suminoya japanese

one of the most hidden and best japanese bbq in the cbd. came for the ayce (all you can eat) set menu, and it was by far satisfying to seefoodcoming onto the table at a decent pace. would love to come back on cold days as any bbq would be great to serve hot,warm delicious meats and greens on a cold day.

the suminoya buffet is one of our old favourites when it comes to a satisfying japanese yakiniku bbq smorgasbord for group catch ups, so i was glad to find out that they had added a few new items onto the menu when we visited for dinner recently. the restaurant is tucked away in a lane way near martin place and for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of trying the suminoya buffet before – the set up is essentially that you choose the level of menu you’d like to order from, 60 minutes to order whatever you’d like off that menu (via their handy ipad ordering system) and then 90 minutes to eat your meal. each table is equipped with tabletop bbqs for you to cook your chosen meats and huge extractor fans so you don’t end up smelling too much like yourfoodat the end of it all.

our last visit was incredibly disappointing, to the point that i cannot recommend this restaurant at all. service was utter rubbish (impolite, ??? cold beer, shooing us out). prawns were not fresh (black heads), scallops were dry and wagyu was covered in way too much oil. the miso soup also had a bitter taste: a mark of burnt soup. the issue is that we brought friends from overseas and it was embarrassing for us to take them. for a "deluxe" buffet, there was nothing deluxe about the experience at all, and we feel that we did not get what we paid for. the onlyfooditems that was remotely acceptable were the potato salad.

one of the few times where we did not tip, simply because the waitstaff were incredibly rude ("is cold sapporo okay?" - no, in no universe is paying $8 for room temperature beer ever okay in a restaurant; "give me the soy sauce - we are closing", again rude, interrupting a customer's conversation with such a direct comment). 

i normally do not write like this, and so it speaks volumes that i would recommend against coming here based on this experience.

although good quality of thefoodbut your service is disappointing, especially the person whoever answered the phone, was so rude and impatient.

i went there with friends recently for birthday celebration so we went to the deluxe option ($80/per person) i love their wagyu beef, it's really good 🤤. i also tried their sushi and sashimi, they are pretty decent 🥰 i recommended you to eat the grilled salmon sushi (1st recommended among their sushi), grilled beef sushi . i have tried another jbbq all you can eat but i didn't like their sashimi at all.
i can tell due to covid, it's difficult for them to maintain their previous lower price but hot water/tea during winter i think it's reasonable.
the grill was a bit difficult to adjust 😥, the heat only focus in the middle so it took a long time to cook when you only have 1 hour to eat.
it would take a while for my order to arrive my table. at the beginning it was ok, but i guess later time they become busy so myfoodarrives slowly.
i am happy with the quality of the meat. hopefully they will improve their menu.
i didn't take many photo because i was busy to cook and eat.

when we checked in at the entrance, the guy was very rude told us to stand back instead of helping us. thefoodwas very low standard, ice cream was serve on a alfoil plate, yuk. surely not recommended for anyone.

food was great but i still give it a 1 star.
first of all, everyone working there is japanese and none of them are very fluent in english so at times i would have to ask questions a few times and speak more slowly vut even then they will not give me the answer i was asking for. they supplied me with an ipad todo all the ordering, without any explanations on how to use the ordering ipad. the timer on the ipad tells us the time we have left (90 minute eating time) but the ipad gave us 70 minutes so i asked 3 different workers to get clarification about that but they all failed to explain it to me. i gave up asking questions after that and hurriedly chose my menu as the timer kept going. it felt like i was pressured to a point that i accidently ordered 2 of the same things and later there was too much food. ay first they said if there is too much leftover it would be a penaulty of $15. but then that changed as they charged me $50 for the leftover. i argued about that and it was only then when the manager guy came out and finally clarified things for me. he said that the timer on ipad was only 70minutes for the ordering time. we get 90minutes to eat. (there was no clarification/explanation about this anywhere).
then they took our left overfoodas the manager said they had to weigh it to calculate how much penaulty we would have to pay, even for the one i accidently double ordered when i felt like i was being rushed during ordering process. end result: manager did not waive off the extra charge for the accidental order. it was my mum’s birthday and it would have been a $130 dinner nifht but ended up payong $185.foodwas delicious but the service was utterly terrible!
we are never going back there.

i have been here once which impressed me with its very good service and nicefoodbut the second time ive been here was a disaster i was badly treated by the japanese guy in reception.he seems got some atitude that day.he was very impatient when explaining the booking situation and and never said sorry just telling us they are all fully booked then give me a face like i don't care if you want to have dinner here or not.
japanese restaurants are famous for their good services.but i can never feel it that day in suminoya. be more patient and say sorry isn't a very hard thing for you to to as a waiter! this place is really ruining japanese restaurants good reputation!really disappointing!

