Our 5 Favorite Japanese Restaurants in Adelaide

Shōbōsho is a Japanese restaurant that specializes in yakitori and all grilled food fare. It has received numerous accolades from renowned food directories like the Good Food Guide, Australian Financial Review, and Gourmet Traveller Restaurant.

They are open seven days a week, which is a huge plus for many foodies and if you feel like eating Japanese food suddenly. They also allow walk-ins, so you won’t need to worry about securing a reservation.

Japanese menus can be overwhelming to skim through for some, given their variety of offerings. Shōbōsho offers Hiruyasumi and Gochiso, which are set course meals or their “long tasting” option. 

This eliminates the hassle of having to pick a la carte items from the menu, and you get a taste of their signature offerings through them.

If you don’t fancy eating a full-course meal, you can’t go wrong with their yakitori offerings.

Moreover, Shōbōsho has a dedicated yakitori bar that offers a premium yakitori BBQ experience for $95 per person. It can be a steep price point for some, but returning customers have always left satisfied.

Shōbōsho also caters to vegans with their vegan “feed me” option that has a wide array of Japanese vegan meals.

The ambience, however, leaves much to be desired. The restaurant claims to offer an intimate experience with dining, but the music is sometimes too loud for some customers’ liking and ruins the ambience of the place.

Some of the customers we interviewed expressed their disappointment about how thin the walls were between booths. This would mean that you can hear what the group adjacent to your spot is talking about and vice versa.

The swift service of their wait staff can be a downside at times, too, because this prevents the staff from connecting with the customers. But if you’re someone who would rather enjoy your food and your company unbothered, this won’t be an issue.

If you’re looking to satisfy your yakitori cravings, Shōbōsho is the place to go. However, if you’re looking to order other Japanese food items like ramen, you may want to find another restaurant that offers a wider selection of Japanese favorites.

Ginza Miyako is situated in the five-star Stamford Plaza Hotel, and they offer traditional Japanese flavors using modern techniques and European influences.

Though some would consider mixing up Japanese cuisine with modern techniques and flavors as sacrilegious, Ginza Miyako strives to successfully infuse these foreign influences while maintaining the authenticity and integrity of their dishes.

Unlike more upscale Japanese restaurants that only offer dinner courses, Ginza Miyako offers lunch meals at a reasonable price. This best caters to their customers looking to get a taste of authentic Japanese cuisine without breaking the bank.

We think their lunch menu is a redeeming factor for Ginza Miyako. This is because the reviews for their dinner selection are polarizing; some see it as unreasonably priced.

If you choose from their dinner menu, it would be a safer option for you to go for their omakase course rather than their entrées and mains that are expensive.

Fortunately, their omakase offerings change by the season, so there’s always a unique experience guaranteed every once in a while. You can also pick between a four, six, and their premium eight-course omakase.

However, another issue that customers have is their uninspired table service. Some would even describe it as cold and offering no hospitality at all.

Moreover, its globalized influences and techniques cause the restaurant to deviate from its goal of offering authentic Japanese cuisine. Some have mentioned that their dishes have too much garlicky taste, which is rarely found in Japanese food.

Their choice of middle grain rice rather than the famous short grain rice takes a few points away from their authenticity since short grain rice is essential in making sushi and the majority of Japanese dishes.

But in all of their dishes, their passion for delivering the best food presentation always shines through. This is commendable given that their food is pleasantly quick to come out per table.

On the flip side, Ginza Miyako is also inclusive of special diets. This is because they have quality vegan and gluten-free Japanese meals.

If you fancy some casual Japanese dining, Gyoza Gyoza is the place to be in Adelaide. It’s an Izakaya-style Japanese restaurant that resembles a pub where you can get a few drinks with your meal on a bar stool.

What sets them apart from other Japanese restaurants is how cheap their meal offerings are. Their dishes start at $6.80, which definitely gives you a good bang for your buck!

There is also so much variation in their Japanese food selections with yakitori, katsu, yakisoba, sashimi, oysters, steaks, okonomiyaki, and many more Japanese favorites.

Of course, we can infer from their name that they specialize in gyozas. Customers attest to how delightful and savory their gyozas are. 

