Saku Saku Flakerie

I've come here several times hoping that I just caught the cafe on an off day, and wanting it to be a hit, but unfortunately I am consistently let down by the experience here. Despite the mention of ceremonial-grade matcha, their matcha drinks have a bitter, almost icky aftertaste. I'm not sure if the quality of matcha is overstated, or if it's not prepared correctly. Hojicha is fine but doesn't quite hit the mark. Pastries are well-made with good texture, but flavors are not always there - and, they're very expensive for the portion size and quality you receive. E.g. I paid ~$8 for an Oishii strawberry chocolate sake cruffin. To their credit, the strawberry flavor was delightful and the cruffin well-made, but the chocolate tasted no richer than your grocery store pudding. At that price point, I expected a better flavor to stand up to the strawberry. Service-wise, it's mixed but mostly fine. I've had some nice staff help me. Others needed some more customer service training. I was really excited when Saku Saku first opened and truly wish it success. I love the idea of it. I just wish I could depend on it for what it promises. At this price point, it is hard to keep coming back when other cafes - Spot of Tea, plus tons of places in the burbs - are getting it right.

If I could, I’d give zero star ratings here. As I am very familiar with the food and customer service industry, there was zero interest of customer service interaction. There was no welcoming “hello”, which is kind of crazy when the door is not even two feet away from the employees. All the employees seemed to hate their jobs. Why would they have a kiosk? It’s not that hard to take orders when you’re right in front of their face? It’s a very lazy way of running a cafe. Plus, the cafe is so small, messy and unorganized. The pastries are so bad, don’t even get me started. They’re stale and look burnt. When they “heat” it up for you, it’s still cold and stale. Everything is so nasty, you would’ve rather prefer to eat McDonald’s down the street. The strawberry matcha…. let’s just say I can make a better matcha at home. All I tasted was milk and strawberry puree, which was so bad. This cafe overall is a bad reputation for what a Japanese cafe should be. Safe to say, I WILL NEVER BE COMING BACK HERE AGAIN.

SakuSaku is one of my favorite bakeries in DC. If you’re in the area, it’s definitely worth visiting. I’ve never had anything from here that I haven’t liked. The flavors are so creative and the matcha soft serve ice cream is a special treat during summer. You can also order pies and cakes for Thanksgiving and Christmas! They’re a crowd pleaser & worth every penny.

Quite a small bakery with bar stool seating, and a few outdoor seating. For a Sunday afternoon, it was pretty busy! Unfortunately found this spot overhyped. Strawberry Matcha was disappointing - matcha by itself was very bitter, though the strawberry puree did balance the flavor profile a bit. It also tasted very watered down, almost as if there was no milk added? And the Cortado was alright, not the best that we've had. We also got their Blueberry Yuzu Cake and Marble Tahini and White Miso Chocolate Chip Cookies. The cookies were okay, a little on the dry side. Same with the Blueberry Yuzu Cake, it was good, but also a little on the dry side too. The blueberry and yuzu flavors weren't balanced very well.

The iced matcha was great! The matcha lavender mochi roll, however, was disappointing. While the matcha and lavender flavors were nice, the texture made it difficult to enjoy. Not sure if that was due to the heating up (at the store). Note: 5% surcharge is added to the bill.