My Zakaya — Restaurant in Sydney

TL'DR: the food is decent, but highly priced and the place lacks of good atmosphere... We're not coming back, sadly.

This review is written after visiting most Izakaya-like places in Sydney (including these outside of the city center) and the restaurant is evaluated in comparison to others.

We booked this place since the reviews were good even though the prices were on the higher end (well, there are still more expensive places in Sydney). I also lived about 12 years in Tokyo and did some part-time job in izakayas/restaurants there so I'm speaking from a perspective of a person who used to be on the other side.

We ordered a couple of dishes and they were usually pretty good (as you would have expected from the price) but weren't really special enough to make me want to come back.

Otsukemono (assorted pickles) -- probably the worst one. The dish was literary only a bit of carrot (about 0.5 of a carrot) with some onion rings and a pinch of hijiki on top. Sadly, I don't eat onion so I couldn't try it but mostly carrot for $10 seems like a stretch regardless of the taste (my partner, who could eat it, was not impressed).

Gobo chips -- this one was pretty good and the price was OK ($10).

Assorted sashimi (large) -- since the regular size seems small, we ordered a large one. About 40% was salmon, including some aburi salmon (so not exactly raw). There was also tuna, and both salmon and tuna weren't bad but weren't good either. There was two or three other types of fish, one was great but I don't know what it was as the staff just put the plate in front of us without any explanation (compared to similar price range, slightly cheaper but also not in the center, of Tori Izakaya you could see the difference in the service). Presentation was OK, but overall I'm in doubt if being OK is worth the $55 price range. While the set had 21 pieces (I think there was actually 22 which may be due to some effort from the staff to make it a better set for two) 4 of these were one hotate cut into 4, not unheard of but rather disappointing...

Assorted tempura -- another one that came with ZERO explanation from the staff and right after the sashimi. I'm not sure if people would know what the matcha salt is for instance and I had no idea what one of the tempuras was. The price was on the higher end -- $35 -- but to be honest it contained one piece of fish cut into two and one hotate cut into two which is unusual in Sydney. I made sure that there is no onions as I've seen it in some places before, which makes the onion on the tsukemono even more annoying (I did not anticipate it there) since the staff being told that I don't want onion in the tempura could have just mention that there is some in the pickles...

We were planning to order more but since the atmosphere was not really there and the food didn't really prove to be worth the money we decided to leave.

Overall it was a mixed experience. When paying the bill I was prompted for a tip (which I do NOT appreciate!) in a very American way. We paid around $163 for two large and one small beer and the above. It's not outside of what we usually pay (between $120-200 per two) but for what we got, the service, and the food quality it felt expensive. This place is probably much better for lunch but I would not recommend it for dinner. Given the options Sydney has to offer from cheap yet recently excellent izakayas like Daruma (really, the change of the staff there resulted in a MUCH better experience) to more expensive ones like Yebisu (not a huge fan of this one either) or even the Tori Izakaya.

My personal favs are Dorama and Nakano Darling, both of which have very Japanese feel and good food (though not necessarily sashimi if that's what you are after). And a bit far from the city center there are Sushi Hiro (great sashimi, saikyo-yaki) and Ishiyama (amazing tempura, unagi).

Note that the toilet is somewhere outside though that was not a big...

Very disappointed with the service! 3 of our dishes to be served to another table and no compensation given after waiting for a total of 1.5 hours! We purposely did not want to bother the waiter too much because was warned that they were understaffed.

Finally got a booking for Friday Jan 7 after couldn’t get booking for a few weeks.

Was warned by the staff that service was going to be slow because they are understaffed. But did not expect 3 of our dishes to be served to another table and only finding out after the staff started cleaning the kitchen!

After finishing the spicy teri-chicken at approximately 8:40pm, the waiter started clearing our table. One of our friends said, “No, we are still waiting for the assorted tempuras.” (We were still waiting for 2 assorted tempuras and 1 spider roll).

The waiter then said yeah okay and left our plates on the table.

I then spoke to the waiter to remind him about the spider roll too.

The waiter asked if we had the spider roll, we replied saying not yet. He then found out that it was served to the wrong table then said that he was taking care of it.

The spider roll finally came at 9:30pm and we quickly finished it.

We then waited for the 2 assorted tempuras.

Just after 10pm, my husband notices that the kitchen is being cleaned and they have stopped cooking food.

I then asked the staff are our 2 assorted tempuras still coming? They responded saying that they have already served us the 2 assorted tempuras. We straightaway said no we did not!

Then the staff learned that they served the 2 assorted tempuras to the next table too!

By that time we notice the next table has 2 takeaway containers filled with sushi. Most probably because they could not eat anymore after eating the extra food they were served.

The waiter then asked if we still wanted the 2 assorted tempuras or anything else from the menu. By that time my husband and friends just wanted to wrap up and go home so we said no.

No compensations were offered even after we waited for a total of 1.5 hour because they served our orders to the wrong table. Approximately 1 hour between the spicy teri-chicken and spider roll, and 30 minutes between spider roll until we learned that 2 assorted tempuras were never going to come!

I don’t know if the next table paid for the 3 extra dishes they didn’t order but I do know they had 2 takeaway containers filled with sushi while our table is still hungry!

Not sure if it’s worth it coming...

I always find japanese set lunch very impressive. Not only is it so pleasing to the eyes, but also comforting to the stomach.

I have finally got the chance to visit myzakaya in Surry Hills after seeing they started to introduce teishoku lunch set (everyday). While it is located in Surry Hill by the book, it is pretty much at the border line of Darlinghurst.

Depending on your liking, you can choose one of the following as your main.

• wagyu • chicken karaage • teriyaki chicken • chicken katsu • teriyaki salmon

All set comes with sashimi, tempura, seasonable vegetables, japanese rice and miso soup.

For me - I have chosen the wagyu teishouku set with a upgrade to chirashi (i.e sashimi on top of sushi rice). We sat outdoor on the beautiful sunny day and when the food arrived, it just looked so amazing. Even the guys on the next table whispered “ we should have got that one..” 😝

I honestly cannot fault anything. The wagyu was so soft and tender; Tempura was cooked perfectly; chirashi was amazing; sides were seasoned and very balanced. Even the the miso soup was carefully made and not just those commercial dissolved instant miso soup.

Service was friendly and swift.

Highly recommend this place if you want some decent Japanese lunch in the city.

💰Price ranges from $25-32 + $5...