Yakiniku-UCHI — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

Update: the are staff are rude and unaccommodating.

Original review: I visited this restaurant on a Saturday night during the holiday season, and unfortunately, my experience left a lot to be desired.

First impressions upon entering the restaurant were underwhelming. It was an uncomfortably hot evening, and the air conditioning in the dining area seemed to be either turned off or not functioning. Cooking over a BBQ without proper cooling made for a very unpleasant experience—I couldn’t wait to leave. Adding to this discomfort, the interior felt quite bare, with minimal decor. Some Japanese-inspired decorations could significantly enhance the atmosphere, along with functioning air conditioning.

The service was, frankly, atrocious. While the staff were generally friendly, they seemed untrained, uncoordinated and lacked adequate English skills. Even after our food was served, we had to repeatedly ask for basics like chopsticks, plates, and sauces, which delayed us from starting our meal. It wasn’t a busy night—there were only two or three other tables while we were there—so there’s little excuse for this level of disorganization. To make matters worse, we were served dishes we didn’t order and didn’t receive some of the dishes we did order. When I tried to ask the wait staff about these mistakes, it was clear a lack of English skills made it impossible to explain the issues to them. This lack of professionalism suggests that staff training and management need serious attention.

The saving grace of the evening was the food. The restaurant offers a set-price buffet (standard and premium option), with options to order unlimited meats, side dishes, and entrees through a convenient QR code system. The pricing felt reasonable for the quality and amount of meat available. The meat appeared fresh, with no off-putting taste from refrigeration, and the overall quality was quite good. However, diners should note that the restaurant charges $15 per 100g for food wastage, so it’s best to order carefully.

Despite the good food, I don’t plan to return until significant improvements are made to the service, atmosphere, and air conditioning. The overall discomfort made my group eager to leave, which overshadowed the quality of the food. I hope the restaurant addresses these issues—especially the air conditioning—because the food itself shows...

We visited this all-you-can-eat Japanese BBQ restaurant last Friday, and it was the worst dining experience we’ve ever had in Australia.

First, the environment was unbearable. It was a hot evening, and even though the air conditioner might have been on, the main door was fully open, making it feel like there was no cooling at all. To make matters worse, flies were everywhere—flying around our food and table, which was both unhygienic and frustrating.

The service was also extremely poor. We ordered the all-you-can-eat set, but only about 30% of our first round of orders arrived after waiting for over 30 minutes. Even simple items like wasabi didn’t come. Despite repeatedly asking staff and the owner to check our orders, most of the food never arrived. The owner eventually admitted there was an issue with their ordering system and asked us to reorder everything. Even after doing so, we still didn’t receive many items, including basic dishes like fried prawns and calamari rings. After an hour, we were finally told they didn’t even have pork, which we had ordered at the beginning!

The staff were polite but appeared untrained and disorganized, running around looking confused and struggling to find tables. It felt like they were working their first day without any preparation.

The quality of the food was another major issue. The meat, advertised as Wagyu beef, was definitely not Wagyu—it was worse than regular butcher shop quality. The grill system wasn’t even functional; the heat was too low to properly grill the meat, so it was more like warming the food rather than barbecuing it.

Lastly, I wasn’t the only customer facing these problems. Other tables around us were also complaining about missing orders and delays. Many people were using their table menus to fan themselves because it was so hot inside.

Overall, the environment, service, and food quality were...

Very sorry to say we had a bad experience at this restaurant. We received maybe 10% of what we ordered, plus several dishes we didn’t order, then after asking multiple staff multiple times received maybe another 20% of what we ordered. We were told after chasing up dishes multiple times that the ordering system wasn’t working properly but instead of telling us this early in the evening staff were just guessing which dishes went to which tables and not understanding when we explained we were getting all the wrong food. After being told to reorder and the one person who can speak English would make sure our correct dishes came out, they again did not. Then another person finally came out with pen and paper but unfortunately this also did not work. Gave up and left without receiving so many of our dishes, including any of the sauces so what we did receive was very bland.

Staff were very friendly and were trying to be helpful but only one person spoke English so the mistakes just kept getting worse due to multiple misunderstandings. Again we all just gave up trying. When paying our bill we were asked if everything was Ok. I said No it wasn’t and the evening was a big mess. There was no response other than “How are you paying?”

Overall did not eat what we ordered, tried to enjoy the random dishes that were delivered to our table but there was no seasoning so what we did eat wasn’t enjoyable. Staff were lovely but there need to be more who can communicate with their customers. If there was any chance of being understood we would have absolutely refused to pay the bill in full after not receiving half of what we ordered. Very disappointing evening and waste of money...