Review Ibuki House Restaurant - Malvern

Classy Japanese/ western interior. Clean, not crowded at all. Sushi rice was well seasoned but a little overcooked and wet to my liking. Beef tataki was a good surprise. Sauce was on point and the portion was more than what I could ask for considering the price. Also had the Ten Don which was a disappointment. Batter was soft and oily not crunchy at all.

I love the food in Ibuki. Especially for the sashimi, it was so fresh and ice cream was so delicious. I would love to come back for the ice cream :)

Good food, great service! We had a great course with reasonable price. Chef is very interesting person.

We ordered the set menu of $68 pp, on the menu it included oyster however when served we were told that there was no oyster and that was very disappointing. The sashimi, however, is very good. Better check what will exactly been included when you make order.

Tonight , I had my worst dining exprience in Melbourne . Well, we keep waiting all night and I spent 3 hour for my lovely dinner here . I had totally 4 dishes and one dessert .Let me tell you , some soybeans, a steam egg custard， tempura , main dish is veggie and chicken hotpot something. Guess what ? They charge me $88 . Staffs are friendly, but they only speak some basic English, hard to communicate . I am very disappointed and left hungry . Definitely not returning .

Loved this place. Nice shop and the owner is very polite and nice. Great food and good service! Prob one of the most authentic Japanese Resturant in Melbourne.

Authentic Japanese food tastes exactly like Japanese food.

Sashimi by far has the most variety I've ever had... they have the typical hot jap food...the waitresses were very attentative.

We enjoyed the omakase and had a lot to eat. The food was good and the service was great. The boss himself offered us a glass of cognac which we politely turned down as we don’t drink but we appreciated the hospitality.

Really really bad Japanese restaurant! Took more than 3 hours to get all the dishes ready , AND it's not at a busy time at all!!!! Food is not fresh at all !! Never ever go there!!

I ate here this evening and left hungry. <br/>Ambiance - is average and poorly presented and while restaurant is clean there were bugs everywhere which we had to keep swiping away. <br/>Food - gyoza was tasty but burnt. Sashimi platter was ok with semi tasty fish but it was sitting on a bed of julienned veggies which smelt like rotten tomatoes. The chicken teriyaki consisted of a few mouthfuls of chicken and a measly serve of lettuce at a price of $18! This was a total rip off. <br/>Wine - had the house wine which was served from a cask (ie large goon bag ) which the staff carried through the shop - very dodgy. And it cost $8 for a very small glass!<br/>Staff- friendly but speak only basic English so couldn't describe dishes very well.<br/>Service - a bit slow considering there were around 4 staff and only 8 customers! <br/><br/>Am very disappointed. Had been meaning to try this place out for years and was really looking forward to some nice Japanese food. Was let down big time. Won't be returning.

Food are quite nice and the serving size is generous. <br/><br/>We had the sushi platter, california roll (surprisingly it used salmon rather than prawn), grilled eggplant, tempura platter, beef udon and grilled white fish.<br/><br/>The only comment is for the grilled fish with miso as it was too salty.

We ordered the eight course okamase for $88 per head and j have to say it is sooo worth the money! Definitely enjoyed every course especially the sashimi, and sushi. Loved the dessert too, will visit again.

Fresh and huge variery of sashimi.... i was very full...tou don't need to order the banquet... jist order what you want to eat will probably cost the same... just ask the chef behind the bar whats special today...

Seafood sashimi (oyster, tuna, lobster salad, scollop) are not fresh and taste was really fishy, and it make me feel sick. Feeling like 88 dollar per person set meal doesn't worth to try.

Bland! Expensive! Uncomfortable! The quality of the food was questionable, the sashimi didn't seem fresh. Overall bad bad bad bad bad. I definitely will not return and shouldn't have wasted my time and money trying this restaurant.

Terrible service. Subpar food. Had a 6 course set. Waited 20mins in between each course. All staffs looks completely lost and oblivious to their surrounding. Extremely over priced for the service and food quality

Great dinner on Mother's Day. My wife and I invited our mums to Ibuki House last night. We had the famous omakase banquet. The meal was great with both the presentation and the taste at very high standard. We really love the whole ten course experience. Service was not bad given the restaurant was packed. There's not many authentic Japanese restaurants around nowadays. I would highly recommend this one!

