suminoya japanese

the food is above average, but the service is bad. the receptionist was rude when i mentioned the notice about credit card surcharge at the counter was wrong. they didn't put 50 cents surcharge for eftpos on the notice (i only used a debit card). it's just a small price difference, but the guy was not properly trained and didn't know how to communicate with his customers.

i also had  a bad experience there with my friends in that restaurant a few years ago. we were pushed to choose the premium buffet because the waiter said the cheaper standard buffet was sold out that
night. the food was actually pretty much the same for both standard and premium buffet. we were also annoyed by the waiters when we had the meal because they always pushed you to finish quickly.

haven't been to a buffet in a while and must say even with the 30min wait (thank you other places for being full) it was amazing - well who knows maybe waiting in line for a buffet just improves everything cause your hungry...

do you get the best quality japanese wagyu beef...no but for what your paying for, it was well marinaded and lots of fatty goodness (marbling sure). great selection of sides also...

recommend that you totally make yourself an amazing bowl of tuna rice by ordering a side of yukhoe and stealing the raw egg yolk and mixing it into your tuna rice...

also the ordering ipad, great little addition to avoid that waiter/waitress guilt/shame stare when you order 10 plates of beef at once then more and more...come on we all know when you get those judgemental looks and it's like "you fatty...."

suminoya is an interesting concept which is uncommon in sydney - japanese bbq. when i compare suminoya with its glitzy cousins, the korean bbq restaurants, i find suminoya make bbq more straightforward and less of a chore.

i ordered a trio of meat for $19.90 and was served with complementary dishes including miso soup, a salad (to detox!) and a bowl of rice. i cannot complain the food is bad because i am the cook! nonetheless, the pork ribs, beef loin and chicken thigh were all wonderfully marinated. the beef loin, in particular, literally just melts in my mouth.

the total bill is significantly lesser than what i paid at madang. worth a try!

great little yakiniku restaurant hidden away in the cbd. quick and friendly service with a good menu, it could have been a little more extensive but was still superb.

the bbq meats were all sensational, succulent and juicy and marinated perfectly. the sashimi was delicious and fresh while the yukke was full of flavour.

i also ordered the bibimbap and although it was good, it was not the best. it was missing an egg and was a little on the sweeter side? i think they must have used sushi rice because it very much tasted like it. it was enjoyable but nothing to write home about.

i also tried the curry rice and to be quite honest, while intense in flavour, the flavour itself didn't quite sit right with me. this was only my second japanese curry so perhaps this is just a matter of personal preference, but it seems to taste an awful lot like keens curry powder (i'm anglo-indian and i think keens is an abomination).

we also had the ice cream trio for dessert, consisting of matcha, black sesame, and what i assume was vanilla/caramel flavours. the flavours were all sensational, especially the black sesame. oh my word, by far the best black sesame ice cream i have had so far! the matcha was also great, it was just a little too frozen and could have been left to soften for a but longer.

all in all, a pleasant meal. my yakiniku of choice is still kashiwa in crows nest but this is a decent second choice. i will probably be back.

for dinner, my companion and i came to a bit of an impasse. he wanted chinese food, whilst i wanted japanese food. so we both came to a compromise and got japanese food. having already gorged myself on sashimi at the fish market, i didn't want to go to a straight up sushi bar again, so we opted for a bbq buffet at suminoya.

being a self proclaimed melbournian food-snob, suminoya is one of my faves in the sydney cbd for a reasonably priced business lunch (and they even do take away).
stellar service and reliably good bento boxes.

we walked all the way from pyrmont to castlereagh st knowing we were going to overeat and needed the 1 hour walk home. we were early so we strolled around martin place until 6pm then made a bee-line for our fav japanese yakiniku buffet. we were among the first groups into the restaurant and placed our order when the waiter arrived with the menus.

within minutes, platters of various cuts of wagyu beef, pork, chicken, king prawns, scallops and vegetables arrived with big serves of sashimi salmon, tuna and scallops. we finished off all the sashimi before starting to grill the meats. i love grilled seafood but i have to say the grilled cuts of wagyu beef were so much more delicious. being spoilt with fresh queensland seafood we ordered a large second round serve of wagyu beef to finish off our meal. this upmarket yakiniku restaurant is highly recommended.

