Kazuki Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Sydney

I drive through Hurstville a fair bit and have always been curious about this place - I'm a sucker for hole-in-the-wall joints.

And come on, this is Hurstville where every second restaurant sells char siu or serves mainland Chinese cuisine. Variety is good.

Though flavours are nothing mind-blowing, this place serves up an honest, down-to-earth feed full of charm - rare AT THE PITTANCE THEY CHARGE, and not unlike many a noodle house one visits while having the midnight munchies in downtown Tokyo, complete with the friendly service we take for granted.

And yes, it's a real Japanese restaurant.

The set meals' serving sizes are huge compared to most Japanese establishments in Australia - no rock-hard teriyaki here.

Both the sashimi and sushi were fresh; the sushi had good fish-to-rice ratio though wasn't packed tight enough and fell apart when picked up.

The wasabi used was of the powdered variety - again, kudos - as it's much dearer than the green slime from many a sushi bar and shows the chef's respect for his own food. Once again, surprised to get quality at this price point.

A shame though, that while the karrage was fresh and juicy, it almost entirely missed out on seasoning. The tempura on the other hand, was great, with good batter thickness. Same goes for the agedashi tofu.

Soba was tasty as it should be, though the real test is their ramen broth, of which I will try next time.

One weird thing was the filling inside one of the ura maki, it looked like okonomiyaki but... not really.

They also serve a $6.50 teriyaki chicken rice bowl... In 2016.. Clearly these guys have done their homework and know their audience. Now that's commendable and worth an extra star.

I wrote the pants off...

Came to dine in tonight and tried to make an order but the chinese waitress that was working on the floor told us to use their online ordering system. 30 minutes passed after making the order with their online ordering system but our food never arrived. A couple of customers (white Aussie couple) that came after us were greeted and got their order taken personally by that same waitress who was working on the floor. I felt a bit surprised that she had told us to use their online ordering system whereas that white Aussie couple got their orders taken personally. A hint of discrimination no? Upon asking that waitress, I realised that our order hadn't been taken yet. I usually go to Manmaruya Japanese restaurant but I thought I would give Kazuki a try. What an absolute disaster. I have a lot of friends that live in Hurstville and I would never recommend them to go to Kazuki. I'm also a food blogger who travels around Sydney to different restaurants. This one gets a 0 out of 10. Avoid this restaurant like the plague. I'm going to share and spread this review on blog and social media. I'm off to Manmaruya to get my...

Oh dear! What a disaster. I think I was taken in by the decor that made it look like authentic Japanese. I took some friends to this based on prior reviews. This was my first mistake. When the water arrived in a dirty carafe one of my friends politely declined. We reluctantly ordered agedashi tofu, gyoza and karage (deep fried) chicken and 3 teriyaki salmon bento boxes. This was my second mistake. It looked and tasted like the deep frying oil had not been changed in months. The tempura batter on the tofu and chicken was almost ochre in colour, soggy and tired. It should be a pale yellow, almost right. I did not even dare touch the chicken as my friends grimaced as they chewed. At least the tofu seemed a safer choice. We had ordered the teriyaki salmon as this was one of the few things on the Bento box menu that was unlikely to be deep fried. My third mistake. Alas the fish, (I think it was fish) was smeared with the same batter. I was so embarrassed I dared not ask my companions to contribute towards the bill. Never again! It’s been an hour since I got home. So far...