Good place to go. Delicious food with reasonable price, it is the traditional Japanese cuisine as I had before. I tried their pre-booking banquet with friends, all of us felt so full and satisfy, fishes + lobster sashimi platter are fresh and fanatic, seafood soup is tasty, we real love it. But service need to be improved. Highly recommend.

Most awkward japanese restaurant experience. We gave this restaurant a chance because it used to be great during their backyard days. However, tonight we couldn't get out of there fast enough.<br/>The waiters have no idea what they were doing, no idea what the specials were (they asked us to walk over to the board to see for ourselves), and no idea what was available on the menu. They didn't even know what half the items on the menu were.<br/>Our orders came in the worst sequence possible: sukiyaki came first, then a part of our sushi, then the ENTREE and finally the rest of our sushi order. What?! How does the Entree not come as an Entree?<br/>The waiters were very awkward, didn't know what to do and one was in casual clothes just standing around doing nothing.<br/>Ibuki will lose it's reputation (if it has not already) if it continues like this.

Yum. Traditional and delicious !!

Worst customer service ever seen. Come for one hour hour and only had entree. People who came after us already have many other dishes. Waitors don't listen to what you say, and always confused with dished for each table......good food but very very bad customer service

Good one and Love it. Terrific. Fourth times visit and real love the 10 courses Omakese banquet. We feel so full and satisfy. Service and food are outstanding.

Sucks totally not worth the money. We went for the $88 per person banquet, trusting them giving us what's best from them. But the soup is too salty, the wagyu is not fresh the sashimi are just average. And few courses are just snacks. We pay so much for not what's worth. And the table service is lame. We are still going on with our food, the restaurant ain't half full, why are you keep asking to take our food away? I will never go again

DONT BOTHER. Don't waste your time or money. <br/>It's really bad bland and tasteless even no I sent it back no replacement but still charged for the meal. Waiters are useless had to wave for attention. <br/><br/>Guy behind counter just standing there and knew we where waiting he waited for a waiter then sent them to us????<br/><br/>There won't be a next time for us that's for sure!

Worst dinner. Sashimi were not fresh. What was more surprising was the shabu-shabu as shown as one of the today's special menu ($35). The soup base was just plain water with 2 pieces of seaweed and was given whole plate of veggies with few pieces of wagyu beef. it was tasteless and not even up to a restaurant quality standard with the pricing given. In overall, not authentic jap food and not worth trying.

Not recommended. The food selections are limited. Sashimi are not really fresh and juicy as they supposed to be. Ordered a today's special, shabu shabu with wagyu beef but the soup base was just plain water with pieces of seaweed. It is totally unacceptable as it is tasteless.

Awesome. We went for 10 courses Banquet, delicious dishes we had and feel satisfy after all. Recommend.

WORST japanese restaurant experience EVER!. My boyfriend and I literally just came out of this place...with nothing else but disappointment... We never heard about this restaurant before and just decided to walk in because (at first, with a very quick look) it looked nice. It didn't take us long before we realize we made a mistake. The food was awfull, the service of very poor quality and let's not talk about the toilets... So many amazing restaurants in Melbourne, why on earth did we choose this one tonight?? Stay away from it (wish I read that one before...)

Crap service!!

Lousy All Around. Came with some friends on a Groupon deal, and my experience with these Groupon restaurants just seems to get worse one after the other.<br/><br/>The word was below disappointingly below average, as was the service. The first dish which came was some egg with an abalone, which was too salty. Could not finish the abalone as it reeked of that stale fishy smell that comes from low quality ingredients. It was only when this dish came that I realised we weren't even offered anything to drink, not even water, which I didn't wait a second to order because of how salty the dish was.<br/><br/>It was followed up by some very generic sushi that didn't really taste of anything, and I've had better at Sushi Sushi. The soy sauce provided didn't seem to be Japanese soy sauce either, as it was once again too salty. The ingredients in the California Roll was another shocker, with plain diced carrots instead of the yellow ones you normally find in Japanese food, cheap seafood sticks, and no fish roes at all. It tasted as it looked poor, and fell apart easily. It's like the ones you make during High School on one of those Japanese Cultural Excursion Days.<br/><br/>Next was some broth with some boiled carrots and thick noodles, which was ok, followed by black sesame ice cream. Although the latter was probably just ordered in.<br/><br/>Overall a huge disappointment, and won't be returning.

