Shoya

Food was fresh. Good wine list. Loved sitting at the sushi bar and watching the talented chefs. Floor staff are really friendly and helpful. I will definitely be back!

Great ambience and service! The wait staff was knowledgable and friendly, as well as accommodating. My dad is vegetarian and wanted to have the tasting set, normally everyone at the table has to eat the same set but they made an exception. Definitely a good sign, willing to accommodate for the needs of the customers!
We had a lot of sushi and sashimi along with the lobster sashimi! It was great and all very fresh. I will admit I was visiting from the US and found this place to be unique in offering lobster sashimi. Glad my family and I decided to stop here as it was tasty and an overall great experience!

This place is one of my favourites and holds alot of memories for me. You can walk in or make a reservation via online or telephone which is great because upon booking they ask where you want to be seated, either at the western tables or the japanese tables which is sitting on the floor. I love they can be tradtional too. Everytime i come here i always go for the dinner or the sunday lunch degustation. The sashimi is so fresh and is presented so beautifully inside an ice fish bowl. They offer freah wasabi (which is horse radish) and the taste is so unique it doesn’t blow up your nose like the green blobs they offer at takeaway sushi places. They have a great range of sake and other alcohol beverages too which is awesome if you like to try different sakes. Service is great and the wait staff are always so happy to serve you. Love the warm environment. Highly recommended for a date night or even dinner with the folks

Greatly enjoyed the «business lunch.» Well worth a trip – great friendly service, beautiful décor. Food was beautifully presented – each dish was a work of art. Fish was fresh. Highly recommended.

DO NOT EAT HERE. Cockroaches in meal.
I came to Shoya for my Aunt’s 60^th birthday a week ago, I was impressed by the beautiful layout and design of the restaurant. I was greeted immediately and felt very welcomed by the host as we had made prior booking. We ordered the $ 120 degustation course. The first dish, the monaka was nice. The sashimi was decent although it was a bit warm and off colour at room temperature when it got to my table. I didn’t really understand Our waitress Aeko and what she was saying but she didn’t get it to us in time. She said she had to wait for the sushi chefs upstairs to finish. In the meantime as we ordered other sushi items from the sushi items with Aeko, she persistently kept trying to up-​sell unnecessary overpriced items. I felt very uncomfortable and pressured to buy more. I didn’t need any of the add ons!
Few dishes into the course after the smoked applewood king fish THERE WERE 3 Roaches Roaming along the walls by the paintings in the traditional Japanese seated area. My aunt and I got up and notified the bartender who then grabs a cloth napkin to collect the roaches, I paid the bill without having dessert. This restaurant ruined her birthday dinner, and my appetite. Clean up your restaurant! I know it’s Chinatown but Shoya is a disgusting an trying experience.

A Japanese restaurant in Melbourne’s CBD that I haven’t yet visited — how surprising! I know a long-​time couple who enjoyed their first date at Shoya, and after it being recommended by another friend I decided it was about time I checked it out. So on a cold Sunday night I decided to give Shoya a shot. $ 120 bucks later for two people and a tiny main, I can’t say I’m terribly impressed.
~ SERVICE & DÉCOR
It is obvious that they attempt to put a lot of effort into the service and the décor. When we arrived they sat us at a horigotatsu style Japanese sunken table — but standard tables (including at the sushi bar) are also available. They took our coats, showed us the drinks, specials and main menus, and asked us immediately whether we’d like some green tea.
The service here was generally great. All the staff were mostly attentive, well mannered, and efficient. They did forget about our coats at the end, and we had to wait for the waitress to serve someone else before she decided to get to the coat cupboard for us, which was slightly frustrating. Similarly, after the waitress cleared our table she filled up our tea cups, which emptied the pot, but failed to notice or chose not to refill it with water, and we had to request this.
However, while the dimly lit, intimate mood of the venue is lovely, some of the décor was looking a little old and unkempt. The feature wall on the second floor contains a large outset block with some Japanese characters on it (my Japanese is no good; perhaps it is the name of the restaurant), but the lighting strips behind it have begun sagging and fallen down, and you can see the LED cables leaking out of the bottom side. Similarly, the second floor bathroom was clearly not included in the renovation, as it brick-​lined and extremely dated.
Similarly, the bathroom contains a number of $ 2.80 Daiso air fresheners, as well as the Japanese sandals used at the horigotatsu tables are also from Daiso.
Interestingly (and sadly), Shoya has chosen to use cheap, takeaway style bamboo chopsticks. Does this, in addition to the plethora of Daiso products littering the restaurant, indicate that Shoya is attempting to cut corners?
~ FOOD
The food here is, without a doubt, extremely delicious. While the price may be considered unreasonable for many people in relation to the portion you receive, I think you’d have a difficult time arguing that the food here is flavourless. The tuna and kingfish sashimi was of an extremely high calibre (arguably a Nobu level), the tiny cucumber sushi rolls were warm and delicious, and the steak was juicy and succulent. Similarly, the mochi special (incredibly overpriced at $ 8 — see attached photo) quite literally melted in one’s mouth and was divine to eat.
I didn’t find the meat steak main to be worth the price. As you can see in the attached photo, it’s incredibly small, and while the menu does mention its weight, if you came here starving you would be pretty disappointed with the food portions and respective prices (or end up spending a few hundred just to fill your tummy).
For dessert, I couldn’t help but order the sea urchin cheesecake simply due to its uniqueness. While it was an extremely delicious dish comprising of small, dense cheesecake cubes (see photo) and a rich red sauce, I didn’t taste any sea urchin flavours at all.
~ SLOW
The food was incredibly slow to come out. We had finished an entire double platter of sashimi, and well as another plate of sushi, before the steak main came out. We then had to wait another 20 or 30 minutes from when we ordered before we received the sea urchin cheesecake.
Overall, the Shoya experience was adequate. I can see why this is a keen spot for people to come on dates — the dimly lit environment, the relaxing oriental décor, the high calibre of food, and the fresh & modern taste of Japanese makes it an ideal place to take that special person. But be prepared to pay through the nose for it!

