Izakaya Ichi — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

First time reading out in Southport in the Gold Coast and I have got to say that I'm very delighted with Izakaya Ichi.

I arrived at a relatively late time, post 21:00, which by Australian standards is basically supper. However this place has a late night food vibe to it, and it's so cosy. Comfortable low seating and the dim lit lights make for an invitational atmosphere.

I love the touch of having two USB outlets available by the table in case you need to charge your phone. Kudo points there.

This place seems to be quite popular amongst the Asian locals.

The waiting times were what you'd expect from a small restaurant to be fair. My wait even though dining alone was not noticeable enough for me to give a plus our minus on my review.

I ordered the beef udon, huge portion, not quite sure if that's meant to be, but it would easily fill me up for a lunch. It was really hot when it came out which is great, careful when you first dig in. Very set of flavour, it gives your stomach a very the comfiest hug. The noodles were done very well, still had a nice bite to them. Found only that it was a bit much of onion, but I wouldn't say it's particularly a bag thing.

Then I had the wagyu beef tatake. I loved it. Still very raw in the middle as you'd expect and seared on the surface, juicy and tender, well seasoned. It was my favourite. The dried onion was crunchy and really added a textural variety to the dish, upon a bite you are left with the salad under which has had the flavourms dripping from the steak running through them, my suggestion is to pull a chunk and then deep roll them on the underlying sauce and having a bite, the mix of the acidity and the sweetness of the steaksauce blend very well. The greens are very refreshing but in no way get in the way of the main focus of this dish.

I drank a Sapphoro throughout my meal.

For dessert I had the green tea and coffee icy snow flake. Tasty but a very watery and frozen dessert. Strong macha taste as one would expect, the coffee isn't really present. Very airy and the coconut gives it the volume and dryness after three opening. I suggest at least two people, this is one big dessert, even for me who eats desserts very well it almost had me defeated. The sweet beans are well matched but mine were a bit too mushy to my taste. One thing I really appreciated was the development of the dessert. Because it is such a big dessert, and this takes its time to go through its very well thought to have the melting icecream soak the bottom of the dessert which is a chunk of coconut which makes the coconut so pleasurable.

I have...

Blatant Racial Discrimination – Worst Dining Experience!

This was one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had, all because of the outright racism from a Korean female staff member.

At around 3 PM, when the restaurant was nearly empty, we were denied a larger table simply because we were two people. Meanwhile, another large table was occupied by two local (non-Asian) customers without any issue. This was already frustrating, but what happened next was even worse.

When serving our food, this waitress practically threw the plates onto the table, causing pieces of fried lotus root to spill everywhere. Did she apologize? Not a single word. Her attitude was dismissive and disrespectful.

As we were eating, a local customer sat at the very table we originally wanted but were refused. This was beyond insulting—it was clear and deliberate discrimination. When we confronted her at checkout, she arrogantly refused to take responsibility, instead making absurd excuses like “the other table spent $200.” So what? Does that mean our $50 meal is worthless? And how could she have possibly known in advance how much a customer would spend?

The only explanation is pure racial discrimination. If you look Asian, you get treated with disrespect, but if you’re local, you get whatever you want. Not once did she say sorry, not once did she acknowledge her blatant bias. Her arrogance and complete lack of professionalism were absolutely disgusting.

This experience completely ruined my impression of the Gold Coast. If you care about basic respect and fair treatment, avoid this place...

We have been enjoying food here for over two years. However, today we had a disappointing experience to share. Hope this reaches out management person.

Our miso soup was already on the table, and while serving the sushi rolls, the lady staff accidentally spilled half of it and opps! and noticed that. She didn’t apologise at all at the time, didn’t come back to check, offer a replacement, or even wipe the mess. We cleaned it. We didn’t continue the soup.

After that 15mins at the cashier, I waited to see if she might show some concern, but the bill still included the soup ($3.5). I politely mentioned that she had spilled the soup, and explained that just wanted to let her know. But she had confused face, simply asked twice if I wanted a refund for soup, still no apology. I told her it was fine to pay for soup (we drank bit before spilled) but this just not right and suggested that in the future, it would be better to offer a new soup or at least come after to ask. Unfortunately, even then, still with questionmark face ,no sorry & nothing wrong. She was just nodding head , I paid.

We still love the food here and hope the service...