Walking distance from our hotel down the street…read more Delicious ramen! Broth is tasty and pork is tender. Very friendly service.

First meal in Melbourne and it is amazing. The service was good as well to make the experience even…read morebetter. I believe it was likely the owner who helped us out for the most part. Seating is spacious and far from each other. Not a loud and rowdy place. Everything packed a punch in flavors!

I have been going here for a while and the food is generally priced well. It is definitely filling…read moreand good for when you are hungry. Obviously not as good as compared to food I have eaten in Japan. The food here is not 100% authentic but does a good job at using the ingredients and captures the same image. The food does taste well cooked and has a nice flavour. The sushi is filling and authentic. The salmon-don is also very good. Would come back here as always but not if your looking for the most authentic Japanese experience.

Tried the chicken karaage ramen here for lunch. The chicken tastes acceptable though with a bit too…read moremuch skin & fat for my liking. But the ramen is one of the plainest I've ever tasted. A boring dish indeed with very average tasting noodles. I only ordered this because there is no udon soup. How can a Japanese restaurant not serve udon soup? To make things worse, the tables are packed too closely & squashy. Feels more like a cheap Chinese eatery rather than a decent Japanese restaurant that this place is pretending to be. I don't think I'll be coming back.

Great place for sushi!! Found this on Yelp of course and had to try it. My first time in Melbourne!…read more Very impressive menu and reasonable prices. There was a nice selection of sushi, sashimi and hot dishes. See my pics of the menu! We tried the Sushi and sashimi special combination first. Everything was excellent. I also ordered some yellowtail nigiri and salmon. Service was prompt and friendly. It wasn't too busy when we were here but when we walked past later it was packed. They have indoor and outdoor seating. Will definitely be back next time am in town!

I had a highly enjoyable experience eating at Kanpai Japanese Restaurant. It all began with a quest…read moreto find a decent Japanese place near the city -- but not too close to the city that parking would be impossible. I think Kanpai is in a great location for the perfect balance. ~ Inside, its dimly lit, warm atmosphere is relaxing and the staff are welcoming and understanding. ~ The drinks come in big glasses, the food is well presented, and orders come out quickly. ~ The open kitchen style is nice, albeit not particularly unique, finding comforts in the more traditional teppanyaki-styled Japanese restaurants. The downside of this is that when the restaurant is busy, I imagine the kitchen sounds could get quite noisy for the seating environment. ~ The restaurant is open 'late' on some nights -- and they mean it more than other restaurants in the area. Kanpai was actually my second choice of places to try, however arriving at the first restaurant at 10.15pm on a Saturday night and finding it closed made me give Kanpai a try. On the Saturday night I was here, the kitchen closed at about 11pm. ~ Sadly, the entrees and mains did not come out at the same time. It's a little pet peeve of mine, but if I'm eating with someone else and my entree arrives ten minutes before theirs, I have the choice of either being rude and gobble it up without waiting for theirs to show, or allow it to go cold while waiting for my dining partner's dish. Overall, the food was tasty, the environment was quiet and clean, the experience was positive, and the staff were kind. I even had a laugh at the waiter who I witnessed using an array of chopsticks and sticky-tape to rescue a receipt that had fallen behind the fridge. A positive dining experience. I will be back.

Just finished a quick lunch at my favourite Japanese joint. I'm a big fan of their bento box…read morespecials for lunch, at $18 I haven't needed to go any further. The Tempura bento is great, with veggies and seafood tempura, miso soup, sushi & sashimi, rice salad and a small starter it's bento heaven. The ingredients are fresh service is friendly and fast, making it a great place to eat. The volcano roll at $17 is a little pricey but just about my favourite sushi. Yeeees

I went to Hibachi for lunch after seeing its 5 stars on Yelp. And what a disappointment it was!…read more I'm vegetarian, and restaurants can usually cater to me pretty easily. But not at Hibachi: the waitress repeatedly asked me if I was allergic to sea food. No I'm not, but being vegetarian should be reason enough not to put fish in my dish! The chef couldn't whip up something without fish stock in it, making me question how fresh things really are there... I ended up having a vegetarian roll, which was quite good but cost me 18$! My friend had a bento menu and was not that amazed by the flavours, although I have to admit there was a lot of food on the tray. One place I'm sure I won't go back to!

This is my favourite Japanese restaurant in Melbourne. Very traditional place, just like Yokyo…read more Staff are great. Try the Toro "tuna belly" sashimi or sushi, it's incredible. Here the sushi has only small amount of rice, proper Japan style. The sushi and sashimi platter is amazing, the Prawn Dumplings, Sukiyaki, Shabu Shabu, everything here is just like real Japan! Love it!

