Japan Inn — Restaurant in Melbourne

Summary: not a great experience 😕

I booked a table for 2 at 7:30pm on a Saturday.

Read a lot of great reviews, so I was quite excited to try out this restaurant, but I left feeling rather disappointed.

PROS: we were served with a generous portion of pickled bean sprouts which tasted great (albeit a bit salty) while waiting for one of the waitress to take our orders food came out quickly, despite being super busy the tempura and the miso scallops were definitely the highlight for us - in terms of taste and presentation; it was impeccable.

CONS: the raw sashimi was not edible ☹️

This was the main reason for me writing the review. I'm not sure if I'm the only one who happened to draw the short end of the stick - but the sashimi just ruined what could of been an excellent meal. It was really disappointing especially after trying some really good entrees. Mains were just average.

I ordered an entree (9 pieces) of maguro (tuna) sashimi.

For some reason the sashimi was last to arrive on the table. Contrary to what others had experienced in the reviews, it was the worse sashimi I've ever had. I actually couldnt swallow it, because it smelled and tasted extremely fishy (it was a warm day so it might have gone off). It was the only dish that we could not finish. If it had arrived first, I would of cancelled the rest of our order after trying it and...

Absolutely disgraceful would be an understatement.

I placed a phone take away order at 6:50pm and was told to collect my order at 7:10pm.

I arrived at 7:15pm and then waited at the front counter for 10 minutes before I was attended to and was told my order was not ready but to come back in 10 minutes.

I waited in my car and then returned to collect my order at 7:45 and yet again it was 10 minutes of waiting at the front counter before I was attended to and I was then told they lost my order but would like like a free complimentary soft drink as no food would be coming...I promptly left before exploding.

That's a over an hour of my life I'll never get back but really disappointing was when I arrived home a table was set & wife and kids were looking forward...

Great place for a casual but not so casual dinner. Environment was casual, no fancy furnitures & the lighting was too bright, it killed the atmosphere. They used disposable chopsticks which I don't like. The food was amazingly good, they were fancy restaurant's standard, can't fault any of the dish we ordered. Service was a plus too, it was a busy night but the waitresses were still managed to fulfil all the requests with smiles on their faces. Not many choices for the sake, but both types we ordered were both delicious in their own way, very different flavours. Definitely will go back & definitely will recommend to...