Japan Eats — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

Frankly, this Japanese restaurant was a major letdown. Every single dish I ordered was truly awful, something I have never experienced at any other Japanese eatery. I was hoping at least one dish would salvage the meal, but sadly, that was not the case.

Okinawa Tonkotsu Onigiri: a relatively simple dish, yet the tonkotsu was a bit overcooked, the meat was dry and tough;

Mini Grilled Eel Rice Bowl: another overcooked dish, the eel was way too fishy leaving me feeling quite nauseous afterwards;

Karaage: batter was overly thick and greasy, clearly overloaded with tapioca flour, no crispiness to speak of;

Spicy Pickled Cucumbers: nothing else but pure salt, period!

To make matters worse, the service was slow and inattentive. It took an eternity for the food to arrive, and I even had to remind them of some of my orders, despite them having an online ordering system.

Another major gripe for me was the awkward entrance. To reach the tables, you have to squeeze through the kitchen, take off your shoes, and then climb upstairs. I really do not appreciate having to traipse around a restaurant barefoot.

Overall, the entire experience was a disaster and left me feeling unsatisfied and unimpressed....

You'll be asked to take your shoes off to go upstairs to the clean, carpeted dining room so please be considerate and make sure your feet aren't smelly. The restaurant is located in a tight alley. You will walk past and look into people's homes and tiny businesses on the way. Being so deep into the backstreets you'll notice it's quite peaceful and chill. A nice respite from the insane Saigon traffic. We tried the spam and egg sandwich, mini mayo chicken bowl, pork katsu curry and the sashimi. We especially enjoyed the spam and egg sandwich and mayo chicken bowl. I found the curry too spicy for my tastes but the fluffy panko breadcrumb was perfect. Unfortunately they don't serve chicken katsu so I settled for pork katsu, which is too tough for me. That's nothing against their cooking, just a personal preference. If you want chicken with your curry you should order just the rice and sauce and ask for the chicken karage. Prices are about on par with other foreign food in Vietnam. 10% service charge is added to the bill, and you can pay by card. Staff are...

An interesting experience and good food. The restaurant is situated down a residential street where a lot of stalls seem to double up as people's homes. This restaurant was no different. When you enter you are asked to remove your shoes and are led to the seating area upstairs. The toilet has a shower and toiletries. We ordered the sashimi, spam and cheese sandwich, chicken mayo mini bowl and pork katsu curry. The sashimi was tasty, it's a bit thinner than back home in London but still nice. The spam and cheese sandwich was really good the spam was nicely fried and juicy and the cheese went so well with it. The chicken mayo bowl was also really good the chicken was succulent and there was a good amount of mayo so it was full of flavour. My partner had the pork katsu which he found a bit spicy but he really liked the batter. The prices were super reasonable and there was a lot on the menu to choose from. And the girl serving us was super efficient and friendly. All in all a good experience and I would...