I had been searching for a more traditional and higher end Japanese restaurant for lunch and after reading about Azuma, I thought I would give it a try. As I had not booked for lunch, the waiter struggled to find us a table for three. I asked if we could sit at the empty sushi bar but was told no. Eventually, the waiter said he would get the manager to try to sort something out for us which was nice of him. When the manager finally came out, she said we could sit at the sushi bar provided we only ordered from the bento box menu as the sushi chef was too busy. Interesting, I thought we couldn't sit at the sushi bar? And what's with not being able to order anything else apart from the Bento box menu because the sushi chef is too busy preparing orders? Hmmm... isn't that kind of the business and expectation that the sushi chef would be busy making/preparing sushi/sashimi? Anyway, we ordered our Bento boxes and they were nicely presented. But I think for $40 a bento box and the name Azuma, I was kind of expecting more in terms of quality and quantity. The tempura was not fantastic. It wasn't that light crispy tempura I was expecting. I can definitely get much better tempura at less fancy Japanese restaurants. There was no white radish with the tempura sauce which was disappointing and not not very traditional. The wagyu beef was quite tough and chewy. Didn't seem very wagyu to me. On the positive, the sashimi served were good in terms of freshness. Also, looking at the sushi bar, they didn't seem to have 'Uni' (sea urchins) at all. Overall, I had a higher expectation from Azuma given the price and what Azuma claims itself to be. According to the 'About Azuma' page, it says Kimitaka Azuma's "passion is to deliver new and dynamic Japanese cuisine that is both traditional and innovative drives him to expand his business, in the hope that all Sydneysiders will be able to enjoy the experience of 'real' Japan." Unfortunately, it was far from that experience and I definitely did not feel the 'real' Japan. It was also disappointing to be restricted to not being able to order off the sushi/sashimi menu given it was a Japanese restaurant. read more

Azuma Japanese Restaurant - Sashimi Tempura Bento for $39!! - Japanese Near Me - Sydney, NSW

Ate at Azuma last night. It was my third time dining here. As always the food was good, the sashimi was fresh and tasty. The soft shell crab hand rolls are wonderful! This is not the best Japanese ive ever had. I much prefer Toko in Surry hills. It is however not the worst Japanese i have had. And provided you dine with at least one asian you will receive decent service. read more

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Could be the best sushi in Sydney. Certainly the place to see and be seen. Exceptional service. Highly recommended

This place has japanese waitresses and japanese version of menus, but that about as authentic as it gets here. The food is definitely not authentic japanese and greatly altered for local tastes. Only the amuse bouche was good and close to food you d get in japan. The other courses in the tasting menu consisted of overload of mayo and western sauces, cheese, or salmon. The salmon belly was actually pretty good, but you'd never be served salmon sashimi in a nice restaurant in japan and definitely not with mayo sauces on top of it. I'd definitely not recommend this place if you're looking for anything slightly close to authentic japanese food. However, the restaurant's ambience is nice and very good, attentive service. read more

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Azuma is the Japanese restaurant of choice for corporate lunches, as evidenced by the crowd, the one lunch-time I was there. And they cater for this type of patron by providing a "long lunch" experience through lunch degustation, a la carte or bento box options. A friend and I thought we would try Azuma's famous bento boxes one lunch-time which set us back around $40, so not the cheapest lunch ever. The Azuma Bento box that I had was wonderful though - waygu beef, tempura, sashimi and other usual bento box items. However I think the price was over the top for what we received...I just don't think you can put bento box and fine dining in the same category because you feel ripped off lol. Overall the experience was ok. Staff were attentive and the food was definitely above par (ie. not casual Japanese eatery standard). I would like to see what the dinner service is like, as the menu seemed a bit of an excessive indulgence for lunch, especially if it wasn't being paid for under a corporate account :p read more

Azuma Japanese Restaurant - Japanese Near Me - Sydney, NSW

I love Azuma because it's the place my dear friends at Macquarie Bank, Goldman Sachs and Investec take me when we're having a catch up in the city... I think they love this place because it's fancy, exclusive, delicious and close enough to work that they can "get away" without "getting away". I find this place to be gorgeous - simple Japanese decor, Azuma is all about understatement. All the food is fantastic and if you can afford it, I'd suggest it all... Now I know this is a bit strange, but I strong recommend their salts and peppers - that come in an array of colours and flavours when you order the Tempura - in fact that's a good enough reason to order the Tempura. They add an additional something special to this place which you can't get anywhere else (highly recommended) All the food is fresh, the staff wonderful..... I'm just grateful that my rich banker friends feel inclines to take a struggling artists to such fancy places - i like to call it Karma Offset. read more

