Yebisu Bar & Grill

Date/time of visit: 12 May 2022 @ 8:00pm (approx) Dat/time of visit: 17 May 2022 @ 8:20pm (approx) (yes, 2 visits within 5 days) Yebisu Bar & Grill felt like an upmarket izakaya. The decor was modern; the atmosphere was good. It was not dark and dingy (like some izakaya's I've visited in Japan...and Melbourne). The first thing that should be noted is the price of the food. One piece of salmon nigiri would be approximately 3x the price of your average sushi train. However, there is a quality difference. The quality of the salmon nigiri at Yebisu Bar & Grill was excellent, much higher than your average sushi train. It was delicate, and fresh, and had good fattiness (and this isn't the fatty salmon that I'm talking about). My partner prefers the fatty salmon and she was more than happy with the fattiness of the standard salmon (so, we didn't end up ordering the fatty salmon from here). We tried a lot of dishes and were happy with everything. Yes, the price for our first visit did add up - $159 but we had 21 items off the menu with the two most expensive items from that dinner being the Soba Noodle with tempura ($18.80) and Takoyaki beef curry cheese fondue ($14.80). My partner tricked me into getting the takoyaki (because I normally don't this dish elsewhere) and this particular takoyaki had great batter, cooked evenly and was served with a delicious beef curry cheese fondue. I was happy with takoyaki (but it's still not my personal favourite dish for my tastes :-) ). We enjoyed the meal so much that we decided to make a return visit 5 days later, prior to departing Sydney. Other highlights from the menu, for us, were the kranskys; the kushiyaki (my partner preferred the chicken with teriyaki, while my favourite was the chicken with curry salt). Ordering was via iPad device on each table. Service was good; dishes arrived in a timely manner; staff were friendly and some were chatty if asked questions (I asked about the music playing in the background because that was also pleasant and enjoyable and I was hoping to find it available somewhere). Payment by card attracts a surcharge; for our card it was 1.3% which might be a little high in comparison to other venues for that particular card. So, when you visit, just be aware prices are higher than normal. The quality is higher than normal. The price to quality ratio might be a little off; however, based on our two visits, the prices deserve to be higher than your standard izakaya or sushi train. We were happy because it's rare to find such good quality in Australia (next best on the east coast of Australia, that we've found, would be in Launceston, Tasmania) and this was a nice treat during our visit to Sydney.

Lovely spot for dates and small groups, with tablet menus, broad selection of Western / Japanese drinks and foods. Definitely a great drinking and bar food spot to drop as part of the Sydney Nightlife. Decor and ambience well fitting with smooth jazz and care placed in creating a great environment for dining

I believe the kitchen staff has changed. I ate here some time last year and the food was fantastic. However, this time around 80% of the menu had been cut. The old menu which had a gazillion items and is still available online is not a true reflection of the restaurant any more. The quality of food has dropped drastically, but the price has remained the same or even higher. E.g. I had the dragon roll sushi last year, 8 pieces of quality sushi for roughly $19. Today, they charged $17 for 4 pieces of sushi that is comparable to supermarket/fast food sushi. My beloved omelette rice, I will miss you greatly 😢 RIP may we meet again one day. TL;DR - a significant drop in the quality of food with a high price tag, new management/staff (?)

A total rip off place. and very bad customer service too! They charged me $22 (yes $22!) for 2 tiny little oysters so that is $11 for one oyster! A single piece of sushi (yes 1 piece) set me back $7.70! I literally ate nothing and my bill came to $45.10!!!! AVOID THIS PLACE! Staff are sooooo unfriendly…. It is worse than the food…

Oh wow this place has a strong marketing team. Everything is put together perfectly. This is a very themed izakaya. It's an upstairs affair in the middle of Chinatown. The entrance area is a little bit dingy and there's no reception at all. You just kind of wander into the main restaurant past the barrier with the sterilisers. A lot of Bruce Lee references make it a theme. Everything is painted even the ceiling. A Japanese pub decorated with Bruce Lee, Chinese writing on the wall etc. I guess it's aimed at Chinese tour groups. You can see the management is Chinese. They have a computer system to order from. You choose your items and then they bring it to you without any human interaction. It can be translated into English Chinese and I think Korean? There is a Japanese chef Mr Ueda featured with a special sushi set which is available only on tuesday to thursday. But he was there every day in the Window by the sushi bar, for the customers to look at. There are many categories such as hot pot, sushi, skewers, grill, drinks, dessert, salad. Actually over half the menu categories are types of drinks. It is really targeted to drinking I think. All different types of Japanese alcohol and cocktails. The menu is small for an izakaya. Actually over half the menu categories are types of drinks. For other items, everyone felt there wasn't much choice. Each type of food there's only few things. Eg for our hotpot you could get extra beef or pork. That's it. Not types of beef, but just beef. Or pork. Maybe I'm spoilt with going to authentic Japanese restaurants in Sydney all these years. Most people seem to order a hot pot when we were there. It has a Wagyu beef with the option of marble 8 or 9+. See the photos, I couldn't really tell the difference. A plate was $30 and included 12 pieces. Thinly sliced, 1 per mouthful. Soft, nice, not particularly flavoursome. Maybe it's just the sauce. The veges are very thickly cut, really should have been sliced a few more times. There is also the pork available for you to choose. We had the hotpot the came with vegetables and two sauces. Not a great idea. Actually the tables are not sized for it. Once they put the stove on the table, a few plates of meat and veges, you have no space to wriggle at all.Not really sure about the sources, the sesame one was interesting the other one was like a ponzu I'm not sure actually it went well with the meat. The soup of the hotpot was good, after running a few slabs of wagyu and vegetables through it especially. This place is also famous for the Grill skewers and yakitori. We tried a few different things such as the chicken giblets and beef wrapped around mushrooms and chicken cartilage, another thing is I can't really remember the names of. They're not bad there aren't many places where you can get them and all of those places seem to be in the city anyway. It's had a few sauces but it didn't seem to match greatly. Probably something great to have as a snack with beer not so much as a main meal. Like people say, it's on the pricey side. Seems to be on the tourists side of Chinatown and I guess the price reflects that target market. The hotpot was over 60 and extra meat was 30. Skewers are easy to eat quite a few of! When we went it was quite empty for a weekend. Less than half full. They have a rule that you must vacate the table in 2 hours, and also you may be forced to share a table. Obviously unlikely given current circumstances.