Momo Sukiyaki & Shabu Shabu — Restaurant in Melbourne

I'm not one to typically write reviews, but the experience has created an otherwise enjoyable experience into one that has made me upset. In short, we got charged a 15% wastage food surcharge for leaving two servings of beef (8 thin slices per serving), plus one more serving roughly in the pot, so around 3 serves (approximately 300 grams). Let me explain how this happened.

I booked a table for two people at 6:30 pm. When we got there, we waited 10 minutes to be seated. We ordered all-you-can-eat shabu shabu at around 6:50 pm. We had to wait until 7:15 pm before the soup base arrived and another 5-10 minutes before our first order of food as all arrived. Naturally, we were a bit disappointed at the time it took for the food to arrive, considering when we made the online booking, the apparent time limit is 90 minutes and at this point, almost 1 hour has already passed. The time limit wasn't enforced though. We did not say anything about the time it taken, as I'm sure it was due to unforeseeable reasons at this point in time.

After we finished our first order, the waiter came to us and asked if we would like to order more. I kindly asked the waiter; if it would take a while for the food to arrive. He said yes, so we decided to order more so we didn't need to order a third time. So, to the best of our knowledge of our party's eating capacity and from the serving sizes, we ordered what we thought was just enough. However, as stated at the front, by the time our second order of food came, we overestimated by three plates roughly of thinly sliced beef.

Of course, food wastage should be avoided when possible, so I tried to offer other tables nearby if they would like our two plates of leftover beef, which all declined. We then decided to be upfront with the waiter and the manager, who came later, explaining that we accidentally over order three plates. Unfortunately, the manager said there would be a 15% surcharge due to wastage, which was written at the bottom right of the menu. I explained that due to the long wait time due to staff shortage, we order more so we did not have to order a third time, but we overestimated a bit if it would be possible to provide a gesture of goodwill and waive the excess charge.

I also explained that this was our first time here and was not fully aware of the system in place, and while yes, some food was wasted, I asked if they could waive the 15% excess surcharge, but unfortunately, they did not bulge. It was a delicious shabu shabu hot pot, but considering the long wait time to get seated and for food to arrive, I would have been very grateful if the fee wasn't added on. I was raving that, wow, this is a great shabu shabu restaurant and may come back again with more people in the future. While this may be the case still as I still enjoy the food, the 15% surcharge has left a sour taste in my mouth for a while.

One positive, however, was that the manager allowed us to cook the excess meat and takeaway it, so I will give credit for that so in essence, the 15% was charged for 'takeaway'. While I understand profit margins are tight in the restaurant industry and any food wastage adds on an unnecessary cost, because of all the factors I mentioned earlier, I believe they could have given a goodwill gesture, which would have been worth more than the $23.70 extra they charged us. The funny thing is, if I had sat there for 30 minutes or so for the food to digest, I could have forced myself to eat the remaining plates, and no wastage would have occurred, but I wanted to be upfront and be honest and let them know. While I fully respect the restaurant's decision, in the end, I wish they did not charge the fee, and anyone reading this who may be deciding to try this restaurant to consider that they are pretty strict in their food wastage policy and consider being conservative with how...

A last minute change of plans so we tried to book this restaurant and managed to get a table. The staff that took us in was nice and offered us pillows for the very low seat and high table combination but then it went downhill from here (I wish I took photos to backup what I’m conveying)

Soup base: The sukiyaki and yuzu soup base were both really salty, we added water to dilute it after it boils every time but it still didn’t help.

Wagyu Beef (Gone off) and Poor customer service: We ordered two different cuts the oyster blade and a more premium cut. When the plates came the colour of the beef was very questionable not red and turning into red grey. We didn’t think much and still cooked our pieces, when I ate it (premium cut) it was DEFINITELY OFF, we passed the plate around to smell and we all agreed the smell was off too so we called the manager over. We told her the story and she said, “ But there’s only 1 piece left. You guys ate the 3?” We replied, “We ate only 1 coz that’s how we knew it was off, the other two are here (tossed aside)” She took it into the kitchen and came out shortly after saying her and the chef tasted it and smelled it and it’s 100% not off…because they hand cut it freshly and that’s what wagyu should taste like.

We obviously were dumbfounded because it clearly was off - colour, smell and taste. And when she saw our faces she continued, “Okay I’m not going to argue with you but yes it’s not off we are happy to void that item (premium cut) for you because there’s no point for you to order it again since it’s from the same slice of beef)

The way of communication was appalling and frankly not great customer service…just because our item was void does not mean anything, that in itself does not equal good customer service.

My friend and I went to another wagyu bbq grill in South Yarra the next day to see if we really didn’t know our sh*t about wagyu. Nope we were happy and had a great time chomping down all the wagyu.

So in conclusion, both the food and the customer service are not worth it for you to come here. Pay a little more for quality meat and the service you...

Reviews of two visits: First visit: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Great sukiyaki experience with lots of soup base choices. Meat was fresh and tender, goes so well with the raw egg. However, the meat quality was not consistent enough. The first few plates that came were well marbled and I can see that it decreases after we started ordering more.

The restaurant was a little bit understaffed that day as we always need to look for staffs to help us order things.

Overall, it was a great experience as a sukiyaki all you can eat. Definitely worth the money ❤️

——————————— Second visit: ⭐️ (in July) Visited again because we had a great experience last time. Unfortunately it was very very disappointing. We booked our table at 6, and we were only be able to finish at 9. The meat came so slow even though it’s raw and we are the one cooking it? It took them 40 minutes to bring us the meat in the first round. Just what are they doing in the kitchen? We came with 4 people in both times, last time we were full after 10 plates, but this time we had to order 25, the portion was definitely smaller.

There was a promotion of a limited edition truffle soup base on their Instagram page, it says free of charge but we were told that it is $10 extra. We brought out the post about the promotion to show at the staff, the staff that served us did not know about it so they had to ask the manager, which was fine. Until they took my phone away to show the manager, like… what?! Couldn’t they ask the manager to come over or something, they seriously just took my phone away. The manager returned to our table after and said that we can get a “discount” because we showed them the post? There was no extra requirement in the posts about only showing them the promotion will be free of charge. Don’t bother to try the truffle soup anyways, barely any truffle taste and it’s probably just a few drops of truffle oil. It was a waste of time to come here again, I’m sure I can get a better experience somewhere else with the same price.

** First two photos are from the first visit and the last two photos are from the...