Izu Village — Restaurant in Sydney

With George Street still an ongoing disaster zone from the Liberal Government’s overtime and over-budget light rail fiasco, it’s a tough ask getting into Izu Village. However, once you have dodged the luminous orange Coates Hire barricades, & taken the claustrophobic rat run up the narrow fenced off pavement, if you climb the stairs, you’re in for a nice surprise.

The orderly, 130-seater Japanese restaurant seems worlds away from the chaotic mess downstairs. Blonde wood panelling divides the space into a series of more intimate spaces. Window-front tables bathed in natural light are treated to clever wooden screening that lets in the trees while neatly hiding Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s light rail disaster down below. Highlighted with a warm, golden glow, pretty tiled roof tops sit over a row of secluded booths, each dressed up as an intimate dining room for your private Japanese dining adventure.

You’re here to eat a timed Japanese Hot Pot Buffet ($68/person), & you have 90 minutes to do it in. The timer starts once you place your order with the plentiful, smartly clad floor team. A nicely illustrated menu gives you some idea of the options available but doesn’t really explain the process all that well, so I’ll try to give you some idea of what to do...

First you need to select what kind of broth you’d like in your hot pot. Make one side sukiyaki, a slow-cooked vegetable & marrow bone broth. It will come with a fresh beaten egg dip that’s particularly creamy and delicious on thinly sliced meat. We opted for Japanese-style super spicy broth for the other side, though in retrospect I’d go for the miso soup because it comes with an even tastier hot miso dip.

You’ll also be offered a sashimi platter, but this is a one-off affair. Everything else in the menu can be ordered again as you see fit. Like most hot pot style meals, everything arrives as an avalanche, making you wonder if you’ve gone too far. We kick off with the sashimi – a nicely presented selection of tuna, salmon, tender ark clam & scampi in the shell all served on ice. A gloved-up waitress quickly arrives to peel the scampi, getting our eating underway.

While your hot pots are getting up to the boil, assuage your hunger with sushi. There are six types, so you can either fight over who gets what, or order them in pairs. Remember: your favourites can be re-ordered.

Vegetables come in two different ways. Firstly, there is a whole menu page of seasonal appetisers, which you can order at will. We liked the Japanese mushroom salad, the thinly sliced pickled cucumber & crisp mustard radish, as they all represent nice ways to clear your palate between forays into the steaming hot soups. You can also visit the Vegetable Bar with the black bowl you’ll find on your table. More than just vegetables, it’s stocked with many of the same ingredients you’ll find in a malatang joint. This includes crab claws, cheese fish tofu logs, lobster balls, & awesome little cheese & sticky rice balls that I’d never tried before. Just trying two of each item gave us a brimming bowl of ingredients to try out in our duelling soups. Don't neglect actual vegetables - wood ear fungus, enoki, shitake & mini king oyster mushrooms, & little sections of juicy corn, all come up very well in the lightly spicy soup.

To get the best value for your spend, you’re going to want to include meat. There are four options available – wagyu chuck, wagyu shoulder, pork shoulder & lamb. Kick off with one of each, & see what you like best. “Just ten seconds to cook the beef, ten seconds. It’s very tender & juicy,” our sweet and patient waitress advises. The wagyu chuck comes up best in the sukiyaki broth, cooked exactly as she recommends, then dragged through the raw beaten egg. My other surprising favourite is the lamb, done exactly the same way, then given a bit of kick with miso chilli dip.

Non-alcoholic drinks are included with your set meal spend. You’ll find everything from wintermelon tea to Calpis displayed in shiny silver canisters. If you want the harder stuff, order it from...

25/09/2018 I have never ever write a review before, but this is a real dissappointment.

If I could give minus, I would, and I should’ve check this restaurant’s reviews first b4 come here. All the 5 STARS in reviews are all lying, DO NOT BELIEVE IT !!! It was truly dissappointment!

First, when we saw this restaurant, we were so excited about it, cos it was the first JAPANESE HOT POT in Sydney. We came in, we were 5 ppl waiting on the top of stairs for someone to serve us, apparently some other CHINESE just cut our line and they were served first by them, and then when it was our turn, they start talking in Mandarin, when none of us speak Mandarin.

We sat down, and the price for buffet cost like $68 per head. Sashimi Platter only 1 for ea table, no cutleries were prepared for the hot pot and scampi sashimi(it was whole scampi with the shell as well) so we have to crack it bare-handed. Food was served, in a very small amount(udon, handmade noodle and rice), and do you know what’s worse ? All the dishes (sushi plate, sashimi platter, noodle, and rice) that we had finished were just laying down on our table, NO ONE came to pick it up when even they took the dishes for the meat ! Need to asked the staff for ordering and refilling the soup so many times and every one of them says ‘OK’ but never really came. Sukiyaki was not like the real sukiyaki and Spicy soup was a bit weird flavour. Meat only 4 kinds(2 kinds of wagyu, 1 pork and 1 lamb) and thinly sliced. Desserts was in a very tiny portion for ice cream, creme brule, pudding, almond parfait and strawberry parfait(i know pictures only references but this is totally different from that). Mango ice and matcha ice were not sweet at all, it was like eating shaved ice but just in different colour. Cherry Crystal no taste !

90 minutes is a small amount of time for buffet especially hot pot. Once we hit 90 minutes, the staff just came to our table telling us that the dining time is over and please go to the counter to pay and says our table number. We were still having our desserts but had to leave cos we were not allow to stay in the restaurant when we hit 90 minutes!

We do not think we will return again to this restaurant.

Place/Design ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Food ...

I ordered Mini Hot Pot set A and for this price the food was quite good, although that's true that there wasn't many veggies (don't get me wrong it was an okay amount, so I don't complain, but I hoped for more or at least for it to be a bit more diverse). However, unfortunately there are quite a few issues. First of all, it was very crowded and loud despite it only being early lunch time (but if that was the only problem, I could overlook it as it is quite a popular place right in the middle of the city). Sadly my my biggest issue was next one, namely - the dining experience itself, which was really uncomfortable as the individual stations are right next to each other making very little space on the table for food or anything else (I bearly fit my plates on the table space designated for me). This situation force you to squize between two strangers to the point when any wider movement of your hands creates a risk of hitting person on either side! And I understand the optimisation of the space to fit the most people, but in my opinion it went too far there (also before anyone will ask/comment - No, it isn't my first time to seat at communal counter seating in the restaurant, I do it quite often). And finally my last issue is the stuff which is literally ignoring you - after I finished my food I obviously went to the cash register (where there wasn't anyone) to pay and was ignored for over 15min standing there. What's even more irritating there was there one of the stuff just sitting comfortably on the hair and scrolling through her phone! She didn't reacted at all (even though she looked at me few times) until I specifically went up to her and told her that I want to pay and only then did she graciously get up looking at me annoyed and went to get another employee to help me pay. I understand that she could have been on a break or maybe it isn't her job in the restaurant to check people out, however I also work in customer service and I would never behave this way towards customer!

To sum up, for its price the food is okay, but if you don't like crowds and zero customer service, I would pass on this...