Sapporo Sushi

Japanese food is my favorite food, so I have been to numerous Japanese sushi bars when I used to live in LA and SF. When I moved to CLE, I could not find a place that was as good as sushi bars in Cali until I found Sapporo.
Sapporo is a hidden gem. I was introduced to Sapporo by my friend. From the outside appearance, I did not have a high expectation. It is not definitely fancy type of restaurant. But, it has a cozy environment, where you can quietly enjoy your meal (the atmosphere is actually similar to typical sushi bar in Japan).
Dragon Rolls and Rainbow rolls are the best I have had. Perfectly cooked sushi rice and a perfect proportion of rice and fish. The unagi on top of Dragon rolls are huge, and every sushi and roll has very generous amount of fish and ingredients. The owner/​chef may seem aloof, but he is very generous at heart. You will understand this when you order food from this. The roll and sushi are definitely different from 5 different well-​known sushi places in Cleveland area. Also, This place does not use all kinds of sauces that dominate the taste of rolls. Overall, the price is a little lower than other sushi places.
The owner’s wife told us that they just started to serve udon (Japanese noodle soup), which is another exciting news.

Here are the main points about Sapporo sushi:
— For the sushi, the chefs lay the fish on thick. They definitely are generous with the fish!
— Complimentary barley tea shall be given
— Sometimes*, they’re a bit slow with the service, and they’re not especially cheaply priced, but.
— so much fish. Nice, thick cuts of fish.
Overall, I like this place! I work in the area, so I typically go here for lunch.
*like, 10% of the time

Walked in at noon for takeout. They were really friendly and only took about 10 minutes for fresh and delicious sushi to go!

Excellent and very fresh. Mango Tuna Roll out of this world. Also ordered the spicy tuna spicy salmon, just the right spicy hot

CLEVELAND, OH: Had a great lunch at Sapporo. A client brought me here for a lunch meeting and the wait wasn’t bad (many reviewers had commented about this), but we came at 11:30 and beat the rush.
I don’t remember the names of the rolls we got, there were several. All were generously prepared, fresh and flavorful. The service was friendly as well. Would definitely return.

Owners are Korean couple. Their sushi are westernized but tasty. All the rolls are big! Recommend their pink salmon and rainbows rolls

Unless you have more than 2 hours for lunch, DO NO EAT HERE! I can’t comment on the sushi since we never got our food after waiting 45 min past the time we put our order in. About 4 take out orders came in after we ordered. they were given priority while we had to wait. When we told the lady behind the counter we’re leaving, she waved us off very unapologetically. Not sure how this place stays in business with such lousy customer service.

This is a great little place. I have never eat there, always have done take out. They have good sushi at a good price. I wish that they had better hours.

This is some of my favorite sushi ever — and I absolutely love the sweet lady who runs the place during lunch. I agree with some of the other reviews that it definitely takes a little longer to get your order than the average place, but the food has always been absolutely delicious. So by the time you eat your delicious sushi and maki rolls, the long wait is already forgotten.
My favorite item is probably the kane-​su: a riceless cucumber and crab roll with sweet vinegar drizzled on top. Yum!

Remember how your parents told you not to judge a book by its cover? Well, I hope you listened to them because lately, I have found that the not so fancy looking places have much better food than the fine dining restaurants. Sapporo Sushi is my recent example. It is a popular place for 9 – 5’ers downtown near E.6^th or E.9^th especially during lunch. You do have to wait awhile for the fresh and delicious sushi, but it is worth the wait! I always order the same thing: Kani Su (Great for people on a low carb diet contains no rice and it is beautifully presented), Spicy Tuna Roll (not too heavy on the spicy mayo like the grocery stores, meaning there is no icky old fish to hide everything is really fresh), and the Hamachi Roll (yellowtail done right!). Prices are very decent considering the ingredients. This is my go-​to spot for Sushi when I don’t feel like travelling too far from work especially when it is freezing cold outside.

This is definitely a hole in the wall sushi, but I love it! It’s cheap, good and fresh. I wish it would open later. There is only 1 guy making sushi there, so you have to be patient! I think its the best «fresh» sushi in town, I don’t think fried sushi is real sushi. Anything fried can be good, and he makes the real «raw» sushi pretty good, if thats what you like.

I have to agree with a few other reviews here. Sushi isn’t too bad. Seems like a family run place, which is probably the root of the only real problem I had. SLOOOOOOOW. Mom handles the phones and the floor, dad’s in back making the food. No sense of urgency, that’s for sure. I ordered takeout and was told it would be ready in 45 min. Ok, that’s pretty long, but no biggie. I can leave my office at any time. I get there and spend another 20 minutes standing there waiting for my rolls to be made. There were 3 tables seated at the time! They need to walk down the street to Sushi 86 to see a few chefs flying through orders under a crush!
Beyond the wait, the food was actually pretty good. Everything was fresh and flavorful, which is really all I’m looking for in a sushi place. Give me fresh over some wacky combination of ingredients any time.