Azuma Japanese Restaurant - Japanese Near Me - Sydney, NSW

When I googled around to find the top sushi restaurants in Sydney, Yoshii and sushi-e were two of the three most common names to come up. Azuma was the third, so I made it a goal to try it before I left Sydney. Sushi e was a great experience with pretty good sushi, while Yoshii was decent to good food but an average experience. I wanted to see how Azuma would fare (spoiler: not well). Regarding the sushi rice, the rice was warm (in a good way) but a little grainy (bad). It didn't have that "wet" taste that really good sushi rice usually has for me. There were one or two pieces where the rice wasn't as good, which is a negative because of the inconsistency. Most of the time, the proportion of the rice to fish was fine. I think I would have liked about 10% more rice for each piece, but this wasn't a big deal. For the paradise prawn nigiri, though, the proportions were off. There should have been more rice. I think that the sushi chef could have cut the prawn meat in half and then have two half-nigiri pieces that would, in total, have more rice than a normal nigiri piece would. (Chef Takashi Ono at Sukiyabashi Jiro's Roppongi Branch did a preparation of kurumaebi like that.) To sum up my thoughts about the sushi, the rice's temperature was fine, it was a little too grainy, and the proportion of the rice to fish was generally fine. There were a few negative points of the meal that made this a considerably worse experience than my meals at sushi e or Yoshii. First, I only ate 12 pieces--my sushi chef was basically out of ideas for pieces after 9 or 10 pieces. This is related to a different problem; the selection is considerably worse than sushi e's. Second, the chef didn't add any soy sauce at all for me. This sucks because a lot of customers might not know the ideal amount of soy sauce to put, while the chef would (or should) definitely know. Third, the chef was very mechanical. He just kept on working and working and didn't bother to make any convo at all. I suppose that's okay if the sushi is great, but it kind of detracts from the overall experience. Fourth (and this is more of a pet peeve), he didn't give any akami (lean tuna)! Do they not even have it? Then again, I've done omakase meals at Sushi Kuu where I didn't get akami; however, the chefs at Kuu could easily prepare akami nigiri if I asked them to. They just didn't have akami here... I wonder why. Akami's one of my favorite pieces, and I feel like it's a central sushi piece. Negatives: -This meal left me deeply unsatisfied, considering I only ate 12 pieces. He was kind of out of ideas after 9/10 pieces :(. -The chef was mechanical. He just kept on working and working and didn't bother to make any convo at all. I suppose that's okay if the sushi is great, but it kind of detracts from the overall experience. -FFS! Shouldn't akami be part of an omakase meal...? I guess that it IS the chef's choice... -The selection is worse than sushi e's. They didn't have uni :(. -The chef doesn't add soy sauce for you. I... don't like this. I guess it's not that big of a deal... -Also, the chef said that I already had hamachi when he served me kingfish (hiramasa). He... said that kingfish was hamachi. Sushi: 1. Chūtoro (medium-fatty tuna). - It wasn't as fatty and rich as I'm used to. I just think the seafood isn't as good here compared to the other two restaurants :(. 2. Sake (salmon) belly. 3. Scampi. 4. Paradise prawn. 5. Aburi sake (salmon) belly. 6. Aburi hiramasa (kingfish) belly. 7. Ikura (salmon roe). 8. Shiitake mushroom tempura. -The flavor of the shiitake mushroom was actually lost in the deep-frying. 9. Prawn tempura with tobiko (flying fish roe) hand roll. 10. Hotate (scallop). 11. Unagi (freshwater eel). -Gah, another mediocre piece. I like eel a lot, too (both unagi and anago). Whyyyyy?! 12. Dashimaki-style tamago (egg). -The tamago was REALLY warm--it could almost qualify as "hot". I didn't really like this. I gave this place three stars mainly because I had such a bad experience there. This place felt considerably worse than sushi e or Yoshii, but I do have to give it some credit in that it was cheaper than the other two restaurants. Note: If you want to see pictures of my meal, you can check out my blog in my profile! read more

Food quality, flavor, and presentation were flawless. Loved the silver cod which came with watercress salad. Service can be a little icy at times, and sometimes it is fine. The place is expensive for the quantity, but that's common to many upscale Japanese restaurants. read more

