Sakerum

New review in 2020: I’m so sad Sakerum is closed. It is my favorite Japanese restaurant, even though there are several more expensive ones. Can anyone tell me where the owner/chef goes? Will they still be in the DMV area. Hope they open another restaurant and keep some of the most popular dishes. 🙏 Review from 2019. So tasty!! My after work pleasure place.

Poor management, pricy food. The atmosphere is completely different than the photos they have online, downstairs looks like a gentlemen’s club with the dark dim lights and cheap furniture. Upstairs has a fan, AC doesn’t work. Expensive food that comes on broken plates, and has flies on them. You don’t leave full or fullfilled here, you leave angry if you know what good food is like. Such a cheap management, please check the photos that I posted, any sushi place is better than this.

Sakerum is a Japanese restaurant that specializes in izakaya and sushi. The dimmed lighting made the environment more intimate. The walls by the entrance were black with a colorful, floral handpainted mural. After checking in with the hostess, we were seated at a four top by the entrance. Our server fixed the issue with our wobbly tables. Since they didn't have hot sake, we shared a bottle of Kikusui Perfect Snow Unfiltered Sake. In addition to cold sake, I got a hot tea, which was a Stash Decaf Earl Grey with Honey. For hot dishes, we ordered Yakitori, Teriyaki Glazed Chicken Skewers, Sliced Grilled Short Ribs, and Brussels Sprouts. We couldn't really tell the difference between Yakitori and Teriyaki Glazed Chicken due to the similar flavors. I liked how the meat was tender and quite flavorful. The Sliced Grilled Short Ribs were sliced, placed onto of sushi rice, and finished with a chimichurri salsa drizzle. I liked the way the short ribs were presented but wish the meat was more rare. The Brussel Sprouts were sauteed with red onion, garlic, and lime in a sweet and savory brown sauce. For the cold dishes, we shared Chirashi. The dish consisted of a bowl of sushi rice topped with diced salmon, tuna, and yellowtail, uni, ikura, quail egg, seaweed salad, fresh wasabi, and pickled ginger. I liked the chef's selection of fish and how fresh the fish was. For rolls, we shared the Osaka Kanikama Roll, California Roll, Yellowtail and Scallion Roll, and Kumo Roll. The Osaka Kanikama Roll consisted of shrimp tempura and avocado, topped with cucumber, crab, scallions, rice cracker, tobiko, unagi sauce, and kewpie aioli. It was delicious. The California Roll consisted of crab, avocado, and cucumber wrapped in seaweed and sushi rice, and finished with sesame seeds. It was classic and good. The Yellowtail and Scallion Roll consisted of yellowtail and scallion wrapped in sushi rice and seaweed. The Kumo Roll consisted of fried soft shell crab, micro green, seaweed salad, and avocado, wrapped in sushi rice and seaweed, dusted with ichimi pepper, and served in goma creamy sesame dressing, unagi sauce and spicy sauce. Before ordering the Kumo Roll, we asked the server if it was spicy and he said no. When we received it, one of us tried it and thought it was way too spicy for us. We brought it up to our server and asked if we could get it remade without the spicy ingredients. The remade version was much better but I didn't understand why shichimi torgarashi was still sprinkled on it.

Wow. Found this on a Yelp hunt for sushi open past 10pm. Modern decor and delicious sushi! Blaine was a gracious and friendly server and gave us all the info on what's coming soon. Will be back for happy hour. Try the Osaka roll! 6/27 update - visit 2 was a no go. Happy hour on Wednesday had a full bar on both floors and we couldn't be seated at a high top because we were a party of two. They require a minimum of three people for high tops during happy hour I'm told. Seriously?! Do they think we're going to spend a minimal amount, so it's pointless to get any money from the two of us? Not to sound like a prick, but we spend a good amount on sake and sushi regardless if it's happy hour or not. The sushi I wanted isn't even on HH; just wanted a drink special with my not discounted dinner, so your arbitrary rule lost you two customers that night. Also none of the high tops were taken, so it's not like space was an issue. Ended up at the taco place next door. Way to go.

The good: tostones are amazing. Great portion of guac. The bad: overly zealous bus staff bussing food before finished. Under cooked and poorly prepared Brussels sprouts. Flavor across dishes was lacking... Expecting greatness came up majority disappointed.

[2018] Update: The sushi at this place still holds up, and it's hot spot for a great dinner date. But, after intensely going through many, many restaurants in DC, I took off a star because 5 star should be reserved for the elite (Taro, Mini, Kobo). I still very much like this restaurant for its swanky-champagne-sip-blazer atmosphere and great sushi though. [2017] Pros: what might be the best quality sushi in all of DC, you can not go wrong with perfect pieces of nigiri sushi. Half price sake Sundays, and good appetizers only add to the deliciousness. Friendly service also deserves a nod. [2017] Cons: with such high quality sushi, expect a price point to match. Dim hip lighting isn't the standard when it comes to the normally zen practice of perfect sushi eating. [2017] Bottom line: if you are not going to the chef's table at sushi taro, you should be coming here for sushi.

