It's another sushi place on Spring Garden. Sometimes I think Spring Garden should be renamed to Sushi Street.
It's immediately competing with Kiyomizu (higher end, but pricey) and Ichiban Fish (medium and slightly above average in price). Sakura is the cheapest of the 3 and the quality is also comparatively lower imo. It's like the 3 restaurants got together to determine which segment of customers to attract. Across the street is Sushi One which is also in the same league as Sakura, also with AYCE option. All 4 are Korean owned too.
When I think back to all the other AYCE sushi places I tried, Sakura is just so so. There are pros and cons.
Pros:
-Price is on point at $20 + tax/tip on a weekday
-Chicken Katsu was well made. Some places make it with mostly batter and almost no meat. This place has one of the better katsu I've tried in the GTA. I also like how they give you the katsu sauce on the side so you can use as much as you like.
-Tempura is well made. The shrimp they use is slightly larger than what's used at some other places. Crispy but doesn't feel greasy.
Cons:
-Very limited sashimi options. Only salmon, red snapper, surf clams.
-They don't have squid/octopus/mackerel sushi.
-There is something about the rice they used. It felt a little dry.
No other noteworthy points and most of the food was delicious. Sashimi is as fresh as your average AYCE place. Sushi and maki's rice-stuff ratio was good. There is nothing special on the menu that you can't find in other place.
Of course, if you don't get AYCE, you can get various standard Japanese/Korean fare.
Overall if you're not craving high end sushi, or you want AYCE sushi in the Yonge/Sheppard area, this is not a bad choice.