Yakiniku Yokocho, Sydney
Friday, September 14, 2018
In a city full of never-ending choices for where to eat, Yakiniku Yokocho is one of the newer up and comers here to stay. It is located downstairs in the popular Regent Place centre and of course, on a Friday night after work it is no wonder that the waiting list is massive.
On this night I'm here to catch up with a group of six friends and we're advised that the wait would be an hour and half from 6:30pm. The waitress at the front overlooking the list assures me she will definitely have our table ready by 8pm, As we are a larger group, we need to be seated at one of their larger tables in the back. Yakiniku Yokocho doesn't take bookings and while we called around, this wait time seems to the standard in Sydney. I'm so lucky my friends didn't get mad at me for choosing a place like this on a Friday night! 😭
There is a lot to admire and marvel at while you wait. A peer into the entrance reveals a Japanese alley/izakaya themed seating area with various Japanese signs and brands overhead and empty cartons for decoration. Fitting as "Yakiniku Yokocho" literally translates to "grilled meat in an alleyway off the main street". There are plush seats made out of bottle carts and a gas bbq at each table. For the smaller bar seats, there are little rectangular and portable bbq's. Really cute and makes sitting at those seats seem just as fun whether you're alone or in a pair.
Look at the massive groups of people all waiting for their turn to eat!
To the left side of the entrance you can see into the larger communal seating area where the Japanese theme strongly continues with the overhead signage, lanterns, artwork and neon signs. It is really cool and makes us even more keen to get our table.
Wedged in between the entrance and open seating area is two authentic Japanese style vending machines. They have lots of interesting drinks from Japanese brands such as Pokka, Suntory and Sangaria. You can even buy a drink from the machines (they're not just there for show) with the prices being in yen and ¥100 = $1 AUD.
We decide to head over next door to have a few drinks at Assembly Bar due to the guarantee from the waitress that we would definitely have a table ready at 8pm. Sad to say we headed back over at that time and the table was not ready. 10 minutes past and the waitress again assured us it would only be another 5-10 minutes as they were waiting for the customers to pay and then leave the table. It gave us some hope but the truth was it wasn't until around 8:40pm that we finally were seated.
Would any of us do it again? Absolutely not. My advice is come here on a quieter weekday or with a smaller group. Otherwise, it would be worth it to take your group somewhere where you can make a booking or wait for a lot less. 2 hours is pretty much a nightmare. Your friends will get hangry. And then so will you 😭
A problem we noticed on the way out is that the servers here don't interact with groups much. So if a group has finished their meal it is up to them to call staff over for the bill, and then once again to pay. This is good for you when you're dining as you feel more relaxed because there is no pressure or rush. But bad for the people waiting outside, so in the end it is what it is.
A view of the back of the restaurant which you can't see from the outside.
Everyone quickly made their way into their seats and we began our reckless ordering spree. There is a handy tablet on each table for this purpose which is really great because orders are sent instantly to the kitchen and speed up the entire process. As soon as we ordered something it would come to our table in less than 3 minutes. Our meats and sides kept popping up one by one so Katy and I would be retaking our photos/boomerangs every time 😂
There was also a deal where if you buy 4 side dishes, you can get the 5th free. All the side dishes are uniformly priced at $6.95 which is quite pricey in my opinion. Things such as sashimi cost the same as say, tofu or salad. And the portion size varies. Additionally Japanese bbq is unlike Korean bbq so you must make your own CAREFUL decisions on what you would like to buy accompany your grilled meats here.. including salads which we will get to.
I'll go through all our sides first!
Shiodare Cucumber $6.95
These cucumbers were cut, smashed, and tossed in shiodare sauce. The sauce is a tasty combination of salt, soy and garlic flavours. Like a light version of Chinese smashed cucumber salad but more on the soy sauce side. The inside of the cucumber is kept and not cut out so you get both soft and crunchy textures. Yum!
Salmon Sashimi $6.95
You only get 5 small and thin slices of salmon sashimi which feels like a waste of a side dish for this price.
Edamame $6.95
A large serving of warm and slightly salted edamame.