Amazing atmosphere and attentive staff. The sushi however was a bit of a miss. The wasabe was dried out making it impossible to handle. The Toro and "quick seared/smoked" salmon were amazing though and for me saved an otherwise underwhelming food experience. We will give it another try and check out the upstairs because it has a great vibe.

Sakerum has a great ambience and food that's just as great. We felt very welcome and looked after. Its a great place for dinner!

This place was beautiful , they really did a nice job creating an aesthetic that feels very Greek. It was odd walking through Sakerum to get there and I think that will be an important thing for them to get right: if people don't know how to get there, they won't come. I also think there needs to be a bit of reassessing of the price points on the menu. $7 for a few olives(see pic) is odd at HH. We ordered the rose which was yummy, and the HH red which was a steal at $7 considering it's $17 on the actual menu. We also ordered the Greek fries, which were pretty starchy but redeemed by the feta and seasoning. The sampler had pita, halloumi, some spreads cheese and meatballs and while all were presented well, nothing stood out as phenomenal. All in all, if they can up the food tastes, edit pricing and market better, they may be ok. But in DC, I think one needs to be more than ok. ‍

We're glass half full people and when we heard about Semeli, our expectations were high...Sakerum is our go to happy hour...Wet Dog is our constant Saturday plan. But return to Semeli? Eek! Methinks not. 7:00 PM: The confusion began when our Uber stopped outside of Sakerum. We stood in the rain while attempting to call the restaurant for better direction. Disheartened to find out Semeli had overrun the beloved Sakerum happy hour rooftop, we trudged in from the rain. 7:15 PM: We sat down - the ambiance was beautiful, only slightly changed from the old Sakerum...fake white flowers hanging everywhere..in the dead of winter. We began to accept the change and settle in, expecting (based off their instagram) a nice & delicious spread of greek cuisine of our choice. Fake news! 7:45 PM: We unknowingly signed up for a 14 course meal at the hefty price of $40 per person...excluding the wine! Whoever can eat 14 courses needs to be featured in the Guinness Book of World Records. Stunned, we tried to inquire our options to cut back on the courses - our waiter, who did not introduce himself, we'll call him Kostas. Please see the below for a list of our issues with Kostas. 1. Did not introduce himself. 2. Insisted the existence of directional signage, questioning our 20/20 vision that saw no such thing. 3. (And I personally found this insulting) He didn't let me taste the wine before pouring an un-tastefully large glass. 4. Instead of ordering 28 plates of food, we felt inclined to explore our options. Kostas was having none of it. "The 14 courses, you will each have!" 5. Then there was neglect. We never interacted with Kostas again until 3 hours later upon arrival of the check. 10:15 PM: Honestly, with 14 courses you'd expect to have a fresh plate at some point. Nope! I asked twice and did not receive. What did we consume in those three hours? We wish we knew.. "Here is Soup!" *Another mystery man places soup in front of confused restaurant patron* At the end of this marathon, we left completely round, our tongues numb from sodium. The only MVP besides the wine from this meal was the (we think) garlic butter (far right on the hummus trio). I'm taking my business and appetite to George's King of Falafel. xo

The ambiance was bizarre, like an empty night club. The wine list didn't exist, instead the waitress recited a list of varietals without prices. A bottle of Sauvignon blanc turned out to be 70 (!) dollars. We opted not to get the tasting menu, but got the dips trio, one of which tasted like flavored mayo. Yikes.

The services and food here was amazing I would highly recommend it. Great service and prompt food delivery.

Great authentic greek food! An amazing deal for a tasting menu of 14 plates just for $39 per person! Not many places in dc carry greek wine and here there are several to choose from! Will definitely reeccomend to all my friends who like greek food.

Really awful -- it was a poor quality fast food like experience masquerading as a 14-course tasting menu. Cheap items. The waitress was clueless. Probably the worst Greek restaurant ever.

Contrary to every review on here, you can order the plates separate from the prefix menu. And it is SO good. Legit everything is delicious. They are under staffed but they just opened. If people can't be kind about that in month 1 for a new place there is likely other things in life they are taking too seriously as well. Food was still fast too just felt poorly for everyone including the owner! But I also know how costly restaurants especially of this size can be vs employees. So glad something new is open on 14th! Thank you for everyone's hard work here!! We will be back.

We made a reservation for 6, and when we arrived at 7:30, we we're informed that the restaurant was closed. I have never had this experience in my entire life! No call, text, etc. just simply said "the manager decided 30 minutes ago that we will not be opening tonight." I will never return.

