East Sakura Salem

I have heard good things about East Sakura in Salem and their AYCE Chinese buffet and Sushi. The only one with decent food that I have found is Mandarin in Reading.

They are in a small strip mall, so there is plenty of parking. I think this is as far from Salem you can get without ending up in another town.

The dining room was pleasant enough.

The buffet isn't overly big and that's a good thing since the food is moving and are replenished quickly. There is also a teppanyaki table to my right that's not used during the lunch buffet.

The Sushi was mostly Maki with a lot of fake crab and vegetarian and very few with solid pieces of fish. The salad was spicy and really delightful.

There were a few pieces of Nigiri that I snapped up. The two maki rolls to the right were both fake crab. The fish was fresh, and the spicy salad was delightful.

On the next trip, I was standing there not sure where to start when the tray with Baby Clams was replaced, so that was a good place to start. They were cooked in a pleasant broth that was tasty, and the clams were cooked perfectly. On the same table, there were sides of salmon, whole fish, fried fish to just name a few things.

I found cold shrimp well hidden under ice and thanks to another customer who was loading up on cold mussels, I noticed them. I had to try the French Fries, and they were excellent. The green beans were tasty and crunchy. Black Pepper Chicken was also very good, with moist and tasty chicken. Next is the Japanese Chicken that also was very tender but seemed to be just chicken, so I had to ask what made it Japanese? It's marinated in something imported from Japan. The Honey Chicken was also good. My selection was from trays that had recently been refilled. I must say that I was impressed by how quickly the trays were refilled.

The Chicken Wing up top was crunchy and moist. The Baked Shrimp? was dry and bland. The Teppanyaki Chicken was excellent, dark meat with a nice char. The Fried Shrimp was crisp but way way overcooked. The fake Crab Casserole was OK, but I would pass on it the next time. All of this for $8.99 makes it even more impressive. You can also do takeout, and you get a discount if you are over 65. All the chicken dishes that I tried all had very flavorful and moist chicken. As you can see, I skipped probably more than 50% of the available dishes.

Address 400 Highland Ave, Salem, MA 01970
Phone number (978) 740-0306