Tokyo Central’s Viral Conveyor Belt Sushi Restaurant Waka Sakura Arrives in Irvine

Edwin Goei
3 days ago
4 min read

REVIEW: The reasonably priced sushi at Waka Sakura is worth the wait, even with a standby list that tests your patience and plating that sometimes feels rushed.

Two Tuna Lovers platters are delivered via conveyor belt at Waka Sakura after placing the order on a tabletop iPad. Photo by Edwin Goei, Culture OC

If you’ve heard about the new conveyor belt sushi spot Waka Sakura in Irvine, you probably also know about the excruciating wait times – which can last up to and including two hours. But if you’ve been to the original Waka Sakura in Gardena, you know this isn’t unusual.

When it debuted last spring, hidden upstairs inside Gardena’s labyrinthine Tokyo Central, Waka Sakura went viral. My own Instagram reel on it pulled in 1.7 million views. The hype was warranted. Though Southern California has plenty of conveyor belt sushi restaurants, there hadn’t been anything quite like this. Eater LA said it “feels plucked right out of Japan.” They weren’t wrong.

For starters, Waka Sakura is not a “revolving” sushi bar. No plates of sushi circulated the room waiting to be grabbed. Every dish must be ordered from the tablets – a hallmark of all modern conveyor belt sushi, revolving or otherwise.

But then there are the conveyor belts themselves. Built into futuristic bookshelves stretching out like jetties from an unseen kitchen, they run on two levels, a top and bottom. And when the plates of sushi rocketed out of the kitchen on these belts, they stopped on a dime at your booth like “Star Wars” spaceships returning from hyperspace.

But most important of all: The fish served atop the nigiri was fresh, generously and expertly sliced, molded on warm sushi rice made from a variety called Hitomebore. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, the menu touts it as “Miyagi’s finest, with a perfect balance of luster, stickiness, and sweetness through exclusive in-house milling.” The red vinegar used to flavor the rice was also special, blended with dashi, and tinted the mounds to the color of rust. And the wasabi? It’s the real stuff from Shizuoka Prefecture, packed in sealed plastic thimbles.

So when Irvine’s Waka Sakura – virtually a carbon copy of the Gardena branch – opened concurrently with the new Tokyo Central supermarket this past July, the crowds came out in droves for the double feature.

The booths and two-tiered conveyer belts at Waka Sakura in Irvine. Photos by Edwin Goei, Culture OC

With it came the wait, because despite all the tech inside, you can’t book a table or join the line remotely; you have to show up in person and type your name into an iPad. And as the minutes turn into hours, your patience is tested when you see that a quarter of the tables seem to be intentionally left empty.

During a visit I made in its first week, it was worse: More than half the tables were left fallow. Why would they do this? It’s definitely not because of front-of-house staffing. Aside from delivering soups and drinks that can’t ride the belts due to sloshing, the servers have very little left to do.

After the second and third visit, I saw that fewer and fewer tables were left unoccupied. But it was also when I noticed a change in the quality. The fish wasn’t cut as thickly as the first time. Some pieces were a little ragged around the edges, and others were carelessly placed on top of the rice the way cheaper conveyor belt places such as Kaisen in Santa Ana are known to do. This was never an issue back in Gardena. So is the quality of the sushi at the Irvine branch inversely proportional to how many tables are in play?

Nevertheless, this is still reasonably priced sushi. The per-piece average is between $2 and $2.50 for the standard bearers of tuna, salmon and scallop. Are the rates higher than at Kura across town? Slightly, but the pieces are also usually slightly bigger. If you’re not hungry, you should expect to pay about $40 per person out the door. If you’re a particularly ravenous baller, budget about $50-$60.

The salmon platter, left, and an array of scallop, tuna and salmon platters at Waka Sakura in Irvine.

Photos by Edwin Goei, Culture OC

Everyone orders the Salmon Party platter: six nigiri, half lightly brûléed and topped with sauce or spicy mayo, the rest left raw with garnishes of shaved onion and ikura. Tuna and scallop have sampler plates of their own. At four pieces each, you save a few cents over ordering them by the pair.

Feeling splurgy? Fatty tuna runs at a premium, culminating in a $10 piece of medium fatty tuna crowned with uni. Feeling thrifty? Two corn mayo gunkanmaki will set you back just $3.49.

If you’re not here for the sushi or sashimi, Waka Sakura’s cooked dishes are done remarkably well. The deep-fried salmon belly is a must – so fresh from the fryer you risk third-degree burns if you don’t blow on it first. In fact, everything fried arrives scalding. The tuna katsu, a hockey puck of breaded ground tuna oozing molten cheese, even comes with a warning sign that proclaims: “I’m so hot.”

The fried oyster is overpriced at $7.99, but the mehikari – three whole finger-length fish thinly covered in batter and served with lemon and tartar sauce for $5.49 – is a rare find and addictive.

PHOTO 1: Waka Sakura's chawanmushi: a delicate steamed egg custard served in an elegant lidded vessel. PHOTO 2: The tuna katsu, a hockey puck of breaded ground tuna oozing molten cheese, comes with a warning sign that proclaims: “I’m so hot.” PHOTO 3: The deep-fried salmon belly is a must – so fresh from the fryer you risk third-degree burns if you don’t blow on it first. PHOTO 4: The mehikari – three whole finger-length fish thinly covered in batter and served with lemon and tartar sauce for $5.49 – is a rare find and addictive. Photos by Edwin Goei, Culture OC

Perhaps the most convincing evidence that Waka Sakura plays on another level than others in the conveyor-belt sushi space is the chawanmushi – a delicate steamed egg custard served in an elegant lidded vessel. It’s the kind of item usually reserved for higher-end sushi bars because it can’t be rushed, requiring patience and time to prepare. But just like Waka Sakura, some things are worth the wait.