I enjoyed my food at Azuma, just found the service to be a little too pretentious/almost demanding. We were the first people in for a weekday lunch, and since we had no reservation, they told us we needed to be out in an hour. I understood, that was fine. However, tracking down a waiter was so challenging. If you want me out quickly (and for the price point) send someone over to take my order! I had a volcano roll with miso soup and my husband had Wagyu. Both were good (miso was some of the best I've had). Had we been hungrier, the bento boxes looked amazing! I didn't appreciate that there was an order limit on the order - each person had to spend at least $35. Again, just seemed really demanding to print that on the menu. This is definitely a lunch option for those in the business district. We were on vacation, so probably looked a bit out of place. However, once we tracked someone down to get our bill, we were out in under the hour as requested! Food was filling; pretty standard sushi and bento spot. read more

This was my favorite authentic Japanese restaurant in Sydney. Traditional chefs doing high quality sushi. On my most recent visit the fish was still super fresh but the shine was gone. The restaurant and even the chefs seemed tired and over it. The restaurant was empty and it showed on the staff. The once pinnacle of traditional sushi in Sydney is sadly no more. read more

This place is fantastic. Best Sushi in Sydney. On par with Nobu in Melbourne, personally I think it's better due to the wider variety. Sashimi was melt in your mouth as to the scampi special we had. Will return and try more again. read more

Although the food was okay the service was just god awful. Don't take friends that are visiting in town here cause the impression they'll be getting won't be a good one. But overall it's just an OKAY sushi place. Really better off spending your money else where. read more

This restaurant was recommended by my local Japanese friend when I asked him where to have sushi in Sydney. We booked counter and had sushi course. It was quite nice with starter and some dishes other than sushi, but serving was quite slow, kitchen was little too busy I guess. Then sushi chef noticed us having where-is-our-food faces, he gave us little plates time to time to make us survive, which was really sweet. read more

For the price. I was not impressed I ordered some sashimi and it didn't taste fresh at all. That Japanese restaurant across the street, next to ANZ bank is cheaper and better! read more

Best Japanese dinner I have ever eaten. I had the 7 course meal and it was insanely good. I cannot recommend it enough. All 7 dishes were sublime with the standout the second dish being the sashimi presented with an ice sculpture. The first dish which had a selection of 6 bit size pieces was superb. Sensational meal which I highly recommend. read more

We have not been to this restaurant for the longest time and decided to give it a go again. Very disappointed with the sashimi combination platter - only 4 selections of fish and appears to have been prepared earlier and come straight from the fridge! The toro sashimi slices were still frozen when they arrived at the table. The really good dish was the wagyu sukiyaki and at the price of $95 per person, it better be ! Not going back anytime soon... read more

The service was weak. We had called for a party of 5, put on hold them said not available. We later changed it to 3. Got to the restaurant and found it to be near empty. They were just trying to finish earlier service go close and go home! It wasn't even late! We called at 7 and got 8pm dinner in a near empty restaurant. Our waitress was dismissive, didn't know where the oysters were from, acts like it was such a huge bother when we asked questions. I got the sashimi but no one explain what the various fishes were( I can recognize tuna, hamachi and salmon but the others I'm not so good at). Just want to know what I am eating! There is also a 45dollars minimal per person read more

My partner and I visited Azuma on a Monday night before seeing a show at the State Theatre so we arrived at 6 as they opened to give us several hours before the show started. We were seated promptly in what is a lovely restaurant somewhat hidden away in the currently being refurbished Chifley Plaza. This follows on from visiting just about every Japanese restaurant in a 5 km vicinity in recent months, we seem to have a particular thing for Japanese food at the moment! We chose the mixed tempura, main size sashimi and chicken karaage to share. All were beautifully presented, fresh and tasty. The chicken was a little too on the salty side. Yes, the menu did say that it was "salted" but that doesn't mean you should be sucking your cheeks in with every mouthful. Still, I found it tasty enough and with a little water I enjoyed it where my partner did not. The issue I had was with the service. Towards the end of our meal, our section waiter just seemed preoccupied with other things and we just became invisible. This led to what I think is one of the most frustrating experiences when eating out restaurant.....the battle for the bill. After all, we had passed on dessert and had our coffees so we were clearly finished. Try as we might we simply could not force the waiter to stop at our table so that we could ask for the bill, he continually appeared to making himself busy with only he knew what. Eventually we managed to ask someone for the bill who passed this to our waiter who went to the cashier but then disappear out the back, never to be seen again. After waiting for around 5 to 10 minutes we just went up the the counter and paid ourselves. No, they were not busy and they appeared to have plenty of staff for a restaurant that size. I know it might sound petty but it really does put a dampener on a decent meal when you have to battle to pay them for it. If there was a rating between average and very good I would give that but given that it most certainly was not "very good" then we'll have to settle for average. There's nothing wrong with Azuma notwithstanding the lack of service but there is simply better Japanese within a short walk. read more

Not cheap, good sushi, good service. Nice place to meet for a business meal.