Harajuku Gyoza

Harajuku Gyoza

Neon lamps & cute waitress, long queues & wall of sound ambience; Harajuku Gyoza planted a slice of Tokyo in Brisbane, and a slice of beautiful gyoza into Kitchen Eaten's gut.

* Palate: 8/10 * Wallet: 8/10 * Service: 8/10 * Benchmark: This is it*

Punters around the Valley area would have noticed the long queues often stretching about the corner of Brunswick St & Berwick St - the culprit is none other than Harajuku Gyoza.


Harajuku Gyoza - to quote the website - is the story of an obsession, an insatiable love for gyoza and beer. 


Sounds a bit loony, sounds a lot like Kitchen Eaten.


One fine day, Kitchen Eaten and Hair Straightener decide to check out the place.


And so we begin.




Ambience

Like a slice of Tokyo - with a lot of expatriates :)

A cool plate

Masterful branding

The ambience is a big part of what makes Harajuku Gyoza ticks. It successfully recreated the hustle-bustle-helter-skelter charm of Harajuku, Tokyo.

The attention in detail is astonishing, and brought about a most pleasant sensory overload, successfully blending the quirky, the appealing and the hip into a distinctive atmosphere.

If only Kitchen Eaten is like that.

Food

The menu is relatively small, centred on the place's namesake gyoza - a choice of pork, chicken, beef, duck and sometimes a special - plus a few tried-and-tested favourite. The menu reflects an izakaya-type concept - quick meal and beer food.

Tonkatsu

The tonkatsu (deep fried pork slices) served with rice was crisp, juicy, screamingly fresh (a rarity nowadays) and has perfect meat-to-batter ratio. 


Kitchen Eaten is glad to note that the sauce is only slightly sweet and serve strictly to complement the dish - he's had way too many el-cheapo version of fluor-soaked-full-of-oil-drowned-in-sickly-sweet-sauce trying to pass off at tonkatsu.


This is bliss.

Agedashi tofu

Wow. Fluffy tofu, crispy thin layer of dusty batter, fragrant stock, slices of mushroom, bonito flakes.


The agedashi tofu here reaffirms that a simple dish can be an instant classic with the requisite level of love - everyone is so familiar with it any marginal improvement will be detected and will be salivated upon.


This one is perfect.


The stand-out component of this dish is the stock - consommé like, subtle flavour, perfect temperature, and the colour matches ever so well with the dish. 


Hair Straightener, ever vegetarian-leaning, gives this dish a big thumbs up.


A ripper!

The perfect gyoza

A good gyoza has a crispy base, a soft top, a juicy filling, and an al-dente skin. 


A good gyoza can turn bad mood into good mood, a frown into a smile, and sour to sweet.


Kitchen Eaten and Hair Straightener ordered 3 types of gyoza in total.


That is 3 orgasms for Kitchen Eaten. 


Hair Straightener thoroughly enjoyed the gyoza, but hid any orgasm pretty well. 


The gyoza in this place is heaven-sent.


Just stare at that picture and be aroused.

Service & beer

The service is straight out of Japan - all smiles and bows.


Beer and sake served here goes great with the gyoza. 


Would love to one day go all out and overdose on gyoza and sake. 


That would be a night worth living.

Wallet

$20 per head for a full tummy and a beer. 


Quality and fun at this price is hard to find. 

It is worth it.

You want to eat?

And drink?

The whole izakaya-concept is at its infancy around Brisbane, and Harajuku Gyoza is a worthy pioneer and an early front runner for the crown.

Kitchen Eaten has had better gyoza elsewhere, frequented better drinking hole, and visited a few places that are equally as hip.

But Harajuku Gyoza ticked all the boxes, and is very reasonably priced.

It is an urban institution in the making.

Eat and drink here.

Links

• Harajuku Gyoza home