Yakitori Chaco Bar — Restaurant in Sydney

I came here thinking of leaving a 5 star review and having just left, I simply cannot comprehend the positive comments this restaurant gets. All of the dishes sound amazing on the paper and it appears you're really paying for impressive ingredients to be poorly cooked and thrown together. The dishes were either very bland or over salted or oversmoked to the point of choking on them, rice pudding was watery and about as inedible as it gets, and in general combination of very nice ingredients like Wagyu beef and sea urchin didn't work and seemed to be there only to make the menu look good. Talking of Wagyu, how the A5-rated meat was wasted with an overpowering topping is as upsetting to me as to the cow who gave its life for it. Way to ruin a perfectly good piece of meat! Overall out of 15+ small dishes/bites, most were "alright" and not a single one had any of the "wow" factor you would expect from a modern cuisine restaurant, or even was good. I'm also confused by people describing the place as "authentic". The restaurant really tries to be modern and edgy (sadly a bit too hard), but there is absolutely nothing authentic about it, I'm sure even the chef would agree. I can however agree that it was "an experience", however not a particularly pleasant one. The service, while not the worse part wasn't so great. Drink recommendations were always way off and they didn't seem to know what they were talking about, plus they continously pushed dishes very fast, and despite us asking them to slow down, dishes were quickly stacking up on our table. Isn't waiting for the customer to finish before serving the next dish hospitality 101? Finally while this would stand as a 2 star review as is (maybe 2.5 if being generous), the crowd loses the restaurant its last chance at having half a decent rating. The two tables surrounding us were not only very loud speaking but also using their phone on loudspeaker, watching videos, playing music (on top of the restaurant music), using their phone's torch to take videos in the fairly dimly lit restaurant. For lack of a better word it was very "ghetto" and the crowd there was more reminiscent of what you'd expect to see stepping into a Hungry Jack past 2am than a place asking $100 per head. As much as I can understand that staff cannot fully control the customers, I think that given the category this establishment tries to set itself in, one would hope for staff to step in and try. On all aspects, the best way to summarize Chaco Bar is overwhelmingly underwhelming. This review may not be enough to hold you back, but certainly if you have some respect for food in general, do go with moderate expectations. Last note as I was checking out their website writing this review, the pictures on their home page, and notably the one showcasing a full size Wagyu tartare (you know, like a steak tartare is meant to be), is absolutely not what you're getting. In fact the Wagyu tartare is about 3cm², which goes to remind me that I haven't mentioned the dishes are very small. Not that I have an issue with it, I certainly don't mind paying a premium for small yet tasteful food, but as you've read already, tasteful...

Great food, great service, cozy but not cramped atmosphere. (Though toilet seemed like a bit of an afterthought in terms of physical design). I came with two others and we had the set menu, ($95) pictured. Though this changes pretty regularly so don't expect the exact same.

First three menu items in the same picture.

Ikura in seaweed "bowl" with rice:

Just the right balance of fishy salty and...ricey to mellow them all out. The ikura was very poppy as well, and just fun to eat. Simple, but Rate.

Chicken pate...usually not something I'm a fan of, but in the ice cream cone format and with whatever else was in it (apple jam, miso, onion confit) it was pretty tasty. Rate.

Almond tofu/goats curd/tomato salad:

It's goat milk curd, so it's pretty dang strong. Personally would have preferred a bit more of the other stuff (pear) and perhaps olive oil/vinegar to balance it a little more. Probably least favourite.

Yellowfin Tuna with eggplant, tomato, caper: This is the dish with strips of tuna that looks slightly raised. The eggplant and everything else is underneath. I'm pretty picky and again personally don't love eggplants but it was great here mixed with everything else. Rate.

Chawanmushi Spanner Crab with Shellfish butter:

Crabby, VERY buttery Chawanmushi. If you like butter, like any normal person, you will like the flavour. I But some might consider it too strong and I wouldn't blame them. The Chawanmushi itself isn't as crabby as if you've had the blue swimmer version where the crab shell-butter is used to make the dish, but it's still quite good and the crab meat isn't dry at all. Rate.

Asazuke pickled vegetables:

If you like pickled stuff you'll like this. If not, you won't. Pretty standard.

Yakitori (misc.):

As if everything else from before wasn't enough, there's still a selection of skewers to get through. I say this like it's a bad thing, but for the average person unless you're very hungry you're probably starting to fill up at this point. I went with my sister and partner and had to finish some of their skewers for them.

All quite good. Protip for the onsen egg sauce + chicken meatballs:

Break apart the meatballs into bits IN the main bowl with the sauce and make sure theyre really coated. They'll tell you to mix the sauce but you really need to break apart the meatballs to create the rougher inside edges and to make the most surface area — otherwise the sauce just kind of slides off and you don't get much on the chicken by the time you get it to your mouth. Rate but only if you do it my way 😁

Dessert Super thin and stretchy mochi, nice and cold ice cream inside, honestly just great. Wish I could buy some to go and just keep it in my fridge. Small enough that even if you're full from all the preceding food it still goes...

We came here to try $85 Tasting menu which start off with the entree of the Chaco Classic of Fig Shiraae, Salmon Namasu, Warayaki Wagyu Yukke/ Grilled Eel. You eat from the heaviest Wagyu Yukke in flavours to the lightest which end with Fig Shiraae to cleanse the palate before you move to their Chawanmushi. The Chawanmushi were served with It's Shell butter top with Blue Swimmer Crab. It was creamy, buttery and eggy egg custard with the meaty crab meat was one of the highlight for the night.

Chacobar are know for their Yakitori. We have the Chef's favourite Yakitori which consist of King Prawn, Mackerel Butter, Bungalow Sweet Pork Belly with Yuzu Kosho, Lamb Rump, House Spice with Snow Pea, Hay Smoked Corn Fed Chicken Thigh & Tsukune Meatball, Onsen Egg with Teriyaki. They were charcoal grilled perfectly with smokey flavours and our favourite would have to be the Pork Belly followed by Smoked Chicken thigh Skewers and the Tsukune Meatball with Onsen egg.

After the Yakitori we were supposed to get the Ume Soumen but instead we got Truffle Claypot Rice with Mushroom Zosui, Parmesan & Scallop Dashi. They cooked with two different mushroom and have truffle oil which were really umami and moreish to eat. This was another of our favourite to eat.

To finish off the tasting menu we have a White Chocolate Mousse, Berries & Macadamia. Love that they spread the top with cereal crumbs which add more texture and flavours to the white chocolate mousse dessert so that it's not boring to eat.

The service staffs here were friendly & they were attention and check on you to send over the food. I like the atmosphere of the place although it was dark it give a nice moody feel and ambient to it. You can have the Yakitori Omakase where you seat around the Chef table in the middle and watch the chefs prepare and cook the Yakitori & food for you which add an interesting experience to it that it seems worth to try...