Harajuku Gyoza Beer Stadium, Sydney

Gyoza.  Beer.  Not really things I get excited for.  And yet in Sydney, a city where I have a very long list of places I'd love to try, or favorites I want to return to, I wound up at a place featuring those things: Harajuku Gyoza Beer Stadium.

"CELEBRATE LIKE YOU’RE IN JAPAN! Feast on our famous gyoza, share plates, cocktails and Japanese craft beer. Made for sharing with friends and family."

Harajuku is a chain of restaurants in Australia, with a few other locations.  The concept is basically gyoza, of all kinds, and definitely not the fillings (or toppings) you'd expect.  I guess they brew beer too.  Anyway, it wound up as a destination for my group of 17 when our original plan fell through, and we had no reservation, and a very limited budget, and needed to make something work.  And thus, this.

The positive thing I can say is that they managed to handle a walk in group of 17.  And it was pretty cheap.  But that is about all I have to say that was positive.  I did not enjoy the food, and would not return.

Setting

Harajuku Gyoza bills itself as a "Beer Stadium".  The do sorta have stadium seating, and they do have beer, but, the name implies a grandeur that this place does not have.

All ordering is done via tablets at the table, and dishes are fired as soon as you enter them (e.g. you don't put in your entire order and then submit), and come out haphazardly (e.g. if you order 2 of something, they may or may not come at the same time).  Besides delivering the dishes, service is essentially non-existent.  You even just take care of paying on the tablet when done, no human interaction.

Outside Seating.

Like many establishments in the Darling Quarter area, the restaurant has outdoor seating.  We were seated inside however, due to our large party size.  I failed to get a photo, but there is actual stadium seating, as in, different tiers.  We were on the ground floor, as were all other guests. 

Table Setting.

Tables were pre-set with plates, a small napkin, and disposable wooden chopsticks. 

No sharing utensils were brought out.  Dishes weren't cleared particularly quickly after we finished dining.  Like I said, basically, no service.

Drinks

Happy Hour went until 6pm, and we arrived at 5:55pm.  Great!  All happy hour drinks were $6.  The choices were a lager, some other beer, a cider, sparkling wine, sauvignon blanc, or pinot noir. 

A more extensive, and expensive, cocktail and beer menu was available, but we were being frugal, so only ordered from the happy hour list.  We had to fetch our own water jugs.

Happy Hour Pinot Noir. $6.

I went for the pinot.

It was boring, inoffensive, but not acidic nor tanic. No idea what it was.  The pour was *tiny* but, for $6, I guess that is expected? **+.

Sides / Shares

The entire menu is basically meant for sharing, but there are a few items called out as share plates to start with, including bao, ribs, spring rolls, chicken wings, chicken karaage, and more.

The group got a few fried carbs (fries, lotus chips), chicken wings, and a few vegetables I added on to our order, when I realized we were literally getting all carbs and fried food, and essentially no vegetables.  

Fries / Chips. $10.

I didn't try the fries, but people mostly seemed amused to try to eat fries with chopsticks.  Served with mayo.

Lotus Chips.

I didn't care about the fries, because I had eyes for something else.  Lotus chips! I got these because I love root veggie chips.  I hoped they'd be like the ones from my local favorite, Ume Burger.  These were available with regular or with shichimi salt, we opted for the later.

They were fine.  The shichimi salt was minimal, I didn't really taste much spice.  They were crispy.  Not too greasy.  Fine.  Not special, but not bad.  No better than what you could buy packaged though.

***.

Slaw with white sesame dressing. $8.

I wanted something light.  I wanted vegetables.  And I love slaw.  But somehow, this just wasn't very good.  It was literally just shredded cabbage.  With sesame seeds and some lightly flavored dressing.  Not even some shredded carrot, or even purple cabbage, to jazz it up.  Some corn, crispy wontons, anything would have helped it out.  It was extremely, extremely boring, and not particularly flavorful.  **+.

Chile, Garlic, Soy Edamame. $8.

I didn't try the edamame originally, as I wanted to fill my stomach with more interesting things, but as the meal went downhill and I realize I should have more protein, I finally went for them.  These are available in regular, spicy, or chile, garlic, soy versions, the later of which is what we got.

The edamame was actually pretty good, standard steamed edamame, but covered, absolutely covered, in a tasty spicy, garlicy sauce.  ***+.

Gyoza

The menu has more than a dozen gyoza, with a few more normal flavors like classic steamed pork gyoza, to truly crazy ones like fried cheeseburger, and everything in-between.  Most come with extensive toppings.   Some are poached, others grilled, and many deep fried.  All are available in portions of 5 or 8.

We order 7 different kinds.  For some reason, we skipped the basic pork gyoza, I think we all assumed someone had ordered them, but it turns out, we did not.  We got one of the chicken options, three vegetarian, two seafood, and of course the signature cheeseburger.  Of the ones I tried, only one was good, the rest were, well, not very good at all.

Classic Vegetable Gyoza Grilled (V). $14.

"Served grilled with ponzu sauce."

Vegetarians had three different options, we got all three.  

First up, the classic vegetable gyoza, with a green wrapper, and simple ponzu sauce.  They were steamed and then grilled (?) on one side (really, grilled? They looked just pan seared ...).  A nice light option, one of very few in that regard on the menu.

