Hana Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Victoria

Foreword: As a frequent traveller to Japan, this is going against restaurants in Japan and in Melbourne CBD such as Hanaichi, Shujinko and Hakata Gensuke.

Hana is a very beautiful and true to Japan restaurant. It utilises remote orders via a tablet device and everything is quite what you'd find in Japan.

The drinks themselves are amazing, great selection of Japanese beverages. I was quite impressed with what they had in stock, and if you're someone who has a liking for Japanese alcohol or drinks - this is some place you'll be able to take solace in.

The venue itself is stunningly beautiful. Wooden booths and seating is something you'd see in many restaurants in Japan, taking inspiration from places that are often frequently by the locals (Torikizoku, etc). The service is prompt and personal, and all the staff are very polite and attentive.

However this is where the similarities end. The food itself is a little lack luster. We order Karaage, Gyoza, Tonkotsu Ramen and Chicken Katsu don. I'll critique each.

Karaage was pretty good, although required a little more mayo and there is a blend of spices that goes with it that was not present (most places usually have it). However, it came with some side salade which is always a good thing.

Gyoza was a little hit and miss. The sauce itself wasnt the traditional Gyoza sauce, and a mixture of Soy and (id like to say) vinegar. The Gyoza itself would have required a little more cooking to get a bit of charcoal, but the meat inside was a little disappointing - in which wasn't really in line of what I'm typically used to with non-Japanese made gyoza (and definitely falling short from local Japanese gyoza within Japan).

Chicken Katsu Curry Don was a mixture of delight and heartache. The chicken itself was average at best, well cooked and crunchy - but the chicken itself lacked taste and substance. The rice was rice, not much to say other than it was good. The curry is where i felt they need further refinement. A single carrot with no potatoes disappointed me, and a significant amount of onions in the curry - which surprisingly is uncommon in curries. Usually in curries they dissolve themselves, where these were just on the precipice of dissolving. The texture of the curry was thick (which is not uncommon also) but the taste was a little too strong for what the curry is, which could have been mitigated with the carrots sweetening it and potato thickening it to balance out. That was not the case. Unfortunately, it seemed to be block curry added and not checked out for that balance. As someone who has eaten a lot of Chicken Katsu Curry and strives to create their own at home - it's a little disappointing that I (who is a disaster in the kitchen) would be able to create a more well-balanced dish.

Tonkotsu Ramen was truly a spectacle of what a ramen is not. The broth was very salty and almost overbearing. The egg was not a traditionally cooked egg in whole like you'd get in most ramen, as it was either fried lightly and added or directly added to cook in the broth. The pork was seared and was a little more like bacon than what is expected in a Tonkotsu Ramen depicted in other venues like Hakata Gentsuke or Shujinko. But most damningly the ramen noodles themselves were a travesty to all things ramen. It seemed more like maggie 2 minute noodles/homemade/storebought than a true ramen. All these elements really came together to make a truly disillusioned dish.

Hana has great fundamentals of a Japanese restaurant and instantly teleports you out of Australia and into a true Japanese aesthetic venue. Amazing selection of drinks and desserts, and you wont go wanting. However, their food takes you out of that fantasy and drags you back to Australia. I think with a little fine tuning to their dishes they would be able to deliver something...

My family love this place. Really good variety of fresh food. Our favourite is the kingfish carpaccio.. only wish there was an option for a bigger serve as each of our boys would happily eat two plates each just to get started. Great saké selection too (although, please teach the new waitress how to pronounce "Saké")

We love the booth seating as it gives us privacy. Feels like you have the whole place to yourself no matter how busy it is.

Helpful hint: The ipad doesn't detach on a longer cable so that multiple diners can see the menu. Its not a huge problem, but this might influence your group's seating plan, especially if you have children or older people who didn't bring their reading glasses!! For example, the person on the inside always hogs the ipad. They are also the people who have to verbally relay the many items to the rest of the group. That and the children always fight about whose turn it is to place the order on the ipad. Don't seat young kids on the inside unless you want to spend the whole time swatting their hands away or risk having them make random orders.

Still, we still keep coming back as we are always greeted by the lovely boss lady. She makes us feel welcome and very special every single time. It's our favourite place for Japanese food on Geelong....

Edit: 22/08/2024 Returned after a period of time away and the food remains excellent, service is friendly, if a little less personal as they were crazy busy for lunch. Happily seated as a single and speedy food delivery. Lunch specials and a new sushi section at the front of the store which was making rolls fresh. Very happy this one has continued to be a success! Tempted to lease the office above for easy access!

Original review 2022: Excellent service, very tasty food with Vegetarian options. Sapporo beer on tap, and on special! Decor was fantastic and gave a very cosy feel without seeming small or crowded. Giant booths that could hold 10+ people without too much trouble. They also have a very cool order at the table system which was extremely convenient and easy. Food game out fast and looked amazing, tasted amazing and was reasonably priced. Host was very friendly and conversed freely with me, and stayed open past close for me to finish my meal and drink. My singular complaint would be that the meal portions was slightly larger than expected, which meant that I had to leave some behind :( Overall very impressed and would highly...