Shoya

It offers the best sashimi in the CBD.
Fresh and pure Japanese dining experience.

Shoya is a restaurant that I have been looking forward to experiencing for some time. Upon placing the booking, I advised the restaurant that it was a special occasion ie: a birthday. I was instantly impressed with the long list of sake made available, and the varieties in wine. The dinner menu was a lot more complicated. Meals were separated into sections which would interpret both the size of the dish and the order of delivery to the table. This was not informed to us, as we studied the menu with its limited detail of explanation. The waitress watched on as we looked at the menu but never offered to assist to explain the contents of dishes or what each section meant. As a result, the dishes all came out at different timings and served all individually and separately. This made sharing multiple dishes at once, impossible, and where one person may have ordered fish while the other may have ordered the beef - we found ourselves individually watching the other person eat their meal, as opposed to us being able to share our meals together as a dinner party ought to. Overall the food was delicate and very nice - particularly the sashimi, the duck entrée, and the slices of wagyu beef. My disappointment was due to the lack of service available. The waitress assigned to us had barely spoken to us. The communication was at a minimum and it was clear that Shoya had a particular way of serving their food which was not communicated to the guests, making the ordering of food and the timing of when it was received, to be most awkward. In addition, despite my booking having specified that it was a special occasion, there was no mention from staff to acknowledge or wish me a happy birthday. Therefore, though the food is nice, the lack of warm service and communication, left the atmosphere feeling cold and detached. It didn't have the feeling to bring me back again and again, but left rather a stark and clinical feeling to the party.

Wonder venue if you want to take someone special out to both lunch and dinner. The service is one of the shortfalls, it has decreased in its level of services in recent years. Price wise it's reasonable for that quality you receive. Top recommended.

One of the finest Japanese restaurant! For sure better than Tetsuya(NSW). Strongly recommend to go!