Hukuya Sushi Bar Eastwood — Restaurant in Sydney

I recently went here with 2 friends, one of which has been a regular for 15 years, but after our visit none of us will be returning.

We made a reservation for 6:30pm over the phone for 3 people, where they informed us they have a 60 minute seating policy in place. I thought this was quite unusual for a dine-in restaurant, but we accepted anyway as we are all fast-eaters.

On the day of the booking, to ensure we were not late we ended up arriving around 6:15. There was a large queue so we were happy to wait until our booking time, but the waitress sat us at the table early. The owner (who works behind the sushi bar) and his wife know my friend as he is a regular, and they greeted each other when we entered.

However when we were trying to order, the owner’s wife seemed to be ignoring us for whatever reason- we were calling out to her, gesturing to her but she would just walk by. Later she said she didn’t see/hear us, which is honestly quite strange as the restaurant is very very small. We eventually ordered a deluxe sashimi, and conscious of time, ordered a deluxe sushi when the former arrived.

When the sushi arrived, we wanted to order tempura, but the owner’s wife interrupted us saying “You know you guys only have 25 min left, right?”. It was about 6:35pm. Confused, we asked why. She replied very irritably that we had arrived late. Even more confused, we said we had come early, and our booking was 6:30 so shouldn’t we be able to sit until 7:30? She gets more irritated and snaps “What are you talking about, your booking was 6pm so you were 15 min late!”

We insisted it was 6:30 so she scoffed and went to the reservations book to prove us wrong. She saw that our booking was indeed 6:30 and gave a very insincere “Okay my bad” and walked off. According to my friend, the owner’s wife has always been quite rude to customers, but I was still quite surprised.

We continued eating and at 7:05 we put in our last order for 3 cold soba with the waitress. As she went to give the order, the owner’s wife approached and said something to her. The waitress then returns and says “We can’t do it, you only have 25 minutes left so by the time it’s ready you need to leave.”

We deliberately chose soba as it doesn’t take too long to prepare, and it was only just over half of our 60 minutes. I questioned the waitress about this and she went back to the owner’s wife. The waitress comes back saying “Alright fine we’ll do it.”, like we had asked them a favour. My friend was starting to get embarrassed as we had come to Hukuya on his insistence, and he has always raved about this place. We asked her why they were trying to just push customers out the door, but the waitress interrupted with “Why are you complaining to me, the kitchen was the one that rejected it.”

We’re quite upset at this point when the owner’s wife decides to walk over and snaps “What is your problem, we said we’ll do the soba!” My friend said we weren’t upset because of the soba but because of the shocking customer service. The owner comes over and asks what’s going on. My friend starts explaining to him the situation, but the owner interrupts saying “Lower your voice!!! there are customers here.” We ask him if we are not customers. My friend asks him if he had ever been late to a reservation, or had he ever left their restaurant without tipping their staff. By this time, I was so shocked by the rude treatment that I said to my friend “This place is unbelievable. I don’t know why you praised this place so much.” The owner then just says “Oi you three, you don’t have to pay so get out!!!”

We paid and left. Just for context, our group, myself included are in our late 50’s. We don’t have the temperament, time nor the motive to cause trouble and yet we found ourselves being treated like gangsters. I hope whoever reads this thinks twice about going, as you will just be treated like a...

I have been to this restaurant since I was a kid (20 years ago!) and I still love this place. Their food is always fresh and the owner/main chef is always friendly. It is my go to place for fresh sushi and sashimi. However, lately the restaurant has hired new staff, and they are quite rude. During my visit last weekend, a couple of things happened: (A) at an adjacent table, there was a couple sitting comfortably and ready to order. Then this waitress (who was wearing her face mask incorrectly by the way - what’s the point of wearing a face mask if you don’t even bother using it to cover your nose and mouth...?) went over to the couple and asked them to move elsewhere (after she was the one who asked them to sit there in the first place). The lady was clearly annoyed and said to her partner : “I am quite comfortable here and I really don’t like to be asked to move.”. Of course they left...I would too, as much as I loved this restaurant. (B) When that same waitress was serving us food, her hands kept on almost-touching my sashmi. So, whenever I feel her coming near, I had to put my hand over my food so her hands cannot touch my food. It was quite disgusting.

(C) Unfortunately that same waitress was also quite rude to us during other visits to this restaurant. On our second last visit she kept on pushing us to order food, after we have only sat down for 20 seconds and barely had a chance to look at the menu. She kept on asking us to order no less than three times within a 2 minute window after we sat down. By the fourth time my partner was so annoyed he had to tell her to stop harassing us. (D) On that second last visit too, she also allowed a customer to stand behind us to pressure us to finish our food faster so she can have our table. It is quite uncalled for. It was also extremely rude how that customer had the balls to come over to us and said she wants our seat! And that waitress allowed her to do that.

Anyway, that was the last two times I visited and I really didn’t like the new staff line up. To be honest because the food there is still really good, and the owner/chef guy is forever so lovely, I will still go back. But I really think they need to re-train their staff to act more...

Positives: Nice, thick portioning of fish Fish is relatively fresh. Nice food presentation and sashimi assortment

Negatives: Customer service/ambience. Made a reservation and the waiter served everyone but us, despite knowing that we are waiting on her, so we felt very ignored. Also a little stressful - need to finish food within an hour despite making a booking over a week earlier, especially for a large group of people. The oysters taste extremely old. You can taste they've been in the fridge for over 24 hours. Worst dish of the night, and enough to make me never come back. Expensive Teriyaki Chicken was standard. Nothing special at all. Takoyaki was also standard, and lacking compared to other Japanese restaurants I've been to. Not a wide variety on the menu. Was hoping to see some ramen; however, they do not have this. They ONLY serve uncooked fish, which was unexpected. They also didn't even have cooked tuna. Very surprising.

Gave two stars for the 'decent' quality of fish and generous portion sizing. However, friends have continually recommended this place. But it certainly does not live up to that expectation.

Noticed there were much nicer Japanese restaurants close by. Would recommend going there instead of a place that only allows you to stay for one hour, is overpriced, and has horrible customer service. Not very nice to be continually reminded and babysat about what time to finish. Really ruined the experience and made it all 10x...