Located upstairs in Burwood Chinatown, Moyashi is an all you can eat sukiyaki or shabu shabu, Japanese hot pot. Reminiscing about our favourite Japanese shabu shabu Nabezo, we thought it only fitting to try and see how things compare.

Location: Level 1, Shop 112 & 113, 127/133 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134
Price: $48pp all you can eat
Website: https://www.moyashi.com.au/
Social: https://www.instagram.com/oishimoyashi/

James: 3.5 out of 5 – Pretty good all you can eat sukiyaki, would be even better with more variety in meat.

I’m a big fan of sukiyaki, especially when it’s all you can eat and so I was glad to hear of Moyashi opening up in Burwood. While not quite as good as similar places in Japan, Moyashi was still very solid, and a place I would recommend if you like Japanese hotpot. You’ve got two choices in set menu, either the $48/pp or $68/pp sets, which gives you all you can eat sukiyaki or shabu shabu along with meat, veggies, rice, udon and ice cream. The difference in the two sets, being the quality of meat with the more expensive one giving you more premium meats although all of it is beef.

We opted for the $48/pp with comes with Wagyu PE Brisket and Waguy Knuckle, one a leaner type of cut and the other with a bit more fat. Both tasted great, a slight edge to the fattier version, especially once dipped in raw egg after cooked in the sukiyaki hotpot. The veggie bowl was a decent assortment of greens and mushrooms and the sesame dipping sauce that each person gets also added some nice flavour and variety to the meat. There were some sides like edamame, imitation crab salad and seaweed salad which were a nice touch and these also had unlimited refills.

My few gripes were that after a few orders of the beef, the flavours became repetitive and some variety in meats like lamb would have been good and the option to do a half half sukiyak/shabu shabu would have been nice. Also after some time eating, the fat will build up in the sauce and will affect the flavour, so it would have been good to have this scooped out or the sauce replaced. But nevertheless I still enjoyed my time at Moyashi and glad I’ve got a go to option for sukiyaki, which I’m sure I’ll be back to try the more premium set menu.

Melissa: 3/5, clean and good quality but limited by lack of variety

We opted for sukiyaki, which is a soy sauce based stock hot pot. The options for meat were a wagyu brisket and a wagyu knuckle (less fatty). The brisket with more fat was the better tasting option and all the slices were thin enough to cook quickly. The stock base was rich and umami and the raw egg dip went perfectly with the meat. There was also a healthy dosing of veggies for the hotpot and a nice selection of mushroom, spring onion, Chinese cabbage and tofu. Rice and udon were also unlimited, as were all the sides of a seaweed salad, edamame and shredded crab meat. The buffet also came with one scoop of ice cream at the end.

Overall, well priced hotpot buffet that was reasonably good quality. The limited side dishes (or optionality in dishes) and meat variety was the key limiting factor for the restaurant. I wish the restaurant served more variety in side dishes or additional dishes you could add on as part of the buffet. Perhaps ordering the more premium version would solve this. Despite this, I would recommend it to those in the area who are looking for a taste of Japan that won’t break the budget.