Shobosho — Restaurant in Adelaide

After being a customer at Shobosho for almost 4 year now, the quality of the restaurant has really gone downhill, in particular their service quality.

I had invited my friend from overseas to join me and my partner for dinner as this restaurant as I had raved to them about the fantastic quality of food from my previous visits.

When we walked in, we couldn't even be acknowledged by the staff as they just kept trying to avoid eye contact. We eventually asked be served and we were met by a black lady who audibly sighed asked us if we had a booking (plenty of empty seats inside and outside during this time). We said no and if possible, could we be seated outside. She said that we could only be seated inside and that we could only be 1 hour. We said that shouldn't be an issue as we knew what we were going to order. She straight up asked us if we were sure we were only going to be one hour and asked what we were going to order before we were even seated. We said that we'd rather sit down first and get comfortable even if we knew what we were ordering because we wanted to at least show our friend the menu in case they wanted anything extra. This was met with another audible sigh and then she proceed to take us to our seats. When we finally got to our seats we didn't even have the food menu and were forced to wait until we ordered drinks. Now onto the food - our long standing favourite started, the Nori chips had been replaced by bland and boring edamame dish. The waiter was very insistent on trying to get us to order more than we wanted after stating our order 3 times to him. Despite repeating our order, he kept forgetting when relaying it back to us. I understand that at these types of places, the waiters want to show off that they have a good memory, but if we have to repeat our order to you 3 times, I don't think customers are going to care if you have you right it down so you get the order correct the first time. After ordering, we waited 15 minutes for our starters to come out. No issues with the quality of the food. However, this was followed by a 40 MINUTE WAIT because they refused to bring out the main dishes until we finished the rice(which was strangely brought out with the starters). As an Asian/Japanese restaurant, why would the rice not come out with the main dishes, especially if I'm eating a meat like chicken and fish? By the time our mains came, our rice had gone cold. When another waiter (not original waiter, rather the original lady that had seated us) had finally brought the mains out, we said that we had been waiting for 40 minutes and that our rice had gone cold. No apology, rather she seemed upset that we dared to voice our frustration of having to wait and then unprofessionally blamed it on her colleague despite both of them seeing us sat not eating while we waited for the next dishes to come out and becoming more and more visibility frustrated. Once the mains arrived, the food quality left a lot to desire given that our rice was now stone cold. Once we finished, it took another 10 minutes to get the attention of the female waiter as we wanted to get the bill to leave. Rather than us going up to pay like normal, we were told to wait and she will bring the bill over. This was another 5 minutes of waiting because they brought us the receipt but not EFTPOS machine. Total: $288. Not one smile from the lady, no "thank you for dining with us", just another sigh. All that told us was that they didn't want us back again. For the price you pay, it costs them nothing to be polite and accommodating. Unfortunately this will be the last time we dine as Shobosho despite how good the food is. The owner really needs to retrain their staff to help them understand basic service skills and rework the menu so that rice dishes come...

We took a while to try this place as I've never been a fusion fan and just had a feeling that it's overrated. And I thought correctly. Kudos to the chef for using the salty, fermented chillis on the snake beans sparingly as it gave the dish just enough punch. I didn't mind the dish, but I expected more as its something I've frequently eaten in my grandma's kitchen and this just didn't match up. The roasted leek dish definitely needed more salt (I ended up dabbing some of the fermented chilli from the beans to salt it up) and didn't taste fiery at all. There wasn't much to it as the outer skin couldn't be eaten and the milk sauce was oddly oily and sour at the same. Looking at the menu again now I don't remember seeing any wakame either - it's definitely not in the photo!

Between the lamb ribs and BBQ prawns, I'm not sure which was more disappointing. We did like the garnishes on the prawns and the slight onion-y taste of the microherbs, but the prawns were disappointingly rubbery. The dish was tasty though. The lamb on the other hand tasted more like a cheap flap cut that was overly fatty instead of a proper rib. There was hardly any cumin taste and the sauce was a tad too sweet and.. boring. It was missing the roasty, herby vinegary punch I expected it to have. And looking at the menu again, I just realised this small dish was $37!!!

Finally the Katsu Sando which I had the lowest expectation for was the biggest surprise, as it was the best dish of the night! I wonder if it's because I haven't had enough Katsu sandwhiches to know or could it be the Kewpie? Nevertheless the patty was delicious - it wasn't the dry, pork-y cutlet with soggy crust that I was expecting - instead it was flavourful and maybe a bit sweet too from the ham, but it matched the cabbage salad that came with it. The spring shallot bread with curry oil didn't have enough shallot nor curry taste to it and could be slightly chewier.

Service could be better too. We asked for a refill for our tea and asked again after 10 mins when it didn't come back, we were told by an annoyed waitress that we had to wait as it took a while to brew. They actually did forget, but remembered and returned it 20 mins later when we were about to settle the bill. I'm not sure why either, but they gave us a set of cutleries with each dish but placed them on the table which I thought was unhygenic as we were sitting outside? There were times they just dumped it on top of the dish so the handles were covered with a bit of sauce which was quite annoying. Overall, the restaurant is overrated and overpriced. If you want some 'real' Asian food, do yourselves a favour and go to Chinatown; you'll get more delicious Asian food that will not leave you feeling...

Updated review Dec 2020. Dinner at @shobosho: amazing food as always! Managed to get a last minute table, which was lucky 😆. I don't think we've ever been disappointed when deciding to come here to eat. . Tasmanian salmon taking, ponzu, wasabi: really tasty dish. I think we've had this dish every time we came here because it's so delicious 😅🤤😍. . Wood grilled scallop, yuzu, tapioca, salmon roe, buerre blanc: so yummy! The scallop was excellent - super tender. Flavours were like party in your mouth. . Katsu-sando, crumbed pork meatball sandwich, tonkatsu, cabbage: super delicious sandwich! The pork was tender and full of flavour, and the bread was nice and light. . Duck potsticker dumplings, 5 spice, chilli, sesame: these dumplings were very nice. Don't usually have duck dumplings, so these were quite unique. . BBQ octopus skewer: such good flavours 😍😍🤤🤤. . Char siu pork sausage roll, rice wine pickled onions: this was a really interesting dish! The sausage roll had char siu sauce on the outside, and the pork was really tender on the inside. Delicious flavours and textures. The pickled onions made a nice addition! . Wood roasted tomatoes, Chinese vinegar, garlic, watercress: delicious and refreshing vegetable dish 🤤. . Wood roast cumin lamb ribs: omg this was sooooooo good! Smokey flavour and super tender. Perfectly done. . Spit roast teriyaki chicken: I don't know how they do it, but the meat is so extremely tender! Just amazing. . Wood baked shallot bread: I can't believe how good this bread is! Couldn't get enough. . Baked mango cheesecake, strawberry meringue, shiso: super delicious dessert! The mango cheesecake was really tasty, and you don't often get to have strawberry meringue. Really good! . Coconut sorbet, freeze dried pineapple, coconut milk: I enjoyed this dish, but I wasn't quite sure about the fried pineapple. I think I would've preferred fresh...