ichi ni nana izakaya

very cool place! relaxed and hip vibe. came here on a friday evening and staff were really funny and friendly. cocktails were nice and the seating and decor was awesome. food was beautifully presented but sadly lacked in taste and quality. most of our dishes we found were overcompensated with too much sauce or extravagant presentation to cover up average quality. the dumplings tasted like they were heated up from a frozen packet. also the menu was really confusing as there was a "tapas" section. but when you have a better look, the whole menu is realistically a tapas selection. we asked for a recommendation for "sake" and sadly it was very much under par from what we were expecting and have tried elsewhere. would like this review to be interpreted as nothing but constructive criticism as i believe this place has more potential than what we experienced.

my partner and i came here on a friday night - busy and packed, but a great atmosphere and vibe. this place is modern but also contains some essential japanese cultural interior, including an open sashimi bar with the sashimi chefs out front. there is an amazing courtyard with a glass ceiling that would be fantastic in summer! tips; a great place to bring a date if you really want to impress!
the variety on the menu is great as it caters to vegetarians and vegans. the best thing about this place is the food!! all dishes we ordered were packed with flavours and left us wanting more! i highly recommend the renkon chips, beetroot salad and vegetarian sushi roll - my partner says the 24 piece sashimi platter was great value and quality.
staff were quirky, friendly and attentitive. the only downside was our seating area, we sat in the upper area of the restaurant which was a little too dark at times despite candlelights, but perhaps good for a first date to set the mood ! im definitely coming back and bringing my girlfriends!

have been twice and both were great. came on a busy saturday with a large group, and another on a quieter sunday early evening with family. food is just amazingly spot on. the price is so reasonable for the quality. honestly some of the best sushi and shashimi i've had. service is spot on. the servers are on a schedule when it's busy (fair enough with the space upstairs and lots of other watering holes a quick walk away) and try to be so polite when the end of your allocated time is creeping up. and the decor is reason enough to come as well. just love it. highly recommend. only suggestion is that with a communal washbasin, maybe put a mirror in the ladies' room. sometimes you want to powder your nose without a guy knowing :)

i loved this restaurant, beautiful modernised interior. awesome ambience, dimmed lights with a pretty cool layout once you walk through the dining area. a range of variety on the menu, i came here because my friend recommended me to try their dragon roll because it was gorgeously presented and i love pretty food haha excellent and quick service with friendly staff. the sashimi we had was decently fresh, but we have had better for similar pricing, i also found a bone in my kingfish sashimi which i wasn't too pleased with, but no fuss, the tempura veggies were lightly battered (perfect), the dragon roll was super pretty with heaps of sauce which i loved (definitely recommended), the lobster nigiri was a little on the bland side it needs a little more sauce to tie it together because dipping it in soy sauce would have diminished the smokey taste to it. i had the yuzu drink i had was delicious, it was like a lemon lime bitter but more limey (must try!) i also bought a green tea latte takeaway for the way home and it was a little milkier than i'd like. overall, great experience, would come back to try the many more dishes they have to offer.

love the decoration, food presentation, designing of the menu.

services are a highlight.

it is extremely nice to seat under glass ceiling with dim light at sunset time!

the menu is extensive and it is good for us as most of them are tapas so we are about to try a variety of dishes.

recommend: dragon roll, tori skewers and ebi tempura.

love the atmosphere! modern design. definitely a nice place to hang out with friends ☺️ every plate is well presented, and all of them looks amazing.

love the lotus chips, the best one i ever have. so crispy! we have ordered the sashimi and sushi platter, which amazed us. the portion is huge! probably can feed 6ppl. but have to say the sashimi is very standard, not as fresh as shira nui at glen waverley. and it's a bit salty for those sushi and beef tartare.

awesome venue in an even better location! went here for dinner midweek, didn't have to wait for a table and staff were super friendly, although not that knowledgable when it came to food and pricing etc very nice nonetheless.
they have an awesome outdoor area and right above is village people for a rooftop drink if you want.
we got the banquet which was super filling, although on the expensive side at $65 with no sashimi on there, still worth it as you get around 10 dishes to share, a little annoying though because the whole table must get it but they made the exception! the menu is massive and can be a little much, hence the banquet is the easy option but would definitely go back to try everything else on offer!

sensational food and exceptional service! and the volume of the music was adapted so that patrosn could hear each other speak. highly recommended. village people could taker a leaf from this book!

