Azuma Den — Restaurant in District of Canberra Central

A birthday celebration brought us to Azuma Den. Rather than our usual set menu we tried our choice of dishes for a change. For starters we had the tacos, sashimi and oysters. The first two were delicious, fresh and a great example of fusion. The oysters were a slight let down, because of their very small size they just weren't very satisfying. For our main we had the pork-ginger and mushroom dumplings, the latter was a standout, I'm always surprised by how delicious vegetarian dishes can be. The accompanying cabbage slaw bathed in rich zesty dressing was a game changer for me in dumpling realm. We finished off with pork jowl skewers which were juicy, melty and umami-ful. Unable to settle on one, for dessert, we opted for all three- the brùlee, meringue and matcha mochi wrap. I enjoyed the brùlee which was decent sized, and I think could be shared between two as a sweet treat rather than a full dessert if you so wish. My cousin enjoyed the meringue which was chewy with coconut flakes offset by a savoury tasting custard. The matcha mochi was nice too, a quick morsel if you don't really have a sweet tooth but don't want to miss out. P.S. we found it very hard to find parking nearby on a rainy evening but the lovely waitress told us that there is underground parking available at the East Hotel and the ticket can be validated if you dine at...

First visit here, it’s only just opened, and we will return in a couple of months, but our experience wasn’t all that good in any aspect. Initial arrival greeting was very enthusiastic, which suggested a focus on service. Alas, it was rather hit and miss — uncoordinated is probably the best description. We chose our own dishes from the menu: the lobster/prawn/scallop dumplings came quickly, and were excellent — fresh ingredients, freshly steamed. Thereafter, things declined, probably because we chose hibachi grilled foods — chicken yakatori, snapper and finger eggplant. All were overcooked and almost dry, especially the snapper.

Thereafter seemed to be poor communication with the kitchen, leading to delays and — apart from our first dumpling course — all dishes were left on our table after completion. This is ok if there’s space but there wasn’t. At lunchtime on a Friday, the main room was quite busy, which made things rather noisy. A lot of these issues are common to newly-opened venues, so I will look forward to returning, hoping...

We dined at Azuma Den at 7:45pm today. At first, the appetisers came out promptly and were quite good, but unfortunately that’s where the positive part of the experience ended.

By 8:53pm, we were still waiting for our mains. We had to ask the blonde waitress three separate times about our food, yet she never came back to update us. The lack of communication and attentiveness was very disappointing. Eventually, the delay was so long that we decided to settle the bill and leave without receiving our mains.

Although someone did come to apologise, it simply wasn’t good enough for a restaurant that charges premium prices. To add to the poor experience, even the glass of water we were served was dusty – something that should never happen in a venue of this calibre.

While the food itself wasn’t bad, the overall service and experience completely ruined the night for us. Unfortunately, we left feeling very let down and won’t...