Gaijin Japanese Fusion

Awesomely authentic tucked-away place. Perfect for sushi lovers. So many combinations and really nice interior. Really affordable pricing too

I’ve never left a bad review anywhere but this was needed to be said. The service at this restaurant was horrible, me and my friends had to wait 25mins to be served after being seated for just water, this was only because I left the table and asked if a waiter could come to our table. The food took exceptionally long to come out and at the end of our dinner we were left waiting for our last course for 40 mins just to realise that the waitress forgot to put our order through. By that time the kitchen had already closed and we left the restaurant still hungry. I will say that the quality of the food was pretty good for the price of the all u can eat, although in our situation it would’ve been only worth it if we received our last course. I truly can say this was the worst service I have received.

We had almost the whole Team including our Port Douglas contingent. The food was terrific, the atmosphere buzzy and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The service dropped off as the evening went on so we missed out on desert, but we understand with Covid, staff shortages can occur despite the best of plans. Will certainly be going back again.and again. This machine the combo was just brilliant

The food quality has dropped and the prices gone up. You also forgot my gaijin special salad as part of the sashimi combo, and this is the second time it’s happened

All you can eat “rice” they feed you with rice! Flavourless, expenssive. I gave you 3 stars for the friendly staff. I will comeback and I will try a la carte menu, I hope it will be better.

Made the first order and definitely no second time. Very disappointed with the AGEDASHI TOFU and the sushi rice. The type of tofu was definitely goes wrong in this agedashi tofu dish, and the sushi rice it was over moisture and sticky. Overall, I would not recommend this Japanese restaurant.

Rainy night dinners near Prahran Market, Ganji Japanese Fusion a dinner spot known for all their AYCE sushi 22 types! A lot of rice so recommended for groups of 4+.
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? A friend recommended the off the menu cheesy seafood gyoza, and it was amazing! A blend of cheeses, great cheese pull, I'm coming back for this and I ain't sharing XD
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Nasu Degaku, roasted eggplant with sweet ginger miso and sesame. We love eggplant and this was really nice, not as sweet as Calia's and he said you can't taste the miso enough - but there's many kinds of miso out there.
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Seared Scallop with butter soy, mirin, bonito flakes and pickled ginger. I like it but don't love it, I've also never had seared scallops before, always getting it sashimi style. It really relied on that ginger, sushi ginger which is strong!
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Our big plate was the Gaijin platter with two rolls (half serve) from that extensive list, 9 assorted sashimi, seaweed salad and a side portion of the special salmon mayo salad. It also comes with miso soup but they forgot that.
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Melbournian roll - crab salad, cream cheese topped with spicy salmon, tempura crunch, masago, special mayo and teriyaki sauce. Delicious! This is the one with all the stuff on top of it. His pick was the 'Spider x Dragon' with eel, soft shell crab but also cream cheese - where he discovered he doesn't like cream cheese in sushi XD Also I think I'm freaked out by soft shell crab.
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Desserts? Always. His picks: Matcha creme brulee & trio ice cream: matcha, red bean, black sesame. Two flavours had a little ice in them but the green one crystalized spectacularly with an even distribution. I thought it was undissolved matcha but he reckons it was cooled too fast or not cool enough when it went into the freezer. The creme brulee was excellent.
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Service was excellent, I love that they have the two booths at the front that felt like a private dining experience. Do book if you want that table (for 4 people max). Highly recommend for date night, after confirming no one has a seafood allergy XD
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@gaijinmelbourne // Prahran Mkt
Damage $90 (paid $40, won a comp)

Best modern Japanese food in Melbourne!

I am a big fan of sushi and I would literally travel a 1000 miles to have a good plate of sushi. @gaijinmelbourne does amazing sushi, they have a full menu of sushi selection.

I tried a platter ($30) so was able to try 4 different types of sushi
Personal favourite was the Tasmanian roll. Definitely try that!

We also had the bibimap ($20) and seared scallops ($12)

Very affordable and love the place, service and food

Checkout @gaijinmelbourne for your next night out.

We really enjoyed our experience at Gaijin, the seating area was private, secluded and set out beautifully. The menu was very diverse with an array of foods to choose from which is great for those with dietary requirements as there is something for everyone!

Staff were very friendly during our visit, however at times it was quite difficult to get their attention when we needed something. There were also menu options which were not available upon ordering which was a let down. Nonetheless, we still enjoyed the vibe and the quality of food we tried on our visit.
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What we ordered:
? GYU TATAKI (Gluten Free) ⁠
This was a dish on the 'smaller plates' menu, which included 5 pieces of Eye fillet, seared rare with watercress, ponzu, pickled red onion, fried shallots. This dish was really delicious, and had such amazing flavour.
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? KARAAGE⁠
Deep-fried Chicken with Gaijin special mayo - this dish is always a hit!
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? BIBIMBAP ⁠
The Bibimbap included mouthwatering Beef teriyaki, mixed vegetables, Gaijin spicy Bibimbap sauce, and steamed rice. This dish was quite unique but so delicious. It was spicier than we thought it would be!
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? CHICKEN CURRY ROLL - Our personal fave! ⁠
Grilled chicken, avocado, cucumber served with⁠ curry sauce and sesame seeds. This sushi roll had our mouths watering, so so delicious, this was definitely our favourite plate of the visit.
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Gaijin also offers all-you-can-eat Sushi during the week, which is definitely a good choice for all the sushi lovers out there! This is definitely something to consider trying on your visit! We had a great time visiting Gaijin and would definitely recommend trying their high-quality food!

