I am no weakling when it comes to spicy food. Being Malaysian I was born with that special chemical…read morethat makes you enjoy and appreciate a bit of spice with your meal. I get drawn to spicy food. Whenever I there is a spicy and non spicy option 99% of the time I have to get the spicy one. A visit to zenya was no exception. I had to get the spicy miso ramen. It came with a big chunk of spicy sauce sitting on top. Normally I would've just mixed the whole thing in but for some reason my spicy 6th sense told me to take out half and if it wasn't enough then add more in later. My goodness my 6th sense could not have been more correct. Even with only half the sauce mixed into the ramen my tongue and stomach were on fire!!!! It tastes great in the beginning but got a bit too much towards the end. So. Anyone ordering the spicy miso ramen. BEWARE!!! GO SLOW!!!

I was a little skeptical at first to try a Japanese noodle place in Eastwood (being a predominantly…read moreChinese neighborhood) but I was pleasantly surprised to find the flavours so authentic and the chefs and waitresses actually conversing in Japanese. The ramen here uses cloudy soup for their ramen which I don't really remember having in Japan, but I have had it in plenty of other noodle shops run by Japanese cooks around the world. My partner had the ton toro bento box which she swore was excellent.

Very small restaurant but very good food. I had a bento box with teriyaki chicken, miso, salad,…read moresalmon sashimi and rice and fried spring roll and one other fried dumpling type thing. The teriyaki was excellent, the salad was only ok and a bit dry. The fried items were not the flavor profile I was expecting but not bad. Being from the US, maybe it's just how it's done in Australia. One of us had teriyaki udon noodle bowl. Excellent noodles and broth. One had a sushi roll. WOW. The largest sushi roll ever. It was almost 2.5" diameter. Way too big to put in your mouth. It was like a California roll - avocado, cucumber and crab salad inside with salmon and tuna sashimi on top. Taste was excellent but very awkward to eat. Overall, friendly with good food. Totally forgot to take pictures.

This place held up to the reviews. The sushi was tasty and fresh. The staff were friendly. I would…read moreconsider this place as a good place for Japanese food.

The restaurant is above the food court and nicely decorated. The lunch menu had variety (sushi,…read morebento, hot pots, noodles, rice bowls and etc.) I had the grilled salmon bento box ($24) which came w a miso soup, salad, sashimi, salmon roll and two piece of grilled salmon (great flavor and love the crispy skin) the food was fresh and good quality (portions and fairly small as I was hungry after the bento). I was happy w the food - just wish my bento box came w rice (which is what I am use to). Overall good food and nice environment - I would recommend.

The service is insanely good here - some of the best I've ever experienced! You would take a sip of…read morewater, they'd come over to replenish that sip immediately. They cleared anything used right away and were always asking if things were okay. I asked for a drink I saw here on Yelp in a photo and they made it for me, given it did not look anything like it but it tasted lovely and we all had a good laugh about how unalike it was from the original picture! I tried sushi tacos for the first time ever, and although I wouldn't go that route again purely off of preferring seaweed to be not crunchy, I am glad I tried it and ate the whole thing. I'd definitely return to try something different next time!

Not as good as before. Owner is Chinese now. No wonder I had severe food poisoning. Ordered the…read morespecial menu.

Every item has a variety of different things, especially the bento boxes which are the best value…read more The service was also prompt and the food came out quick. I recommend the salmon bento box as it was so delicious with the saucy rice.

Great Sushi & Sashimi Its in the area of Marrickvile where…read moreall the good Vietnamese shops are. Would be perfect if they served Sake but still really good i will return. And $1.50 unlimited japanese tea :) well unlimited hot water still good

With an array of Vietnamese Restaurants on show while driving through the streets of Marrickville,…read moreyou'll be forgiven for not knowing Japanese Restaurant Sakae even existed. From the street Sakae looks like any other shops in the centre of a bustling Illawarra Street with its modest entrance. There's nothing flashy about this place. The menu was extensive with lots of Entree options on offer. My husband had the Tempura Entree. It's a decent size for an entree, it includes 2 pieces of prawn, 1 piece of fish and 6 pieces of veggies fried in tempura batter. I expected tempura batter to be light and this feels heavier than what I'm used to. I had the Yakizana Entree. It's lightly salted half grilled Mackerel. The fish had been de-boned and the skin was crispy. It was a nice dish. Highlight of the night was the Deluxe Sashimi. It contains 22 pieces of sashimi goodness. It was a feast of raw Salmon, Tuna and Kingfish, as well as scallops, oyster, squid and Ikura or Salmon Caviar. Cut with great consistency, everything was fresh and the Ikura was real (unlike some other Sushi/Japanese place that serves fake ones). It was delish! I was a bit disappointed with the Cooked Tuna and Cucumber Hand Roll. The tuna was too mushy and it was so loosely rolled that when picked up most of the fillings fell out. But the mini rolls were neat and beautifully presented. The service was warm and friendly. And overall it was a pleasant experience. Would love to try other entrees the next time we come.

