Ichimei — Restaurant in Hobart

Had a look online and booked a 6:30pm table for two people on 3/1/2021. We had decided to get the 'Ume' banquet ($58/person) before arriving.

Restaurant had a nice ambience, staff were polite, and food on the whole was delicious and well presented. But the one thing that dragged everything down was the incredibly long wait time for the food.

The banquet's items were fairly small-portioned, aside from the two 'mains' (sushi roll and beef steak).

Total time required was three hours (!), from entry into the restaurant to payment. We felt forgotten for much of our time there. During these three hours, staff had to apologise to seven different tables for either long wait times, or for incorrect food brought out. A common theme was the staff not being aware of what dishes had already been served and what hadn't.

We raised the issue of the long wait when we still had the beef steak main and subsequent dessert left to come out. Our waitress apologised and said the steak was in the oven and almost done. It arrived 15 minutes later. Dessert was ice cream, which we had a few flavour options to choose from. After taking our ice cream order, the waitress returned to inform my partner his choice of flavour had sold out, so he selected another.

At the payment counter we were informed it was a 'very busy night'. We were told that it's this busy 'most nights', and suggested that next time we could 'come earlier'.

Unfortunately, based on this experience I am unable to recommend, until they sort out why things took so long, especially for a meal where its menu was pre-set by the restaurant itself (the only thing we ordered outside of it was one glass of beer). It wasn't just us, or two tables. It was almost everyone that evening.

The food itself was...

Made a booking for Sunday lunch. My partner and I were the first and only customers for the entirety of lunch from 12.25- 1.15pm. The restaurant was completely empty apart from us.

Ordered the unagi don but we were informed by the waitress that unagi is unavailable. Only made the booking because I was looking forward to having unagi and it looked good on photos from other reviewers. Really disappointing that it is even on the menu and being advertised when it is unavailable at the start of lunch service with no customers in the whole restaurant. Ended up ordering the assorted sashimi don instead.

The portion is small for the price you are paying. For the price of $26, it is a ripoff. The size and thickness of sashimi were appalling. The presentation was decent otherwise this would have been a 1 star review.

For my partner’s dish- sashimi don, half of the rice was covered by garnish instead. The portion size is atrocious.

Have had Japanese food at other locations and this is definitely not the norm. You are definitely not getting your money’s worth. It makes sense to me as to why the restaurant is completely empty apart from us on an Easter Sunday. There are other good Japanese restaurants in Hobart and this is definitely not one of them. Do not be fooled by the fancy decor and photos on their website/...

Really poor service is forcing me to write this review. I ordered takeaway, 2 cold + 2 hot dishes, and was told there would be a 60 minute wait. No problems. Upon returning a little over 55 minutes later, I was told the food had been ready 30 minutes ago. The wait staff expected i would re heat the tempura and eat the now luke warm nigiri and sushi, which had been sitting on top of the tempura and chicken don in the takeaway bag. After several requests for a re make of the food, they agreed. I was happy to wait for good food. When I got back to my hotel, it turned out that the chicken don had not been remade and instead had leaked out ALL OF THE SAUCE on the trip back on to the passenger seat of my hire car. FAN-TAS-TIC. Honestly, mistakes happen, it is a part of life but the lack of attention to detail is just really disappointing. The sushi was nice, tempura nice, chicken don would have been nice when it was hot, but the poor customer service left me with an average dinner and a wet passenger seat. I’ll decide tomorrow if I can be bothered discussing with the restaurant who is paying for the steam cleaning on...