Chidzuru

With my parents craving dinner (Japanese in particular) I took my sister's suggestion of this place in Rhodes she recommended. 

The place was situated closer to the station and away from the Rhodes shopping centre where people tend to dine. I find that possibly more locals eat at this small strip of food places as it's a bit more hidden. 

We walked in on a  Wednesday night and the customer count wasn't even hitting double digits... not even with the four of us in the mix. We placed our order and to my amazement the waitress didn't write a single thing down... and I ordered a total of 8 things on the menu. That's some good memory... because she got them all correct when the food came out.

We started off with some sushi... the Soft Shell Crab roll. Sliced up in 5 slices, each slice was massive. My biggest gripe of the night was the dishes of soy sauce we got served were so small, both the physical dish itself and the sauce quantity.  It made it quite like a game of Operation to get a decent soy sauce dunk of the sushi. The soft shell crab itself was great if you were lucky enough to get one of the end pieces which were a little more generous with the crab.

We then had to shared the same soy sauce with the Salmon Avocado roll. Yet again massive slices that fell apart so easily... and that super small soy sauce plate. It was leaving me quite frustrated at this point.

We then overhear conversation in the kitchen and the whole staff is from mainland China. Why oh why am I eating Japanese food cooked by Chinese people... maybe it's just something I have to accept like eating sushi in Eastwood but it's run by Koreans....

We then had the Kabayai Eel to share. Basically 3/4 of the bowl was rice, a small serving of eel (which was quite tasty but not melt in your mouth delicious as it could be) and garnished with some salad.

One of the biggest let downs of the night had to be their Aka Miso Ramen. The meat was rough, the soup was below par and the noodles tasted like instant noodles... and I just felt it tasted so cheap and unloved. I'm interested if I'm over-exaggerating and challenge people to give this place a go and let me know... even if it means driving more business into this place to prove a point...

The Pork Katsu Curry just tipped me over the edge and I rolled my eyes like a school girl with attitude... I was fed up... The meal was no where near as good as it should be. Food quality was below par overall....

My mum got the $2 green tea....

My wife got the can of Calpis...

and I opted for a bottle of Hahn Premium Light.

The meal came to around $68 for 4 people. We left feeling full... but no way was I satisfied. The place looks nice, the location isn't bad, the service was friendly enough BUT the food was a waste of my calories...