Chayō — Restaurant in Melbourne

Been here many times - overall food is fine but inconsistent. (Maybe my standards have gotten higher since a recent trip to Japan 😅)

The lunch menu has changed a little recently. Tried out the aburi salmon bowl and it was okay. Salmon could have done with a little bit more char. Overall it was a bit flat and lacking some brightness and texture. Compared to the one we have at Calia on a semi regular basis - koshihikari rice lacks some acidity. It’s also served with only a simple soy sauce to pour over which leaves your palate searching for some more sweetness and umami. Miso soup on the side is made with shiro miso. Again consistency is an issue - sometimes the dashi base is good, sometimes it just tastes very watery and bland. I get the hunch sometimes the miso is boiled for too long as well, a few times I’ve had it there has been almost no miso flavour or fragance.

Cakes are tasty, often made with seasonal fruits but recently it has been getting a little too sweet, and the texture of the sponge is not as fluffy and moist as it used to be. The matcha tart is a banger though; filling is smooth and melty and tastes exactly like Royce chocolate, contrasts well with the texture of the tart crust.

I think it is probably most worth coming here for their dessert and drinks - you can definitely find much better Japanese/ Japanese fusion food in Melbourne elsewhere. If you had to get food, teishoku options, especially the ones with grilled fish are probably the best dishes on the menu. However, I always wish they came with more side dishes rather than just miso and a small leafy green salad. Would recommend anyone who wants to have a full teishoku experience to visit Torissong in Carlton. Not too different on price point but definitely leaves you a lot more satisfied.

3 stars for the food overall but 2.5/5 stars for the service and prices. Other reviews have mentioned the default 10% tip added on to the online ordering system, which is just a bit...

Our visit today left us such with such a bad experiemce that we would never come back to Chayo, despite being a frequent patron to the restaurant since it first opened a couple of years ago. If it wasn't for the quality of F&B and our experience in the past, I would have given this review 1 star. Especially when we have place our trust in the restaurant to celebrate a friend's achievement. After having their share of dessert, my daughter managed to get her Ikea plastic cup and somehow found it entertaining tapping it to the display windows while I was busy handling my other son for my wife to finish up the food. It was my fault not noticing and refraining my daughter from doing so. However, as she had just been doing it for only about 20-30 seconds, a staff member, without letting me know of the situation, came right after her, grabbed the cup and threw it to the sink. Then she came to give us a scolding and proceeded to clean up our table, leaving me still trying to figure out what had just happened. Now, it was our fault not having the kid tapping the display windows, I apologised for that. However, there were other ways of handling the situation. I could have been told what my kid had been doing so I can educate her properly, or she could have come and letting my kid know that her action wasn't appropriate. But no, none of that happened. Instead, it was an angry person aggressively responded to a kid being kid, gave a fit, scolded the customers then signaled them the leave. Thanks for having us as customers up to now. A great place to enjoy great Japanese food. Not so great for having...

I was looking forward to eating here for a long time, finally decided to try to vegetarian curry. The food itself was delicious, but the service left a lot to be desired. It took an hour of waiting to receive my meal, I understand that it’s a very popular and busy cafe, but I saw my meal sit ready for 10 minutes while staff continued to take other orders. I am happy to wait for good food especially if there is communication, but an hour is pretty ridiculous especially when I had to prompt the servers to deliver it to my table and it could’ve been sitting there for who knows how much longer.

There were also multiple things I wasn’t very happy with about the meal. It was a pretty small serving size for the price, barely enough rice for the curry and a pinch of salad. The “half boiled egg” was hard boiled and cold, I only got half of one egg which felt a bit stingey. The eggplant and capsicum in the dish were not cooked enough, the eggplant was still bitter and hard and as those were the majority of the vegetables served with the curry it impacted the dish a lot. I was super excited to go to this cafe and the curry base itself was delicious, the toppings and pickles were yummy but I was pretty disappointed with the service and the wait time for very average food. I might be back, but I would encourage staff to be more aware of meals that are already completed and prioritise getting those to customers. I would also recommend hiring more staff as it is a very popular cafe and I really do want to support its success, more staff would allow all customers to get the...