Review Hachi-bei - Rose Bay

Excellent food. Nice quaint Japanese restaurant in the heart of Bondi Junction. Easy to park outside after hours (for dinner)

Friendly and quick service. Generous portions. Sushi sashimi mix consisted mainly of tuna and salmon so could benefit from a bit more variety.

Favourite restaurant in the area! The food is so yummy and the staff are very friendly and kind. Always a joy to eat at Wa :)

The first impression of the menu was that the price is on the high end, but after the food arrived and tasted, it is worth every penny. Waguy beef so tender, juicy and source full of flavours. Specially rice for sushi and set menu dishes. Good location but limited seating capacity and spacr when it's busy. The indoor seating allows you to unintentionally hear your neighbours conversation at the next table. Very friendly and attentive staff serving customers. Highly recommended if you are after quality and service.

Wa Japanese Restaurant is very popular and it is a good idea to book ahead especially if you are in a group of four or more. The food is really tasty and you can specify if you want it spicy or not. Most of the mains come with salad, vegetables and rice. Wa always do a great eggplant entree. The staff are friendly and attentive. I suppose the only problem is that it is so popular and therefore crowded that it can be a bit noisy. For this reason I recommend a seat outside of the main dining area in the building's foyer.

This is a great place in Bondi Junction for Japanese food, it’s moved from across the road and looks like it’s now in a restaurant that used to be Italian hence some of the internal designs that don’t look very authentic 👍🏼 The food is great, can get very busy at meal times and the service can be a bit chaotic and slow but the food is always served with a smile, if you’re not in a hurry then it’s really enjoyable!! Definitely worth a visit 😊

Wow! So we have been Wa customers for 17 years. When we wanted to eat out, Wa Japanese Restaurant Cafe was our favorite. We had Wa catering - sushi and other yummy dishes - for our son’s 21st birthday party. The food at Wa was always superb, prepared fresh, authentic Japanese and artistically presented and eating out of beautiful Japanese porcelain ware and drinking out of clean, gleaming glasses were so refreshing. Last night, my husband and I brought our visiting son and his guest back to Wa. He missed saying hi to the friendly chefs. He missed the fine food. We each had the 6-course dinner. The verdict: food quality and presentation is a welcome constant. Wa does its best to ensure its offerings are done the same always: whether it be years ago, yesterday or today. We have been to restaurants where food quality varies. Not with Wa. Fine food is always presented in the freshest and most artistic form. Wa is on the ground floor (on the right) of The Forum, a commercial and residential building, 310-330 Oxford Street, Bondi Junction. Wa is open Tuesday to Saturday 11am - 2.30pm, 5 - 9.30pm; Sunday 5 - 9.30pm. It is closed Mondays.

First time here but it was very impressive! Food was so delicious and service was so friendly. Thank you so much for a wonderful experience!

Lovely service and food was good. Very child friendly, they gave little toys as gifts to the kids when we finished and were leaving.

LOVE this place and am lucky enough to have it as my local. The friendliest service ever and food that is just a masterpiece. Udon with the most complex and rich broth and noodles that feel like silky clouds in your mouth.<br/>Super hi grade fresh sashimi, great salads and some really interesting specials all at a great price.

This place is a joke. So over priced. A tiny glass of miso soup is $6.80. No atmosphere and staff are so rude. Would not recommend at all unless you plan to order $500 worth of crap sushi to keep you full

Small Japanese restaurant just off the main drag of New South Head Road, Rose Bay. This place has a cult following and reservations are needed as there is a strong contingent of locals who frequent there. The prices are expensive. The Okonomiyaki is a great way to finish a meal of fresh sushi and a great selection of sake. Staff are friendly and enjoy having a talk to diners about their selections.

Bland and expensive... 2.5 years ago, Hachi-Bei was one of my favourite places to eat in Rose Bay. I was in the area last night, so thought I would check it out, however the experience was disappointing to say the least. The food was overpriced and in most cases bland (definitely avoid the zucchini flowers). At 8.45pm the restaurant was quiet, staff were friendly but it definitely wasn't the Hachi-Bei I remember, and I won't be going back.

Delicious and Awesome and Great!. I love this place! Nestled in a cozy corner of Rose Bay, right near the beautiful harbour walk sits this gem of the Eastern Suburbs. The dimly lit room creates a warm ambience which makes you feel right at home, or as though sitting in a lodge near a crackling fire. The service is top notch, with the gorgeous Bernadette fawning over patrons, speedy service, attentive to customers needs at all times, and even giving our baby girl a free toy to amuse her (and keep!). And finally, the food is sublime! Every dish we ordered was a feast for the eyes and a treat for the mouth! I loved it and was so happy to find this place. Great value too. Will DEFINITELY be back!

Pricey but tasty. Went here for dinner tonight, arrived to find out that it wasn't BYO, LUCKILY the wine (although dear) was very good. The food was amazing- kingfish carpaccio had a delicate orange zest. The dumplings - gyoza were more fragrant and flavoursome that any others I've tried, the aburi salmon roll was lovely - with delicate crunchy tempura flakes. The ppl sitting next to us were having the creme brûlée desert- when i heard her tap the crunchy top, i knew i had to try it & I'm glad i did as it was a great blend of not to sweet custard and a slightly burnt (in a good way) caramel crunchy top (we scraped the sides it was so good)

Love it!!!. Loved it......its my little getaway when i am looking for a relaxing night out. Little wine, great food and excellent ambience. I highly recommend this place and everyone i have taken there has loved it as well!!!

