IWA Japanese Yakiniku — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

Hit and certainly Miss! Hit: nice layout and overall design and mood, lighting. Maybe a bit too monochrome like the other 'clay'. Miss: Back Ground Music, nice playlist in dining room, nice playlist from DJ in the lounge, however deep banging house is not suitable for early evening!. And it was a total cacophony, music in the lounge was clashing with music in dining room. Menu: Why no indication of meat origin and marble grading on the wagyu? Sake list is not balance and over price. Serving la vie water, really? No Japanese green tea, no hojicha tea but Earl Grey and mango tea, really? Experience : I just ordered the set menu and not yet decided on the drink, and et voilà ! the salad arrived! What are you serving me, an airline salad with 2 cute flowers? I got better salad on biz class. I ordered my sake, and both choices were not available, only sake available were either the house pour or the so called super premium sake which is not suitable for grilled meat. After the salad, we waites another 20mn for the next course. While I was still on my 2nd course, the 3rd course arrived! Not sure who was the kitchen expeditor or floor manager but they should definitely go back for more training. Why are you serving me Korean condiments for a supposedly premium Japanese Conclusion : total MISS. As usual staff served the day with their smile...

Tried this restaurant with a friend who also had an interest in Japanese food. The place was very decorative with a nice garden touch at the entrance. The dining area is spacious with huge stone table.

The only issue I had was the table was a bit too high and thus sitting comfort while eating is not perfect.

We had their 2.5mill vnd set menu containing both seafood sashimi and different cut of japanese wagyu beef from Hitachi area.

The starter was simple, not much woow for me. Some was tasty but some were just blend. The soup was not for my tasting.

The sashimi was fresh, and the beef was very tender and tasteful. However, I am not so fan of beef tongue and there were a few of those cut in the serving.

Overall, we had a good dinner, but it was very quiet in the huge restaurant as it was only us there. I myself prefer a busy restaurant. Service was excellent, but food could be better. A romantic place, but not much view, you only see the garden with big leafes...

STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE!!!!!

On the 31st May 2023 we wanted to enjoy a nice dinner at IWA, which turned out of us having food poisoning in the end.

The Staff & Manager pushed us to not use set menus, because the chef apparently did not have enough fresh food to prepare it and it would take 2-3 hours? I never heard this kind of nonsense before, nevertheless we tried the a la cart menu which turned out to be double the price than the set menus.

Worst part is that this place is over hyped, over priced and in 20 years of living in Vietnam, i never had to vomit my food out 2hours after having dinner. This has been one of the worst nights for me and my girlfriend.

I highly advise anyone to not go to this restaurant, unless you require a complete body detox.

An extreme waste of VND 7.5mil! First time and never again!

fyi the pool is filthy dirty too, so it represents their food...