Sushia Izakaya — Restaurant in Karrinyup

They have a good location, great service, great tables, and their cloth napkins smell amazing like fresh linen. So, you're not going to regret coming here. But there's a lot of flaws as well that makes me mark them down pretty heavily.

As you know they are part of Karrinyup and so need to play some of their own music to separate themselves from the rest of the shopping centre. Totally understandable and a great idea. Unfortunately while we were there at 5:30pm they were playing something like phone hold music. It was pretty obnoxious and really ruined the mood, it was just loud enough that I couldn't completely ignore it either. It's possible they play better stuff at other times but I wouldn't know.

For drinks we had the Green Melon Highball and the Plum Sour. Both looked very good and were very strong (perhaps too strong) on the alcohol, but neither were very tasty. I'm comparing to Tsunami in Mosman Park which have absolutely delicious cocktails at the same price. They need to rethink this part of the menu, I don't know if the other drinks are better but these two are just not good.

Onto the food, but first the steamed rice. If you've had rice from Kanpai Yakiniku you'd know that it can be a delicious meal by itself. The rice from here, although it looks okay, is a little longer grain than I was expecting and had no real flavour of its own. I would rate this rice as very average. Not bad, but that's because it's just nothing.

We ate it with the Eye Fillet Yakimono which was good, the Teppenyai Pork Belly was also good. Then there was the Umami Chicken which was very average - it's a lightly breaded chicken with a cumin-heavy dipping sauce and feels more Mexican than Japanese. It's out of place, doesn't belong on the menu, and is not in the right class for this restaurant.

For dessert we had the Chef Special Seasonal Mousse and the Tottori Truffle Whisky Ice Cream. Both of these were 10/10 A+ amazing. I actually think I may just come in for these from now on whenever I'm in the area. Go in and have their desserts. Don't look at the price and don't hesitate. Your taste buds will thank you.

Now, to be fair, they do a lot of sushi and a variety of other meals we did not have, so I can't comment or rate based on those. It's very possible we just picked the wrong things. But for just what we had, I was pretty unimpressed, although like I said the service and dessert were very good so kudos to the people there.

The meal total for...

Absolute joke and waste of time Food: We ordered 5 dishes: Beef tataki, cerviche, spicy tuna sushi roll, pork belly and the black cod The beef tataki was so thick that all you could taste was raw meat, what's the point of serving it with a sauce and garnishes if the flavor of raw meat completely over shadows all the other elements. The only good thing I have to say about it is that it was plated well. Cerviche "Signature Dish" they took lovely cuts of sashimi and dumped it into a bowl with a wilted salad and a dressing. In japanese tradition you eat with your eyes first, and my eyes told me I was eating some off-cuts of fish chucked together in a bowl without a care in the world. To call this a signature dish is a joke, the only person I know that would appreciate this dish would be my cat. Spicy Tuna Sushi Roll "Signature Dish" Might as well have gotten sushi from the Coles next store. The flavors didnt make sense and the rice was overcooked and mushy another joke of a signature dish. Pork belly and Black Cod Finishing strong with these two. Apart from the plating being a bit weird and definitely more southeast Asia inspired than Japanese, the food was good.

Service and Vibe For a $$$ place you would A) expect it to be a proper isolated restaurant B) not expect it to be inside a shopping centre, right next to a coles. C) I'd also expect my waiter to dress the part. I was severely disappointed with our waiter's service not only was she not attentive (my glass of water was empty the whole time we were there and the place was empty so there's no excuse) but she also didn't even know what was on her own menu. Every item she had to read directly from the menu and could not just write it down. Eg I'd order the pork belly (thats the only pork belly on the menu) and she needed me to point at it on the menu. For a $$$ I'd expect more competent staff. I will say the manager we spoke to as we were leaving seemed lovely and if we had been served by him I'm sure our service experience would have been different. And just to drive the point home what's a $$$ doing in a shopping centre next to a coles. Make it make sense.

Would not...

I've never been to Japan. However in Oz we like to have entree, mains and deserts in a specific order. When u list your menu broken up into starters, mains and desserts that generally means that's how the meal will progress. The decor is nice even if most of the restaurant is in a shopping center walkaway. I have no idea why there was DJ playing music but when I go to eat with friends I don't book a night club . Too loud to have a pleasant dinner chat. Table service was fine and all questions were answered regarding the menu and what things were. The problem was the coordination of the kitchen and delivery of food all at once. i.e. when 4 people order starters why do 3 come out and 20 minutes later the last one arrives? No issue with the quality of any of the dishes we had. The food , when it turns up , is actually great. Same thing happened with the 4 mains - 3 people finished eating and still no Teppanyaki pork belly - teppanyaki means BBQ in Japanese I’m told . Not hard to cook pork on a grill plate u would think. Anyway as we had finished the second bottle of wine we got up - paid and left as we weren't waiting any longer. We did speak with the manager at length and he didn't charge us for one late entree and the main that didn't turn up but he honestly didn't think it was a major issue. We did. Banged on about how they eat in Japan ? Japanese food when done well is always expensive and this place is expensive - not Nobu expensive but if you are charging top dollar then have the food / kitchen service and quality to back it up. I’m not sure how long this place will last if they don't get it together as when I read the google reviews before going there are plenty of negative ones. If you all shared big dishes or had lots of small dishes you may not care about how the food comes...