Ocha Japanese Restaurant

Food was good but not overwhelming creative. Expected more from the dishes in the 80 aud menu.

Delicious!
I finally found proper Japanese in Hawthorne!
Sushi and sashimi was on point. Excellent wine and sake list to match and the staff were knowledgable and friendly
Shout out to Dylan for looking after us all night long

Scroll down to the 3 star review posted 6 months ago, my thoughts exactly.

Horribly overrated, average taste, poor presentation, but friendly staff.

Rude attitude to delivery people.

When I ask kindly, you can call me "bro" like any other restaurants instead of "step back"

When you don't have a clear SOP, we will stand wherever close to you at the restaurant.

We don't work for you and will cancel order any time when we feel uncomfortable.

We could be your customers one day, pls treat us like a customer.

Attitude towards working people reveals who a person truly are.

Pls use "pls".

Was 5 star. For a few years it dipped to 4 star as the service was poor but the food was still great. The last two times we have been there, the service has been good again. So back to 5 stars overall.

Awesome experience, the food was brilliant.

The drinks however were lacking flavour, I loved how much the waiter/waitresses would come check on the table but I was disappointed on how long drinks took to get to the table.

Other than that I love the place!

One of my favourite restaurants in the world, a must visit every time I’m in Australia to enjoy Yasu and Michelle’s amazing food and hospitality. It doesn’t get much better than this. Stunningly fresh seafood, meticulous technique, great wines / sakes / beers, knowledgeable and friendly staff, this list goes on.

I am now disappointed I didn’t take a photo of our large mixed sushi sashimi plate presented to us on Friday night as it was nothing like the photos presented on the reviews. Sashimi was cut paper thin and the size of a thumb nail. This was counted as one piece. Four pieces fitted neatly on a teaspoon. It was a joke and an insult. The sushi was just as disappointing. The extra order of the more expensive cuts of salmon belly and eel aburi (flamed seared and in my experience is usually served warm to melt the fat) was cold and I question that it was fresh. The hot dishes were not authentic and all in all a rather expensive and disappointing experience. Our first time visiting this high profile establishment and it did not live up to it’s so called image.

I had a delightful birthday celebration at Ocha Japanese restaurant. Nice ambience, excellent service and delicious Japaness cuisine made for a memorable evening!

Was really looking forward to this evening. What a disappointment Huge push for sharing which destroys my pleasure. Customers do not need any pressure. Nice dining? Food wise, yes. Fine dining absolutely not.
Noisy and very crowded.
Food quite nice but very expensive plus a huge credit card surcharge. Service was just adequate. Uber eats had a huge priority. Certainly would not recommend

Ocha is a great place but was extremely disappointed on their policy to charge $100 if booking cancelled within the day. For that reason I will never do again a reservation.
I accepted the $100 cancellation fee but found it too strict especially during Covid time.

Excellent Japanese food in a friendly family run business, consistently great. Highly reccomend.

Visited this restaurant recently for dinner with my wife when staying a few days in Melbourne. Loving japanese food, I have been to Japan, frequently cook japanese food at home and also dined in countless japanese joints on a regular basis across the world. I looked up 'best japanese restaurants Melbourne' with the aim to dine in of of the highly recommended places here. A restaurant guide from Dec 2021 listed Ocha as one of the top 20 places to eat. So we made a booking for dinner.
We ordered: 12 piece Sashimi plate, Eggplant Dengaku with red miso, Katsu Pork Slider, Agedashi Tofu, Grilled Swordfish Steak with Salad and Yakisoba noodles.

The positive:
Service was friendly and prompt, so 5 stars for that.
The food was of good quality.
The dining ambience was pleasant although nothing out of the ordinary and certainly nothing related to Japanese dining.
The Agedashi Tofu was delicious, can't fault that.
The Pork Katsu slider was nice, although nothing outstanding.

The negative:
Sashimi plate - I have never seen Sashimi cut into such small pieces, looked like a kids meal. While the quality of the fish was good, it was not anything outstanding and certainly the presentation was not what you would expect from such a restaurant.

The Eggplant Dengaku, while delicious - the presentation was disappointing. It did not look appetising at all, there was just this blackish eggplant put on to the plate without any regard for making the dish visually appealing (which is what you would expect for a japanese restaurant).

The Yakisoba noodles were a fair and decent sized portion. The taste however is not any better than what I had in places that charge half of that. Watery sauce, large amounts of chunky cut carrots.

The biggest let down was the grilled Swordfish steak. While the steak was tasty and perfectly cooked, the presentation of the dish is the worst I have ever seen. A bunch of green leaves of whatever 'salad' that is supposed to be dumped lovelessly on to the plate and then the 2 pieces of swordfish popped on top. Zero stars for presentation. I would not even serve a meal like that to my friends on a weekend BBQ at home.

Japanese chefs and restaurants are known for their passion and attention to detail, they take great pride in making the food look as good as they can. This is what japanese cuisine stands for. None of that fundamental principle was evident in any of the dishes we had on that evening.
I don't know what the owner and chefs of Ocha consider 'modern' japanese, but to me the only modern aspect of this restaurant is to bring the typical australian 'laid-back' and lazy attitude into the presentation of their so called japanese dishes. And you pay 40$ for that - are you kidding me?

Overall - the place is highly overrated and underwhelming. Would not go back and would not recommend either.

The food here is excellent and the service is equal with enthusiastic and friendly staff who are attentive and courteous.
A byo is also another good reason to eat here for all who have a nice wine collection to share with friends.
A great chef and a special mention to Eric who’s knowledge and service is impeccable.

The food and service are absolutely divine! Been twice now, both times got the waiters to select the menu for us and they did a stellar job. One of my favourite restaurants in Melbourne.

OCHA has GOTCHA sorted when it comes to sushi.
Staff were friendly and kindly accommodated our order and allowed us to build our own platter.ocha roll
soft shell crab roll
dynamite roll
unagi & shiso roll
veg chumaki
sushi (nigari and rolls)

Lovely variety for sushi rolls and very fresh.

Unfortunately, not the Ocha it used to be. Not the high class Japanese restaurant it used to be. Mediocre service, Oysters ordered as an entree but served as a main. Slow service despite being half empty and more upsetting charged an additional 35 dollars (luckily we realized before paying). Apologies accepted but still not you would expect from this type of restaurants. The food is still delicious though.

First dinner out with my family since lockdown ended. One of the dishes we ordered was the Chef sushi/sashimi recommendation and it was delicious. The cuisine here is what I would describe as modern/ fusion Japanese. Pricey but worth every penny and I would certainly come again.

Came to celebrate my 50th Birthday
Your restraurant came with good reviews and feedback from others we new.
Unfortunately abit of a let down. For my special night and treat for my family, not what I expected. Food absolutely lovely once we got it.lacking in service, I was prepared to spend around another $200 dollars

The food was nice but was a tad on the expensive side. The rolls were enjoyable, oysters were nice but the rest was ok.