Review Rakuzen Simple Japanese

baba lee (BábáLéę)

The eggplant entree dish was to die for. Friendly staff, my son has allergies so I was able to ask them to make him a sushi roll free from eggs, mayo and sesame seeds. I would consider them a bit pricey though. I was a bit weirded out about how sticky the restaurant was. It looked clean but the floors were sticky and so were the tables. The food is really nice, but they ran out of rice.... yes, NO RICE FOR YOU! So we had to get teriyaki chicken with noodles, but customers were still coming in so I don't know how they catered for them! Just a tip for the restaurant, when it's hot outside I suggest you switch the air-con on. We were about to leave as soon as we walked in just because it's so hot, luckily I asked and the waitress switched it on for us.

Ying Ying Beh

I have been visiting this place on and off and now, I have finally discovered my favourite in the menu!! Paiku Ramen and Chilli Chicken Karaage!! They are some potent flavour bomb! Their other ramens are decent as well! I quite like their garlicky broth. They do have quite a large menu with much to choose from as well - rice, sushi, various entrées. Overall, a cosy place to sit back and relax to some nice music to go with some pretty good food!

Rianto Soputro

Huge servings sizes. Ordered katsu curry and couldn’t finish the rice. My wife ordered teriyaki bento, but the chicken meat was too dry, and the takoyaki was a bit mushy. Otherwise would rate higher.

Steph Kim Heechul

Great find!!! My partner and I were heading to another place and we saw the lovely front door of this restaurant. Awesome authentic ramen shop! I love the Gyoza Ramen, soup is really good ,My partner who is vegan she has several options to choose from .It's all good! Awesome servicerully recommend this place.

Dav Roman

Very yummy foods - we ordered a bento box, ramen soup, and savoury pancake between two. We were quite hungry before we started and nicely satiated at the end. Every bit of it was yummy, the venue was cute, the staff member attentive and food promptly prepared freshly. There are also toilets available.

Marvin H

Great taste and not too pricy! I go there about once a week and buy one of their ready to go Sushi plates. I also sat inside during lunchtime, had my Sushi and a friend some dishes from their menu. We were both more than happy with the food. Friendly staff, tasty food for a valuable price. Can´t understand the 1 Star ratings - probably some competitors bashing the place.

Yun sik Kim

I’ve only tried ramen, but wouldn’t recommend it to others. Noodles are mushy, beef topping was precooked way before my order, unripe tomatoes…. Other foods might be alright.

DC Slash

Serving is fast...not the expensive and great food...love it..

Anuradha Reddy

The vegetarian food was amazing, loved the ambiance. Nice place to go for causal meal in the afternoon.

Zoya

food tasted like it had been reheated and ended up with food poisoning

Tifa Cheung

Walked by one day and decided to take a quick look at their hand roll options. Ended up eyeing the purple sweet potato roll as it was unique and I love ube to begin with! Got sucked into ordering it and was quite disappointed. seaweed was soggy and couldn't bite through it, the sweet potato lacked flavour, rice was well seasoned but on the sticky side, a tiny slither of cucumber that didnt really do the roll any justice. Overall just wasnt great and felt like such a waste of money. 2 stars for good service. Perhaps it was because I got the roll at 3pm, but I've been to other sushi grab and goes near the end of the day and the texture was still present. Batter was soggy as well. Perhaps I'll come back to try their hot dishes, but I probably wont be doing so any time soon.

Marich

It’s a restaurant good for casual dining with a couple of vegetarian options. I had veg ramen which was nice. It came with lots of green leaves. The staff was very attentive.

Lorna

日式简餐，除了堂食，在外面也可以打包寿司。和室友两个人来，点了teriyaki chicken fried rice和鳗鱼don，还有sweet potato cake。建议大家来这家店的点饭类，除非你胃口特别小可以点ramen🙂🙂 饭还是很入味哒，但都偏甜，怀疑厨师是我们江苏人。紫薯饼外面一层是油炸的酥脆，里面是软软的紫薯泥，推荐～

Crabapples For Lunch

I believe this place is run by the same owners as Ricebar just down the street, however unlike Ricebar I wasn't a big fan of the food here. The dishes weren't very authentic - you can sort of tell based on the menu since it includes a whole lot of everything from ramen (which is usually something an authentic establishment would focus on exclusively if they were serious about it) to bibimbap (which isn't even Japanese). It's really more of a place for students living nearby to get halfway decent Japanese food at a price that's not over the top.

