Hamayuu — Restaurant in England

The people who say they've been to Japan once so they know what it tastes like are frankly not accurate. Had the tempura udon and chicken katsu karee bento here and both were quite disappointing. I really wanted to like this place because it's hard to find good Japanese food in the UK bar London and this place is Japanese-run, but unfortunately that doesn't mean it's good. For the non-Japanese people trying this place, any ramen or sushi that you get outside of a restaurant that isn't solely dedicated to those things will usually be mediocre, if not bad. Ramen & sushi chefs spend years dedicated to their craft and the flavour and technique can't be easily replicated by just anyone. I guess I can't speak for the flavour of either dish, but the cuts of sushi and the ramen both look sloppy.

The udon broth that I ate had a strange flavour reminiscent of cardboard and the noodles didn't have the nice, bouncy texture expected of even good packaged noodles. The tempura batter was also somehow wrong. It was more clumpy and thick than the light crisp you would ideally want from tempura. The katsu karee was okay, but considering it's likely made from roux cubes, that is quite easy for even a beginner home cook to do decently. My table had the matcha dorayaki and souffle cheesecake for dessert. Portions were quite small on the souffle cheesecake, and both dishes were just okay.

This place seems like it's very much so catering to British audiences with the sudden large interest in Japan and Japanese food, but it far from captures how good Japanese food really is. Frankly, it seems way too extensive of a menu that causes more focus on catering to every single popular Japanese food instead of really taking the time to master each dish, or even make each one taste good.

The service and atmosphere was great, and servers were nice despite it being a very...

So we visited this restaurant based on the good reviews by the others, and man, were we disappointed! 4 of us tried different things (see images), we ordered more afterward but we didn't take any pictures at all because they are pretty disappointing... The looks of the food are fine, but the taste.... Let's get into the details: The rice of the sushi doesn't have a good shape, and the sashimi does not stick to the rice at all. Might seems trivial but it is the basic of sushi. The noodles are fine, but there must be better out there, I would not give it 4 stars at all, 3 stars max if not 2.5, pretty standard IMO The rice in the bento box and donburi are just downright terrible! 0 stars!! The rice is almost like "rice mash" and asks any Japanese (or anyone from Asia in general), we would not approve, NOT AT ALL! We ordered an udon and the udon has a funny aftertaste, not sure how they handle the udon but it is NOT good... Aside from all the bad comments, the services and the atmosphere is excellent, which kinda heightens our expectations! And that's how you get 1 star for the food...

So the problem has to be in the kitchen, I hope the owner of the restaurant does not take this negative review in a bad way, we feel like we've been tricked by all the good comments and it turns out this restaurant is OVERATED!!! If you have been eating rice and noodles for your entire life, don't even go to this restaurant or you WILL BE disappointed. But if you just "wanna try some Asian/Japanese cuisine", then sure the other comments might apply to you, just ignore me.

Now let me emphasize, I typed all these not because I'm trying to troll, I sincerely think that the comments tricked us into thinking that this restaurant is good, but it is...

We went to Hamayu for a birthday dinner tonight. The prices were reasonable but the service was really appalling.

When we got there, we told a staff member we had a reservation for two at 7:30pm, but it seemed like she didn't know about it. We ordered food at 7:34pm, and food came quickly. The sushi was ok.

After we finished eating, the same staff member took our plates away and asked if we wanted dessert. We said no, as we were full. But then she put our bill on the table without saying a word. A little while later, she brought a payment machine and asked us to pay at about 8:10 pm.(Given that they close at 9pm. If they consider 7:30pm too late for arrival, they shouldn't have accepted my booking.)

There were other customers too, but they weren't given their bills. Another couple who came after us had no issues.

My partner and I were surprised because we had only been there for 40 minutes. We wanted to relax and chat over tea, then we requested to pay later. I used to love coming to Hamayu, but this was my worst experience there. Spending over £40 on dinner, being handed the receipt and asked to pay just 40 minutes after arriving felt disrespectful.

After reading other reviews, I wonder if discrimination played a part in this.

Overall, the food was ok and prices were fair, but the bad service ruined the experience for us. I used to love Hamayu, but I'm not sure if I'll go...