Daruma Japanese Kitchen

It looks like your typical, cute, clean Japanese restaurant. I asked the waitress before ordering, «what is Daruma?» and she didn’t know. She didn’t offer to find out either. I ordered a bowl of Edamame, and then Udon with Vegetable Tempura on the side. It tasted alright, I’ve had better.
The service wasn’t that great. I’ve definitely experienced better ESPECIALLY in a Japanese restaurant. Japanese restaurants, in my experience, usually have the BEST service. Maybe I’m judging to harshly because I lived in Japan for a few years and when it comes to Japanese food I have high standards. We had our hands raised in the air trying to get the waitresses attention so that we could have our glasses of water filled. She didn’t even look up. And after I finally got her attention she still took her time coming over to see us.
The food was average. I didn’t even need to ask to try my girlfriend’s ton katsu, THAT ish was not Ton Katsu. It was flat and over cooked, it almost looked burnt. She ordered it with curry, which I did try and it didn’t taste very nice.
I’m open to going back and trying other things on their menu, but the service was a big turn off.

One word. Awesome!
Their sashimi is very fresh and well priced, the staff is very friendly and helpful.
I’ve been here a few a times I will continue going and will refer friends here.

Great value, food and service. All round winner. Not fine dining but a great place for a casual dinner.
I personally love the vegetarian gyoza and sushimi. Have tried the banquets but its a little too much food… or maybe I should just ease up on the sake!

My sister ‘s favorite Japanese restaurant in Camberwell. I ordered mixed sashimi and my sister had gyoza. We were the only ones there when we walked in since it was a bit early.

Ambiance: It’s pretty small, but still manages to pull off being a classy restaurant really well — beautiful light fixtures, clean dark-​wood tables, and fancy teapots! The atmosphere is very chilled out and there’s even smooth jazz playing in the background. Definitely a nice place to take a date!
Customer Service: Our waitress seemed really shy and nervous, but was still pretty nice and attentive so I can’t really fault her too much. The food came out at respectable times as well.
Food: Great! What we ordered:
Gyoza: A nice full plate of Gyoza combined with dip. You can have it Vegetarian or with other filling, but we chose Prawn & Pork — pretty good, although not the best I’ve had.
Tempura Udon: A nice delicious bowl of udon soup and tempura. I like how they served the tempura in another bowl because most places just dump the tempura in there and let it get soggy. Daruma also definitely does not skimp on their meats — I had nice large pieces of prawn coated in crunchy tempura goodness!
Yaki Udon w/​Beef — I tried a bit of my friend’s Yaki Udon and it was delicious! Perfect flavour, and they were very generous with their meat.
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Overall, I’d for sure come back again. Their prices are a little bit steeper than average and I’m a bit disappointed that they don’t have any bento boxes for more of a varied meal, but with the quality of what they do have, 4 stars from me.