Kosaten Launceston — Restaurant in Launceston

Was going to be 3 stars except for the terrible experience. Please visit if you like a place where the staff are always right, the customers are always wrong even when providing honest feedback that not all the food was good.

Positives- some dishes, like the Pumpkin agedashi tofu and Wagyu beef, was delicious. Eel and salmon sushi and most other nigiri dishes we ordered pretty alright, even if a little pricey compared to other eateries in the area. Food and drinks came quickly.

Sadly the “fresh” oyster was not fresh (we ate it then realised this blerghhh), tuna sushi was canned tuna and dry / tasteless, (even John West made better) grilling smells from kitchen very fishy which wafts over most diners at the bar. Serving size quite small for other dishes like teriyaki chicken etc.

Saw the two girls to the right of us and the couple to left of us leave certain dishes untouched. Not sure if they had issues too.

The chawanmushi was not made with fresh seafood, smelled off and they added vinegar / lemon juice on top to try to take the fishy smell away. We couldn’t eat it and sent it back untouched except for a small spoonful taken out. No apologies provided and the waitress did not return to follow up. We were still charged for it and was told by at the payment station very condescendingly “WELL I checked with the kitchen and the chawanmushi WAS up to standard”. Err ok, but it smelled horrible…

We refused to pay for that dish as it was off and inedible and the sour looking waitress at first refused to take it off the bill, continued to be condescending and rude, and only updated the bill when we insisted that as we couldn’t eat it, we were not proposing to pay for it. At that point another waitress with lots of eye make up stepped in and told us off. Yikes. After that at least we were allowed to pay and leave.

Well done, for the sake of insisting on charging a $8 dish to a $130 bill you’ve made a customer who may try again to one who will never be back.

EDIT: was unwell the next day, should have asked for money back on the oysters too. Restaurant was not truthful or accurate in their response- we did not mention girlfriend’s recipe in discussion at...

We had high hopes with all the positive reviews, the restaurant was good and service was good. Food was not nice and for the price the portions are small

$100 for a couple of pieces of sushi and no drinks

Now off to get McDonald's so we don't feel hungry. So yeah I wouldn't recommend for anyone that loves Japanese food, you will be disappointed

2 adults and 2 small children, yes we ordered several things but the portions were not enough to justify the price, and don't write back that the customer ordered X trying to justify to the public what was ordered, take feedback and maybe look at the price per item. If we ordered enough to feed our small family it would of been closer to $200

#Edit number 3: The food was of poor standard and if you think this is high quality your unskilled cooks need to visit Japan and learn what Japanese food should taste like, and if you are Japanese, maybe you're unwell and need to take a break

My children shared and spat 1 of the pork croquette out, two were not well received by the adults, leaving one on the plate. $16.50 for 4 tiny prawns with lots of tempura to make them seem bigger with a very bland taste.

When receiving feedback, don't be defensive. Learn from both positive and negative comments to improve your offerings. If the food had met our expectations, I wouldn't have bothered leaving a review; I simply wouldn't have returned.

And yes I eat and love all foods as do my children, for example we are more than happy to spend $200-$300 every time we visit Bar Wa Izakaya from the Wallaby wings to the Ramen to the unreal Oysters during happy hour. (Just to make this clear for that price that's alcohol and so much food )

I really hope you learn from this and listen to your customers and whatever type of feedback they give you.

This started off a simple review...

Decoration is nice, great atmosphere, friendly staff.

But the sushi is kinda “funny”, I’m Asian and I think the chef don’t understand what sushi is, more like raw fish on top of white rice. The nigiri all in round ball shape with no taste of vinegar but the salmon is fresh tho,

salmon aburi is so wrong on so many level which make me speechless, ball shaped rice again and the rice is 30% burned, no mayo on top, got something green on top but I have no idea what that is, also kinda tasteless in my perspective.

You guys should serve like this: ricesalmonmayo then you burn only the fish and mayo to make the fat melt and be careful not to burn the rice, after that you put scallion on top. use the salmon belly to make it would be even better. Hope this comment will help.

Aburi ebi with cheese look just like what you saw on the menu except the ball shape rice again, I think they should remove the head because is not the Ebi you think it is, is just shrimp, the head have no purpose but make you harder to eat.

$6 oysters is a great deal tho, fresh and delicious, the Salmon Roll and sashimi is acceptable.

Again I’m Asian chef myself I don’t know I’m asking too much because it’s Launceston so I don’t wanna be harsh, but the ball shape rice too “remarkable” can’t help myself but leave a comment, I just think the chef never eat real sushi before, I suggest they take a day off and try out Sushi Hub to get some concept...