Takayama Restaurant Bar — Restaurant in Jindabyne

I sent this to you via email but since you haven't responded to my email and instead sent me one asking for feedback (auto generated) then here is my email....

Hello,

I wanted to provide some feedback regarding my dining experience tonight under the reservation name Natalie for 5:30 pm. I've never written an email with negative feedback before, and I debated whether to post a review on mu travel blog or TripAdvisor. However, I felt it was more appropriate to reach out directly so that you could hear about our experience firsthand.

Unfortunately, I’m disappointed with how our evening unfolded. It's particularly disheartening because the food itself was absolutely wonderful—your chefs are truly talented, and we thoroughly enjoyed our meals. The gentleman at the front of the restaurant was also lovely, and whether he was the manager or the owner, his charisma and engagement with us and our children were commendable.

The first issue arose when I attempted to book our table. I initially tried to book online, but dates and times weren’t available, so I decided to call the restaurant. A lady answered the phone during the day, and when I enquired about a reservation, mentioning that we’d be in town from Saturday onwards, she laughed and informed me that you were booked out two weeks in advance. She then told me she was too busy to take my call and that the restaurant was closed. I found this quite surprising, as she had answered the phone in the first place. If the restaurant was closed and she was too busy, I’m not sure why she chose to answer the call only to tell me that.

On the night of our booking, we found the service to be lacking. After our initial drink order, we were not offered any additional drinks, despite being at our table for over two hours. We had to prompt the waitress to take another drink order, and empty plates and glasses remained on our table for far too long. At one point, I gathered the empty glasses and plates in front of me and asked the waitress if she could take them away. She responded with a confused look and a moment of silence before obliging. Afterward, she spoke with two other staff members who then stared at our table, talking about us. Another waitress, who I believe was supposed to be serving our table, eventually came over and hesitantly asked if we wanted the remaining glasses cleared. She seemed unsure and asked multiple times about each glass, which was confusing, as it should have been clear when a cocktail was finished. I'm not sure why she needed my explanation glass by glass.

It took an hour and a half for our main courses to arrive, which was acceptable for the adults at a push, but our children had to wait this long to be fed as well. The waitress was aware of our children’s order, and if there was any confusion, she could have clarified and expedited their meals.

The total bill was $400, which is reasonable and expected, but not for the level of service we received. It’s not acceptable to be stared at and discussed by the staff when we asked for plates to be cleared, nor to be laughed at on the phone and told that the staff were too busy to talk to us. It's truly a shame, as the chefs are clearly working hard to create beautiful dishes, only for the service to undermine the entire experience.

I understand that most of the staff are young which comes with challenges, however having worked in hospital from the age of 14 it's certainly not a level of service I would ever have been proud to offer my guests.

I hope this...

Called to place order to save time, declined. No one mentioned any wait time when placing the order, only mentioned to us that 6-8 small dishes for 2 is good amount and the window time is 2hrs, which was a waste of time explaining when there are small and large dishes. We have been to Japan and Japanese restaurants in Australia. Waiting time was 45minutes for ramen. After travel from 5am in the morning, arrived the restaurant 5:45pm, we were starving. Waited for 45minutes after placing the order, we asked the staff whats the normal waiting time, staff said the main comes later and left. no service, extremely rude. Then a male staff walked to us, rudely again said to us “it’s the type of Japanese food, main comes last, and look, we are busy”. Left us with rudeness and of course confusions whether we have been to rude to ask the waiting time and our food. The pork ramen which were recommended in many reviews, was fairly average (2/5), I would never order again this was my experience when I was eating it, only because I paid the price and avoid waste. Staff came to us asked if everything was okay. We left with no mood to talk, only wanted to finish the meal and leave the place. The place is not a fine dining place, and no one explained the wait time and other things. When we pay for the pills, I have to asked again what is the normal waiting time to clarify this for my review. Staff said 45minutes is normal. The male staff said the takeaway before us waited for 1hour.

Putting this comment as I believe there’s lots of improvements for the services, quality of food, etc. I am sure there will be competitors see your weakness and easily becoming a threat. Food: 2/5 service2/5 atmosphere2/5. Definitely not a fine dining place, nor an authentic Japanese. A burger sounds better and quicker. Plus the services...

I don’t normally write reviews but I felt like I had too. Now I have had some amazing Japanese in my life, and with the reviews and prices at takayama that’s what I expected, but it fell hugely short. After getting mansplained the menu, which was 100% unnecessary .. (not hard to understand small plates and mains?) We ordered a salmon roll and some chicken / pork for our small plates. And heck, they aren’t kidding when they say small!!!! I was expecting a long sushi roll that you’d normally pay $18 for in any authentic Japanese restaurant, but when they walked out with our measly 4 tiny pieces of salmon sushi for $18 I legit laughed. Next up was the chicken and pork skewers, $18 for two skewers (from memory) and yet again, I laughed, the skewers were the size of a finger… now you might be thinking “well how did it taste” and yeah, okay? But nothing to write home too. The sushi roll looked like I had rolled it, and the pork was kinda dry. So I’m sitting there furious already. Next comes the mains- which thank god were of a decent size, but again for taste- nothing to write home about. We left after paying our ridiculous bill and went to Woolworths to buy more food because we were still hungry. There’s inflation, and then there’s greed and this is exactly what it was. Greed. Taking advantage of the fact that there’s no other competition in town.

Save your money and buy a meal up the mountain instead. Atleast Perisher portion sizes match the price.

I’ve attached a photo of the $18 per plate skewers. I’ve also added a photo from a different sushi restaurant to show the rough size of the roll you’ll receive for $18. (Note , that sushi roll in the photo only cost me $5.50 and tasted way...