Toro Robata Sushi — Restaurant in Wollongong City Council

A great place for ambience - nicely decorated, food presentation is done up well but food was mediocre. A BYO place, many tables brought their own alcoholic beverages.

However, a disappointing experience for me. Decided to give this restaurant a go one an impromptu staycation in a hotel nearby since it was rated so highly. Server that greeted us at the door recommended that we should have a reservation for the next time we came, indicating its popularity. Perhaps this boosted my expectations of the food.

Ordered the edamame, vegetable and prawn tempura, garlic maki soba and grilled salmon sushi roll. Edamame was good, can't go too wrong with a simple dish like this. The tempura was fried up really well, presented well, taste was alright. The dipping sauce did not have radish in it - a staple in tempura dipping sauce for Japanese cuisine - neither was it provided as a side on the dish. Grilled sushi was presented very nicely however lacked in taste - was very one-dimensional. Had to request for soy sauce and wasabi because it wasn't served together with the dish. Garlic yaki soba was lacking in taste as well - also very one dimensional. Could barely taste the garlic taste and the beef was alright.

Staff were mostly friendly with one exception - initial server that greeted us could work on tone in speaking (maybe he was having a hard day, tried not to let it affect the experience). It was very hard for us to get their attention, and had to request for them to remove the dishes that we had already finished, even after it was obvious that the table did not have enough space for the newer dishes...

I went to Toro for dinner after nearly a year, the food quality was excellent, but the service was much worse. The instance we sat down, menus untouched, a waitress approached us and asked for our orders. We told her to give us some minutes and quickly looked at the menu, yet the manager came again in less than 5 mins. It felt very rushed; we might have been treated this way since we were students, and Asian, or I was wrong and they would rush every customer at this expensive restaurant. We didn't order much, only 2 dishes, but we had some alcohol and I believe the bill was not very cheap. Yet less than a minute after we finish a dish or drink a waitress/ the manager would come and collected it instantly in an unfriendly manner. FYI, I came at 6 on a Thursday night. We noticed the restaurant got packed quickly, but they could have communicated to us there was a time limit or some sort, rather trying to kick us out quickly? Planned to stay for more alcohol and food but instead we got our message and left. Another friend, coincidentally, also booked a table at Toro after I left (at 7). Her friends came 15 minutes after she did, which was late and I get it. The manager asked her if she knew that "in this 15 minutes we could have served many more customers". Of course she knew, and was very sorry; that attitude and word choices from the manager were definitely unnecessary. My question is again raised whether we were treated that way since we were Asian and students (looked 'poor'). I'm greatly disappointed by this...

Disappointing, expensive & not like eating in Japan! Birthday dinner for my daughter was such a let-down. Too many "Cons":- 1) Partner got food poisoning/ severe reaction to something, & was up every hour all night with nausea, vomiting. Felt quite unwell for 36 hrs. He ate the Teriyaki Salmon with (supposed) vegs, rice & Miso soup, a little Nigiri Sushi & some soft shell crab. He has eaten in Japan a lot and said the food here wasn't like it's meant to be. I felt nauseous next day & I had the Teriyaki beef with vegs 2) The food was ruined (absolutely saturated) with Salty Teriyaki sauce - could barely eat mine and had to pick out the pieces of beef. The vegetables that were supposed to be with the dish were 2 tiny bits of broccolini and a tiny carrot straw -come on! Miso soup was a minute amount and too salty to finish -shared with others. These dishes were poorly made and still very expensive. 3) Food came out very quickly, almost too quickly for me to think that they weren't freshly made. 4) The restaurant was cold and we chilled off even though we were warmly dressed. It's June (with an Antarctic snap) ...come on, put some heaters on! 5) The waitress interrupted our conversation a couple of times and took empty plates even before we'd finished all the dishes. I felt we were getting rushed along. The place was barely 1/4 full. On the plus side, it was pleasant inside, some staff were welcoming and the toilets were clean. Some other dishes may...