If you close at 9, advertise you close at 9 and we show up at 8:15 but get turned away. I don't…read morecare how good the food is. Zero stars for wasting my time.

My husband keeps raving about this place and tries to come every time he's in Sydney. Since he…read moreinsists this is the best sushi he has ever had ... Well I have try to see if it's worth the hype. They recognize him immediately which I find a little funny because he must come here more often than I think. We sit at the sushi bar and we are greeted by the chef and the waitress quickly sets down our plates and takes our drink orders. They pour us sake Japanese style. The service is impeccable even at the sushi bar. We had the omakase, which means the chef chooses your food for you and it consisted of all raw foods. We had a mix of sashimi and nigiri from both fish and shell fish. My top favorites were the scallop lightly seared and the super decadent toro with uni on top. That was so simple, but I have never had them together! There were 2 things about the omakase experience that really set this place apart from other sushi restaurants. 1. I tried fish that I have never heard of nor tasted before (and I can't spell them either) 2. They presented different parts of the fish for you to try. For example, he gave us yellow tail belly and then presented a yellow tail closer to the fin with a little of the skin to give it more flavor. I appreciated the extra attention of presenting the same fish, but in a slightly different way to enhance its flavor. Looking around I saw plenty of tables eating a mix of both raw and cooked foods. Even though we only had raw food, the cooked food looked delicious. If you're looking to try the omakase, call ahead to let them know. It was possible to also have cooked foods in our omakase, but we preferred raw. Yes, this place is worth the hype because of their service, attention to detail, great food and presentation and somehow it was still laid back. They knew my husband by name and most restaurants in big cities lack that personal touch.

Small suburban Japanese restaurant. The diners were mainly Japanese families…read more Had the udon hot pot lunch set - on the menu it said rice, miso soup, and a dessert would be included with all sets. But we weren't served the rice or miso (would have been too full anyway) but a little disappointed we didn't get what was promised. Udon tasted authentic, the prawn inside the tempura shell was fresh and cooked well, loved the runny egg yolk and large mushrooms. Soup base was light and tasted good. I ended up slurping all the soup, even though I don't normally eat the soup in noodle dishes. The dessert was one small scoop of black sesame ice cream. The ice cream was served inside a ramekin, and the ramekin and ice cream was frozen and ice cream had ice shavings around it. I'm pretty sure they made it more than a week ago and froze it. Didn't taste fresh, and was very dry and hard. I pierced my spoon into the ice cream and a small piece came out. Tasted very frozen, hard, and could taste the freezer taste. I didn't have any more.

Sometimes I forget that Japanese is so much more than just sushi…read more Don't get me wrong, I scoff sushi like the best of them, but come dinner time, I tend to search for a hot dinner instead of some delicate cold sashimi. Hence my wariness when a recent family diner was booked at HaNa Ju-Rin in Crows Nest. But I was oh so wrong. I'm sure it helped that my sister-in-law is an expert orderer, but I still managed to be dumbstruck by every dish. There was gyoza, there was udon, there was king fish salad. Then there were slightly more adventurous dishes like giblets, intestines and beef tongue. And finally there was the dish that rocked my world: okonomiyaki. Sweet mercy this fried pancake slice of savoury deliciousness canNOT be good for you, but you'll definitely find me hoeing into one next time I have hangover. In fact, hangover or no, you'll be sure find me hanging out in front of HaNa again soon.

Great food and very friendly staff. Digital Menue was easy to navigate. Great place to eat while…read moreout shopping

I had a taste for ramen while staying nearby during my first trip to Australia. This was a great…read morechoice! After reading reviews, I went with the Tan-Tan Tsukemen, which are the Tan-Tan soup with cold noodles on the side. The flavor was great and I finished my meal. Wish I could go back and try other dishes!