Musashi Japanese Cuisine - St Heliers — Restaurant in Ōrākei

I have been going to Musashi for around 7 years being a local ( we stay around the corner). We had booked early. On arrival our table had only been set out for 2 people ( we had booked for 2 adults and 2 kids). The waitress we had seemed so disinterested in what we wanted it was laughable. No asking what we wanted to drink or anything, just dropped off a menu and was off as quick as she could get there. Embarrassing.

First food came for the kids. No utensils to eat it , not even a thought about how they would eat it. My partner eventually gave up watching them look at their food and had to go to the kitchen and ask for something to eat it with. They had around 7 waiters/waitresses milling around who looked so negative you'd think they were captive slaves. They eventually got utensils to eat it, but nothing for anyone else for anyone else. Maybe they thought eating with fingers was better than washing up chop sticks. So kids are eating, we aren't. There's hardly anyone in the place so what is the problem? But next thing, as one of the kids is drinking water, one of the waiters walks past and hits her arm and the glass smashes straight into her face. He obviously didn't even noticed this while she is crying and completely soaked in water. We pointed out to him. He was apologetic but then just gave us one napkin to wipe it up and carried on. She had a red mark on her nose where the glass smacked her and was very upset.

Food is very good, as always, but we had finished, 15 minutes later, even though waiters and waitresses had been wandering around not one empty plate was removed from the table. My partner even asked the previous waiter to take empty plates away. He took 2 away and then left the rest and just wandered past later on ignoring us.

I asked for a bottle of Saki at $57 . We were told, before any dialogue, that this would have to be drank in the restaurant and not taken away with us. Maybe say this after we have finished our meal and not treated like we were infants. No one said we wanted to take it away or wanted to.

Last straw was we paid the bill, at a decent & $180. After telling the waitress about our complaints we were shrugged off with 'been a busy night'. Quite obviously not a busy a night and quite ridiculous excuse.

Never going back now, to what was the best family style Japanese restaurant in...

I have just been to this restaurant today holding elevated expectations with its high rate and good reputation. The reality was a bit disappointing.

Frist, customer service. We arrived before 11:45am the opening hour. The Japanese lady told us it was not open yet so we waited at the front door and expected she would seat us when it reached 11:45am. Nothing happened until we saw another few customers walking in and seated. Then we followed in. When I made the booking online it automatically set as two people. I tried to change it to three but it did not seem an easy change then I thought it should not be a problem to fit one more in. The Japanese lady told me she only reserved the small table for us. I told her not mind just adding a chair in. However, when our orders arrived, the table turned out to be too small. I asked one of the two young ladies if we could move to a bigger table. I noticed there were another 2 4-seat tables available at the time. The young lady checked with the manager then quickly helped us move to the bigger table. Why were we not seated at the 4 seated table at first as there were obviously two that had not been booked!

Secondly, the food was just average. The lunch menu does not have the same variety as the dinner one. My mum loves tempulo but it is only served at dinner. I understood people tend to have a quick meal at lunch during the week but certainly not at the weekend. There are also a lot of people choosing to eat light at dinner but indulge more at lunch, which has proven to be a healthier...

Dined at the latest booking allowed at 19:30 on a Sunday. Food was nice and the staff friendly as always. Issue was it was quite obvious that the restaurant didn't really want to be open. We had a booking but there was a strange atmopshere when we arrived - we were kind of looked at from across the restaurant like they wanted to turn us away before we told them we had a booking. When seated the waiter seemed in a rush to take our food order, which arrived about 10 minutes after ordering. Shortly afterwards we were informed it was 'last call' for any subsequent food/drinks orders (why prevent customers from ordering a cold drink during their meal an hour before closing?). We ordered a Sapporo beer to be told the keg was empty and they didnt' want to hook up a new one. Table was cleared the instant we finished eating, and then we were reminded at 8:35pm that the restaurant would close at 9:15pm. There were only two occupied tables. We felt rushed, and left as soon as we had finished as it was obvious to us the restaurant and staff wanted to close. Not great sorry guys - perhaps just be...