Yamaei

Date visited: April 2021 Quite a disappointing experience. While this restaurant has an authentic and inviting look and feel, that is where my praise starts and ends... Service: slow and inefficient. We only ordered 4 basic dishes and waited well over 45 minutes for them to arrive. Food: mediocre at best. The menu is heavily skewed towards deep fried items. While this keeps things simple for the restaurant, it makes it hard for any meal here to feel balanced. Also, the karaage was pale with a strange floury mouthfeel. The fried squid was overcooked with the batter starting to go dark. This is disappointing given their heavy focus on deep fried foods. Value: everything here is quite expensive for what you get - especially being in a place like Chatswood where you are surrounded by fantastic dining options. I find it hard to recommend this place without a significantly revamped menu, pricing and service.

Not authentic Japanese. Terrible food. Decided to try the place after seeing all the great reviews. I was extremely disappointed. Don't be fooled by the interior design and atmosphere. Zero customer service and appalling food quality. Way overpriced and tiny portions. 16 bucks for thinly sliced and overcooked ox tongues. Chicken karaage used the wrong batter and tasted floury. Skewers were tiny and didn't even taste that great. They don't use fresh ingredients. Appalling customer service. The waitress wearing a cap had the worst attitude. I have no problem with the restaurant having Chinese chefs, owner and staff, but please improve the customer service and food quality. We had to wait about 20 minutes. Not a lot of space inside with limited seats. Even worse with the distancing restrictions. Not worth the money. Do not recommend. There are plenty other Japanese restaurants in Chatswood. Don't bother with this place.

Don't bother, really bad attempt at Japanese food. Tempura is more like fish and chips batter with Chinese soy sauce. All chefs very under trained. Nothing fresh everything reheated frozen portions. We couldn't get out of here quick enough.

A cozy Japanese izakaya style restaurant close to the Chatswood library. Good mood and interior deco with an impressive sake display. The lunch set menu is around $15.80 and the portion is quite generous. Service and staff were a bit lacking during lunch time. Their business focus would be during dinner time. Plenty of tapas to choose from.

Yamaei is a cute Japanese restaurant with a large menu of Japanese beers and wines. The food wasn’t mindblowingly amazing but it also wasn’t bad either. Unlike some of the reviews here, I found their portions to be quite generous and enjoyed the fried karaage chicken. The ambience is great and there is a pleasant atmosphere. Feels like you’ve transported to Tokyo Japan. Food could improve a little bit more to be 5/5 stars but overall was a nice dinner spot.

The food and service always on par whenever I am there ! Been coming here consistently for the past 2 years. Most recommended dish would definitely be the karaage chicken rice, as the fried chicken is always fried to perfection, with a crispy exterior and juicy interior. Besides that, do check out other snacks on the menu as well. My go-to would be a plate of freshly-made takoyaki, paired with a sweet tangy sauce. Also, this restaurant perfectly fits the "izakaya" vibes , as it has a wide variety of alcohol options and it has an amazing interior design too, which automatically made me reminisce my trip to Japan.

My absolute favourite japanese place ever! Affordable, huge meals, very kind staff and really japanese atmosphere.

Fantastic food! We were pleasantly surprised that this tucked away restaurant had so much character, great ambience and selections of delicious food. A pity it doesn't open MON and TUE... otherwise we'd be there every other day of the week.

Disgusting food. Definitely not authentic Japanese food. I ordered a tempura udon and the tempura are all sitting on plenty of soy sauce. The soy sauce made the tempura super salty and soaky. It also tasted like old oil - the oil for the deep fry is reused for many times. My friend ordered a chicken curry rice. Turned out he had a stomachache after it. Think twice before you go there.

I'm in love with the restaurant design, it remind me of the times when I was in Japan. Staffs are friendly and helpful. The food I love the most is chicken soft bone .Will be back again!