun (the place next to Sarku), and it's way better than Sarku's chicken. There is also Mandarin Express next to Sarku, and though I haven't sampled the chicken there, the chunks look big. I suggest you to try those places instead , and that's what I will do! Advice to Sarku management: up your meat quality if you want to retain customers. Reintroduce samples if you want to bring back old customers like me and introduce new ones to Sarku. Don't compromise your standards! read more

I barely go to West Towne Mall, but while I was there, I witnessed something very disturbing. The cook, Russell, was having a lengthy conversation with one of his buddies. Here is the disturbing part, the buddy was on the side of the plexiglass speaking over customers food with absolutely NO MASK on his face. I could literally see the droplets of spit flying from his mouth over my open food. If this person was speaking behind the plexiglass, I wouldn't mind the conversation taking place. Even further, if they were at least wearing a face mask as they speak over my food, I may have been unnerved, but I would not have cared as much. BUT, the fact that the person was doing neither, with NO MASK/NO PLEXIGLASS protection and SPIT flying from his mouth into my chicken teriyaki; well, it literally made me nausea. Respectfully, I brought this issue to Russell, suggesting that it's not wise to irresponsibly act in this manner during a pandemic. His response, "Oh, he's my friend. So it is what it is." Excuse me, WHAT?! That's the only response that I received, and nothing more. Very rude, Very unprofessional, and also - VERY Hazardous to customers health! I requested to have my food remade with out anyone breathing/spitting over it. Russell remade it. The female cashier was kind and professional and did apologize for Russell's shortcomings. Everyone who worked at Sarku wore a face mask, I wore one, including the other customer's in line. Hello, this is for a very specific reason. To be safe because it's still a pandemic and believe it or not, people are contracting the virus and dying. Ever heard of the DELTA variant?! All that said, although I believe the buddy was a nice person, and possibly a good friend to Russell, that is besides the point. You can have a conversation with someone but not at the expense of other's safety. I made a complaint with mall management and they stated they would deliver the message to Lisa, the actual manager of Sarku. We will see what happens. I will be happy to give an update at a later time. Meanwhile, smartin' up Sarku staff and to the rest of us who wants to remain safe - don't be afraid to have a voice when you see something unethical/unsafe taking place. Take care and God bless! read more

I eat the chicken teriyaki, substitute the rice with soba noodles, and double meat. Hands down the closest thing to the yakisoba I enjoyed while stationed in Okinawa. Now if they only served an ice cold Orion with it.... read more

it's so weird that this is in the mall, it deserves its own little spot downtown or something. the fact that the veggies and meat are cooked fresh right in front of you is what gives it 5 stars! it's delicious and the portions are generous. for 6 bucks you can leave with a lot of food, enough for the entire day maybe. get chicken teriyaki and springroll with veggies. yum! read more