NIKULAND — Restaurant in Melbourne

Sadly a mediocre experience for me. This is NOT a sponsored post or incentivised review. Paid with my own money, and sadly the experience just wasn’t up to par in my opinion. Pros are that the staff were nice, the service was quick, and the quality of the Wagyu itself was decent.

Cons: meal missing salad! 🥗 very disappointing…

the seating is tiny, literally squished in next and there is no space to put the actual meal set ordered. At least make sure your tables can hold the food on your menu? I ordered set 2, which is apparently their #1 recommendation. I put the rice bowl on my sauce plate and the chef pointed out that I can use the plate for sauce. Yes I’m aware, but there’s literally nowhere else to put it.

Very concerning safety issue, I watched one of the chefs put down the hot plate of 2 customer’s food next to a sink, wash some dishes, then come give us our food. Just ridiculous, what if we get random soapy water on our steaks 🤢🤢🤢 Please train your staff better, hot food should be absolutely NOWHERE near soapy water!

The steak was disappointingly small, about 6 bites total. The chef came to grill my steak on the hot plate and cut it up in silence. Wasn’t asked how rare I wanted the steak by the way, I was just told “it’s medium rare but you can cook it longer if you wanted”. You should probably ask how the customer wants the steak first! What if I wanted my steak bloody rare?

Hamburg was good, great flavour and the texture was so tender. Outshines the steak for sure. Sides were great, helped give everything flavour. I liked the sauces, shoutout to the togarashi mix and the fruity miso! Two of the seasonings were unlabelled and the first staff member I asked had no idea what they were. Not great, your staff should know what your own sauces are 😂😂

Final con is that the portions are small. I came away still hungry 😭 not happy at having spent $26 on a meal and still not been full lmfao. Reckon you can get a better value feed elsewhere.

I wanted to give this a better score but the safety issue and the portion size were just not giving for me.

Prices: Set 2 with m9 steak & 1 hamburg, salad (MISSING), miso,...

We love bento trays/teishoku and this is no exception! It's the chef's world and we're all sitting at the open kitchen bar watching the meat being grilled on the two main stoves in the centre. . 🥩 We're here for the hamburg signature sets which comes with rice, miso soup, salad and seasonal pickles. Also an option to upgrade your rice or swap it for potatoes, and add an egg. There's a DIY sauce station in between each couple, only accessible when standing for me. . With no elbow room on the table, these sets definitely took up all the table space, and were just as filling. The chef cooks your meat, and places it on a little rack on your table, and you have the option of cooking it on the bar top wrap around hotplate (think sushi train layout, replace sushi with a non moving hotplate). . 🍹 Mocktails: Little Mermaid & Liquid Ichigo (Strawberry) Cake 🍅 Ume honey cherry tomatoes Set 2 - Wagyi Hamburg + Steak 🥩 a. M9+ wagyu steak 🥩 b. Miyazaki A5 wagyu steak 🍮 Dessert: milky soft serve, soy pudding . The beef was tender and juicy, I found the M9+ a bit too fat for me, while the Miyazaki A5 was more my thing. . Love the sauce guide placemat, the sauce plate is the saucer btw. We did create our own combos, but the fruity honey miso was the sauce! . 🍅 The ume honey cherry tomatoes were amazing! Skinless little bombs of flavour, adding this to our to cook list. . 🍓🥛 Drink options included pretty housemade mocktails, that strawberry milk was real. Milky soft serve and soy panna cotta like pudding for dessert, soy is a hit/miss, but this was addictive! - do order one per person . 🧊 Note - You want to go on a cool day, it's hot in the open plan kitchen. There is a cool section, in the restaurant area, but we're here for the open kitchen bar seating. . 👜 Tip - there's a bag hook under the table, for small bags . 🥩 @nikuland.au 📍Near Melb Central 🎁...

16/6/2025 update: came back and I think this is the last time I'll go here. Consistently dirty cutlery across multiple visits, hair in our food, really negligent service. We were taken to a "VIP room" that is clearly unfinished. Some of the grills didn't even work. Broken chopsticks provided. Dirty spoons. The VIP room had a tap and sink so we actually washed our own cutlery! We were not given menus and had to ask for them, and after ordering, the menus were not collected and taken away -- we did this ourselves. Had to ask to be provided with sauces/spices. Had to ask for water.

This place is priced too highly to be this unhygienic and for the service to be this poor.

I've been here multiple times now and the food (katsu wagyu) has ranged from being divine to overly-chewy (and the variation - one time I went the pieces were cut far too big when they don't offer you a knife or scissors, making for an unpleasant eating experience)! The seasoning choices make this place a particular delight, and the crisp salad, warming miso soup, and delicious side curry dishes really make for a delightful meal. The truffle paste is especially yum combined with matcha salt as a combo!

The service has ranged from being hectically adequate to absolutely negligent (we asked for a takeaway meal and they took an hour to pack it, and we had finished our meal long ago at that point). I've also been given dirty plates when sitting down and had to ask for clean ones.

Atmosphere-wise, the place gets incredibly hot with all the grills running, with inadequate air conditioning. I went here on a 33C day and it was absolutely sweltering in the restaurant.

If it were consistently like my first visit, I'd have no problem giving this place 4 stars. As it is, the quality fluctuates...