Ocha - A Bit Dull

Many many moons ago, I had made a booking with my fellow food bloggers, Danny, Mellie and Anna to go to Ocha for dinner at it's old smaller location. However, I had decided to help out a friend fix his computer that day. And if you've ever tried to fix a computer, a task that you think will take two hours inevitably takes eight hours. I made the cardinal sin of changing something when everything was already working. The conclusion of the computer fixing story ended well, I managed to get everything running. However, that was many hours later, well past the booking time of my table at Ocha.

Fast forward many moons and when my friend Hien and I were looking for a restaurant to dine at, I suggested Ocha. At it's new location, it is still extremely busy but we managed to get a seat at the bar, which was fine with us. I had read a lot about the amazing sushi at Ocha so that was a must order for me. We shared the Sashimi Platter and I have to say that I was disappointed. The fish all tasted rather dull and didn't have much flavour. Even the seared fish didn't really taste of anything. Hien was also of the same opinion.


A special dish of the day was a Beef Tataki of wagyu. The meat texture was good and flavours were also nice. This was my favourite savoury dish of the day. A Katifi Wrapped Scampi was really bland and boring, the katifi totally masking any flavour of the scampi. Tempura Vegetables were ok, the batter was light and crisp but didn't add much flavour to the rather plain tasting vegetable. Lastly a Seared Beef was served simply with some bean shoots. It tasted ok but just lacked some flavour.


While the savoury dishes were rather dull, desserts were much better. Simple Red Bean Ice Cream was creamy and beautiful. The Raspberry and White Chocolate Pudding was a strange mix but really worked nicely.


Sitting at the front bar, we were quite cut off from the rest of the restaurant. I didn't mind this and rather enjoyed the quieter space as the main restaurant was really noisy. Being at the bar area, service was really good and the wait staff were very friendly.

I won't be rushing back to Ocha as there are so many other wonderful Japanese restaurants in Melbourne. Maybe I ordered the wrong items but I found the food a bit dull.

Overall Rating: 12/20, Food was ok, nothing excellent that would make me rush back for more.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.