Local Restaurant Chain Of 30 Years Closes All Locations

A local restaurant brand has closed all of its locations.Photo byTim MossholderonUnsplash

Chain restaurants start off with so much promise. When the first idea takes off and begins to expand to satellite locations, there’s hope the food will spread not only throughout a city or region but the entire country (if not the world). One local chain started with such high hopes back in 1994. While the brand had a good run in the Valley, it is officially no more, as the final two restaurants closed up shop as the calendar flipped to July.

It has been a difficult summer for many restaurants, but few brands can say they suffered as much as Sakana Sushi. Back in May, I wrote about how the Glendale location closed down, leaving just two locations left in the Valley (which, at its peak, had four locations). All of that has come to a close though as the locations in Scottsdale as well as Ahwatukee both closed in June, which now leaves the brand’s Web address as its only presence anywhere. 

Sakana Sushi closed both of its restaurants rather unceremoniously. The brand stopped posting to its Facebook page right around the time its Glendale location closed down shop. Since then it has been all but radio silence for the sushi bar and grill. So, if you were a fan of the other two locations you would have had no actual warning the restaurants would be closing (unless you’d popped in at some point during the final days of June and were informed by the staff). 

It is rather unfortunate the restaurants are now completely gone. The Scottsdale restaurant at 6989 Hayden Road was well-regarded and had a 4.5 Google rating after nearly 600 reviews. The Phoenix location in Ahwatukee Plaza (5061 East Elliot Road) had similar review scores of 4.4 after almost 750 reviews. 

Patrons were leaving reviews for the restaurants up until the middle of June, and nobody had a clue the restaurant would likely not be around for a follow-up visit. It is unfortunate the restaurant did not give any kind of warning to its customers it would not be around for much longer, but based on the timing, it seems as though the owners of Sakana Sushi did not want to extend into another month and risk paying rent on two properties. 

While there are other sushi restaurants throughout the Valley, it is never desirable when a brand of 30 years ceases to exist.