Ocha

5 Reviews on “Ocha”

• Lily

  Just took mum here for a quick birthday lunch and was surprised at home great the food was! Havent been here since 2013/4, the sushi rolls were as fresh as ever! I loved the fried pop chicken with spiced mayonnaise and okonomiyaki! Great service also, Highly recommended!

  April 16, 2019, 10:05 am

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• Two Sheds

  3.0. I was a big fan of the old Ocha in Kew. It was a tiny venue and it was often hard to get a booking there. But, it had real atmosphere including an air of exclusivity. The new Ocha has been in larger premises in Hawthorn for some time and it continues the modern Japanese food tradition of the old venue.

  Theres plenty to like here. The food is good, sometimes very good, and the bar and table service is terrific. But, I had a couple of issues with our experience here. One, the place is a bit noisy when its full. Two, and more troubling, we had to wait an eternity before any food arrived after being seated. More on this shortly.

  We started with a drink at the bar which was very pleasant. The bar and managerial staff were totally on the ball both with drinks and conversation. A long humour laden discussion over our drinks about the merits of dirty martinis was both entertaining and funny. We enjoyed the banter and then moved to our table.

  We ordered promptly after sitting down essentially leaving the venue to choose the dishes. But, then we waited and waited and waited. So did other tables around us. The food was just so slow to come out. It was basically a glacial one hour wait. I was just about ready to start eating the cutlery, I was that hungry. I havent experienced a wait like this for food for years. To be fair to the restaurant, it was clearly the absolute busiest time of the night. The restaurant was full and clearly lots of people had ordered around the same time. I get that. But, arent restaurants meant to anticipate these sorts of things and manage them. As we sat waiting and waiting I wondered why the restaurant couldnt arrange just one appetiser or small dish to tide us over a bit. That plus actually being advised of a bit of a delay would have helped the situation. Instead, we were left hanging and had to make our own enquiries with the staff about when something might be coming. All in all, it was not well handled and it left us frustrated.

  Finally a dish and then multiple dishes started to arrive after an hour. Our first was finely sliced calamari. On first tasting, I found the calamari bland and thought it needed seasoning. It didnt. All it needed was a couple of squeezes of lemon juice from the supplied wedges on the plate and the dish was absolutely transformed. It was very nice. A lovely dish. Next dish was salmon tartare with seaweed. This dish too had beautiful taste and textures. We really enjoyed it. A carpaccio of beef was next. It looked good but we all thought it was a little flat and needed more flavour. The sashimi and sushi combination followed. This was good but certainly short of top draw. There were several nice pieces, the best probably being the unagi nigiri which was delicious. We finished the mains with eggplant with miso which was lovely and tempura crab and beans with a green pepper which was also good. Our dessert was a couple of scoops of green tea and black sesame ice cream.

  All in all, we enjoyed the food. Its good but not spectacularly good modern Japanese fare.

  Our thanks to the staff here who were terrific as suggested earlier. The table and bar service was uniformly good and the banter was a lot of fun particularly from the head barman. He didnt convince a couple of us about his views about martinis but we enjoyed our conversation with him immensely.

  (I marked the restaurant down half a mark for the lengthy wait for food. Without that, I would have scored it 3.5)

  March 20, 2019, 7:22 am

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• Piggyeatalot

  I have been wanting to go to Ocha for ages, so I was so excited to hear that my friend is having a small celebration there.

  I let my friend order the food as she has obviously been here many times. Edamame beans were firm and nicely seasoned, my friends all love the gigantic prawn balls (however by all accounts its a hit and miss depending on the day) and the agedashi tofu looked good.

  The sashimi and sushi platter was mediocre though. The sashimi was just not fresh enough and it was such a disappointment. The sushi rolls were ok but I expected much better quality.

  The cooked food was great though. The pan fried chicken salad was cooked perfectly. The wagyu beef steak with salad and another steak dish with stir fry bean sprouts was very nice.

  Dessert time and I really enjoyed the matcha donuts and my friends chocolate lava cake was good.

  Overall it was an expensive meal (almost $100 pp not including wine) for what we got.

  pigouttravels.wordpress.com

  February 5, 2019, 5:56 am

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• Yve Lim

  We enjoyed the variety of dishes. The ambience was enjoyable and the staff were friendly. A couple of stand out dishes were the salmon wings and the sashimi was fresh. However there were a few dishes that just werent of quality.
  The bun for the soft shell crab slider was dry and lacked quality (unusual for that type of dish), the cabbage and vegetables seemed brown and not fresh, and the savoury doughnuts were fried but oily and soggy and lacked quality.
  Overall, for the price they could look at refining all dishes and focusing on quality of ingredients. They obviously refined presentation which was nice. Wasnt a bad meal, and may go back in the future.

  January 28, 2019, 7:06 am

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• RunnyYolko

  One of the best restaurants in Melbourne hands down!
  Dishes: Black cod, miso marinated and salad + Hokkaido scallop + sushi sashimi + crab tempura
  Ocha has been a favourite restaurant for years and every time we go back it gets better. The service is always fantastic and the food is outstanding. Favourite dish is the scallops as well as the miso cod which is beautiful.
  Ocha is a must go for anyone in Melbourne cannot recommend enough. 10/5

  January 5, 2019, 6:11 am

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