Their sake and shochu are some of the drink pairings that go well with their meals.

They also offer memberships that come with numerous perks. These include a welcome gift voucher worth $30, 5% off and a gift on your birth month, 6% off if you pay by cash during lunch hours, and a free hot tea pot per visit during lunch.

This encourages patrons to keep dining at Gyoza Gyoza, and it definitely rewards customers handsomely with cool perks.

However, because it’s a casual Japanese pub, the staff members are often frantically moving around the restaurant. Still surprisingly, customers complain about how long it takes for their food to come.

This shows an immense lack of efficiency for the kitchen staff in preparing food and delivering them to customers.

Their meal portions are also small, which disappointed a lot of customers. We get that affordability comes into play here, but it’s such an unhealthy compromise to limit the size of portions that come with each order.

In our opinion, Gyoza Gyoza is definitely a must-visit if you’re looking for cheap and authentic Japanese food and spirits for after-work dining or casual get-togethers.

Another intimate yakitori Japanese grill is Yakitori Takumi. It was founded in 2004, and it’s the first izakaya-style restaurant that specializes in yakitori in Adelaide.

This restaurant offers authentic Japanese gourmet yakitori in a lively and intimate environment. Since this is an izakaya-style restaurant, you get to see the chef grill up the food in front of you.

Something that customers keep coming back to is the authentic Japanese yakitori they have been serving up for nearly two decades. Their grilled eggplant skewers and wagyu skewers are some of the must-trys on their menu.

Their menu is also easy to navigate, specifying all their must-try dishes handpicked by their chef. Along with this, numerous yakitori items on the menu can be made vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free by request.

However, for an izakaya-style Japanese restaurant, Yakitori Takumi is expensive, requiring a minimum order of $35 per person. 

Coupled with their yakitori serving size per order, which is three skewers each, this can be disappointing for those who are looking to spoil themselves with a big meal for the night.

In addition to this, because this is an izakaya-style restaurant, which is like a Japanese-style pub, it can easily get noisy and super busy when the place is packed.

Considering that everything on their menu is mainly yakitori, they can take a long while to serve their dishes. This is something their customers have always complained about, as most of their meals took nearly an hour to be prepared.

A huge upside of the restaurant is the experience with the kitchen staff and service crew is also commendable, as most customers noted how their interactions with them were delightful. The staff overall is attentive, engaging, and hospitable.

All in all, if you’re looking for a specialty yakitori bar in Adelaide, Yakitori Takumi is a place you should have in your Japanese restaurants to visit.

Shiki is a fine-dining teppanyaki grill conveniently situated at the InterContinental Hotel. Shiki has 34 years of fine dining expertise in Japanese cuisine, and they specialize in teppanyaki cooking.

But their offerings don’t just focus on teppanyaki, as it has one of the most varied Japanese food selections you can find in Adelaide. Offering sushi, sashimi, tempura, teppanyaki, and exquisite wine or sake pairings.

Of course, we cannot speak about teppanyaki without mentioning the theatricality that teppanyaki chefs are known for. Customers are in awe of how much the teppanyaki chefs are able to deliver good food and provide entertainment simultaneously.

According to their frequenters, you can’t go wrong with their sashimi for entrée and their lobster tail, scallops, and wagyu striploin for your mains.

Their Japanese sake is also a fan favorite, with the Atsui sake being the best pairing for their teppanyaki course meals.

However, one downside of this restaurant is the expensive price point. Their set course meal starts at $130 per person excluding the wine pairing. 

Their a la carte menu seems more affordable, but it can definitely add up and cost you the same amount in the end.

On top of this, excluding the wagyu striploin, customers have noted how underwhelming their steak offerings are. Some have even mentioned that their steaks are underseasoned. 

Do note that they’re only open at night for dinner, so you might need to look for another restaurant if you want to have Japanese food for lunch.

Do note also that they also mainly accommodate reservations and have limited availability for walk-ins. Their reservations can only be made through their website or via email.

In our opinion, if you’re celebrating a very special occasion, Shiki is unrivaled at bringing good food and entertainment. But if you’re looking for a casual Japanese dining spot in Adelaide, you may fancy yourself looking for another restaurant.