Masaka Japanese Dining

4 Below Average

Food  5      Ambience  4      Service  4      Value  3     

What a disappointment! There must have been a change of ownership.

Firstly, the entrance was blocked by advertising a-frames that staff hadn't bothered to put outside. The staff at the top of the stairs pretty much ignored us, despite standing in front of her. The zero-care factor was consistent throughout the stay.

There were quite a few dishes on the menu that were unavailable, which is frustrating as there was no indication of that either in the menu, or from staff. It's pot luck and you get informed as you order. The dishes were then poorly prepared, scant, and overpriced. Some of the dishes we ordered were not even cooked or presented in the correct manner.

In particular, the Mayo Prawns should be tempura prawns that are moist and hot with great mayo covering them. Instead we get dried out crumbed prawns, perhaps, from a frozen pack, with some mayo drizzled over them. The spider sushi had crab that was cold, soggy, and, well, far from appetising. There is far better quality and value to be had elsewhere.

A restaurant with this much space, with a nice fit out, should be managed with complete attention to detail. This place could be a stand out, but fails miserably. Very disappointing.

Feb 13, 2012 

6.5 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  6      Service  6      Value  7     

Try their Chargrilled Salmon, Tuna and Scallops. You will love it. Their mails are good and reasonable too. Ramen - I would not have it again. Way too salty for me and very thick. Not my type of Ramen. Good wait staff and conveniently located.

Nov 29, 2011 

4 Below Average

Food  3      Ambience  5      Service  4      Value  4     

After they changed the management in the early of this year, this restaurant became a joke. Expensive price with no taste and service. Funny thing is there are lots of unavailable meals on the menu but still present. Waiting staffs are chatting, eating, etc. Waved my hands for ages but no one come. The most funny thing is I found one waitress and a kitchen staff is messing up in the toilet while business hour.

Kitchen staffs are playing mobile games inside, some of them are playing very loud Chinese music by a speaker inside. What is the point to use the name Japanese dining if there is no Japanese? Most ridiculous thing is one of the kitchen staff came out of the kitchen with half of a water melon sit down at a dining table and start to eat during the working time.

Small portion of food but charge with huge price. Tasteless fry things and awful sashimi and sushi, cold ramen noodles with less toppings. I rather go somewhere else. And there are way too many cockroaches in the restaurant. Why the boss would hire those staffs who is nothing doing their jobs? Really failed restaurant for conclusion. Strongly not recommended to come to this Restaurant. KFC or McDonald is way more better than here!

Aug 02, 2011 

5.5 Average

Food  4      Ambience  9      Service  5      Value  4     

I come here often because I really enjoy the char-grilled salmon, char-grilled tuna and soft shelled crab and usually I walk out of Masaka feeling very satisfied with the meal, but this time was the first time I was disappointed with not only the quality of the food, but also the service.

Lets talk about the food first. The char-grilled salmon and char-grilled tuna was terrible. Both these dishes had no sauce, it was not grilled properly (undercooked). The soft-shell crab was soggy and not cooked long enough so some of the insides was still raw, some pieces still had the fishy smell to it which was unacceptable and very off putting to the rest of the meal. The grilled squid was more rubbery than what it used to be. The flavouring, luckily, was similar to before. The only thing that tasted exactly the same as before was the Miso soup!

The service was amateur. They forgot to give us the dish to hold the soy sauce until we actually asked the waitress for it. I don't normally need the soy sauce but this time we did because the char-grilled salmon and char-grilled tuna was so bland due to the lack of sauce. The did not come to refill the water glasses at all during the course of my dinner and usually I don't even have to ask for it. And to top it off all the dishes served to us were dirty, filled with oil stains and finger prints around the edges, hows that for appetite.

As suspected, they changed the chef but the menu is still the same. Tip, if you can't cook the dish on the menu, don't put it there.

Feb 14, 2011 

7 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  7     

Great japanese restaurant. Good food, nice atmosphere. $9 ramen is pretty decent and filling. The yakitori rice bowl is great (very tender chicken).
Mix of small and big tables. Will come back.

Feb 07, 2011 

4.8 Average

Food  3      Ambience  5      Service  6      Value  5     

I'd rather go to sushi train anytime! Food is below average, especially the so-called hand roll with only tiny weeny bit of fish in it. This is a fake japanese resto..!

Jan 29, 2011 

6.3 Average

Food  3      Ambience  9      Service  8      Value  5     

Gorgeous dining area. Unfortunately, the food was disappointing. We ate the ramen with bean sprouts that looked at least 10 years old (brown heads) and katsu was cold when it reached the table. Seaweed salad was swimming in dressing. Does not pass the authenticity test of a quality Japanese restaurant. Will not return!

Dec 17, 2010 

3.3 Below Average

Food  5      Ambience  5      Service  1      Value  2     

I wouldn't recommend anyone to go to this restaurant. Food is below average but the service is even worse. We had a dinner last week and there was a hair on one piece of california roll. We quietly told the waiter and he came back to us and gave us two choices: cancel or replace. We went for replacement but were told by him according to their policy, they would only replace one piece as other pieces don't have hair!

We said in this case, we need to talk to the manager and were told there was no manager in this shop!! How ridiculous! No one ever came to us and said sorry. In the end we cancelled and left the shop. By the way, this shop is not run by Japanese, everyone works there are Korean.

Nov 25, 2010 

2.3 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  4      Service  3      Value  1     

The $9 lunch ramen was such a ripoff. The broth was soapy, and I had the smallest piece of katsu chicken placed in front of me. For that price, you're better off walking an extra 15 minutes to chinatown and having menya or ramenkan.

Nov 19, 2010 

6.3 Average

Food  6      Ambience  7      Service  6      Value  6     

For what its worth, this place is better than the other new Jap place a few doors down. The food here is passable and staff friendly, nothing too flash.

Oct 30, 2010