PEKO PEKO ぺコぺコ — Restaurant in Sydney

The place literally has a designated area where customers can opt to sit at Japanese style tables (ie low setting, no shoes). This is our first visit in over a year. I used to like coming here because i consider the prices were “student friendly” (even though I'm not a student). This is no longer the case with the new menu (but then again students may have more to spend). The skewers that were cooked over a charcoal stove was good. I enjoyed the aburi kingfish sushi and I thought it was interesting the way they make the sushi which is set on a rectangular mould to which gives it the squarish edges., similar to the mackerel sushi in Kyoto. We tried some vegetable marinated in miso (cold entree) and it was average. I was intrigued by today's special which was lemon and pepper ramen in chicken stock which was an Australian adaptation of yuzu ramen since we don't have yuzu here. Certainly the soup was delicious but the not much pepper and we got 2 slices of chicken. To he honest for $16 I would rather go to Ra ra ramen on the other side of redfern as their soup h awww s better favour and it's harder to make the tonkotsu stock at home. They don't serve alcohol but you can byo and buy it from the pub across the road. Byo is $2 per head. Overall I think the quality is pretty good but on the pricier end of the spectrum especially given servings are not big. The restaurant can also get a bit hot with all the stoves and no aircon. I'll wait a bit before...

I went here last night with a friend. We ordered 1 entree to share and a main each which comes as a set on a tray. We were expecting the entree to come first, but my main came first, about 15 minutes later my friend’s main came, but the waiter immediately picked it up again and said it’s the wrong table, we tried to tell him it’s correct and we ordered that main, but he wouldn’t listen to us and he gave it to another table which had just sat down 5 minutes earlier. Another 15 minutes later he brought out our entree which was on a very large plate. We asked what happened to my friend’s main, by this stage my main was completely cold. He came back a few minutes later with my friend’s main, but it’s a very small table, there’s not enough space for 2 large trays plus the entree, we picked up the entree so the waiter could put the second tray on the table, he spilled the miso soup, he didn’t try to clean it or replace it, then he just walked away and left us holding the entree in our hands with nowhere to put it on the table. We had to rearrange everything ourselves to make space. While we were eating, the same waiter kept bringing dishes to the girls sitting next to us and they would keep saying “that’s not ours, we didn’t order that” Really terrible...

I think the food was a bit overpriced, especially for the portions provided. I personally didn’t enjoy the taste of my ramen’s broth but I can see how most people would like it.

My main issue came with the fact that I ordered a garlic soup ramen with meat, and I was not given the garlic or the meat. I’m not sure where the issue came up, whether it was from the order (I don’t think you can, because there’s only one option like it on the menu), or it was from the kitchen. Either way I was served a vegetarian ramen. When I wanted to ask for the meat to rectify the mistake, their attitude was not good. When I tried to call someone over, they seemed reluctant and ignored me. Huddled together talking, I eventually got a hold of someone by walking to the front counter. When the meat then came, there was no apology for the lack of meat. Nor was there the attentiveness to realise I was missing the garlic. It was only after I finished that I realised it was missing.

The decor is quite fabulous. I like the style.

Overall, it’s an experience I am sure I would’ve enjoyed with servers that care about the customer experience, but clearly this bowl of ramen wasn’t...