Gyoza Bar- Modern Japanese Eatery — Restaurant in Wichita

Gyoza Bar is situated next to Yokahama Ramen Izakya. The atmosphere is trendy and has outdoor seating for warmer weather. Seating space inside is limited, and there I some seating at the bar. The server seemed not familiar with the menu or the offerings, as she could not answer questions we asked of her. We ordered several appetizers, and those were served quickly. The Scallop Carppacio was delicious, but the presentation was sloppy. One of the shells had tilted, so the sauce had run off the shells, leaving it without sauce. The Himachi was presented well, and was delicious. The tofu appetizer lacked some flavor, even with the sauce but that is the nature of tofu, but the presentation was very good. The unagi appetizer presented well, if not a little odd. The dish itself was not great, the eel was not high quality. The sauce tasted like everyone else's sauce, so nothing special. More odd was having a single piece of unagi big enough for 3 pieces of rice, and only getting 2 pieces of rice with it. We wound up having to share portions of rice so we could eat the appetizer. The Gyoza offerings are limited with only 3 types (pork, beef and vegetarian) and 3 ways to prepare (steam, pan fry and deep fry). We ordered pork, both steamed and pan fried. Here is where things got bad. First, the presentation was not what you would expect for a Japanese dish, just placed on a dish, nothing to pretty it up. Japanese food needs to be as pleasing to your eyes as it is to the palette. As far as the Gyoza itself, almost each one had opened up during cooking. The Gyoza didn't have the traditional folded pleats you would expect from a place that specializes in Gyoza so again presentation was sloppy. As for the taste of the Gyoza, the filling lacked any of the traditional flavours, except for a little ginger. I tasted no scallion, or any other discernable spice, or any hint of sesame seeds oil. We also ordered 3 types of Hand Roll. What we got however was nothing like a hand roll. It's not a hand roll at all, more of an odd taco that's hard to eat. The Negi Hama was unpleasant, the hamachi not tasting fresh. It was very hard to eat as it would fall apart as I would take a bite. The Una Tama was good, and I enjoyed it. The Ghost Pepper and Spicy Salmon was delicious but suffered from the same problem of falling apart when you are it. The taco shaped format for a hand roll with too little seaweed just doesn't work well. Trying to get our server to give us our check was a whole other matter. We waited 20.minutes after finishing our meal, while being ignored by our server, so we waived down another server to get us our tab. We had paid and we're getting ready to leave before our server came by to ask if we needed our check. Overall, it wasn't a pleasant experience. I will give it some time to see if they can work out their kinks before...

First time here, party of staggered 4–some of us grew up in Hawaii, have family in the commercial fishing industry, are accustomed to Japanese culture and—food culture. Sadly, not a great experience, Gyoza Bar.

Our server Laura was kind and professional.

The food? Missed the mark. Except for the addicting tofu and chicken skin (karaage style fried).

Mentaiko. The specials: madai and hirame and sashimi platter was... I now even forgot what we all had, but $300 spent for 4 with drinks, seemed unworthy here.

The gyoza had a strange aftertaste. The King Salmon Carpaccio—marketed as flown in from Tsukiji—was drenched in olive oil and tasted overworked, almost cured. But where was the citrus flavor profile, the vinaigrette?…“carpaccio” is beyond just the olive oil. Def not what you expect when you order raw fish.

We gave honest feedback when asked how the food was—not rude, just real. But instead of receiving it with grace, a tagged staff member named “Shinju” (?)—who was said to be of Japanese descent—unexpectedly flew herself over to us at D16, and approached us with an inappropriate manner for being in customer service. She insisted the salmon “wasn’t cooked” (though we said it tasted

Good ideas but bad execution. I went here for Valentine’s Day and had a pleasant experience. However, there are a few things I believe could be better and provide a top tier experience since the price makes it seem like that’s what we’ll get.

Starting with the atmosphere and ambiance. the restaurant is too bright and not intimate enough. we sat at the front dining room, taking a peak at the back one it looked more intimate but still too bright. The tables were also very small for the plates they were bringing out making it hard to place all the dishes. for the prices that are being charged and the items on the menu, I assume this restaurant is trying to be more upscale, so the laminated menus need to go asap. Lastly, get paper towels! The hand dryer screams low scale fast food.

Next we ordered the wagyu (9/10) and tuna cigars (8/10) for appetizers. Wagyu is wagyu so it was good. The tuna cigars taste wise was the best dish of the night, but presentation was very lacking. Why was there five pieces of unevenly cut bell peppers and a slither of lemon on the side? Plus the rice crackers underneath added absolutely nothing.

Next we got the Toru taku hand roll (6/10), the flavor was ok, presentation not great. The tuna looks a little unappealing and the radish unevenly cut which makes the fish look messy and unrefined. For the flavor I think soy sauce and wasabi should accompany it without asking.

Then we got the spicy black garlic udon (2/10). The most disappointing dish of the night. Very bland and the bowl is enormous for the amount put in.

The dessert was also very disappointing. What we thought was gonna be a matcha galore was a green blandness instead. The matcha cheesecake (1.5/10) was super dense and dry. No flavours of matcha at all. The matcha Mont Blanc (5/10) tasted like nothing, just sweet, despite the numerous thumbs up on the menu. It also looks ok aesthetically, could be better. The gold flakes are doing nothing to the dish. The sasa dango (7/10) was the only thing with flavor because of the red bean, but the mochi was a bit tough, probably because it was cold.

Overall, the restaurant has great ideas, but unfortunately not so great execution. The servers are very nice and attentive. On the last note, I was very curious about the omakase but from this experience I cannot justify 150 dollars on being guinea pigs for the restaurant when the items on the current menu are not all up to standard (we asked the...