Extremely friendly staff and very quick service. Quite expensive mains considering portion size but…read moreworth it for the quality of food. Amazing experience for anyone visiting Melbourne

Great value at $12 for a pork belly with spicy ramen soup and at lunch time chicken teriyaki with a…read moremiso soup also for $12. We both loved the flavours of the dishes and adequate portion sizes. I'll definitely be back here for lunch and have heard it's great for dinner

Edamame, yasai tempura, yakitori, takoyaki, buta gyoza, lotus heart crisps - Pabu Grill & Sake does…read moreall the classic Japanese izakaya food with a modern Fitzroy flair. Traditional kitschy japanese wares (such as the constantly-steaming crockpot on the counter) blend surprisingly well against a suitably smith-street bartender complete with high apron and Grandpa Harrity cap. We ordered a smattering of izakaya snacks - the stand-out being the yakitori. The delicious salty-sour-sweet honey-soy-sesame crunch marinated chicken was grilled to absolute perfection and had all the smokeyness you'd find in the diveyest backstreet pubs of Japan. They were so good, our second round of food was simply all yakitori with steamed rice. I lost my dining partner, eating closed-eyed in a moment of his own, to the sticks of sticky-smokey goodness! Another plus - the steamed rice was the absolute PERFECT temperature - not the luke-warm globules you usually find about town. The service was very very attentive, although everyone still seemed a bit lost and no-one seemed to QUITE know which patrons they were supposed to take care of. But considering we were eating on the grand opening night (though they'd been open 2 weeks) it was forgivable. As was the wait on our food...... ... the first round came out staggeredly from about the 35 minute mark. Considering we were in for a late dinner (8pm), by the time our yasai tempura arrived I had already eaten half of one of my chopsicks and my partner had gnawed half his arm off. Round two of food was, unfortunately, much worse. 40 minutes for 5 yakitori chicken and rice (with no heads-up on how long the wait would be). Which made the movie we were meant to be catching in Carlton a stress and a struggle, and we couldn't enjoy the chicken and give it the time and savouring it deserved because we had to inhale it and dash out the door. All in all, Pabu is great. Having lived in Japan for a while, I know good izakaya - and this is it. Besides some service and kitchen issues that I think will smooth themselves out over time, this place is great - though I think I'll wait a month or two until my next visit.. or have no post-dinner plans to rush off to so I can enjoy the experience fully. p.s. I'll also be checking out their comprehensive sake/sake cocktail menu next time!

We came here for our anniversary and it did not disappoint. The service was excellent and…read moreattentive. The food was absolutely delicious. We ordered the black cod, tuna sushi rolls, and a salmon dish along with a complementary dessert. The black cod was by far the best bite I've had in a while..it was rich, perfectly cooked, full of flavor and melted in your mouth. While it's not a lot of food overall, the sushi rolls were quite substantial and satisfying. The restaurant itself is beautiful, with elegant decor that creates a calm atmosphere. It's perfect for a special occasion. Overall, it's a wonderful dining experience and a great choice for a celebration.

The sister and I were looking for a sushi place to eat for dinner and we opted for this place after…read morelooking up a few places around the area. We were immediately seated at the sushi bar and our server came to get our orders. WAGYU AND FOIE GRAS DON- japanese mixed mushroom rice with wagyu sirloin and duck liver This dish was very filling and hearty. The wagyu was very meaty and tender. It was blowtorched and had a smoky flavor. The foie gras was buttery and very light. I liked the rice. It was sweet and earthy at the same time. It absorbed some of that sweet mushroom flavor. Overall, flavor was good, but it can be drying after a few bites. HIDA-GYU AND KAGOSHIMA-GYU The wagyu was thinly sliced and very tender. I especially like the uni because it was very buttery and tasted very fresh and sweet, which complemented the flavors of the meaty beef. SUSHI- tuna, salmon, otoro, garfish, and scallop I did not like the TUNA, it had a fishy odor and flavor to it. It didn't taste fresh. The SALMON was a disappointment. It wasn't buttery and oily, but more dry and chewy. The OTORO was okay. It was fatty and melted in the mouth. I only wish it wasn't so cold; so I felt like I placed an ice cube in my mouth. I've never had GARFISH before. This white fish had a fatty content to it and was light. It had a slight sweetness to it. The SCALLOP was my favorite. It had a smoky flavor to it and was so tender. Overall, it was an okay experience. I was expecting more. Quality was okay, not amazing and flavor profiles were pretty simple. Some things were fresh and some things were not. The dessert was my favorite and it was the most basic thing. It was cantaloupe and their special in-house sauce. It was a sweet way to end the meal.

Visiting from California…read more This is what sushi is supposed to taste like. Everyone is Japanese here. I had the omakase. They took so much attention to each piece. Each one had its own personality with a sear, a marinade or a garnish. Rice flavoring was perfect, as well as rice to fish ratio. Price point was reasonable as well. I'd come back next time I'm in Melbourne!

This place gets 3/5 from me because I had a special -50% discount on TheFork. At full price, it is…read moreprobably a 2/5 for me. Japanese restaurant by the harbour. Most of the dishes were good, except for the sushi. The fish was fresh, but the rice was falling apart, indicating that the kitchen didn't have a good sushi chef. Service was also incredibly slow - took ages for food to arrive. What should have been a fairly quick lunch meal stretched for more than 2 hours. Worth going if there's a good discount available on TheFork, otherwise I think it is slightly pricey for the quality and the service levels.