IORI Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in District of Canberra Central

One of the nicest and most authentic experiences I had for Japanese dining. It is pricey - but worth it.

Iori's front is unassuming, so it is one of those hidden gems you'd walk past unless you searched for it or knew from experience. Otherwise, the place has a great reputation on Tripadvisor here are some reasons why.

The interior of the place is simple, but nice - it is wooden and has few decorations that are typical of a Japanese eatery back in the 1990s. The simple layout and ambient lighting makes it humble and relaxing, so you can really enjoy the food with less distractions.

Service was excellent. The waitress could see we were going to over order and instead suggested the degustation, which in the end cost less than what we planned to get and gave us a variety of things to try. We were full towards the end and enjoyed a nice chat with the lady serving us as well.

The food was fresh and everything was made with care and detail, from the delicate cuts of the sashimi to the fine touch of the shiso and maple leaves.

-Miso soup was right level of ume and generous with the garnish.

-Agedashi Dofu was lovely- the dashi sauce was not too sweet and the dish was fried where it is not too oily.

-Endamame was simple - as it would be.

-Sashimi (salmon, tuna, kingfish) was very fresh. The cuts were small but they were also precise. There was an assortment of sashimi so you got to try each one in a smaller size but the right thickness.The accompanying nigiri was good. The touch of the shiso and maple leaf added to the overall freshness of the sashimi.

Sushi was well prepared and there was a lovely touch of saffron on top.

Teriyaki salmon was tasty and not overpowered by sauce.

-Tempura was great as it was not too oily, not overcooked. The chefs also used a purple sweet potato variety which is or is closer to benzi azuma potato that is used in Japanese tempura. The vegetable tempura was cut in a way that was easy to eat, and the dipping spices just added to the flavour.

The dengaku (eggplant) was cooked perfectly the sauce was just right - not overpowering like other places.

We were also pleasantly surprised to receive some complimentary dishes, we were given the additional salmon sushi and seared nirgiri, along with matcha ice cream as a welcome. It tasted like there was actual matcha.

There was a lot of care and attention to detail and...

Overall, the food was OK (5/10), nice service as they gave us complimentary sushi and good value banquets for a fine dining restaurant. However, I bumped down the overall experience due to the small awkward situation at the end.

Rice I can't believe I've got a section on rice but hear me out. Fresh rice is hot, steaming, fluffy and moist. However, Iori's reminded me of leftover rice because it was room temperature and dry.

Premium wagyu This can be ordered as a main by itself and it's $75. Luckily this was part of the banquet because if I had paid that much then I would have been even more disappointed. It lost its "premium" quality because it was cooked medium well so it was quite tough and chewy. It was an effort to eat.

Sushi I can't remember which one we got because it was complimentary. I'm not sure if the rice was over stirred or if it was sticky rice because the texture didn't feel right. It was somewhat mushed together.

Assorted Desserts Not enjoyable. The mochi was still very hard and frozen and the scooped ice cream was very icy, it didn't have a nice creamy consistency. The matcha flavour was also very mild. I would've enjoyed buying the equivalents from the asian grocery more.

Sashimi Can't go wrong. The sashimi was delicious, fresh and melts in your mouth

Teriyaki Chicken Not bad, comparable with other teriyaki chicken dishes I've had. However it was incredibly salty. I had to wash the sauce off with water.

Eggplant This was freshly cooked, steaming hot and melts in your mouth. I enjoyed it.

Tempura This was nice as the batter was very light.

Edamame and tofu Can't go wrong. The staff kindly let us swap out the seaweed salad for an extra serving for tofu.

At the end when asked how everything was, we said not too bad. The staff were in disbelief. I wanted to give feedback but after that reaction I felt incredibly awkward and said nothing. While we are very thankful for the complimentary sushi, it doesn't change my opinion of their food.

There were some hits and misses and I was surprised by the value and portion given its a fine dining restaurant. I quite liked the decoration and it's a very intimate setting. However, as the place is quite small and there are a lot of waiters, there is constantly someone walking past, though just a minor comment. It was a decent experience...

Really disappointing experience last night. We've been to iori a few times before to support them during the COVID-19 shutdown. However, after our last experience, we won't be returning anytime soon.

We were greeted by friendly staff at the front door who said for us to wait outside and they'd be right back soon to take our takeaway order.

After waiting for around 20 minutes, we decided to text them our order. Got a text back pretty quickly asking when we'd like the order. We let them know as soon as possible and that we were the ones still outside and ready to pay. No response or confirmation of our order was received.

After standing in the cold for a good 15-20 minutes, I decided to head inside to check whether they'd received our order, to remind them that we'd been waiting for sometime and to let them know that we're ready to pay. Was subsequently ushered outside by the waitress, still with no confirmation or indication when (or if) our meal would be ready, and no sincere apology.

By around the 45 minute mark, we were both fed up with the lack of communication and the delay. As a courtesy, we sent a text saying that if no confirmation was received within 10 minutes, we would be cancelling it.

After around 5 minutes, the waitress quickly came out with our order and the EFTPOS machine ready to take payment.

By this stage, we'd spent close to an hour following their instruction to wait outside and that somebody would be with us "soon". We'd tried a couple of times to communicate with them but it was if they didn't really give a hoot.

The food was average at best and doesn't reflect the price being charged. Had the food been amazing, I would've disregarded the long wait time. But this is Canberra... Not the middle of New York or Tokyo. There is no justification for ridiculously long wait time only to be served two mediocre Bento boxes. If iori wants to be a luxury restaurant, then the overall customer experience should reflect this.

If you really want to pay for an hour waiting in the cold with little to no communication, no seating, no offering of tea, and basic food at a premium price, then go to iori. I've never waited longer for 2 Bento boxes in my life.

From our past experiences, everything was tolerable. But after last night, it's probably...