KAGAMI Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Melbourne

Hey guy,

Friend took me here for a treat. Price is $34.50 per head, minimum two people. It's an all you can eat.

I'll start from the best to worst.

The seaweed salad is without a doubt the best thing you can get on the menu. It tastes good, and it doesn't taste old and dry. It's juicy and goes well with almost everything you eat it with !

Vegetable kakiage was pretty good, it's just fried vegetables but honestly it doesn't taste cheap like the rest of the menu.

The takoyaki (I'm not huge on takoyaki, so that says something if it's the third best from what we had lol).

Prawn gyoza was mediocre, I felt like it was fried over water and then with oil after.

In this specific order, teriyaki beef, miso beef and then yakiniku beef. I thought the beef was a bit too chewy, but the miso beef in particular was too sweet for my liking. My friends thought there wasn't enough miso though.

All the sushi platter in no particular order, the rice was very old and dry and hard. I didn't feel like it was worth ordering considering the carbs and filling. I didn't have the salmon sashimi but my friend struggled to eat it and he's a big fan of sashimi. He said it wasn't fresh.

Seafood tempura was mostly fried batter, didn't taste the seafood and the rest were just vegetables in fried batter.

Chicken karage which we ordered first but came out last. It was really hard and dry as you can see in the picture. I think they might have forgotten it in the fryer or let it simmer because it wasn't hot at all, we struggled to finish it.

The dessert wasn't too bad. My friend was a huge fan of the mochi and sesame ice cream. I was a fan of the matcha ice cream.

To be honest, despite the review. Just keep in mind that it's an all you can eat buffet. You'll eventually get your money's worth in quantity.

But quality wise, you're better off going to a sushi train joint.

The service was the most pleasant experience. Majority of staffs were extremely nice, friendly and accommodating.

The table and setting was quite clean.

You'd have to have a good reasoning to come here otherwise I'd settle for...

My friends and I are not Okami newbies, we have always enjoyed dining at Okami as we love Japanese food and the whole all you can eat experience and we have never had a bad experience until tonight here at Footscray and this is the first time we tried dining here. Whilst we do understand that they have a food wastage policy, we still do find it unreasonable for them to charge $50 for our leftover of 1 plate of rice and 1 plate of gyoza is just too much. This isnt the only reason why we are not satisfied but the below: They took our orders and didnt advise us that their serving is good enough for our table ( there were 4 of us ) instead they let us order 2 sets of the same. They didnt serve our other orders and never advised us if it’s still coming or not and we just didnt follow them up as we realised we already have too much food. Yes it worked out in our favour as we didnt have more than what we had anymore but it wouldve been nice if we were told that they wouldnt bring our other order anymore as we were waiting and thinking if theyre still gonna come. We didnt receive our beef and chicken orders, udon and seaweed salad. When we complained about them wanting to charge $50 for our leftover, they said they will just charge the ala carte amount for the food left. We said they cant do that cos the food left isnt full serving so why charge the ala carte amount.

We think that they need to revisit their food wastage policy and have a more reasonable charge. Their menu should say if the specific food is a big serving or not especially cos they have a bigger serving compared to other Okamis so if the fried rice you ordered before comes in a small plate and usually good for 1-2, here their serving is double than that. We appreciate that they were able to accept our booking but the overall experience in this Okami is not what we expected and this makes us not want to come back to this particular Okami anymore. We still love Okami tho thats why im okay to give 2 stars but for this particular one? And after having to argue the $50 food wastage charge?...

Menu order: Miso soup, Chawan mushi, Sushi & sashimi platter, Edamame, Teriyaki chicken skewers, Beef carpaccio, Agedashi tofu, Vegetable gyoza, Takoyaki, Potato croquette, Squid salad, Seaweed salad, Special garden salad, Seafood tempura, Cold soba, Vegetable with garlic sauce, Steamed vegetables, Green tea, Vanilla and Black seasame ice-cream and Daifuku.

Food Quality:Ordering was simple and we ordered quite a lot for a 2 hour sit. Food quality overall though was average. There were some dishes that stood out the most with flavour and texture whilst others lacked even some seasoning which really questions the authenticity of the chef. For example, the miso soup tasted incredibly bland as if we were drinking mostly hot water, the Tempura was quite battery and oily for our liking and Cold soba had Vietnamese elements to it which confused my taste-buds. The ice-creams were just average, probably similar to things you would buy at Dessert Story. Some of our favourite dishes were the Beef carpaccio, Agedashi tofu, Gyoza, Squid salad and Vegetable with garlic sauce.

Service: Prompt and timely (The service was prompt and we were seated immediately, due to a booking). The waiters and waitress were attentive to when we finished our plates and took them away to clear the table. At times though it did seem like they were too eager to take away our plates. However, you could always get their attention on the floor which is a big plus for us.

Pricing: Absolutely cheap for the ‘all-you-can-eat’ aspect. Location: Convenient location on Hopkins Street. For people going for dinner, please book and you can park around the corner.

Ambiance/Atmosphere: Typical of a fast-pace restaurant. Very busy and music seemed a bit disjointed, but when you’re stuffing your face with food non-stop, the music choice doesn’t seem that important anymore.

Conclusion: This type of Japanese All-You-Can-Eat is awesome, however I suggest going to...