Javad Jazaeri

The service is good and the place is clean. The staff are friendly and helpful.Ordered hot plate beef. Too dry. The rice was not as crispy as before. The beef was way overcooked.

Raag Bhatia

The food is legitimately bad here. Underseasoned, overcooked, overpriced. The place is fine and service is fine for the pricepoint, and maybe if the dishes were 30% cheaper it could be worthwhile. As it stands, go to Don Tojo's around the corner instead.

Amy

We thought we would try this restaurant given it was on the cheaper side and had a variety of dishes. Well, you definitely don’t get what you pay for! We ordered the deep fried octopus, the Japanese pancake and the sushi hand roll platter. The octopus was over cooked, dry and very chewy. The pancake was undercooked and tasted like flour. The sushi hand rolls was a random selection by the restaurant and was mostly made up of the seaweed hand rolls.. Since the pancake was completely inedible. We told the waitress who apologised and said they can make us another one free of charge. We declined. We then were charged the full price of all our meals. We said we shouldn’t have to pay for the pancake since it was completely inedible. The manager got involved and said the best he could do was half price of the pancake because that’s how it normally comes out. He also stated that it gets cooked twice, once when it is first made and the second time when the customer orders it! So if you like undercooked and over cooked dishes all in one meal and also enjoy the staff not being fair to customers when they make mistakes.. This is your place to go to! We, however, will never go back!

Chen Yi

the gyu don rice is raw,beef is too salty,pickles with gyu don is definitely a bad combination and is there anybody can tell me why there is glass noodle in gyu don???

Joan Wu

Ramen is served much less than years ago..And doesn't taste delicious. Don't know if they changed a cooker.. vegetables are changed in bibimbap

Yumyumfoodyum

Reasonably priced Japanese. Service was fast and unobtrusive. Had the gyu don which was nice, but slightly underwhelming in terms of flavour. Decor is pleasing to the eye. Wouldn't hurry back. Most others seemed to be eating ramen so maybe I just chose poorly from the menu.

Cynthia Giang

Decent sushi rolls to grab whilst on your uni breaks. There is a minimum of $20 for card so bring cash. Sushi is filling, and the seaweed is fragrant and lightly chewy. The rice is well seasoned.

Nora

Price is affordable. Grab and go for squid salad. Can't remember the price but definitely less than $5 for a plastic round container as shown. Must add 20 cents for wasabi or ginger, soy sauce. Service was quite poor. The young lady seemed panicky. She greeted me and asked what I Wanted. Then she attended to another customer. Then she asked me again what I wanted. Told her I wanted the squid salad. The gave a a plastic container or don't know what it was. I had to point to the squid salad twice and then she got it.

Kat

I really like this place, it is tasty and affordable and deserves higher ratings. I keep going back for the the nasu dengaku and the bento. Cash only and no split bills.

Essie.zins

I often come to this place and the bentos are delicious, the quantity is a bit copious and at a very reasonable price. I just wish that they had more staff in the kitchen to make the food faster. The waitress I met was really nice and served me fresh water for the wait (still less than 10 minutes). This is still a restaurant I'll go often to!

Katherine FitzHywel

This is my go to place. I love the vege bento box and the echigo beer. The staff are always really nice as well. Just remember to bring cash as they're cash only.

Li Li

Have been here for many times. I like this place, very close to the university and the price is acceptable. I like the ramen and bento there.

Ruiyao

Too much salt in the soup. Waiting for such a long time. The spicy rice is good but again waiting for almost 30mins??? I will choose to say no.

Mimsqua

A really great place! A little cold in winter is my only complaint.. Delicious soups and ramen.. really nice Tempura.. Wine is cheap and huge glasses. Everything I have tried here is really well made and good ingredients.

Lachlan Chan

Underrated place near Melbourne University. Ordered two bowls, one was the curry don (curry rice with vegetables) and the other was the chicken teriyaki don (Juicy chicken teriyaki). Urge locals to try this place. Only around $10 a bowl although I needed two bowls to be full the food surprised me, had great flavour and vegetables provided a variety!

