Mamasaan Bondi - Japanese Cuisine Restaurant and Bar in Bondi Beach — Restaurant in Sydney

First time at Mama Saan, had heard good things about the joint and that atmosphere is great. Loved the decor, but aside from that, totally overrated! We went for the ‘Sunday Jazz Night and Dinner with Jonathan Zwartz’ ($65pp), the only 2 dishes worth eating was the sashimi tacos and the edamame beans. The “grilled” sweet potato was actually raw, quite horrible to eat and can’t believe they charge $7 for 4 uncooked slices of sweet potato and drizzle copious amounts of miso dressing on it to give it flavour and call it a “dish”! Then the only main that comes out is the chilli chicken, which I can’t eat (they said they’ll cater for me as I’m pescatarian and serve me the vegan dishes instead). And when I inquired with the staff member, he tells me “there’s celery there, why don’t you have that? And there’s rice?” So I’m paying $65 to eat plain rice and celery? They bring out the miso eggplant, but that’s it, which looked sad too. I was waiting for my main dish but my friend said it ain’t coming, that was all we were getting! And also, it was not Jazz music that was being performed so misinformation right there. Might want to correct that.

Long story short, not coming here again. Ever. Sad as it was so disappointing because I would’ve loved to enjoy the other dishes they had on their menu. If you’re doing special set menus/events/promos, I’m assuming it’s to get more people to dine with you. If so, make sure you’re doing a good job, and that your staff understand what good customer service means, so customers like me don’t leave with a bitter taste in their mouth and nothing nice to say. And maybe review your menu and take out the dishes people (seems like I’m not the only one) complain about. Just a thought. I could’ve got a lot of food for $65/each! Had to go grab takeaway as was still...

Came here last night and was surprised that it now has new owners and the place had been rearranged. Place looks good, more space and inviting, thank goodness they replaced those barrels, my bum didnt like them. However, I wasnt too impressed with the new menu or the lack thereof. What made the old mamasaan unique from the other asian fushion restaurants was its menu. If im blindfolded and someone will give me a dish from their place, I would know straight away, also their chilli chicken was iconic and we had history of ordering it everytime we come in. Menu last night was very ordinary and mainstreamed. Edemame was overcooked and soggy, but cocktails were still really good. We ordered sashimi tacos, which was still excellent as usual. Lobster roll became prawn roll as they ran out of lobster was ok, average, the brioche roll made it look and taste cheap. The karaage was where we got really disappointed, the chicken was so overcooked, it shouldve just been called crispy fried chicken pieces, our gums were sore after, and there wasn't much sauce that goes with it, there was no flavour at all. Same goes with karaage cauliflower, It tasted like they were both fried on the same oil, both tasted the same. I hope it was just this one night. We will try again perhaps one night to see if there are new exciting food on the menu. Oh and the staff and the service...

Me and my partner were really looking forward to trying this place, but won’t be returning after our experience. We placed our order online via the website for pickup 45 minutes later, but when we arrived we were told it hadn’t reached the kitchen at all — so our food hadn’t even begun to be prepared. We were told it would be a 15-minute wait which we accepted, but it ended up taking 40.

To tide us over, we were given our edamame to eat at a bar, though we had never intended to dine in and weren’t dressed warm enough to dine by the open front door. The edamame arrived lukewarm, unsalted, and underwhelming. When I approached a staff member for salt, she responded dismissively that she wasn’t working — despite having just been operating the POS system.

No complimentary items or gestures were offered to acknowledge the delay or inconvenience, which added to the overall sense of being brushed off. When we finally got the remainder of our order, it was disappointing in flavour and size and definitely not worth the wait or the confusion. The tuna tacos and duck bao buns came deconstructed and without cutlery so we had to wait even longer to get home and eat our dinner. Pretty gutting experience all in all so wouldn’t recommend...