Toyama Japanese Cuisine — Restaurant in Melbourne

BEWARE

I don't normally write reviews, but my experience here was absolutely ridiculous.

I came here with my wife and 2 year old son, paying for the all you can eat buffet.

They will give you tiny serves of the regular dishes (eg. beef, sushi etc) and absolutely MASSIVE serves of the cheap stuff like fried rice and edamame beans.

The fried rice alone is enough to feed 4 people, and I specifically asked for a small serve just to feed my 2 year old. The bowl was absolutely mounded.

Sounds like a good thing, but they then proceed to charge you $15 for each dish that isn't 100% finished. Such a sleezy business model and they definitely do this on purpose.

Attached is a photo of the leftover fried rice and edamame beans we had, which we were charged $15 per dish for. When is the last time you paid $15 for a plate of edamame beans? 😂

Do yourself a favour and go to Kanda instead. Same street, better service.

EDIT in response to owner reply:

Your little thumbnails on the menu give no sense of scale, it just looks like a regular small bowl of rice. Plus I specifically said "just a small serve for the child".

Of course we enjoyed ourselves before paying the bill - because that was before we were made aware that you were charging $15 for a half eaten bowl of fried rice. And it was half eaten, not untouched.

You say you didn't charge for our 2 year old as if it's a favor to us, but you advertise free meals for under 3 year olds. It's part of your marketing tactic to get people in. You're not doing us any favours.

And I was extremely friendly with our waiter the whole night. Me saying to the person at the register that the surcharge is ridiculous isn't being rude, it's simply letting you know that what you're doing is wrong.

And yes, I didn't pay the surcharge in the end because I stayed back and forced myself to eat the leftovers out of principal. Still doesn't make what you tried to do any less ridiculous. We're already paying $100 for 2 adults and a toddler who barely eats. You don't need another $15 for...

This was my first time trying this Japanese restaurant.

At first it seemed great, the waitress was pleasant and they offered all-you-can-eat for about $43 pp, so we opted for that.

We were told the conditions, which were that we had 90 mins to order/eat. The waitress said we could order as much off the menu as we wanted, but that the last round of ordering had to be at least 15 mins before our 90 mins was up.

We ordered about 5 of the tapa sized things off the menu to start and easily ate through it all. It tasted okay, except for the sushi options, which were not of good quality.

After we ate through the first round of about 5 plates (shared by 2 people), we decided we wanted to order a few more things before asking for the bill (we still had 45 mins left, btw).

Only issue was, no one wanted to come to our table! My partner and I were looking at each other and started laughing a bit because it was so obvious we were being avoided, which was a joke. There was only 1 other table at this point, so they were not busy!

So basically, ‘all-you-can-eat’ at this restaurant means that after you order a few things, they don’t want you to order more food. And if you do flag someone down to order a few more plates, they will resent you. I felt so uncomfortable that I actually apologised for ordering more! The waitress was emotionless at that point, so I guess they really felt put out that 2 people actually wanted to order more food with their remaining 45 mins of sitting time. I was confused because they made it seem like they’d keep checking on us during the 90 mins, but clearly that was not the case!

I actually think they were hoping that after 40 mins into it, we would pay and leave, even though it was not busy in there.

Really disappointing that the vibe changed when we wanted to order more things off the menu and were made to feel unwelcome.

Next time I will choose one of the other Japanese restaurants in Ivanhoe. Definitely not...

Fake Japanese Restaurant but pricey at Japanese food price but actually selling chinese food. Went there on 29 Oct 2017. Ordered main dish Yakizakana, Wafu Steak, Bento.

Yakizakana cost at AUD23.80 only grilled salmon with Chinese style stirred fried vege. Is not a complete meal. Have to order additional rice, at AUD3, only normal rice not japanese grade rice. Shouldnt use the Japanese name Yakizakana, should be called typical chinese style sizzling Salmon with stirred fried vege.

Wafu steak cost at AUD 25.80 only few cubes beef meat with the exactly same Chinese Style stirred fried vege. Not a complete meal either. Have to order additional rice at AUD3, only normal rice not Japanese grade rice. Shouldnt use the Japanese name Wafu Steak, instead chinese style beef with sauce with stirred fired vege.

Bento the chicken meat not cooked properly, informed the waiter but very defensive and said that is due to marination color.

The name of the restaurant, Toyama, the interior design and decorative everything looks so Japanese. But please dont get fooled and cheated, they are only selling Chinese Food. If you want chinese food just go to chinese restaurant but not his fake Japanese restaurant!

Shouldnt use the Japanese name and pricey at Japanese Food price if only selling Chinese food.

Going to complain to ACCC regarding this Restaurant using False or misleaading statement advertising their restaurant name and menu.

Never go there again.

Dear Intelligent consumer, Please dont be fooled and cheated by this fake...