Sushi to Shabushabu No.8 umeda store — Restaurant in Osaka

First of all I would like to say that it might have been a bad day for the restaurant and their overall performance could be better. I can only speak about the experience I have personally had.

I usually do not like to give negative reviews but sometimes they are necessary! This restaurant was highly praised by some influencers from which we felt somewhat mislead not only because of the quality of food but also what the restaurant offers. This restaurant has only hotpot (shabu shabu) and sushi all you can eat. There is no table grill available here.

About the review

Food: Great ingredients, no doubt about that. As usual for you can choose 2 flavors for the shabushabu though the hot pot broth basis was rather blend and the other had overemphasized some unpleasent flavors making the shabu shabu broth overall less tastefull. There is a great variety of dishes and side dishes that can be ordered which is nice. However it must be said that some side dishes were executed very badly such as the slow simmered beef which tasted like meat that was used for making the different broths. Having tasted sushi now in many different countries my expectations were slightly higher than usual for a japanese place. The Sushi was unfortunately a far cry from even the worst sushi I have eaten so far. Composition of the nigiri was loose and unstable. The ingredients for the sushi were specifically concerning. The classic salmon nigiri fish pieces had some slight pieces of skin on them. The otoro nigiris from the tuna was from the worst cut of the filet considering the deep redish coloration. The meat sushi was concerningly more greyish than a beutiful ruby red. The sushi rice was always greyish/brownish decolorized and drippish greasy.

All in all, not more than 1 star can be given for this.

Service: Great service from the staff. Helpful and quick to explain even in English.

Ambiente/Menu: The restaurant just opened when we have arrived. As for restaurant location it was in a side alley which was difficult to find unless you knew about this restaurants existence specifically. The stairway was dark and unpleasent but at least with elevator access. The door to the restaurant when we have arrived was shut. This made it difficult to understand if it was open or closed and there was no sign or indicator whatsoever showing if we were at the right spot unless you open the closed door. During my visit in the restaurant there was no english menu availabe and i had to resort to using my App in bulit translator to move forward. The menu itself was cluttered and the layout was difficult to understand. Some pictures were shown to menu items but some never loaded which made it difficult to order even with translated menu. All in all this cannot be voted higher than 2 stars as well.

Though the service was highly rated from me, the ambiente/menu was subpar and the food, which is for me the most important, has been borderline not enjoyable.

Comparing the food also with the high level price per person (7800 ¥ per person) I will only rate this...

We saw the reviews and one YouTuber recommendation before we made the reservation at Sushi Toshabushabu No . 8 Umedamise, Osaka.

The restaurant was located on 3/f of a building at the end of a dark alley. The elevator was small and dark and the surroundings was not clean. The entrance was dark and kind of dirty though the interior was bright. But our first impression of the restaurant was completely spoiled by the proximity of its location and the entrance appearance.

We ordered All You Can Eat Shabu Shabu and sushi set. We chose two different broths : spicy and sukiyaki broth. The meat plate came and they tasted ok. Then we ordered sushi set, however I found that the tuna piece look too much like plastic and taste not too good. This put us off at ordering too much sushi. I think it is better to go normal sushi restaurant vs all you can eat sushi restaurant. I seldom visit All you can eat restaurant; unfortunately this time I trusted the reviews (mostly from tourists!) and the YouTuber comments. Too bad.

During our visit all other tables in the restaurant were empty. This made us feel awkward. The service was not attentive. One of the servers was standing around and looking at his phone all the time. The food was not fresh; shabushabu was ok cause we cooked meat and veg in HOT broth. We felt so disappointed and distressed that we did not bother to take much photos.

The worst part was that we paid 26000 yen for the dinner for 4. (6000 yen each). We don’t mind to pay for good food however it is not worthwhile to pay for mediocre to bad quality food and ambiance. This is the most disliked restaurant of our whole Japan trip.

We don’t recommend this All You Can Eat restaurant. However this is our unfortunate culinary encounter, others may have different...

This restaurant was the most disappointing meal of our trip to Japan. We came to this restaurant because of the high reviews, but soon realized that the high reviews was due to the incentive of free ice cream upon a five-star review on Google.

We paid 6,800 yen per person for the all-you-can-eat sushi and wagyu hot pot set. We were also forced to purchase a drink on top of the 6,800 meal. The waitress seemed impatient and didn't even want to give us time to review the drink menu and hot pot base. She demanded an answer on the spot and we had to push for her to give us a few minutes. She also tried to upcharge us with a 7,800 set even though our reservation was for the 6,800 set.

We were given a plate of veggies and meat for the hot pot, which we didn't order but were expected to eat. Also, based on previous reviews and the description of what was included, we expected wagyu to be a part of the hot pot ayce, but it was not. The only wagyu options we had were under the sushi category. The wagyu sushi we tried was tough, chewy and not enjoyable. The rest of the sushi was pretty good but nothing memorable.

Another note on service: our waitress also didn't help clear our table, so we had to pile our plates as our orders came in.

Overall, we were pretty disappointed with this experience and it was not worth 14,400 yen for mediocre food.

Would not recommend. Please save your money and...