It’s definitely not the best Japanese place to die for, I mean there isn’t many good Japanese restaurant in Melbourne.
The customer service is undoubtedly amazing, the staff is very attentive, professional and friendly. It’s a very personal customer service, they explain the menu, take your coat and I would’ve given 5 stars if it is just rating for the customer service.
The Sashimi itself is good, very rich flavour for simple Japanese stuff. It’s definitely what I would recommend to get. However after that Sashimi, everything just went wrong. The other food preparation is very slow sadly. My beef steak which meant to be main course was taking so long to prepare and it was in a size of an entrée. 30 bucks of few slices of beef is definitely not worth it at all. The meat is mediocre and definitely doesn’t have to take that long to prepare. The cheesecake dessert is (sadly) bigger than the main course. So I was probably gaining more satisfaction from eating that than my main course.
On top of that, the staff member who pour the tea for me didn’t refill the tea even though it’s definitely not even enough to make a tiny tea glass full. Which wasn’t very impressive after you waited for so long for food to come out. Then when we finished they forgot about my coat! And I have to wait again.
Another sad thing about this place is how noisy it is, the sitting area upstairs is just awkward for guests when it’s more than two groups of people. The noise is just too much for a nice Japanese dining experience. You can hear clearly what people across you are saying. Also, the chopsticks are tacky generic takeaway bamboo sticks, the Japanese sandals are from Daiso ($ 2.80 shop) and the toilet is so old and stinky (don’t forget to mention they buy Daiso room fragrance which was sitting on the toilet floor). Honestly it’s unacceptable.

No doubt the food here is good, however I just about died of hunger waiting for my food. 1.5 hours in – only received 2 appetizers. Noticed others also bored to death waiting for food to come out. Really unfortunate that the kitchen is so slow. Will not be returning or recommending to friends. Sorry.

Shoya is a decent Japanese option for the lunch crowd in the Melbourne CBD. The thing to get here is the set lunch menu, which is relatively inexpensive for the amount of food you are getting. The highlight of every trip is receiving sashimi that is so nicely plated. It’s almost like a piece of art!
**My favorite section of the restaurant is the mezzanine floor where you have to take your shoes off to enter the sunken dining area.

Delicious, fresh food, great drinks menu, attentive service.
The set lunch menu is an absolute bargain, with about 5 – 6 courses including dessert for between $ 25-​$ 35. The sushi and sashimi is absolutely fresh, and you can even choose to sit at the bar where they prepare it on level 2. This is particularly great if you’re having lunch by yourself.
For dinner, I would not recommend the cheese miso soup — the combination just isn’t that great. Though everything else is fresh and delicious, including the cocktails.
You can also choose to sit at normal chairs and tables, as well as tables that are sunk into the ground (which you have to take your shoes off for).
Overall, it’s great. I love it. Good lunch pricing. There’s even a karaōke bar — which I’d love to try one day.

Amazing Omakase menu with matching Sake. Fantastic service & high quality innovative Japanese cuisine. Current fav Japanese fine dining.

The combination of superb service, an exciting menu and an extensive saki menu makes this a favourite in Melbourne.

You’ll spend around fifty dollars for dinner but every cent is worth it. Fine dining Japanese is hard to do and Shoya does it seamlessly.
The restaurant itself is pretty nice, and very popular among first date goers because of its dim lighting and intimiate dining spaces. However, the real attraction of this place is (and should be) the amazing food!
The sashimi is a must (prepared and de-​boned daily by the chefs), and I would encourage diners to approach the desserts menu with an open mind; sea urchin cheesecake is tastier than you might think!
Four stars

We would never have discovered Shoya at all had it not been for the small write-​up it received in The Age Good Food Guide. So off we ventured to Melbourne’s Market Lane one Friday night with a strong craving for good Japanese food in our bellies and our minds.
Shoya is a large, multi-​levelled restaurant so there’s never much trouble getting a table. We opted for a regular table rather than the horigotatsu style (sunken tables) or seating by the sushi counter. I have now been to Shoya twice and the only seating I’ve yet to try is the by the sushi counter, but I can tell you that the sunken tables are more fun than the regular ones.
Their sake list is excellent and I really recommend overlooking the wine list for a good sake (not that the wine list isn’t good, but you know, when in Rome/​a Japanese restaurant…) or placing your order with your very professional waiter and letting them match a sake to the dishes you’ve selected.
By the way, if the menu gets to be too much, there is no shame in opting for the degustation or omakase. This way you know you’re letting the chef show-​off his best and finest dishes to you. Order from the menu though and you will be rewarded with immaculately clean and balanced flavours. Try the agadashi dofu and the Hokkaido spider crab legs (lightly battered and fried, and to die for).

Shoya is hiding a bit. Down a laneway, not in the typical place you’d expect a gem of a Japanese restaurant. It’s across from a German place, even, and since most of its seating is upstairs, it looks a bit like an business or doctor’s office from the street.
Upstairs lies a den, awaiting your money and appetite. Book ahead and ask for a floor-​seating table for the authentic Japanese experience!
Order a tray of sushi, and just tell them how much you want for how many people. Let them pick and choose what to bring. They’ll give you a stellar sampling of some of the freshest sushi I’ve ever had!
And their sake selection is phenomenal! Tons of different varieties in different sizes. Ask for help here too, because the differences in flavours are sometimes very slight, so you can learn a bit about the tastes.