Tomo's Japanese Inverloch — Restaurant in Victoria

$134 for 2, we didn’t finish our meals. A very disappointing experience. We were visiting Inverloch from Melbourne for a seaside getaway. The Japanese was recommended by a local. Unfortunately it didn’t live up to the standards we’re used to. Inverloch seem to be struggling on the food scene. The service was attentive from arrival. We decided to buy a bottle of wine from the bottle shop as the wine list was limited and marked up. We ordered the sashimi plate to start. This was good but the fish was very thick. The tuna was in large cubes rather than thin slices. The food went downhill from there. We had prawn dumplings. A smear of prawn mix wrapped in wonton sheets then deep fried, coated in a thick sauce. We didn’t finish these. It was mostly pastry. For main I ordered a special, King fish with salad. This came with a thick teriyaki style sauce and some salad mix, leaves only, in a bowl on the side. It smelt strong and fishy. The sauce was something that could be bought in a packet from Coles. For $29 a little more love and effort could be put into this dish. My husband ordered the teriyaki chicken. The rice was gluggy. He described his dish as something he would find in a food court for $12 not $29 in a restaurant. We ate less than quarter of our mains. We told the wait staff we didn’t enjoy our meals. We were not offered any discount. The wait staff told my husband there was nothing wrong with our meals and perhaps it was something to do with our taste! Um yes, we do have different taste. We’re used to fresh meals that are not out of a packet. Some sympathy and acknowledgement that we didn’t enjoy our meals wouldn’t have killed them. We weren’t even offered an alternative. A really disappointing experience for our 5 year wedding anniversary. This place wouldn’t last 3 months...

Quite good, authentic Japanese food featuring local seafood and specialising in tempura and sushi. Very overpriced, though, with quite small serving sizes. We had miso marinated black cod on salad with pickled ginger for $33. Came as a smallish salad with only three small pieces of cod (though these were well marinated and nicely cooked) - it was mostly dried noodles and mixed lettuce leaves and just a few slivers of ginger, definitely not a $33 meal. Even the beer is overpriced, with pot-sized servings of Sapporo on tap for $9. We also had gyoza, which were handmade and nicely cooked though also small and a little greasy. The agedashi tofu (always a good measure of a good Japanese izakaya - if they can get the dashi and the light batter just right) was just so-so: dashi was rather weak and the tofu too soft and fell apart. The service was great, very friendly, but we had to ask for water while other tables got it without asking and we weren't asked about second drinks. Overall, a rather disappointing experience. It certainly doesnt live up to the rave reviews it's received...

Excellent Japanese restaurant in Invy. We had miso soup - delicious salty weedy goodness, tempura - very good - I would prefer just asparagus/beans/sweet potato and prawns not potato and capsicum. We had large shashimi and sushi platter - all very well made and presented- seafood terrific probably straight off the boat. We had pork belly along the way - deliciously baked in the oven, tiny bite size morsels to share. Dessert we tried a crepe with japanese citrus icecream (yuzu) and also Harmony - a mix of icecreams and fruits - the latter was probably too large - would prefer a smaller serve and a nice presentation eg: on a nice black plate rather than parfait glass. Finally decor just needs a bit of work - suggestions from me - remove western art work and promos - stick to Japanese / dress waiters in some kind of traditional garb and set some light Japanese music. Do away with attempts to sell add ons and peripheral stuff. Stay 🇯🇵. Great place - bookings essential $50 minimum....