Highly Recommend. We went for dinner with Groupon voucher. Not bad, traditional Japanese cuisine. Worthily value, 6 dishes with warm sake. The portion and taste of sushi, sashimi, main course are excellent plus friendly service.<br/>Will come back.

Never gain, once off. Provided 5 courses only not six as provided<br/>all below average<br/>nothing super special<br/>service below average<br/>poor value for money<br/>left hungary

Simon. All the Sea food we eat is Yumm... such a nice place to dine..<br/>Well Decorated and presentable...

Simply the best Japanese. <br/>We had 10 course meal I love every little bit of it and service were good

Went for the Omakase dinner using a Groupon voucher which entitled us to 6 courses at the chef's discretion. We were not overwhelmed by the quality of the food. The freshness of the fish in both the sushi and sashimi was in doubt. The hotpot seemed to have more udon and radish than anything else. The service was clearly lacking in that it was difficult to attract the attention of the wait staff, just to have the teapot refilled with hot water. Not once did any one check to see whether our teapot needed refilling. Omakase I believe means to "entrust the chef" and it appears that our trust was misplaced!

Best japanese food. We are Japanese and went this Restaurant OMG best food original Japanese style good service <br/>we love this restaurant not Chinese made Japanese <br/>old nice Japanese sushi chef owner Mr Ibuki san <br/><br/>Thank you very much

Like it. My friends and I went for dinner, this is our first time to visit here. Omakase lite (3 dishes+dessert) is recommended, we also ordered some extra dishes including abalone su, minced sashimi and hotpot, the hotpot is impress but abalone su is bland. Enthusiastic service is provided, most of foods are delicious. Unfortunately, 10 courses banquet need to be booked 1 day in advance, it seems so attractively, we may try it next time.

I think that Ibuki completely miss the plot! Why offer groupon voucher but can't avail on the same day? They make potential customers hate going to the restaurant and try it. I returned mine and will never ever go there. They become a snob when even though we only got voucher we are still PAYING CUSTOMER!!! Bad customer service! !!!

Horrible dining experience. I dined in with my family - a group of 4 including myself - with an $80 Groupon voucher on a Thursday evening. It took a-tleast 30 minutes for us to receive our first course, which was passable at best. We then had to wait another 30 minutes for our second course. The waitresses were polite, but weren't attentive in the slightest. We had to get their attention every time we wanted a drink or were ready for our next courses. It seemed as if they were more interested serving others or standing around.<br/><br/>The food was quite bland and very boring. We had two large courses of sushi and sashimi, and then a main of some type of broth with pork and a small desert dish.<br/><br/>When paying for the bill - our 4 drinks that we had - they attempted to charge us for 3 green tea's which we did not order. Upon questioning the waitress about it, she adjusted the bill, handing back a second bill, which had not be changed. I ended up having to add the drinks up on my phone calculator and informing them of the price. We left still hungry and extremely unsatisfied with the whole experience.<br/><br/>The only positive I can get out of the whole experience is the fact that we got a small discount with our Groupon deal, but even then there's no chance it was worth our time or money. Will definitely NOT be going back.

Love love Ibuki. The food is outstanding and never disappoints.

Love this one!. Heard a lot of good things about this restaurant from friends, but never had the chance until last Saturday. And I must say, WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!! I WILL BE BACK!! Food is freshly prepared on the spot by the chef (the famous Mr Ibuki himself?) at the front sushi bar. Service is spot on with a nice waitress explaining each dish for me as I asked her a LOT of questions. The presentation and the amount of seafood is amazing!! I never had so much great dishes in one night, one after another before I lost count. But unfortunately, like the three friends that came with me, I didn't manage to finish all the courses. Apparently, they have a "Lite" option for the Banquet which comes with less dishes and cost less. I will give that a try next time. Overall, I will definitely recommend this one to anyone who loves fresh authentic Japanese food. Btw. I love the music there too, very old-fashioned. :)

