Jugemu & Shimbashi — Restaurant in Sydney

Jugemu is located along military road in neutral bay. There are two entrances into the restaurant, but doesn’t matter which side you choose it’s the same restaurant and menu. Theres two types of seating though, left side has normal tables and right side has normal tables plus sunken tables. Reservations are highly recommended as this restaurant is popular, in the past I’ve never been able to get a table walking in.

Jugemu specialises in authentic teppanyaki hot plate grill, okonomiyaki pancakes & shimbashi their hand made soba noodles. The pancake is beautifully decorated with mayo and tastes really nice. While soba noodles come with nice dipping broth, there’s actually only a small amount of soba noodles (not made for sharing). ‘Oroshi’ soba is my favourite dish, it looks like a bibimbap but once all the ingredients are mixed together the flavours all complement each other and taste delicious (Oroshi taste best cold). The duck and Japanese mushroom soba has a nice hot dipping broth, however there wasn’t enough ingredients to go with the soba (there was only one slice of duck from memory). If you’re paying $28 for a meal, I expect to see more slices of duck and mushroom! All the dishes seem quite expensive and small, however I did enjoy the food. The chef has done a good job with the flavours of each dish.

Overall, the average spend per person you’re looking between $20-40, since the portions are small you’ll be more than likely to order more. The main highlights for me are the savoury pancakes & hand made soba noodle dishes...

It's so-so. The restaurant has a nice atmosphere created by the design and decor, with darumas seated around every corner. It holds a focused traditional Japanese menu with main options allowing you to choose between Udon or Soba as your noodle of preference.

Alongside this, you can also select whether you prefer a separate soup with cold noodles or noodles bathing in hot soup. So they give you a nice selection off the bat to cater towards anyone who is a fan of Japanese noodles.

However, the dishes fail to deliver what I consider a top-tier Japanese flavourful experience and plays it quite safe with it's delivery. While it utilises some traditional elements that are unique to Japanese cuisine, it doesn't quite meet the real deal.

For me, the nabeyaki udon was a warm and comforting pot of noodles and vegetables - but the flavours stayed separate and did not work together as I had hoped. My tsukemen soba was on the other end, with cold noodles separate from the soup, the soba ended up tasteless and undercooked. Despite being handmade and prepared fresh, it severely lacked in flavour and was no doubt underwhelming. Finally, the okonomiyaki was a more true to home experience, but just wasn't as impactful as I would have liked.

Overall, the restaurant is quite alright, but for me the food didn't meet my standards. That's not to say this won't appeal to anyone else so I think it's worth a visit if you're...

Well, firstly one should know to book for 7:30pm onwards because: Street parking becomes available just opposite or next. It's a small place, for an early dinner you are limited to 90 minutes, as they need the table for second round. A good choice of classic Japanese Food including classic Sashimi / Sushi / Tempura. We also tried beef tongue - forget it. Had it many times before, this one was bad. Real bad. The tooth fish in Miso soup. This fish is also known as sable fish. A very unique flavor fish. The dish was not bad, not at all, but with this superior quality fish they could have done much better. Raw fish was excellent and the rest of side dishes where good. As to the buckwheat noodles, the specialty of this restaurant - Soba noodles !!! I can't be sure, but noodles look and taste like at least some of the dough they are made of was wheat flour. Anyway, noodles and the soup they where in where nothing remotely as good as traditional Japanese Raamen or Udon noodles. So, if you are not Gluten sensitive, go for tradition. Soba noodles at Jugemu & Shimbashi - nothing to right home about. Service is good and very fast (after all, they want you out of there in 90 minutes). My twin girls insisted on green tea icecream which they already had to wait for standing up and eat in the car. Price: 6 people, only one glass of beer, billed for $330 added $30 tip so ended...