Waya Japanese — Restaurant in Melbourne

Today we had our usual games and were discussing what should we have for lunch. Last week we had Vietnamese food and prior was Korean. So this time, we wanted Japanese. So we drove to Kings Way and went into this Japanese restaurant and Oh, we have been here before. So let's see again.

Service & Ambience [3]. Today we are lucky to have friendly staff - yes, young staff and pretty proactive. We didn't take too long to be guided to a table. Inside, the place is rather tight with tables quite close, especially if someone sitting behind you. We tried ordering via the QR quote but couldn't find one item so we have a staff wrote our order. The food came pretty quick though it's quite busy. This time, we didn't pay attention on what music play at the background.

Food [3]. We want to believe their food have gotten better but... We didn't find the sashimi fresh and portion is rather small. We had different ramen and one of which is powered with saltiness.

While we sat waiting for our food, I read my own review done 11 months ago, hoping we won't disappoint. Hmm ....

11 months ago.

Surprisingly a warm and sunny Sunday and what a great day to be out. Japanese food is our next in our To Eat list so today is just the day.

Service & Ambience [3]. We gotten a table quite quickly as is past peak hours. We placed our orders and the food came quite immediately, in fact faster than a fast food restaurant! Disappointingly, the restaurant play English pop songs that spoilt the decorations and settings. It would be great to have Japanese songs or music. And what's missing and I found in some Japanese restaurants here is, the staff dont't welcome customers in the traditional Japanese Welcome greetings "いらっしゃいませ" (Irasshaimase). Would be nice.

Food [3] While I commented the food arrived quite quickly, their taste won't the best. The deep fried pork lack taste in my fried udon and the pork katsu don. The pork in the ramen soup are too thick. Unagi rice, are those Japanese rice? We had better beef tataki than this. Anyway, these are our review and might various with others.

Lastly cash payment is recommended unless you are happy to pay the...

TLDR: Mediocre, lacked Japanese Authenticity, go somewhere else.

This is my second time coming here, was a good experience the first time.

Food was Mediocre at best. Carrots in the Japanese curry was like bullets. Potatoes were pretty good, soft. The curry was quite runny, almost like soup. But something was lacking with the curry flavour.

The Kakuni Tonkatsu ramens pork was way too thick, fatty and lacked taste. The ramens broth was pretty meh, quite bland compared to other ramen I have tried, I thought I had covid at this point haha. Egg was just a soft boiled egg, not those traditional soy sauced soft boiled eggs. NGL, the Chinese instant noodles at the Chinese grocers would've tasted better.

The only saving grace was the takoyaki, you can't go wrong with a good takoyaki, crispy, good amount of bento flakes and sauce.

Food was served quick but was served way quicker than drinks. (Feels like chef mic had a role in this 👀). By the time the drinks arrived we were already 3/4 finished with our food.

I ordered an 'Iced strawberry green tea' only to receive the hot strawberry green tea. When I questioned a different waiter about the mistake, no apology was made for the error or response, just a poker face and taking the drink to be redone. The waiter took the hot beverage and poured this into a cup full of ice. When receiving it back the waiter just dumped the drink onto the table, this just leaves a bad taste. It was basically a warm tea at this point, drink was pure disappointment. Even the room temperature tap water tasted better. The analogy for this is basically like sending cold food back only to get chef mic (microwave) to microwave the food along with the plate and telling you it was cooked more.

Not only that, my partner ordered a drink also but she didn't even end up receiving it as the initial waiter didn't even handwrite the order but to only to memorise the order and manually enter it into the system.

Honestly, something was lacking theres no Japanese authenticity basically tasted like Chinese touch into Japanese food. Best off taking your money to another restaurant...

I work locally, and frequently come for lunch and take away when I haven’t brought my own lunch. Staff are always so friendly, service is pretty quick, food is delicious, and prices aren’t too bad.

I came for dinner last Sunday evening with a friend. We called to book a table that same week and they were quick to answer the phone and book us a table - no issues.

We were easily able to order through their QR code and pay at the front at the end of the night. Service was relatively quick - we’d put an order in for food, and I’d say not even 30 minutes later it would appear on our table. We ordered salmon sushi, a sashimi plate, tofu, tempura vegetables, beef skewers, and pork dumplings. Pictured is everything mentioned minus the tempura vegetables (which arrived after we took this image).

Staff were really friendly - I ordered a lemon honey tea and downed it pretty quickly. When staff came to deliver food I asked if they could add more hot water to the cup and they did so with no issues nor extra charge.

Staff are always so friendly and never fail to smile when you’re speaking with them. This has been consistent from my lunches to this recent dinner.

Definitely a space I’ll continue to go to, and book out for dinners...