All you can eat sushi/sashimi
surf & turf roll
gaijin tuna salad
crunchy spicy salmon don

: @gaijinmelbourne
: South Yarra

: Congratulations Melbourne! 14 days lockdown is finally over.l and we can dine out again. Let us all stay safe and keep this positivity going!

️: How about some Maki Rolls or Rice Dons at Gaijin? They also have all-you-can-eat menu from Monday to Friday for sushi $42pp or sashimi $50pp!

Update June 2021:
Went here for my birthday as I love what they do so much and also wanted to support them after all the lockdowns. The sushi was sensational (really as good as the pictures look) and most of the dishes taste absolutely amazing HOWEVER the wait for each dish to arrive was really unacceptable and the sashimi looked really depressing. Can't reduce the stars as overall I love this place and I want them to do well, hopefully better next time.

Love it! Period.

Definitely would not go back again. The food was very average. I have never eaten sashimi with so much mayo on top. Everything had mayo as a coating. I would definitely not recommend this place if you're a sashimi fanatic or looking for proper Japanese food. I'm also not sure why it got such high ratings? !

One of my all time favourite Japanese restaurants. I've been here many times and I just came back recently and the quality hasn't changed. My favourite are the dragon vs spider roll and spider vs dragon roll and Baked Dynamite roll. Everything is so tasty and the service is great. Would highly recommend this place! I've also tried the all you can eat and that's super delicious and value for money.

Understaffed, service was pretty terrible. Food was okay, but not worth the $50 for the all you can eat unfortunately. Miso soup came out cold and very very salty. Overall pretty disappointing, although some dishes were nice and the atmosphere is good.

Fresh and down to earth flavours, here you can satisfy your craving for Japanese food. The Gaijin tuna salad and crunchy spicy salmon special were simple and satisfying, as was the Surf and Turf Roll with soft shell crab, beef and ebi. Don't forget to end your meal with the delicious black sesame ice cream! For those who can't decide what to order, try out the all you can eat sushi option here.

Went for the all you can eat sashimi buffet at 50/pax. Food was decent but nothing to shout about except for the Spider vs Dragon roll. Everything else had too much sauce topped on the sushi rolls which made it felt too heavy. Rice was unevenly cooked and felt mushy.

The servings took a long time to come out - we had to wait for around 20 minutes for each sushi serving. Service was excellent though, staff were friendly and apologetic about the long wait time.

Second visit in the last 3 weeks. We were very impressed with the selection and quality of the sushi rolls at our first visit, so four of us went again last night and we had the all-you-can-eat sashimi package ($50 pp). We decided on this based on our previous experience that we felt the rolls were medium size and it would make more sense to go with the package.

The sushi was great but we could not help noticing that the size of the rolls was much larger than our previous experience, and this was certainly the case with subsequent orders the rice would just hang or fall out off the rolls, and as a result the sushi was not as tasty as we were expecting. The rice was also very soaky. As for the sashimi, there were 3 selections of fish available, salmon, tuna and king fish. We thought the king fish was well prepared but the tuna we feel they were not thawed properly. Salmon was ok.

Undeniably, the service was really good. Staff were attentive and courteous. We really enjoyed their hospitality. We also had 2 bottles of sake, the sparkling one was nice but the one we enjoyed most was the asahi:) To re-visit, maybe but definitely won't be thinking of the all-you-can-eat again.

My partner and I attended the Gaijin restaurant earlier tonight and were very disappointed with the service from their staff and the atmosphere of the restaurant.

I booked and reserved a table yesterday via phone call for tonight at 7.00pm. When i made a reservation, i was told by staff that we had a reservation and everything was booked. On the day i rang them up again and advised staff to change our booking to 7.30pm instead, i was told by staff there was no issue.

When my partner and I arrived at 7.30pm, we were told by staff that our table wasnt ready. My partner and I then had to wait 10 minutes for staff to clear another table in order for us to sit down, which was absolutely unacceptable. Then staff placed us on a tiny table that barely had room enough to allow us to have space for our belongings and to order multiple dishes, we were again disappointed.

Further to this staff ignored us and didnt serve us until 25 minutes later and they actually served other patrons who just arrived into the restaurant after us, whilst leaving us waiting.

Service from the Staff was very poor throughout the night and on top of that the atmosphere inside the restaurant was terrible. My partner and I couldn't even hear ourselves talking to one another. Patrons were placed so close to each other that you could hear everybody else's conversations.

The only positive i could give Gaijin was their food was actually very nice in which we ordered a variety of their sushi rolls and entree dishes.

Even though the food was decent, it doesnt make up for the very poor service and atmosphere, therefore only 2 stars from me, i dont think ill be back their anytime soon.

This is a Japanese fusion place, so if you are looking for authentic Japanese cuisine, this might not hit the mark for you. I thought the sushi rolls were unique and combined familiar elements - unagi, salmon, avocado, crab roll. The baked dynamite was a deconstructed sushi roll which I have not encountered till I came here.

What was a bit surprising was their deep fried food. They didn’t use tempura batter, causing the seafood tempura to taste like it was cooked at a fish and chip shop, the karaage chicken was not seasoned at all, and so relied on the dipping sauce. Just seemed really oily and not what I expected. The entire meal came up to $70.

THE best place for sushi and Japanese cuisine that we have been to. High quality and presentation standards every time without breaking the budget. Highly recommended for anything from a romantic date, business or a friends night out. Offers more than just great sushi, but an interesting and unique culinary experience that's sure to impress every time.