Oi Izakaya — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

As a Japanese, I’ve been to many izakayas in Japan and Australia, so here’s my honest review.

We dined here Boxing Day dinner (3 pax), seated outside. As we walked through the indoors area, I noticed it had good atmosphere, however, the outside seating had the shopping centre food court vibe, as it felt like tables and chairs were just added to the outside of the restaurant, where the fun decor ended.

When we were seated by the lovely waitress, we were handed oshibori hand towels, just like in Japan, which was a nice touch, however they smelled foul, like ridden with bacteria. We thought the smell would go as our hands dried, unfortunately we had to ask for hand sanitiser to get rid of the germy smell.

We ordered 7 dishes and ordered 2-3 drinks each.

1st dish, crispy pork kakuni (5 – 6 pcs) – $20.5 was ok. The flavour was good and skin was crispy, however, the meat was left in the oven too long, and unfortunately it was mostly dried out and the texture resembled a discounted Woollies chook at the end of the day.

2nd dish ponzu cucumber $6 was ok, a little underwhelmed by the portion, as we literally had 2 little bites each (see photo).

3rd up, miso eggplant $15 was cooked tender, however, was way too salty to eat on its own. You would need a big bowl of rice or a bottle of sake to wash down the saltiness. After dining, I read another review commenting on the saltiness of the dish. We did not provide any feedback up until this point, until the next dish came along.

4th dish was the tuna sashimi (6 slices) – $19. We all had a piece each and immediately noticed something was off. The fish was not fresh at all. We immediately notified the waitress and returned the dish as it was inedible.

5th dish was the soft shell crab sushi roll (6pcs) – $23, which was good.

6th dish was the wagyu beef tataki (7 slices) – $17, which did not taste fresh either. Unfortunately, we returned the dish to the kitchen unfinished also.

We initially ordered the kingfish carpaccio off the specials board. But at this point, we started to fear all raw dishes were unfit for consumption, so we requested to have this dish cancelled and changed to chicken karaage.

During this time, the floor manager came out in response to our returned dishes. He said the tuna was purchased on Friday, before the long weekend and since it was a Sunday of the long weekend, the fish was kept unfrozen. Unapologetically, and matter of factly. This explained why the fish tasted off.

I provided feedback on the spot, in the nicest possible way, that if the restaurant was unable to provide fresh fish, then it should not be available to order in the first place. I further added that the cooked dishes were lovely and that we were looking forward to the final deep fried dish.

The final dish, chicken karaage (4 - 6 pcs) – $16.5, was served. Marinade was a little on the salty side, and batter was slightly burnt as it was left in the fryer a tad too long. But it was edible as long as lathered in Kewpie mayo.

I booked this restaurant after reading the glowing 5 start reviews, but I failed to read the 1 star reviews. Perhaps we would have had a different experience if we were sat inside and ordered different dishes.

Wines were ok. Cannot comment on cocktails as we did not order any.

As we were leaving the venue, I looked around and noticed not a single Japanese diner was to be found. I realised why.

Unfortunately, I would not recommend anyone this place unless you don’t have any other places to go on a Boxing Day, and you are happy to pay 15% public holiday surcharge on top of the already highly priced meals for an izakaya.

I understand the restaurant is in a great location and there is great potential to be successful. The restaurant needs to take out some time to review the customer feedback and chefs need to taste the dishes before they...

I paid $23 for 6 small pieces of Karaage Chicken, a lemon wedge, some shallots and 2 pickles. It was a $7 delivery fee through Uber (it's $22 dine in). Obviously delivery fee has nothing to do with the business but just providing context around why I didn't return the item immediately in restaurant.

The item description was 'Karaage Chicken'. Nothing relating to quantity. I was certain this was supposed to be a meal and there was a missing item, as most Karaage Chicken dishes on the Gold Coast, even at higher end Japanese Restaurants, is between $13 - $24 dollars including rice and a side salad or similar - so an actual meal that would satisfy an adult.

I immediately phoned the restaurant to clarify the situation and got a Brazilian girl who told me that they have NEVER received a complaint about portion size or value for money - which is completely untrue upon reading these reviews. Most 1 star reviews on here complain about exactly that, along with rude and unprofessional behaviour, which doesn't surprise me given the conversation I had with this employee.

She then went on to say that it was 'her restaurant' and I should stick to Sushi Train lol! It's interesting reading the review below referencing a rude Brazilian waitress, must be the same one having delusions of grandeur, as another post states a man named Steven owns this business..?

She also told me that the quality of their food far outweighs other restaurants, which is a fair point, so I enquired about where they source their chicken, given the insane price. She told me she doesn't know where they get the chicken!? I said, 'how could you not know where you buy produce if you are the owner..?' She replied that the chef does the purchasing, not her and asked if I wanted him to stop cooking in the middle of service to answer my question..? Just bizarre, defensive, aggressive behaviour and from reading some of the answers to their reviews, it seems the behaviour is fostered and promoted here.

I said we would settle this dispute, by posting a photo of the dish on Burleigh Heads Social Community Facebook group (7500 members) and asking for feedback... Here's what I wrote along with the photo I've included with this review:

'Help settle an argument between myself and a local restaurant owner… is this worth $23 ($30 after being delivered by Uber Eats)'

Here are the results (paraphrased obviously).

31 total responses

YES - 3 NO - 13

So there you have it, of the total 16 legit responses, 81% believe that dish is not worth what the business charges.

(The other responses were a variation of its 'Ubers fault' - which makes no sense, 'it's my fault because I chose to order it' and 'I don't/need to learn how to cook' lol).

Anyway, Steven - if you read this and ask the girl answering the phone on Saturday night if she is telling customers she owns the business - I can confirm she is and when pressed about being the owner, she did not correct me....

I am deeply dissatisfied with the experience my party and I had at this restaurant tonight during a birthday dinner that was intended to be a special occasion.

Unfortunately, the evening was severely impacted by a number of unacceptable issues, which I feel need to be addressed:

Extraordinarily slow service: We experienced an average wait of over an hour for our food, which is unreasonable under any circumstances. Cold food: When it did arrive, several dishes were served cold. Repeated service errors: On five separate occasions, we were presented with incorrect orders by both the young female waitresses. Each time, we had to correct the mistake ourselves. Unprofessional behavior from management: The manager (Irish guy) approached us with animosity and aggression regarding food that we had eaten despite this being another mistake of his staff members (and we had ordered this). Dangerous food incident: I found a full bamboo skewer hidden inside my sandwich — something that caused me physical pain as I bit into it and was no longer able to finish my meal. The manager briefly acknowledged it but provided no resolution or compensation whatsoever. This is a serious health and safety concern. Billing error: Our final bill was incorrectly charged at $200 (another tables order) instead of $50 (one guest of our party didn’t order through the QR code), a mistake that should not occur. Discriminatory treatment: While the table next to us received a personal apology from the manager, we were met only with hostility. The family at the adjacent table even cast us disapproving looks as they left — contributing to a sense of unfair treatment. Poor value for price: Given the high prices of your menu, this level of service is completely unacceptable, regardless of how busy the restaurant may have been.

This experience completely ruined our birthday celebration. I am extremely disappointed by both the service and the management’s response to our concerns. I tried to find the manager at the end of our experience to speak with him in person but he was nowhere...