Banzai Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Lismore

The food I fail to believe is even real japanese food. I didnt see a single japanese person present in the staff, and it shows. The karage was actually a salt and pepper squid style batter, not the real thing. Sushi rolls were awful, chewy nori with bad texture and no flavour, small and expensive. Sushi rolls were 100% amateur hour but not amateur priced. A japanese restaurant NEEDS at least good sushi rolls.

Mains with rice were served on a flat plate instead of bowls, absolutley silly when you need to be able to eat with chopsticks. Clear sign that someone isn't thinking, maybe they ran out of bowls on the night? I cant be too harsh here, it was just.....weird.

That said, my main was tasty but its kind of hard to bugger up chicken and rice with sauce. Might be a matter of just ordering some ramen and or rice dishes as these are kinda hard to stuff up...just be weary on the rolls.

One of my friends said their sashimi was okay, so theres that.

The edamame beans were stingy, tiny bowl for 5 or 6 dollars. They're supposed to be a cheap appetiser for everyone to share. Needed to be more of them.

Service, we were sat in the middle of everyone, with staff walking by us left and right for 5 -10 minutes before we were even given menus. Then, people who came in after this point sitting right across from us were served. No one even asked if we wanted drinks. Nothing until like 15 or 20 minutes sitting there. I still don't know what that was about. We felt invisible.

Its a shame because the actual place itself has great atmosphere and seating, quite authentic, would be great if the food and service could match...

Look I hate being harsh but I never ever leave reviews, and I know alot of businesses in Lismore are struggling right now, but it wasnt up to scratch. I dont care if i have to wait, just make sure my food is matching the price.

I honestly dont know how this place I visited has nearly 5 stars. I want to give it 2 or 3 stars but that just seems unreasonable.

They need to step up and get their beautiful establishment to have matching food for the money and the service. I want to hope it was just a bad night for them or a head chef was sick or something, but If you really require real japanese food and real good quality, take a drive over to ballina instead. The price of the food seems about identical.

Im leaving this at 4 stars for now as to not rock any boats, but ill edit it lower for good or post another if they havent improved...

My Partner and I ordered the chef's special tempura seafood which cost $26 each which was very expensive for what we got. The Tempura Batter was very soggy and falling off all of the seafood and the seafood was not cooked for long enough. We also ordered a spicy soft shell crab each which we are not certain was crab at all as it had way to much spice on it and the texture did not really feel like crab. While we were ordering our Meals we asked for two green salads and the lady taking the order only wrote down that we wanted one which was annoying as our food was takeaway and we called the restaurant to let them know one of our salads was missing just to be told we were wrong. The one salad we did receive had so much oil in it,It was horrible and did not taste very healthy at all. We spent $100 and got a tiny amount of food. The only reason why we went here is because our favourite Japanese store in town is currently closed until further notice which is has way better quality food and you get what you pay for. Bonzai is literally one of the worst restaurants I have been to and me and my partner will never be back. We have had way better seafood from a not very good fish and chip shop with less oil on...

My husband and I came to Banzai for our 9 year anniversary and sat at a traditional table on the floor. I absolutely loved the experience of eating here. My husband and I eat a lot of Japanese food and Banzai has some beautiful meals. I ordered karaage chicken with rice and salad and my husband ordered teriaki tofu with rice and salad as our mains with 3 piece prawn tempura and 4 piece cooked tuna sushi as entrees to share. YUM. When our main meals came out one piece of my karaage fell off my plate and the staff were super apologetic and went and grabbed me a single piece to replace it without my asking. I honestly believe they have the best table service in the Lismore area. It was lovely and cosy in the traditional seating booth and as if by universal intervention we were seated at table 12 (our lucky number). I highly recommend Banzai, it's higher priced but it's so,...