Review Tamageta-ya - Neutral Bay

The service was awful, I waited 45 minutes for my dish and had to keep asking for it, when it did arrive eveyone else on our table had finished their food, worse still - the tuna sashimi was still frozen. I expected so much more from this authentic Japanese restaurant.

Nice little Japanese place in Neutral Bay with fantastic attentive service. Happy hour on drinks from 5:30pm - 7pm on weekdays ($5 beers). Food portions (Don sets) are small for the price charged and the food quality varies dish by dish. My friends got the Salmon Don and it was small and unfortunately without too much flavour. With the sheer number of Japanese restaurants around Neutral Bay, Tamagetaya needs to pick up its game fast

Reasonably priced - great little Japanese restaurant. Definitely would go back.

I frequent Tamagetaya with a friend who lives down the street and I have to say, not only is the place adorable, traditional and steamy warm but the food is amazing as well! I'm not sure what they put in their miso soup but it is to die for. The staff always goes up and above to make sure you have a good experience and will even teach you some Japanese words :) I've had the hot pot (big enough to share!), the bentos and love the sushi. One of my favourite things they do is the Saki tasting, if you aren't sure if you like sweet or dry saki - check it out! They have live music out back sometimes which creates a chill out atmosphere.

Great Japanese food with happy helpful service. Took a family member who'd never had Japanese before and he loved it. Cosy friendly and good value.

Authentic Japanese restaurant with good price, quality and service. Our family have been regulars for many years. It's a pity that they are closing down end of this month.....

I have been here twice and the food (for the most part) was excellent but the service needs improving - we waited 90 minutes for food, only half of it came out and then one dish (BBQ prawn skewers) came out raw. The wait staff were unable to communicate effectively, I would have preferred that they stopped seating people or even closed the restaurant for the night if they didn't have enough staff.

Authentic Japanese kitchen with reasonable priced set menu. Chefs and staffs are all Japanese. Casual dining places. I heard they closed recently?

This use to be one of my favourite places to come for lunch, although I don't visit that often since the new menu change. It use to be great value... but recently the portions have decreased and the prices have increased. The food is generally pretty great, but is no longer good value and even seems to have less variety and options. Disappointing. It's a shame really.

Absolutely amazing food and staff! Will be back surely. Arigato �

They used to be good in values andyummy. Not anymore, very disappointed

Thought they are sister restaurant of Sushi Samurai in next door, their food should be as good but it isn’t really up to their standards. 🙄 <br/><br/>To be fair we did have two good dishes. Pork belly bun & Prawn tempura both was tasty. The pork belly was tender & full of flavour. The Prawn tempura was fresh in light & crispy batter, not praising on the dipping sauce tho, it was lack of flavour, perhaps they added too much water to it. 😬<br/><br/>The first dish that came to our table, Squid tempura & Prawn Takoyaki was the worst dish of the night. The tasteless squid was coated with greasy batter, I tried dipping in the sauce that came with it but it was just the same dipping sauce they use for the Prawn tempura, it didn’t help much. 😓 Takoyaki was even worse, even they were generous enough to put one whole piece of prawn inside each ball but it was dry, hard & rubbery. The prawn wasn’t fresh. There was no mayo/sauce nor bonita flakes on top. It didn’t look appetizing at all... 😑 <br/><br/>Sushi was bad too. The rice was falling apart, the salmon in the Salmon roll wasn’t fresh, the texture was mushy & colour was dull. It was like food court quality. Also it was supposed to be in brown rice which says on the menu but it just came in ordinary white rice.... hmmmm 🙄

My favourite Japanese restaurant in Neutral bay. They’re definitely a hidden gem - a lot of people go to izakaya samurai their sister restaurant but the flavours at Tamageta-ya are so much better (And a little cheaper too - what a bonus!) If you are a fan of eggplant come and try the agedeshi eggplant and eggplant dengaku. There is more effort put into making these dishes and the flavours just work so well together. Customer service is also great here.

Came here esp for their grilled sanma fish, so was wee disappointed when told it was not avail for lunch. Was gonna walk out when the wait staff quickly enquired the kitchen and she said the chef would grill it for me😃. How about that for service eh? <br/><br/>Ordered a few of their entrees (see pics on my dineline), they were nothing to shout about. Apparently they have happy hours during weekdays. <br/><br/>Same boss as sushi samurai next door which believe you me, has the exact same address on zom zom.