i was very excited to try ichi ni nana izakaya after hearing nothing but good things about the food. we went last night (cup day eve) so we expected it to be busy, but the service was a joke, which is really disappointing considering the food was delicious. we were seated in a booth, and not sure if they completely forgot we were there or if they were too busy to bother checking on us, but we constantly had to wave down staff and were told they would grab someone to help us, only to have to wait another 15 minutes. we ordered our food and drinks at the same time, although two of our meals came before our wine did, which isn't great, but we figured things like this happen some times. however, another dish came and still no drinks, when we finally waved down the waiter, she told us there was a miscommunication and it was on it's way, we were almost an hour into our sitting at this point and there was no apology. our wine arrived and again we waited another 40 minutes before our next dish, with no apology or explanation as to why. at this point, we were beyond annoyed with service and still had half our dishes which hadn't arrived. when we waved down a waiter, he told us we hadn't placed any more food orders, even after the waiter had originally read back our order with those dishes on it. we had to re- order them and wait another 40 minutes for them to arrive. no apologies, explanations or any word for management. such a let down, considering we were up for a few drinks and some good food on a night out, and yet the service completely ruined all of this. not sure who's to blame, but would not recommend or return because of the service.

this review covers the two times i've been to ichi ni nana and is therefore an overall rating across the two visits. once was on a saturday for lunch where the restaurant wasn't overly busy and the other on a sunday for dinner where the restaurant was very busy (tip: i do recommend making a booking).

parking was a little hard to come by both times and we had to drive around the side streets to get a parking. both times we lucked out on a street called 'palmer st' where there is some angle parking (both times we managed to secure the last parking spot).

both visits, we were seated in the undercover courtyard which was filled with natural light. staff were fairly attentive both visits. the first visit we mostly stuck with the cooked dishes (listed below) and left with no real complaints about any of the dishes i had which is why we then visited a second time with my in-laws (at this point it would have been a 4-4.5 rating). we left amazed that every dish that came out was actually good i.e. no 'not good but not bad either dishes'.

* dishes i recommend

* lemon, lime, bitters with ramune and yuzu (drink)
* wagyu tartare; wafu seasoned wagyu with pickled shallots, radish, shiso and croutons ($16)
* karaage tori; fried chicken drumettes served with your choice of salt and pepper or honey and sesame ($10)
* nasu soboro; charcoal grilled eggplant skewers with ground chicken and teriyaki sauce ($12)
* agedashi tofu; crispy tofu with mountain vegetables, broth and fried leek ($14)
tori; charcoal grilled chicken thigh skewers with yakitori sauce or salt ($8)
soft shell crab roll; soft shell crab tempura with herbs, cucumber, avocado, tobiko and japanese mayo ($23)
pork gyoza ($9 for serving of 4)

second visit, the in-laws liked sashimi so we ordered a couple of different dishes while also re-ordering a few favourites from the previous visit (listed below). sushi and sashimi were beautiful presented with the liquid nitrogen smoky effect creeping through the dish. unfortunately this visit wasn't as pleasant as the previous visit (hence rating was lowered to reflect the experience) which i'll get into after listing what we ate during this visit.

hotate 5 ways; seared scallops served 5 ways with yuzu miso, apricot yuzu, wasabi, kogane yaki and moromi miso ($24)
* soba noodle salad; sesame dressed buckwheat noodles with seasonal green leaves and puffed rice ($12)
* volcano roll; inside out roll with asparagus, salmon, prawn, coated in flamed spicy scallop sauce ($25)
* lava roll ($25); one of the specials of the night
large sashimi; 24 pieces of assorted sashimi ($58)
* agedashi tofu; crispy tofu with mountain vegetables, broth and fried leek ($14)
pork gyoza ($9)
salmon teriyaki don; grilled salmon fillet with teriyaki sauce, rice and pickles ($18)

there was no doubt that the second visit on the sunday evening, the restaurant was a lot busier and the kitchen was struggling to keep up with the sashimi orders however it did leave a sour taste in my mouth when we provided some feedback after we had paid to who i suspect is the manager and the care factor displayed that night was a little low (i didn't even bother to say anything about the scallop after that response as i knew it wasn't going to go anywhere).

1) i spent some unpleasant time in the ladies rest room as the third dish arrived. i suspect it was the scallops (trust me to pick the bad scallop) as at that point i had everything everyone else had and they were all fine.

2) there were bones in the sashimi, a first for any of us sitting around the table and my in-laws are in their 60s!

3) the sashimi containing the fish skin, some pieces had bits of scales still left on the skin.

the response i received was, scales were to be expected in the sashimi dish because there is fish skin on the sashimi (?!) and yes there should have been no bones.

my advice is to stick with the cooked dishes and sushi when they're busy and sashimi is in demand else go during lunch when it is quieter and not as hectic.

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