Restaurant Review - Sachi Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar

Sachi Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar

200 Union St., #106
Westborough MA, 01581

508-366-7771 (No website.)

Another restaurant has opened in the Westborough Food Court known as Bay State Commons.

Sachi Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar (Sachi) is the latest entry, and this review incorporates two visits.

A dinner companion and I happened upon Sachi somewhat by mistake.  We walked to Bay State Common for dinner, not sure where we might go.  We walked past Tavolino, and decided to pass Panera and started on the way to Hisa (outside Bay State Commons and a short stroll away.)  As we were passing Sachi, we decided to give it a try.

Sachi is the third restaurant for Jin Chen, with the other two operating under the name Shinto in Strongsville, Ohio (near the country’s North Coast, Cleveland) and Naperville, Illinois (near Chicago.) 

The $300,000 build out cost (previously covered in Patch) yields an appealing aesthetic.  When entering the restaurant, the rear lobby wall (made up of pennies) is eye catching.  The interior is to the darker side, with highlights of blue and some light wood.

On my first visit, we went with three sushi rolls and some wine:

• Westboro (of course) – Yellowtail, tempura flakes, avocado topped with shrimp, eel, salmon, tuna, tobiko, scallion and wasabi mayo & eel sauce
• Sweetheart – spicy tuna avocado topped with tuna in a heart shape with chili sauce
• Spider – fried soft shell crab, tobiko, kaiware, avocado, and cucumber with wasabi and eel sauce.

The sushi was fabulous…with the Westboro being my favorite (it has a little crunch I like.)

Where the restaurant missed was service.  It took forever to get our wine and sushi rolls, with long gaps between seeing our waiter and not.  Then the bus staff went into high gear, repeatedly offering to clear the table even though we clearly were not finished.

At one point, I asked one of the bus boys if they were out of dishes, and my dinner companion immediately consolidated the sushi to one plate.  Assured they were not, we were amused when another bus boy came by in 30 seconds offering to clear the dinner plates so we could eat off the serving plate.

As we were leaving, my dinner companion got to the door, turned around, smiled and said, “Amber light” with a twinkle in her eye.  I was again in the conundrum of how long do you let a restaurant settle in before doing a review.

The intrepid Gotta-Eat blogger, and I returned for a resampling.  While waiting outside for Bruce a couple walked up and asked if I had tried the place and if it was any good.  “The food is good, they are still perfecting their service.”  Five minutes later, they came back out commenting, “They have 4 people at the counter debating why their menus are different.  They are not ready.”

When Bruce arrived, I gave him fair warning and he was still up for the night.  It turns our neither one of us are fans of the hibachi grill, so we sat down at the sushi bar.

The first thing we noticed was the unfamiliarity of the staff.  Bruce asked for sake, and the menu was consulted for options.  I was curious about the Japanese beer, hoping for a Sapporo, Kirin or an Asahi.  The pause told me a Coors Light would be just fine.  My bottled beer was delivered without a glass, something we both noticed.

The sushi was excellent.  It was enjoyable sitting at the sushi bar watching the rolls be prepared.

What was very odd was the plated dishes were put directly in front of us on a raised platform, forcing the servers to reach around Bruce or I to get their plates.  As we were preparing to leave, Bruce mentioned this to the manager who apologized profusely.  Apparently a side area is supposed to be used.

Bruce agreed with the Amber Light characterization.  In fairness, these visits occurred between the soft opening and the hard opening.  The food is really quite good and enjoyable.  They need to work out some of their service kinks to attain a Green Light.

Hours                          

Monday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Friday, 11 a.m. to 12 a.m.

Sunday, 12 p.m. to 9 p.m

Sachi Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar gets an Amber Light – Use caution. 

About the RAG scale:

       Green Light – Go and enjoy

       Amber Light – Use caution

       Red Light – Save your time and money

The Author

Gary Kelley has lived in Westborough since 1994. His reviews are what he would tell friends, and are not an academic analysis. You can follow him @glkelley or www.garylkelley.com