Awful food. Expensive.. The positive reviews in this thread are so obviously by the restaurant itself that it is laughable. Seldom in my life have I felt so ripped off that I have felt compelled to write a review of any kind. <br/><br/>The dinner menu is so simple you wonder how they could have messed it up so badly. The food is tiny, and amateurish. You'd be MUCH better off going to a humble Japanese diner. The food will be better by a mile. This place is pretending to be a fine dining venue (and charging the prices), but it is more like some Australian guy bought some Japanese ingredients and had a go at creating something authentic. <br/><br/>Worst of all, it was nearly impossible to get the staffs attention all night and the place is pokey and claustrophobic. <br/><br/>Do yourself a favour and avoid it at all costs.

Disgraceful. This restaurant typifies the worst characteristics of the foreign cuisine on offer in the eastern suburbs. It is grossly overpriced, and a watered down imitation of authentic Japanese food, designed for a consumer they assume won't know any better. <br/><br/>It is truly a shame that they can get away with charging $30 a main and $13 per plate of mediocre sushi. They get away with it because too many people are either oblivious or too lazy to drive out of Rose Bay to find something legitimate. <br/><br/>The 'Japanese Curry' (one of the staple dishes of Japanese home style cooking) is a beef stew with some carrots and baby corn in it. It tastes nothing like a Japanese curry and for some rice and gravy, you'll pay $22. <br/><br/>On top of this, you'll quickly notice that the ambience is lacking, the lighting design is poor and you're sitting next to the kind of diners who are ok with paying over the top prices for bad food. Not exactly an exciting dining experience. <br/><br/>This is a completely unbiased and honest review. Do not dine at this restaurant. If people in Sydney want the food scene to improve, they cannot encourage this kind of substandard operation by awarding them patronage.

What a shame. We have been regular customers over the years, the food was always amazing and we had our favourites, it was ALWAYS busy and hard to get a booking but it's been taken over and they have completely got a new menu, the food was average and we were very disappointed, the beef curry had about 2 pieces of beef it and a whole lot of sauce. So sad a favourite for so many has been ruined.

I came here with 2 friends and my girlfriend for dinner. The sashimi slices seem to melt in your mouth! The main meals might not be huge but they are mouthwatering! The service was great, deserts and coffees reasonably priced. Must try the passion fruit cheesecake!

We ate here when staying in Rose Bay and really enjoyed it. Great when not after a big heavy meal. The tempura calamari was beautiful. Great service and kid friendly. Would eat there again.

Don't read the reviews ... (yes, I'm aware of the irony). This place is not far from us but we have been scared off by some of the reviews ... today, we have been scared off the Junction by crazy Christmas traffic and decided to pop in here for lunch.<br/><br/>LOVED IT! The sushi was fresh and substantial, the pork belly was like butter with a lovely flavoured base and vegetables and the cuttlefish was fresh and tasty ...<br/><br/>As for the prices, welcome to the Eastern Suburbs ... and in any event, locally it compares very well ...

Japanese would be embarrassed. Shortly after it opened in 2011 my wife and I regrettably had cause to send the owner the following letter:<br/> --------------------------<br/>Last night (Sunday 08/05/11) we experienced the worst Japanese meal in 60 years of dining out around the world. <br/><br/>Dish 1 : Seared Raw Beef on Salad $10.80 : 5 tiny slices of “meat” so chewy that I had to disgorge mine, while my wife, out of politeness, swallowed her mini-bite whole. We returned the rest -- and were not charged for it. If you offer shaved raw beef it has to be filet.; anything else is too tough.<br/><br/>Dish 2: Assorted Sashimi $15.80 : 2 slices each of raw fish plus some tiny strands of what may have been calamari; on salad with dry (tasteless) seaweed; ginger and wasabi. The tuna was dyed skipjack or something else cheap. The 2nd was ocean trout and the third was an acceptable white fish.<br/>If you offer sashimi tuna it has to be at least yellowfin + salmon (not ocean trout ) and kingfish.<br/><br/>Dish 3: Pork Belly Shabu Shabu $11.80 : 4 - 5 table spoons of some indescribable wrinkled white shavings; purportedly pork belly; floating; in tasteless dishwater together with an unidentied paste which added a little flavour. The “meat” looked like something the dog had regurgitated.<br/><br/> ------------------------<br/><br/>Yesterday I persuaded my reluctant wife to give the restaurant a second try. Regrettably, nothing seems to have improved. <br/><br/>The assorted sashimi $15.80 was OK taste wise but the 8 slices were miserly paper-thin; the 2-3 tiny lettuce shreds old and the seaweed tasteless (again). The chicken dumplings a safe bet and passable. The " Kakuni Pork Belly" $15.80 consisted 2 tiny pieces of boiled-to-death pork belly approx 2 x 1 1/2 cm thick of which 2/3rds was fat; the lot floating in a salty broth of equally boiled-to-death carrots and eggplant. The boiled rice was fine - - hard to spoil - - and the hot sake industrial quality. <br/><br/>Never again !

5/10. Portions very small and food overly salty. Not good value for money.