Delightful little Japanese restaurant with a calm atmosphere, friendly & prompt service. Had the unagi (eel) with black rice set and eggplant (entree). Large generous portion sizes and delicious food. Pork katsu was tasty as well.

Was there with friends fire dinner last week. The service was really great. We had agidashi eggplant, if was crispy and the broth so tasty. For mains we had their famous katsu curry which was good but nothing to rave about. We also had sakes.. Dassai 50 was my face. For dessert so try the caramel miso cake...<br/> Great place, will come aviation

Tamagetaya is such a cosey place, it really makes you feel welcomed. Chef Yoshi is so kind to his customers he really makes you want to go back just to see him! Especially good for their lunch time specials, the wagyu rice bowl is delicious, served with miso soup for only $7! Super close to public transport and only 20 minutes from the city, this is a great weekend spot to visit.

Sister restaurant to Sushi Samurai and they change the menu every 6 or so months, sometimes for the better sometimes not. Consistently delivers a tasty, cheap meal so can't really complain.

9PM Friday night passing through Neutral Bay decided to have Japanese dinner.  After attempting two Japanese restaurants which were both closing at that hour I stumbled across to Tamageta-ya. Tamageta-ya in Japanese means Surprise! And surprisingly I met the owner of the restaurant Ari whom I knew from 20 years ago from the Sushi Train in Oxford Street when it was first opened.  Now Ari owns a few Japanese restaurants in Sydney including this one.<br/>I was in a mood for something refreshing and Ari recommended few dishes for me. To start, I had a glass of Sake ($9) from the menu, which was really clean and great quality.  For dinner I ordered a Clam Miso soup, Sea urchin sashimi, Tofu salad, flounder nigiri and raw octopus salad.  Clam Miso soup was very homely and tasty. I loved sea urchin sashimi. He mentioned the sea urchin arrived from Tasmania this morning and its very fresh. And I have to say this was my first time eating the raw sea urchin and now I am totally hooked!! – Tofu salad serving was massive; I think the dish is designed to share between a few people. Flounder nigiri was interesting, it was fresh but has sort of chewy texture, I can’t say I loved it, I think I prefer my flounders fried :-) Lastly I had raw Octopus salad, this dish doesn’t look very appetizing but it was very refreshing dish with good chewy texture.<br/>All on all, surprisingly unique and great dishes I had here tonight. Will definitely be back!

Haven't been here for a while but good to see that it's still decent.<br/>Had takayaki, katsu curry and plain udon.<br/>Cheap, no nonsense Japanese food.

Sushi Samurai's cheap little sibling restaurant. Fairly standard dishes. Cheap and tasty. Haven't been here for a while but good to see that it's still decent.

All you can eat sushi/ sashimi at Tamagetaya Restaurant. I'm not a huge fan of all you can eat but a friend recommended me so I decided to give it a try. -- The Food --  Before you are allowed to order anything on the menu, you must choose set A/B and finish that set of sushi. Above is set A. Must finish this round of pre- set sushi. Included in this set: 10 piece sushi  2 karaage chicken  agedashi tofu  miso soup. The karaage chicken was quite nice. Too much rice to sashimi ratio. Fish/ Sashimi/ Salmon Roe was average in terms of freshness and taste. Of course I finished this round of sushi... Now for all you can eat: Limit 2 piece scampi sushi, 2 piece scallop, 2 piece salmon roe, 2 salmon aburi per person. So we ordered 4 scampi, 3 salmon roe, 4 scallop, 4 salmon aburi. The scampi wasn't that fresh and was on the soggy side. The scallop and salmon aburi were quite nice. The salmon roe was mainly rice. Again too much rice to sashimi ratio. Rice to fill you up ?   Kingfish aburi - ave

Tamageta-ya has a lovely variety of dishes and it’s decor and small interior is cosy and traditional, if the larger and flashier Sushi Samurai restaurants are not quite your thing. Dishes are very reasonably priced, especially with the set meal deals available during lunch time. With its good quality, authentic Japanese cuisine, I’ll be sure to keep this place in mind when I next return to the Neutral Bay area.