Ok, have only been to this place once, but immediately after I ate the first spicy salmon maki I recognized that it was the best sushi I’ve had in Cleve easily. Only place that comes anywhere near it is Pacific East on Coventry.
It’s awesome to be able to watch the chef prepare the sushi at the bar. Salmon was fresh and fatty. PERFECT amount of rice (WHY do sushi places overdo the rice GAH!).
Anyway, the place IS tiny as others have posted (likely with slow service during peak lunch hours), but I’m not docking stars for that. you take what you can get in Cleve. I went for dinner and there was only one other customer there so no issues with order speed.
Prices are VERY reasonable for the quality.

Good sushi but soo slow. I do think that it’s not just this place it’s anywhere you go for sushi for lunch tends to be slow because they have a lot of people ordered sushi to go or for delivery. While we were there for about an hour there was a steady stream of people coming in and getting orders that they had called in. But the sushi was good and the edamame delicious.

Ok I went here with a couple co-​workers this week; first time out to lunch with them. The best part of the meal was the company, I work with great people and we always have a laugh or two.
As for Sapporo’s nice little family owned place. The dining room is small but service was pretty quick. Nice Lady took our order and brought my soup right away. The soup was ok but nothing I would dance on the table about (they are probably happy as a result that the soup is not AMAZING) LOL…
Such was just ok. It was not bad but not great. Leaving after 28.00 for lunch (had a Spider Maki although I think they just call it softshell there, and a crab salad roll with unagi (forgot what they call this roll).
Both rolls were plenty big for lunch but plenty small for the price. The Softshell had been frozen vs. Otani (East Side /​Mayfield Hts) made fresh to order and flash pan friend.
At the end of the day would I go back? Maybe if I were with a group that wanted to I probably would however I would opt for another place like Sushi rock (which is not the best but far better option) or another food type all together.
I will admit that I eat sushi on a fairly regular basis and I have become a bit of a sushi snob.
End thoughts… Its ok. Not bad not great… but ok. Place is clean and I trust the sushi (freshness /​handling).

Making it easy for you to decide:
The Good:
–Sushi is really really good, Avg price, sometimes surprise bonus rolls in bento boxes.
The Bad:
–place is small, but can usually find a seat.
The Ugly:
–The wait is painstakingly long. You sit… and wait… and then you oddly start dipping your chopsticks in soy sauce and licking them in hopes for something to tie you over til you get your food. (And don’t say this is unique to me… I’ve seen many people do it!) So finally after watching everyone’s face who is has been waiting, get madder and madder, you finally get your food. You scarf it down and its good. You are full. But you probably didn’t get your water refilled so you are really thirsty. But for some flippin’ reason you keep coming back for more.
And don’t you dare think you are getting carry-​out faster and on time. You will patiently wait the hour they tell you to wait to come get it… then you arrive and wait 30 more minutes standing because they never actually made the food ahead of time.
So it is odd that I am giving 3 stars, because I am BIG on service. Bad service can RUIN an excellent restaurant. But in this case, good food can somehow overshadow the longest wait ever and keep me coming back for more. Just make sure you have a 1 ½ hour lunch break! :)

I thought this place was just okay. Service is definitely not fast — when the restaurant gets slammed with a lunchtime rush it can take a while for orders to get filled.
In the end, the sushi itself is not really much to write home about — certainly not worth a long wait, as it’s not the best I’ve had in Cleveland. I think a big part of the problem is there’s one dude making the sushi and a lunch rush is just a bit too much for one person to handle.

Great place for sushi downtown. As other reviewers mentioned, the place is postage-​stamp tiny, but i can always take it back to the office or to the library reading garden in nice weather. Lunches are usually crowded, but I get around that by calling before noon and picking it up. The chef’s a little on the slow side, but I like his attention to detail.
They have a great variety of maki, hand rolls, and some big rolls with all sorts of fancy stuff. Everything I’ve tried is fresh and tasty. I’m partial to the Alaska maki, which comes with generous portions of salmon and avocado. I always get the seaweed salad, too. It’s pricey, but I’m not about to go out and harvest my own seaweed, so I’ll happily pay someone to make it for me. Great complement to the sushi.

I think this is some of the best sushi in Northeast Ohio. It looks beautiful and tastes delicious. I feel some places have sushi that is too small or use too much rice as filler, but not here. They’re also open until 7pm or so during the week so you can eat in or get something to go after work.
The atmosphere is nothing to speak of. No alcohol. But you can watch them make your sushi at the sushi bar.
Service can be slow when they’re busy. (Fridays at lunch) I’ve only seen two people working there at one time — one serves while one makes the sushi. And the guy who makes the sushi is very slow and meticulous. But the wait is worth it!

We called ahead and got an order to go. A female in the office has been here before and raved about it. Took a later lunch as she said its packed around lunchtime. While we walked in this awful Cleveland weather there doesnt seem to be any parking as it’s on a side street by a bar called Moriarties Pub. Unless you walk for lunch… no way you are driving here. This place is TINY inside… according to another person whos been here before, you have to walk through the kitchen to get to the bathroom… Very very small dining room. We didnt eat here and I dont think I would want to. A little too cozy for mebroom closet cozy… I will say the food was very very good… the weather helped keep the sushi cold for the walk back