Etsu Izakaya — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

we visited around 8:30pm on a saturday, visiting out of state. this is a kind of hole on the wall, "blink and you'll miss it" kind of secret location, denoted only by a small red lantern out the front. we arrived early for a 9p.m. reservation but the friendly wait staff seated us very quickly. it's incredibly loud inside and hard to talk with your companions, if you're dining with company, but the ambience is fun. i was surprised that the majority of the patrons appeared to be caucasion although i can't claim to know their heritage; i chose this restaurant based on reviews in japanese language. the staff are great as mentioned previously and do their best despite being very busy with a near packed restaurant, but the wait times for food are fairly long (understandably). i can personally only comment on the drinks, because as a vegan there wasn't anything besides edamame on the menu for me. i wasn't sure of which cocktail to pick but when i explained this and my preferences to our waiter he recommended a cocktail for me and it was perfect. i also shared a lovely bottle of nigorizake with my dining companion, which we both love. he had a small number of seafood based dishes and said the quality was excellent. i would recommend making a reservation and perhaps dining earlier to avoid the noise and the wait times. it's a little while south of the heart of surfers paradise so probably a place to visit only if you have a rental car (with gps) if that's where...

I have to say: this was one of the best food and dining experience my partner and I had for a very long time. We had the big omakase menu, every dish was incredibly delicious and we enjoyed every bite of it. The waiter and waitresses are phenomenal - they know what they are doing, are highly professional and just appear behind you with the food and explain it to you in detail. You have the feeling everyone is continuously on the run and working but you „never see them“ (in a good way). Also we noticed, how well the team is working together and is getting along!

But the highlight of the evening was the bar. We were dining at the bar which kinda results in having your own bartender - and he was out of this world. He spoiled my partner with whiskey cocktails and drinks and always suprised him with exactly what he liked! They definitely know their whiskeys and cocktails in general. The non-alcoholic drinks brought tears into my eyes because I have never tasted something like this. He was very friendly and always up for a good chat but it also had the perfect balance of giving us our own privacy and time for us.

I know everything sounds over the top but I want to make sure to highlight how amazing this dinner was for us. It could have not been a better birthday dinner for my partner. Thank you for welcoming us and treating us with this experience. We will definitely come back...

Myself - a restaurant manager and my Head Chef came to dinner Saturday night - we work in hospo in Canberra at a similar restaurant and we came up for a holiday and I picked this place because I wanted to see a similar style and by far this place is incredible!

Izzy who looked after us was lovely, I was watching her with other guests as well and she was super accommodating and personal with everyone in her section - and most likely out of her own section too. The host at the door was very accommodating as we were a little early, there was a man with a beard (unfortunately didn’t get his name), but he was fantastic - explained everything about each dish with incredible gusto.

The oysters were the best I’ve ever had! As was every single fish dish that came out. My head chef loved the A5 Waygu - fantastic work grill chef!

In saying that all that staff knew exactly what they are talking about, were super happy and looked excited to be doing what they are doing. I know what it’s like to work hard to make every single person who comes in feeling valued and appreciated so I think every single member of staff deserves a lot of acknowledgment for their efforts tonight.

From one hospo member to another …. Very well done - you should be...