I had a dinner with 4 other friends. We had banquets menu cost $80 dollars each. We were very disappointed. The sushi was not fresh, even the rice. Sashimi was awful, non of them were fresh especially the tuna. Tuna was like tofu. My friend works for seafood company, she recognized the crabclaw was expired. Seaweed was like just came out from the bin. We have tried this restaurant few years ago and decided come back for a girls dinner. Everything is changed. We will never come back agian

WORST EXPERIENCE EVER!. It's my first ever urbanspoon review because I just absolutely cannot stand this place!! service was terrible, food was very average, it was just not worth the price! One of our friends had last minute changes so we only had a group of 5 (instead of 6 booked), and they made us pay for the extra share of food "because they have already prepared the food". AND the food was already laying out there when we arrived. how fresh can it be?! absolute disgrace. WOULD NOT recommend this to anyone at all!! and the lady serving us was just so rude the whole time!

I love this restaurant, so fresh, and it feel it's under charged for its value, so much food, will def come back again!

Ridiculous. The sashimi boat, oysters and raw beef were already on the table before everyone got there and we were fifteen minutes early. I'm not sure how long the food was out in the open for.<br/>The food was average at most, but the most ridiculous thing the entire night was the lady who worked there. There were two young girls and a woman, the woman was just so rude. We asked what a certain fish was, she said 'tuna' and walked off without a second glance. She certainly had no manners when she served us, it was terrible. We used to love the food here but we definitely will not be back.

Food is good. Like it.

Food was delicious & the fish was really fresh.

Not happy with service. I have nothing to complain about the food, but the service is really bad. The ceiling keep dripping water to my friend's head and the lady just said that's condensation and she couldn't do anything about it....! what the!!! Apart from that, the lady (only one lady work there) sound rude when we ask her to do something. Will I recommend them? well, I will not bother to waste my money again, but if u never been there before, u properly want to experience their service.

Great food and lobster was the best that I ever had. Sashimi was and tempura were really fresh . 3 of us went there and there were too much food .such a waste . Highly recommended.

Mr ibuki is a very good host and myself and my partner felt very happy with the abundance and quality of the food throughout the night.looking forward to introducing friends to this great little hidden gem

Amazing, fresh, delicious, beautiful.... I went to Ibuki just before Christmas and loved it!! Nice change from a big over crowded restaurants, it's small and cosy, feels like home and taste like heaven!! Going again next week- can't resist.....

I visited Ibuki House last month with a group of friends after hearing positive reviews. It's a unique way of dining in his intimate and friendly restaurant and as you first sit down you feel you're about to experience something special. You feel more like a house guest than a patron. Now to the food. <br/>I have enjoyed Ibuki's omakase menus before some years ago, but in his restaurant on Lonsdale street. It was good to return to see if he was still putting out fresh & creative dishes. I wasn't disappointed. The well presented sashimi Snapper platter was fresh and delightful. His tempura vegetables were done well and one of the big surprises of the night was the tempura parsley, still fresh and green but simply dissolved in the mouth. Delicious. The Wagyu, charcoal grilled at the table was a highlight as were the Pigs trotters with asparagus wrapped in beef! The Scallop Mornay with bacon and saffron was a surprise and was ok too, if not a little salty. Being convincingly stuffed by the end of the night, the fresh fruit and ice cream was still a nice finish. <br/>I think it was around $80 a head. Considering the multiple courses, unique and friendly atmosphere (we never felt rushed or urged to finish up and go) I think it's very reasonable and a perfect place to go with a group. I will definitely be back again to experience one of the hidden gems we have here in Melbourne. I say go while you can before its gone forever. There's nothing else like it here!

Quantity seemed to be more important than quality...sashimi wasn't fresh (edges dried and hardened as if the food had been sitting out for a while) and everything else was just mediocre. I was looking forward to the tataki but was disappointed and I thought they overdid it with the mayonnaise making the taste of the beef even more bland! Food kept coming but we couldn't make it through even halfway as the quality was just not quite there...not for the price per person!!

Disappointing. Bland, overpriced food. Ordinary service. Far better options locally. Won't be going back.

What's really cool is that this restaurant is actually served by a Japanese chef in his own home! Also, it's an omakase concept (i.e. chef given free-reign to design the menu) worth usually around $60-80 per person, which is NOT BAD AT ALL, as you will later see what we were actually served.

The seafood extravaganza keeps going with a seafood soup. The soup is served in a paper which is kept warm by a tea light.