Sankaku Izakaya (Newport) — Restaurant in Sydney

Without doubt, the standards have been slipping over the past few years and I'm certainly not the first person who decided to share that on Google. However, over the last year or so the standards have basically been tossed off the headland cliff. Today was the new low point.

Along with a few other dishes, I ordered a mild ramen ($11) plus beef ($5). This was part of a take-away order, presented to me in a plastic bag that was neatly tied up at the top and so I didn't have an opportunity to see what I was given until I arrived at my home.

When I opened up the Ramen dish, I was disappointed. Sufficiently disappointed that I took a photo (posted in this review) and called the shop to ask them if this was "normal".

For those who are not familiar with Ramen, it's basically a particular type of noodle in broth with some add-ons. Ramen noodles are based on Chinese wheat-flour-egg noodles. They are staple in Japan and are quite easy to recognise for what they are.

What I received in my Ramen was, nothing like what I expected. Very clearly, these were instant noodles. There are plenty of website which set out out the many issues with instant noodles. Putting aside the the pretty terrible taste, instant noodles tend to include MSG, starch, antioxidants, stabilisers, vegetable gums. minerals salts and so on - and that is not an exhaustive list. Suffice to say, instant noodles are not Ramen noodles. Not even close. Not even in the same hemisphere.

The "$5 meat" was a few scraps of what I assume is beef, which frankly looked woeful. I nibbled a bit of one and found that it tasted the way it looked.

The other "add on" ingredients were, to put it politely, "underwhelming".

I called the restaurant, explained what I had just picked up and asked them whether or not the noodles were Ramen noodles, or instant noodles.

To my surprised, they responded with: "Yes, we use instant 2-Minute noodles to keep the price down so that we can include better quality ingredients".

I'm not sure how that makes any sense since the principal ingredients of Ramen are (a) noodles, and (b) broth, but perhaps that's just me.

When I shared my impression of the quality of the "other ingredients" (see my above comment), I also reminded them that the beef actually costs $5 extra, was pretty awful all on its own, and that the "cheap" price of this particular dish was $16. Not so cheap for 2-minute instant noodles (which retail for around $1 per packet), scraps of meat, a poached egg and some frozen scallion.

I was told the manager would call me back and the line went dead. I didn't ask to speak to the manager mind you, but this was their approach to me raising the issues and so I accept that it was probably appropriate in the circumstances.

Several minutes later, the same person called me back (not the manager), said that the manager wasn't available and that they would consider my feedback. Hmmmm.....

Rarely do I post reviews of restaurants and when I do, it's usually because the place was excellent, or the service was exceptional and they deserved a shout-out for the above-and beyond experience. Indeed, there are a lot of places out there which deserve that sort of praise and I will make more of a point of saying so in the future.

Here, this might be the first time that I felt it was important to let people know how disappointing my experience was, and how it was handled. I know business (and particularly restaurants) have had tough times over the past few years, but come on - this is just ridiculous.

As I said, there are a lot of other restaurants out there who do a really fine job and appreciate that when people elect to dine out and spend money, those people have a reasonable expectation of getting what is advertised and what they pay for. At least.

In summary: This restaurant was good in the past. Recently, it became very average. Now? You be the judge. I certainly won't be going there again.

For those who feel it necessary to dismiss this review, please feel free to look carefully at the photo which...

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