Run, do not walk away from this place. I would leave a review for the food, but that would require me actually receiving food. I made a reservation for 2 on a Friday at 8 PM and upon arriving on time the hostess politely told us that they were having problems with their reservation system and asked if we could wait 15 minutes. No problem. We decided to get a drink downstairs at Sakerum's bar. My wife ordered one of the drinks on the cocktail list, but they informed her that they were out of fig to make the drink. Instead she asked if they could make a Manhattan. They responded they did not know how to. Seriously? At this point, it was 30 minutes since we arrived and our table for Semeli was ready. We proceeded upstairs and they put us in a back corner around some other empty tables. Nobody greeted us or even served us water. Finally, after about 15 minutes we flagged down a waiter and when he arrived he seemed out of it and just stood there not saying anything. We asked if we could order food to which he mumbled something incoherent. After repeatedly asking him to repeat himself, he said that the kitchen was slammed and that it will be at least another 20 minutes before food orders could be placed. They had to clear the other tables ahead of us before serving us. Having had enough, I decided to leave. I said we were not coming back and the waiter said "we won't miss you", which was probably the most coherent thing he said in our interactions. I understand kinks to work out for a new restaurant, but basic level of service should be the minimum. Or at least acknowledge the issues you are working through. Also, teach your wait staff basic manners. Thanks for ruining my evening. "I won't miss you"

This is one of the worst restaurants I've ever been to. The service was horrendous, the waiters were slow and seemed completely clueless. We were told to get 2 of their prix fixe menu for 4 people and that it would be enough for us. They told us we would get upwards of 30 dishes. That was a lie, not only did we not get the number of plates we were promised but the portions were tiny and insufficient for 4 people. This would've all been okay had the food been good. It was not good at all. Do not go there, it's a waste of time and money.

My boyfriend and I were looking for a place last-minute on Saturday night, and hit the jackpot with Semeli. We did the tasting menu, which is literally $40 for **14 courses** (totally unheard of in DC). The food was fabulous, flavorful, and authentic--and every dish was really different. We also had a bottle of Syrah for a really reasonable price. Natasha, who was our waitress, was super friendly and helpful; at the end of the meal she even gave us shots of a Greek liqueur. We came away stuffed and very, very happy. Semeli has only been open a couple of weeks, so I'm guessing now is the time to go before too many people discover this gem. We'll definitely be back.

Shared a mezze prix fixe and a fish of the day with a friend. It was perfect. Constantly more food coming out. So stuffed. A lot of it fried, but not too heavy fortunately. If you come here you might be the only people in the restaurant, which is an interesting way to spend the evening.

Great service and excellent prix fixed meal. The space is beautiful. We left full and happy!

DO NOT DINE HERE. The food was dry, way too fried, and overly salty. Service was spotty and slow (we had to hunt the wait staff down to refill our water glasses each time), they didn't have all the wines on the wine list. When we wanted to order sodas, they said they didn't have any (how is that possible?!?). You could feel how chaotic and stressed the only two waiters (one of them was also the bartender). The quality of the food was terrible and not worth the price which is a good deal when the food is actually edible. My husband and I were still chugging water two hours after dinner because the food was so salty.

I was incredibly unimpressed with the server we had during our 2 hour dinner at Semeli Taverna. I was drawn to this restaurant by the advertisements and enticing menu. However, it was only when we were seated and looking over the menu that we noticed it was breaking down a 14 course meal ($40/each). I asked our server (whom never identified himself) if a la carte was an option as this was not advertised anywhere. He then became very short and rude, and returned with menus that had individual prices per item. He was so uncomfortably dissatisfied with my request that my boyfriend felt that one of us had to get the 14 course meal. When the server returned and my boyfriend stated he would do the full course meal, the server then told us that if one person does the full course meal, they ask that everyone at the table do it as well. He stood at the side of our table waiting for me to make a $40 decision right then and there. I regretfully went along with his forceful request. The young man who brought the courses to our table did not say much but could not have had a more positive and welcoming attitude. I wish he was our server all along, as we probably would have had a better experience. We were 1 of 2 tables that were occupied out of a total of maybe 15 for a 7pm dinner. Wish we had taken note of that sooner! Will not be returning.

Semeli Greek Tavern hits the spot. Delicious Greek fare with a lovely ambiance. The Prix Fixe menu is an excellent deal. It starts with a lemon chicken rice soup that is simple but perfect and continues with too many delicious mezze to count. Highlights include the taramasalata dip, calamari with a lovely yogurt, the fries with tahini sauce and the dalmades. Dessert - a dry orange cake with mochi on the side - left much to be desired.

I showed up at 8:20 for an 8:15 reservation and was told to wait 20 minutes for a table. Fine, people make mistakes! After 20 minutes of waiting, I'm taken to the bar upstairs because apparently they had overbooked. The space is beautiful, but unfortunately that wasn't enough to keep me from walking out of there without even ordering. After being sat at the bar for 10 minutes with no one paying any attention to us, we were told that they only have their 14 course menu available and are not serving a la carte tapas style yet... despite this being advertised on their website and all the promotional articles I had seen. The other folks who had reluctantly been sat at the bar seemed to have also felt duped by the false advertising. Fine, even then we were willing to compromise. So, we ask to order a 14 course meal to share, which seemed to make our waiter frustrated and he said he'd see. After seeing him walk away and shout at the hostess and a confused looking waiter we decided cut our losses and head out after a disappointing and awkward 45 minute affair. What a mess!

my friend and i went for dinner on a recent sunday night and had a great experience. the restaurant was relatively empty but the food was excellent and the service was quick and friendly. cant wait to go back!