Daiki Grill and Bar 大喜川菜 — Restaurant in Brisbane City

Daiki Grill and Bar 大喜川菜 – A Colourful Space with Underwhelming Food

We visited Daiki Grill and Bar at 6:30pm and were surprised to find the restaurant completely deserted—just us, the chef, and his lone helper. While the quietness made for a peaceful dinner, it also raised questions about the restaurant’s popularity during peak dinner hours.

The decor is undeniably charming—playful and almost whimsical—with bright blues and pinks, neon signage, and cartoon imagery on the walls. It feels more like a trendy bubble tea shop than a Chinese eatery, offering a quirky but somewhat mismatched first impression.

As for the food, it was fairly basic Chinese fare with a few disappointing details. I ordered the mapo tofu, mainly to compare it to the version I make at home. The dish nailed the essentials in terms of heat—bird’s eye chilli spice and the telltale numbing of Sichuan peppercorns—but the sauce was overly thickened with what seemed like a heavy hand of cornflour. The mince? Practically invisible. Whether finely ground or simply meagre in quantity, it disrupted the tofu-to-meat balance you’d expect in a proper mapo tofu. It felt more like corner-cutting than a culinary choice.

The stir-fried beans were fine, but again, suffered from the same mince-to-veggie imbalance. The tofu with century egg was extremely basic: plain cold tofu slices laid on a bed of soy sauce. The chef's finesse culminated in slicing the soft tofu without turning it to mush.

Service-wise, with only two people handling the entire operation, it felt like they were stretched too thin. The chef was taking orders at the counter, prepping food, plating, and even serving—an impressive multitask, but not ideal for a relaxed or attentive dining experience.

One silver lining: the beer was only $6 a bottle, which was a welcome surprise and probably the best value item of the night.

It’s worth noting that this is another one of those places that offers a free soft drink in exchange for a 5-star review, which likely skews its current 4.3-star Google rating.

The menu is extensive, ranging from familiar Chinese staples like pig trotters and tripe to more exotic offerings like bullfrog, bitter gourd, and fish maw. We didn’t venture into the wilder options, but adventurous eaters might find more to explore.

Overall verdict: A very cute venue with budget drinks and a broad menu, but let down by underwhelming food, sparse staffing, and visible corner-cutting in the...

Went there for dinner and I was pretty disappointed. To be fair, we probably weren't the target audience however I go to Sunnybank alot and eat alot of food from Asian cultures and enjoy them! When we entered I did get the vibe that I wasn't welcome there, which was really disappointing..

The ordering system was very strange, you had to sign up and select the food you want, however when you went to go checkout, I got a notification saying that my order hadn't been checked yet. A staff member looked at the order on my phone and then went and manually gave it to the kitchen - which makes me wonder, why bother with the online ordering system in the first place?

On the bright side, there was one absolutely lovely lady there who came up to us and asked us if we would like some recommendations, which did feel nice however some of the items that were being pointed out as recommendations were on the higher priced side.

As for the food, the skewers, although tasty were cold and very small for the price. The meal itself came out in a strange interval between the skewers and the main, with rice coming midway through the main meal.

The environment though is decorated really nicely however and the neon signs really make the space pop, and had some really cool lighting and art pieces around aswell.

After eating, nothing was explained to us in regard to what the total was, it was just a number on a screen. We payed and I had to ask for Reciept to see what we had payed for. There was a surcharge for the public holiday aswell which no one mentioned anything about, and although I know it's common knowledge, it would have been nice to know that there was going to be an extra 16 dollars tacked on to the cost.

Overall, it may be the fact that I'm not from an Asian culture and I may not quite understand the culture and food the same way, but I was pretty disappointed in comparison to alot of other eateries of the sort, that provide better food...

Second time I have patronized Daiki, the first time was moderate, the second time was very disappointing, I had booked in advance for 19:30 this evening. When I arrived on time, there was no staff at the door to greet us, so I went straight to the cashier and told the staff that I had a reservation for 19:30. A female staff told me I needed to go back to the outdoor area and wait. I went to the door and waited from 19:32 to 19:47. Two groups of customers who arrived later than me were seated before me. After being seated I scanned the QR code on my phone to order from the table, and about 15 minutes later a female staff with glasses came and asked me if I had ordered yet. My friend put the successful order display "pending" cell phone screen to show the employee to see, the staff replied that the computer system does not have our order, said ‘you give me the phone," very rude, then took my friend's phone to go to the computer to order food. After she took my friend's phone to the computer to order food, she didn't return the phone to my friend at the first time after ordering, but carried the food to the outdoor location to deliver the food, and when we asked her to return the phone to us, she returned the phone, but didn't return it to my friend's hand, and threw it on the table directly. After being seated, the food was served very slowly, it wasn't until 20:30 that a dish was served along with a dessert, at 20:34 my friend and I went to the front desk to check out, the cashier lied and said that one of the rabbit dishes was already done, and then we waited for 7 minutes for the food to be packaged up, and then 4 dishes were served within the 7 minutes, the whole experience was very poor, the staff was very unprofessional, with a poor attitude, and no smiles. Will never patronize again or recommend to...