KushiMaru — Restaurant in Brisbane City

If trying here, I would probably recommend dining in over take away in most cases. I ordered take away, and was directed to a location to sit down. After waiting 45 minutes, I asked for an update, at which point they immediately collected some food from a table and put it into a bag and gave it to me. They threw a seaweed salad into the bag at no cost because it was “their mistake”. The skewers were completely cold though, and this made me believe they had been sitting out for quite a long time, so requested they be remade. They took them and quickly came back with something in the same containers the original food was in. They seemed to me to be just the same items but reheated, which concerned me from a food safety perspective, and the prawn was now pretty horrible. I asked they be remade, which seemed to cause some kind of reaction in the kitchen. They did accept my request though. After a while, the prawns came first. Incredibly, they were almost cold already. Not sure how long they been sitting, which was odd because it was two different prawns. $6 for 2 prawns... When the other three skewers were brought over, two were mostly cold again, one was hot like it was freshly cooked. I suspect they re-served me two of the old skewers a third time. It is possible that their skewers are just generally cold. Therefore I do not recommend the skewers. I have previously had the Japanese curry and I thought that was good. But I don’t think I’ll go back now out of the concerns I have regarding their food safety. I hope I...

In case the Japanese themed offerings in the Elizabeth Arcade aren't enough for you, there's another option nearby with the recent opening of Kushimaru, a Japanese restaurant by the folks behind the Maru family of Korean eateries.

Miss Espresso and I went to check it out shortly after they opened. Ordering is done via touchscreens at each table. There are a number of lunch specials available; I went with a chicken katsudon ($12) whilst espresso had the nigiri and udon set ($15), and we shared a serve of the grilled buta (pork) skewers ($6 for 2 sticks).

The katsudon had decent taste and portion for the price. I would have liked a bit more sauce over the rice though. When the pork skewer was served the waitress announced it as beef which confused us as they had already brought an incorrect meal to our table earlier, but subsequently clarified it was pork. Great aroma and flavour on it though I expected the meat itself to be a touch more tender.

Because of their name ('kushi' meaning skewer in Japanese) and the explicit mentions of "Japanese grilled skewers" in their branding, I was hoping for more skewer options. Hopefully there'll be more in...

The food was good, but the service was terrible, My friend and I were seated at a very small table. We asked the waiter beforehand if our table could fit all the food we wanted to order (sukiyaki hot pot, yakitori platter, and a rice dish). He said yes, so we didn’t ask to change the table.

But when just the sukiyaki and yakitori arrived, the table was already overcrowded — the yakitori plate was even touching the hot pot. The waiter saw it but said nothing and didn’t apologize. It made us question the restaurant’s hygiene standards. We were forced to eat in a cramped, uncomfortable way.

When the grilled eel rice came, there was no room left. We asked to delay it, but the female staff rolled her eyes and looked very annoyed. She took the dish back and spoke with a male staff member, who came back and forced the eel rice onto our already full table, saying the space was enough. Sure, the table is for food, but people need space to eat safely.

He couldn’t explain anything properly and just kept saying “wait a moment.” Nothing happened even after we paid and left. This was my first visit and I was very disappointed by the rude and...