Chicken Karaage $6.95
It was buy 4 sides, get the 5th free and nothing else sounded as tasty and shareable as this dish above. So we decided to get 2 serves. Really delicious chicken karaage. Not too oily, good crunch and very tender and juicy on the inside.
Salad/drinks/other:
Corn Butter $4.90
I love corn. Anne-mary commented on how she remembered that someone was telling her that they r e a l l y loved corn and Pat and I responded at the same time "It's Kim/It's me" HAHAHA 🌽🌽🌽
This is a nice size and good accompaniment! But still.. really pricey.
Assorted Vegetables $9.90
We start to miss and realise all the times we took Korean bbq for granted at this point of ordering as we realise we have to pay nearly $10 for this small serving of veggies. It's stamped on the menu with "MUST TRY" but really, this is an essential if you want to have a more balanced dinner or love your veggies like I do. Everything was clean and well prepared but it was such a tiny portion that I found myself more disappointed than anything.
Rice (Medium size) $3.50
Pretty cool how they had three sizes of rice, so we grabbed a medium rice to share between every two people at our table. It was the perfect size to share between two.
Calpis Soda with Strawberry $6.50
This was Katy's first time trying Calpis so all us girls decided to get the Strawberry flavour! This is just Calpis poured over some thinly sliced strawberries (although not all our cups had this) and strawberry syrup. Nice, cool, sweet and refreshing. And in a really big cup! But to be honest I couldn't taste the strawberry flavour that much.
Anne also tried the Calpis soda with Watermelon and it was very similar, just with slight watermelon flavour and cuts.
Now onto the stars of the night, the meats!!! FYI there was a lot of offal options such as tripe, intestines and gizzards which we steered clear of as they were not a popular preference among us. Also the meats are generally priced very affordably under $15 but that is for a small portion. Some have the option to size up and I've noted in brackets where we chose that.
Ox Tongue (Large) $24.90
This comes marinated in a "salted sauce" that is very subtle. I really enjoyed these as when cooked just-to, they were really tasty, melty and tender. Didn't come too frozen which really makes a difference.
L.A. Short Rib $11.90
An example of a small portion correlating to the price, and also another example of you snooze you lose. While I was so busy taking pictures of the dishes that came in a constant stream to the table, everyone enjoyed these ribs and commented on how it was really good. It comes marinated in Yokocho's special soy sauce, same as most meats on the menu!
Beef Flap Meat $14.90
Very high quality and nicely sized cuts of flap meat. When grilled they became tender and had such a great beefy flavour. When you think of what a great piece of steak would taste like, this is it.
Beef Rib Fingers (Large) $24.80
Our favourite of the night, we didn't hesitate to order a second serving of this! The beef had some really nice fatty edges and marbling throughout which turned into a crispy outer char on the grill (in the good way), and juicy and melt in your mouth goodness on the inside!
🔥 Watch out for this HAHAHA 🔥
Changing the rack on the grill is an additional cost of $2. If you are nearing the end of your meal and want to avoid this happening without getting a new rack, then remember to turn the heat down. We all completely forgot it was a gas top and not charcoal so when this happened you can bet some of us freaked out...
In the end I did really enjoy the food and atmosphere of Yakiniku Yokocho. There's no food like bbq that brings people together like this and Japanese bbq always has such simple and high quality meats. We ordered a few extra drinks and the bill came to approximately $33 per person. Which isn't too bad in my opinion. But if we didn't have such a big serve of rice, to be honest some of us would've been less than satisfied because most of these things are a small serve. Some side dishes weren't worth as well. The biggest thing I have against this place is the waiting times but that's because it's so popular on a weekend the only thing you can do is be aware and work your plans around that! 😘
TL;DR:
Price: Middle range prices, although sides are expensive
Quality: Very high quality meat, other sides were good sometimes just standard
Service: Fast service for orders
Ambience: Extremely busy but worth going for the fun atmosphere and Japanese food + vibes
Yakiniku Yokocho
Shop 9.08, Level 9
(Regents Place)
501 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Open 7 days a week
Sun-Wednes: 5PM-10PM
Thurs-Sat: 5PM-11PM
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