Bentoya - Melbourne

We were a tad disappointed..had heard good things, but our experience was different.. They were busy a Friday night...chef was definitely over extended...non the less, the food was good. The wait staff, however, were very poor...Waited 'forever ' for a drink; for our order to be taken; for a water jug to be placed whilst waiting for drinks. There were enough of them...it 's not a large restaurant..they just seemed to flock around the front desk..waiting..it seemed..for food to be ready..very strange.. Won 't be going back too many other places to try...

Food on the floor, very grotty, after nearly 2 hours waiting to be served a sub-standard waterly meal with no taste- and we PRE-ORDERED! Had to ask for a knife and fork to cut Japenese beef! Should have gone to Maccas! When we left none of the other tables had been served which means a 3 hour wait at least for them.

Went to Bentoya using a Groupon banquet voucher for two. I can only fault the amount of food that came! was stuffed and plates were still coming out : The service was good, great location and the food very tasty. Have been before and will be back again. enjoy

Unless you are there for a Bento box (that 's not a recommendation don 't waste your time trying to do lunch. We arrived at 12 noon, presented our Groupon Voucher and settled in at a pleasant window table for what we hoped would be an enjoyable 9 course banquet, eagerly anticipated; it 's almost a 4 hour round trip from home to get there. We had purposely booked early to get lunch well underway before the start of the office rush. Forty (40 minutes later, we had been served only a bowl of Edamame, a glass of house wine and sake. Then other lunchtime diners started to arrive and EIGHT (8 Bento boxes were served! Still no sign of our next course. An hour in and we managed to catch a waitress who said she would chase up the kitchen. FOUR (4 more Bento boxes came through the servery before our next two dishes arrived: time elapsed 75 minutes. Later arrivals continued to be served (more Bento boxes and after two hours, we decided to cut our losses and left without having the last two courses. It is difficult to say if our appreciation of the food was adversely affected by the abysmal service (or lack of it and the erratic/sporadic pacing but the hot dishes were surprisingly cold and most were quite bland, lacking even a sauce to give some flavour. The beef (their signature dish? was fatty and chewy as well as tasteless. This was possibly the worst overall dining experience we have had the misfortune to suffer. It was a day out wasted by an establishment completely indifferent to diners who did not fit in with their service agenda. With no apology forthcoming, we have obviously decided not to return. There are far superior Japanese restaurants locally.

We first came here around 2 years ago on one of those voucher deals. I remember the banquet was huge we were really full at the end of it. This time round, my friend organised a get together. My partner I shared the following dishes below is my rating: gyoza: 3/5 sashimi carpaccio: 1/5 oroshi beef: 1/5 soft shell crab: 3/5 Mochi: 4/5 Gyoza is just average probably the minimum standard one should be for $9.90. The sashimi carpaccio was made up of salmon only which is disappointing as I was expecting tuna or perhaps a variety of fish. Oroshi beef was not sliced consistently or thin enough to truly enjoy it being cured by the dressing. Soft shell crab is also average. If you want the best soft shell crab, go to Spicy Fish at little Bourke street. All in all, we paid $68 for a meal for 2 not overly full. In fact it was 3 hours ago I'm already starving!