Sato — Restaurant in Adelaide

Tried dining in once and tried ordering takeaway once. Got disappointed twice. The price is higher than other authentic Japanese cuisine places (not comparing with your Sushi train n other fast food sushi, I am talking about places like Hotaru near Chinatown etc). Portion is small or I may even say tiny, and flavor is decent for some of them. In terms of taste, nothing is really offensively bad. Probably why you don't see many bad reviews here, that's nice. However, at this kind of places, I am expecting more thoughtfulness. For instance, the sukiyaki for 1 is served in a bowl that wasn't great at maintaining the temperature, the soup base is greasy which is normal for sukiyaki but once the soup cools down, the grease is very noticeable and not nice at all. All utilities such as chopsticks and spoons are not provided with the dish when they come out. Yet not given to customers when they sit down either. Providing soy sauce for customer when serving sushi is common sense, which they have. However, so is serving the soy sauce plates. The customers are not going to "pour" soy sauce on sushi and let the sushi swim in it. For dishes with a lot of sauce, thoughtful chefs will serve it in smaller slices to allow the sauce to coat the inside of the meat too. Also, this will make it easier for customers to eat with grace and not dropping sauce all over their face and clothes. The teriyaki salmon is one of those dishes. It was served as an entire piece without any cutting or slices. When you bite into it, the inside of the salmon is not dry (good job), but didn't take advantage of the nicely done sauce either. Also, the beef in the sukiyaki are just scraps that you would remove like fats and imperfections from your steaks when you grill at home. Giving me the impression that this place is very stingy. Last but not least, the biggest issue I have experienced with this place. When I ordered takeaway last time, I was told in the app to give 30 minutes for the restaurant to prepare. (It was 2 bentoes and some sushi I believe) When I arrived to pick up my order, they told me they forgot to check the system and didn't realize there was an order coming through, I was told I can either get a refund or if I want the food, I would need to give them 1 hour to prepare for it. Obviously I didn't wait and I am not really happy with the fact that they didn't even seem apologetic for making this mistake and wasting their customer's time. This place's food does not excel and portion and servings are questionable but I feel like the biggest issues are the staffs and just the whole framework of their service. From all these good reviews and the reputation of Japanese having good hospitality, I honestly expect a lot more than what they...

13 of us went for a party dinner, and my friend and I ordered a hot pot which is ($46 person). Before we order it, we have asked one of the staff about the portion size because we wanted something filling. The staff replied that it will be MORE THAN ENOUGH for both of us, so we decided to go with it.

After waiting for 20min, they finally served the food (see in picture). My friend and I were surprised with the amount of the food and we spoke to the staff who initially told us the food will be more than enough for us that the food is maybe enough for 1 person but 2, so we were confused and wanted to check if we could have more food. It is fair that the staff needed to talk to the boss because he is merely an employee. But what really upsets me was that the staff left us about 10m without providing us any update (ie yes or no) but continuing serving other tables without even having eye contact with us. We have to stand up to talk to the boss in terms of the service and the food. The boss said it is subjective if the food is enough for 2 people (which is fair enough) but the reason why we order it is because it will be more than enough for both of us as reported. In addition, the quality of the food does not meet our standards especially we have paid $92 for it, as you can see from the picture that the color and level of fresh (we took the pictures right after they served them).

We totally understand that the boss or the staff might be frustrated but her attitude wasn’t very professional by saying again and again it is subjective and it is enough for her and they cannot do anything, which implying that it is not enough for us because we have a bigger appetite.

In the end we wanted to cancel the order (we did not touch the food at all) and she was firmly saying they cannot do it and apologized for it, which is understandable. However we felt very disappointing and frustrating, so we decided to leave after that.

While having the conversation with both the staff and the boss, my friend and I were in a appropriate manner by discussing our needs and thoughts, of course it is subjective too according them because only God is absolute. We would be very heisted to come to this restaurant again or...

Visited this restaurant a couple of weeks ago with my daughter and her friend. Prior to our visit, I called ahead and spoke with Saki to make a reservation. She made me aware of the seating styles and we opted for the traditional style. This is where you are able to extend your legs under the table instead of sitting on a cushion (zabuton) with your legs crossed on a tatami floor. Stepping inside 'Sato' was like going back in time to the days spent living in Tokyo... very nostalgic indeed. We ordered a few different dishes so that my daughter and her friend could taste the variety. The food arrived quickly and was very enjoyable, everything was just the way it's supposed to be. The young lady waiting on us (Hana) was very pleasant and friendly. I found out from her that Saki who took our phone reservation was her sister and they were the owner's daughters. After a while the owner came over to our table to have a quick chat and we learnt that his wife was also involved in the running of the kitchen. This was reflected in the very friendly atmosphere prevalent at 'Sato'. The menu is varied and can be recommended to anyone looking for an authentic Japanese dining experience. The 'unagi don' was almost as good as the one I had in Yaezu shi, Shizuoka prefecture. There is a good selection of Japanese beers as well. The dining experience at 'Sato' for me personally was very satisfying as it brought back good memories of evenings spent dining out in...