Hanamaruya Bankstown — Restaurant in Sydney

Hanamaruya is a small Japanese styled restaurant, with decent portions and well prepared food.

Initially I found the parking to be a little tricky, especially when all spaces on the front were taken. I managed to park around the back and get a spot, luckily the staff was kind enough to let us enter through their "take away" exit. For future reference I think it would be worthwhile allowing people to enter from there permanently.

The staff were positive and upbeat, the lady was Japanese through and through, the server was Vietnamese and I think there were a few Koreans inside also.

The food came out quick, the menu was incredibly large, the presentation was decent and food was pleasant to eat. I'm still very new to Japanese cuisine but I felt like everything was relatively fresh and well prepared.

What I didn't like was the music, and overall ambiance. I was hoping there would be some traditional or contemporary Japanese music in their venue, but sadly it was all American gangster hood music! This was a little immersion breaking and very odd.

I came back here on a separate occasion to expand on this review and was met with another annoyance. We came 15 minutes before lunch ended (although we didn't know) and ordered a really large sum of food. The lady was happy to accept our order and take our money, but 10 minutes in she kept standing around our table telling us that they are closing soon! I found that to be really rude and totally unlike any service in Japan. We paid the bill and left loads of food behind, I noticed she was eyeballing and doing the same thing to another table - Extremely rude!

To summarize, Hanamaruya is NOT an authentic Japanese restaurant - not by a long shot, they are far too rude. They do serve some Japanese food, but neither the cooks, waiters, music, quality or overall decor is truly 100% Japanese. What you're getting then is an imitation of a Japanese restaurant (possibly run by non Japanese people), with decent...

Wednesday 2nd October 2024 1pm - 2pm

Really like the assorted tempura. It was really crispy and had nice texture. But they should minus the broccoli 🥦... It doesn't match the tempura in general. This is the first Japanese restaurant I had tried first time and seeing broccoli tempura for the first time too. The other things were nice. Eggplant, sweet potato, and it's good they added the ebi (fried prawns) within the tempura dish. Makes it look like the combination of fried snacks. Really yummy too. And the way the dish was presented was absolutely nice. It stands out in that wide bowl they use. Had the ramen as well 🍜 I think the soup base is basically the same as "tonkatsu" flavour from the instant noodles packets you can buy from Tong Li or any supermarkets. The soup just tasted like that. Miso soup tasted like the ones you buy take away. I can tell the difference with the flavour. Croquettes were nice, but seemed to be frozen not fresh. Atmosphere was good giving a Japanese vibe. It reminded me of the old side of Tokyo eatery area when I was in Japan. But it's abit cramped. Which somehow might not be suitable for other people with dining comfort. I've had better Jap food elsewhere but this one in Bankstown is definitely much better than Yayoi Jap restaurant I tried at the Market City at Haymarket, Chinatown. Teriyaki chicken was ok. Had better. Also hot and also fresh. Service by the waiter was good. He was polite and calm. Didn't get his name sorry. And waitress was welcoming. As for the price, it's abit pricey but that's normal in Japanese restaurants. Just like having Thai food at Thai restaurants, they're expensive too. It's normal. So no complaints about that. About coming back next time is unsure. However, if I do go back there next time I'm definitely trying something different but definitely won't for the ramen, knowing what the soup base is. This is coming from someone who had chef and...

I haven't been to a single japanese restaurant/service anywhere in the world where I didn't have a bad experience or a misleading product/service. As a principle, I boycott all japanese products and services (Long story). But my friend wanted to go here so I gave in and went with her even though I was not expecting a good experience despite the good rating. So I was not surprised that the experience was bad, but I was shocked at the actual product I paid for.

I already checked the menu before we left so I knew I wanted the mini chicken ramen since I wasn't so hungry. The menu in the photo uploaded by customers on google maps is only from a year ago when it was $7.50. Pricy already for such a small serve. Now it was a WHOPPING $10 which is total ROBBERY!! Remember that it's a children's serve. That's a 33% increase in just one year! Nothing else increases that quickly, not your salary, your investment property, gold, nothing! Not only that, the noodles came without ANY chicken, only a slice of pork, and when I told them I ordered the chicken ramen, they said that it WAS the chicken ramen: the only difference between the chicken and the pork ramen is the chicken ramen is made with chicken soup. WOW. ARE YOU FOR REAL?! SO misleading! When I asked them to show me where it says that in the menu, they showed me how the description said "shoyu" with chicken soup. Instead of explaining what shoyu is, one has to refer to the normal sized shoyu menu item to find out what it consists of (noodles + pork). NOT...