went here sunday night originally came here 5 years ago to the day.
not much has changed including my original 5 star rating the decor is still the same but the hot coals they used to do the barbecue with have been replaced with gas which some may not like but i was not perturbed as i was able to control the heat ok.
they now also have ipads to order yourfoodwhich is a nice addition.
but mostly the quality of thefoodis still the best i have encountered at a japanese barbecue the wagyu beef is melt in your mouth the sashimi is great service is a bit hurried but they are helpful and pleasant and just trying to keep things going.
for me still the benchmark i measure all japanese barbecue against.

japanese hidden bbq buffet

this place is hidden like the hidden leaf village and love the atmosphere, it's very unique.as you enter the building you can smell the aroma of the beef. once you enter the restaurant, all the staff will greet you in japanese.

the bbq is small but the quality of the meat was excellent. it was juicy and i couldn't stop eating, there was no room to talk. i would recommend the wagyu ribs and the beef cubes, cook them medium rare and it's soooooo good! there's a lot of selections on the menu and they serve you in small portions so you don't waste any food. love the mushrooms but they serve it in half a when you order one.

the sashimi was fresh and most of thefoodwas in excellent quality. they serve kimchi as well and it taste really good. it's 70 dollars per person but they do a better quality meat than any other places that i've been to.

green tea ice cream was all you can eat as well, i personally love it and order about 6 servings. it was worth it! staff was friendly, they asked me how was myfoodand took every plate that wasn't been used. this is a great place to eat with mates.

at first a $60pp all you can eat japanese bbq (drinks not included) may sound a little steep, but when you consider there's also endless sashimi on the menu, it was definitely more then worth it, and that's why this place is always busy. we booked & came early. it's a little hard to find, being at the back of a dead end street in between buildings. we sat downstairs so was a bit stuffy. but it didn't matter when thefoodstarted coming, you only have a 60mins range to order & an extra 30mins to eat. given the beef tongue was restricted to only 1 plate per person we got that first to try, it was damn delicious. thinly sliced, so cooks quickly, it has a crisp chewy texture (爽口), well marinaded in soy, perfect with a beer (or on its own). the other cuts of meat were ok, the wagyu was the next best, the ribs with the bone were bit thick so not as good as others. the sashimi were good quality. the sides were ok, but not really what you're there for anyway. i enjoyed it so much, i came back for a second visit in 2 weeks with different friends. definitely highly recommended.

been here many times over the past year. thefoodis consistently fresh and great quality. can’t sing enough praises for the service too, they’re so efficient and polite. you order off the ipad, and then your dishes are brought out. i really love how small the portions are, that way you can try everything (if you want more just order more portions). really really love this place, it’s a little on the pricier side, but it’s so worth it. sometimes the sashimi is cut a little roughly, but it’s fresh and tasty none the less. make sure you book early around weekends and public holidays, they tend to get booked out.

this is japanese buffet at its finest. suminoya’s concept is simple: choose a set menu and go crazy! you have 60 minutes to order and the remainder 30 minutes to eat, so all in all the buffet is 90 minutes long.

there are 3 types of packages: standard, gourmet (with sashimi, each person limited to one plate of ox tongue ) and deluxe (unlimited ox tongue). note that the buffet option is only available for dinner and on weekend dinners, diners have to opt for either the gourmet or deluxe package.

love it:
1. you can order using ipads, which circumvents the otherwise awkward problem of having to signal the waiter every time you want a double helping of wagyu short rib. thefoodwas very prompt, which is often not the case in all you can eat restaurants. zero faults.
2. great choice: they have a really good selection of meat and sashimi, and we managed to sample almost everything. particularly loved the wagyu short rib, scallops, corn, wagyu steak and scampi. everything is really well marinated and tastes delightfully fresh. sashimi was fresh and clearly of a decent cut. just beware when ordering that one serve means one piece, so make sure you order more than one!

not a fan of:
1. the raw beef had way too much sesame oil in it, drowning the taste of the beef. avoid if not a fan.
2. 60 minutes is too short a time as we spent most of the hour in a frantic cycle of cooking and ordering. however this appears to be the standard time for most japanese all you can eats do not really a pet peeve relating to suminoya pet se.

verdict: excellent value for money. suminoya doesn’t skimp on quality and for unlimited meat, sashimi and ice cream i don’t think i can ask for more.

food is so so but really really bad service. when i kindly asked a staff where should i put the umbrella, she said nothing and just take my umbrella away rudely. when i asked whether i can orderfoodinstead of having buffet, she said only buffet. but half an hour later, the next table ordered food. i ask the staff why, they say they were busy at that time and can only serve buffet. excuse me??? that's make no sense at all. bad restaurant. i think no one want to walk in this place and ruin the whole day.

suminoya has a large selection offoodwith the premium buffet option so we were able to try a lot of different things on the menu. service was fast andfoodwas fresh! my favourite dishes was the beef yukke, scallop sashimi and the crab cheese salad. i enjoyed dining here and i would come back again