We're huge fans of Sushi Samurai in Neutral Bay and every so often they turn the side shop into a spin off of some sort and Tamagetaya is the latest one.<br/>

They've recently changed the menu and removed our favourite dish (the half sized katsu curry). Most of the other dishes are still there (although you can still orrder curry rice, tonkatsu and combine).

There are over a dozen Japanese restaurants lining the main dining strip of Neutral Bay on Military Road. Two of the more popular establishments on the street are Tamagetaya and Izakaya Samurai, both are owned by the Sushi Samurai Group who operate two other restaurants (Sushi Samurai and Yebisu Izakaya). We were fortunate to have been invited to dine at Tamagetaya by SDMarketing and try out the Sushi Buffet they recently launched.

It's a little nook and cranny type of place where you could easily walk past it and not know what Tamageta-ya is all about! Walk inside and you'll be treated to a little isolated restaurant that has Japanese cuisine of sushi, gyoza, lunch boxes and ramen on the menu.  Just across is it's neighbour Sushi Samurai - another great Japanese restaurant for bento box lunches and sushi and sashimi plates. Both Sushi Samurai & Tamageta-ya has outdoor seating and indoors Tamageta-ya's booth-style seatings could squeeze maybe 3-4 people per table. I sit down with my brother, Mr. Tickle as we decide to go for ramen noodles and beers tonight for our sibling dinner date.  To be eating alone with my bro is unheard of - usually we're both busy with study or work commitments so to sit back and be with one another is a rare sight to see. We each have an Asahi beer to chug down. My brother being the cool one, takes a swig or two easily during our conversation whilst we wait for our gyoza dump

....... we embarked to visit Tamageta-ya, the newly opened sister restaurant of Sushi Samurai (located right next door) at Neutral Bay. Tamageta-ya is almost hidden if not for the Japanese Door Curtain Tapestry (noren) at the front. There is also another entrance at the back where there is a small courtyard for alfresco dining. Hokkaido Chirashi rice bowl – $17.80 Tasmania rice bowl – $15.80 After ordering with a lot of pointing (the English skills of the waitress were not the best), all the dishes came out together pretty quickly. The first thing that caught my eye is that the Tasmania rice bowl and the Hokkaido Chirashi rice bowl are FULL of sashimi – the good kind too (no skimping here)! The Chirashi bowl is impressive with an assortment of kingfish, scallop, salmon, tamago egg, scampi and prawn tail. The Tasmania bowl isn’t far behind with salmon, roe and sea urchin. All the sashimi tastes amazingly fresh and the sushi rice is perfectly prepared with the right amount of vinegar, sugar and stickiness. Premium chicken teriyaki with avocado – $14.80 Karaage chicken with udon – $12.80 Japanese Curry with teriyaki chicken – $14.80 Equally large were the other hot mains. The teriyaki chicken with avocado, drizzled with Kewpie mayonnaise was tender and juicy with just enough smoky teriyaki sauce. The karaage chicken udon came in a steaming bowl but looked and tasted a tad burnt.  The Japanese curry with teriyaki chicken was mild and a bit too sweet. This may have been due to the teriyaki sauce – we made a note that it was probably better to order the fried chicken cutlet or the karaage chicken. Fried pork dumplin

Easier than doing it yourself. Ate here twice during a recent fortnight in Sydney - simple tasty quick and non fussy. Service good and food comes out quick - good prices and suggest that specials are the way to go as they appear super fresh... loved it and will be back...

Quality, Friendly & Good Experience. Had a good experience here tonight. Food was quality and came out reasonably quick considering the restaurant was packed. They had some good specials on the drinks menu and they're also BYO wine so win-win on that account. Sushi on the table next to us looked very appetising. Prices and portions were pretty decent so looking forward to coming back. nb: Try not to get it confused with the place next door, they almost look like the same restaurant

Food is consistently ok. But cheap and they have $5 beers. Great place to go when you don't wanna cook. It's never bad and the beauty is it's consistent. Which is hard to find in the bay.

Casual Japanese. Went with friends on a Saturday night, and it had more the feel of a lunch place. Food was OK, but not great, with the salmon overcooked and covered in a manufactured sauce (not homemade). Miso had raw cabbage and raw eggplant in it (different? odd?). Service was prompt and pricing was cheap ($65 for 4 of us).