Kimmy_desu

Have always just stopped by and get takeaways here but tonight we decided to eat in. From previous experiences with takeaway we thought the food was okay and decent enough as well as reasonably priced. I'm sure it's quite popular with the student population in the area. There's usually only one waitress working and it's the same one every time we've popped in. I can tell that it's a Chinese-owned place but as long as the flavours are alright I'm not too fussy. Tonight we had a sushi & sukiyaki bento and a tonkatsu bento, agedashi tofu and a warm sake (300ml bottle). The bentos were nice and well-portioned but the sushi in my bento was very average. I was contemplating getting a few sushi rolls from the front to take home for lunch tomorrow but decided against it as I could taste that the sushi was a bit stale and probably been sitting there all day or even more than one day (hope not). Anyhow, you can't expect made to order sushi at such a restaurant so I guess you pay for what you get. The tonkatsu was crispy and well-fried and so was the tofu but there was no sauce at the bottom that usually accompanies agedashi tofu. As for the sake, at $5 a bottle you can't complain either, but the flavour is a bit strong so if you're not a fan of strong sake then maybe avoid ordering that. On the whole this is the place if you are on a budget and want to have some cheap and fairly decent (just don't expect it to be amazing) Japanese food, or just a quick and easy meal.

Fasoghe

I love the ramen here. They are tasty and creamy. The paiku ramen is my absolute favourite. Always manages to pick me up. They also do takeaway! Service is great. All staff are very friendly. I will keep coming back for that ramen.

Steven

The ramen I ordered took very long to arrive and it does not taste fresh at all. Friends said their bento was alright though. Definitely not recommend the ramen.

HungryMonkey

Just average sushi, not even close to above average. And extra for wasabi? No way!!!! I know better sushi joints in CBD :)

Miffy7

Good value and fresh Japanese. I had a craving for Japanese and a few times while holidaying in Melb we had bad luck with finding a good place to eat that's not in the city (parking reasons) and that we can have an early dinner as we had a baby in tow. While we were in Carlton to check out Lygon at and Brunettis for cakes, we popped in here for an early dinner and we were surprised at good it was in terms of value and quality. My husband and I both had their garden salad to start which was a generous size for $5 and then the sushi and sashimi $16 which was fresh with the salmon sashimi melt in your mouth soft. My mum tried their kimchi noodles and thought it was not bad. As it was quiet, the food came out fast and I really enjoyed it. I'm surprised that it doesn't have higher percentage but maybe we came on a good day? Either way it satisfied my Japanese cravings.

Jods

Takeaway salmon roll was a ridiculously overpriced $2.80!! Holy moly. On top of that, wasabi and ginger are an extra 20 cents. And I thought that sushi in the CBD would be more expensive...wow. Service was sweet and polite, and the quality of the salmon wasn't anything special. Won't be coming here again :/

Zoe W

It's a really nice and cosy place in Carlton. Foods are tasty.Recommendation: fried toufu, octopus ball. Foods come out very quick. Services are outstanding, still remember waitress sweet smiles.

Ariel345876

Great value great service.PaiKu ramen was very delicious .There is a good selection of dishes to satisfy of my family.

Sarah Callinan

Great for takeaway lunch. While I have never eaten in here, I find the sushi etc from the take-away window really nice and well priced - especially the duck rice paper rolls!

Rosee

Only eat here if you enjoy oily greasy bland food!

Jackie Arbuckle

Great Japanese. Tasty, cheap and healthy. Not sure why the other reviews are so negative. We have been coming here for years and love it!

Jamie Wong

Terrible Sushi Rolls. Bought 2 hand rolls in this Jap restaurant during lunch break. they were as hard as rock and I threw them right away. i reckon those sushi rolls had been left unsold for 3-4 days. horrible experience. never will go back again!

Chris Chin

Taste Bad. Went there due to nagging of my friend as she was on budget. $7 for a Jap meal is good but the food taste "OMFG". Had the oyakadon and I will never go back AGAIN. The chicken is too hard to bite and tasteless.

Nikki NurikkoVisits

Get what you pay for. Got the 7$ dinner special - katsu curry don. The curry was like soup and the rice was cooked with too much water. On the other hand,my friend liked his una don. It's a meal for the desperate,definitely not for quality. You get what you paid for like i said.

Gourmand

Name says it all. Above average sushi with some good noodle dishes to boot. Bento boxes could have slightly better quality salads. Highly recommmended

Bitingtravels

Rating: 3/5 a so-so meal. Come for a good fill, not for the food itself. I've mentioned before that I don't mind imposter Japanese restaurants, as long as the food is good. But as my friend pointed out, this was using Chinese cooking metho

Review Rakuzen Simple Japanese - Melbourne