this restaurant had horrible service which i never suffered. i know there are limited 90 minutes to eat and we cannot order items after 60 mins. but only one hour later, a waitress came to our table to take away our plates and chopsticks which i was using! just one minute, she cleaned our table! what's the hell! i was eating! is she blind? it's unbelievable which happened in a service store. we thought that we were never come back. 和牛一般， 刺身还可以， 但是说好可以吃90分钟的呢，60分钟刚到就来一个女的把桌子都清空了，问都不问，正在吃没看到啊……呵呵， 吃一半被赶出店的感觉再也不会来了，心塞……

in the nineties when suminoya first began, a cbd alleyway like hosking place, would have been unlikely to even have residents. over the ensuing years, what began as a japanese restaurant doing traditional charcoal barbeque cooking inside the kitchen, expanded to include charcoal barbeques at every table. at the same time, sydney moved from being a place where we came to work, to a place where many people also began to live. the surrounding city of sydney area saw a thirty percent increase in residents in the decade between 2005 and 2015. today there are now residents living a mere six metres away from where the exhaust from this busy japanese restaurant exits, ten levels above the street. the ensuing years have also seen a number of coroners' cases where people have died from carbon monoxide poisoning after bringing their charcoal barbeques indoors for heat. this double-edged sword of health risks (particularly for staff) and resident complaints, have built a case for city of sydney to decide that individual charcoal barbequing might not be possible in the big smoke (if you pardon the pun) - well at least without a state of the art exhaust system pumping out 10,000 litres per second. though council staff were quick to admit they came to this decision reluctantly, because “the flavour is fantastic.” so expect to find gas barbeques and a whole lot of industrial hardware hovering over your table when you now come for yakiniku at this longstanding japanese restaurant. and while there is a cost to the intrigue and aroma that once emanated from this cbd alleyway, the obvious advantage is you can now nip back to the office after a long lunch without your hair and clothes reeking with the tell-tale aroma of barbeque. beer goes hand in hand with...

food is very tasty, expesially the diced beef, and staff are very friendly with quick service. $50-60 per person is a bit pricy, but well worth it for a special occasion or if you are really hungry and can eat a lot.

strongly recommend!

visited this restaurant for dinner. i was quite against the idea of bbq as the smell will stays on your hair and clothes for long time. surprisingly, this bbq does not smell at all. premium wagyu beef is great option to try. the mushroom was sauced, which is quite different to the korean bbq. buffet price is 50 pp for seafood, beef etc, or 60 pp for sashimi, seafood, beef etc. would not recommend to try lunch here. the bento box is 37 for serving, the price totally reflected the average lunch price in finance district.

this restaurant was really good 2 years ago. i went there last night. the food is not as good. there is no charcoal bbq any more. the beef tongue is not unlimited!
the service is bad.i will not go there no more .

if you really like high quality wagayu i will recommend nishiki in crows nest , although it's 10 dollars expensive than suminoya, but have more choices on meat and service much better. in suminoya it's kinda a disappointment, not even match any my expectations, the choice of meat is really limited in $60 buffet, actually all tasted like same. and not much drinks.

wasn’t the easiest place to find but once you get there and you’re inside, it’s all smiles as the staff greet you and are very welcoming. however, not sure if it really is suited for big groups, as it’s tight and cramped, not roomy at all.

as you would expect from a bbq, there is an assortment of meat and it was all good quality. the highlights were the marinated pork ribs and cow tongue. sashimi is also available and it was really fresh but quantities were quite small.

there were also salads and sides but all pretty standard stuff.

for dessert we had some ice cream which comes with three flavours, pretty decent. but there was this other dessert which was horrible. pretty much was just shaved ice and syrup. it was very bland and sort of like a really bad slushie.

throughout the night service was consistently good, staff were very attentive and food came out quickly.

been here multiple times with friends :)
the wagyu here never let me down !!! always walk out satisfied and way to full !! my fav is always the wasabi octopus, yummm ! will keep coming here ~ yah ~