I didn't care for the filling, a very finely chopped pile of vegetable mush.  The wrapper flavor also didn't do it for me.  My second to last pick of the ones I tried, and I didn't want a second bite.  *+.

Shitake Mushroom Gyoza Grilled. (V) $19.

"Served grilled with ponzu sauce, tempura seaweed."

The slightly more unique vegetarian optoin was the shitake mushroom filled gyoza, again simply steamed/grilled, and served with ponzu, but these also had tempura seaweed on them.

These were a bit better, filled with minced mushroom, which was fine.  The wrapper was also fine.  Nothing special here, not really all that flavorful, but not offensive. **+.   

They ended up being my second favorite, because everything else was that much worse, but I didn't want a second bite of these either.

Crispy Mozzarella Gyoza (V). $19.

"Served crispy-fried with cheese dust and oregano."

The final vegetarian option was mozzarella cheese.  Yes, just filled with cheese.  And deep fried.  And coated with "cheese dust". 

I didn't try these, as I just wasn't in the mood for deep fried cheesy cheese, but people did seem to actually enjoy them. 

Crispy Buffalo Chicken Gyoza. $20.

"Served crispy-fried with buffalo and blue cheese sauce."

Continuing on the fried bar food theme was the fried buffalo chicken version.  Since I don't eat chicken, I didn't try these.  They had a blue cheese dipping sauce, mirroring chicken wing vibes.

The group also ordered actual chicken wings, which I failed to get a photo of, and no one seemed to like.  Most went unfinished.

There was another chicken option, poached lemongrass chicken gyoza, and another poultry option, also poached, with duck, but no one selected those.

Crispy Cheeseburger Gyoza. $19.

"Served crispy-fried with ketchup, mustard, pickles."

More fried heavy foods ... cheeseburger gyoza.  Now, these I was actually looking forward to.  I'm all for Asian fusion fried cheeseburger inspired foods.  The cheeseburger spring rolls at Ms. G's I truly adore.  I had such hope for these.

But ... those hopes were dashed within one bite.  They were fried, over fried it seemed.  Very dark, very greasy.  Not that you could really tell, as they were smothered in cheap ketchup, mustard, and relish.  I love sauces and toppings, but this was too much.  Inside was ground beef, which I guess was fine, but I didn't taste any cheese.  

These tasted like bad fried food, coated in too much generic condiments.  Nothing redeeming here. They ranked just barely above the vegetable ones, in third to last place, and again, didn't want a second bite.   *+.

Takoyaki Gyoza Grilled. $19.

"Served grilled with okonomi sauce, mayo, bonito flakes."

Moving into the seafood options, the first ones I had picked, takoyaki.  I love takoyaki, I love okonomiyaki, I thought these would be a star.

The dish arrived looking pretty good.  Yup, all the classic takoyaki/okonomiyaki toppings.  But much like the ketchup/mustard/relish from the cheeseburger ones, the sauces just were not good.  They seemed cheap.  The flavors fell flat, the okonomi sauce too salty, the mayo plain.  And there was too much of it, and I say this as someone who generally loads her okonomiyaki up with tons of sauces.  Kewpie mayo this was not, that much is for sure.

But they got worse with the insides.  I expected, well, takoyoaki.  Bits of octopus.  Some light chew, some gooeyness.  I honestly do not know what was inside of these.  It was entirely ground/minced.  It did not taste like seafood, although it was hard to taste anything beyond the sauces.  Catfood filled gyoza smothered in not good sauces.  Another fail.  I couldn't stomach a second bite of these.  The worst I tried.  *.

Prawn Gyoza Grilled. $20.

"Served grilled with ginger and spring onion dressing."

After all those fails, we finally had one that was ok.  Not amazing, not worth going there for, but, not awful.  Simple prawn gyoza, the same steamed/grilled style as the earlier vegetarian ones.  These were fairly large gyoza.

The wrappers were a good thickness.  They seemed fairly fresh.  Cooked well, not slimy, not stuck together.  The seared (or grilled?) edge was lightly crispy.  The filling was actually seasoned, simple minced prawn (not a juicy succulent whole prawn), and I think water chestnut, not too fishy.  The sauce seemed to just be ponzu, but they said it was ginger and spring onion "dressing".  Anyway.  Decently well made, nothing offensive about these.  Served nice and hot.  The only gyoza that I did not actively dislike, but again, they weren't actually particularly good.  ***.

The final seafood options are garlic butter crab, which sounds pretty good but we somehow failed to get, and an odd sounding open faced smoked salmon version.

Dessert

After a meal of such duds, you'd think I'd just give up, but ... you know me and dessert.  Plus, the dessert menu actually did sound good, in particular, had one unique dish I did want to try: air cheesecake!

Ferrero Rocher Gyoza. $10.

"Crispy gyoza filled with a whole Ferrero Rocher topped with chocolate and hazelnuts."

To please the crowd, I got the Ferrero Rocher gyoza, even though I wasn't going to have one due to caffeine at night.  I heard no reviews, so, sadly, I have nothing to share here about them.

Raindrop Cake. $6.

"Traditional Japanese Dessert. Clear Jelly served with Kinako Soy Bean Powder and Brown Sugar Syrup."

Ok, so I know raindrop cakes are a thing.  Not a thing I've had any interest in, but, I know some people find them unique and fun.  So, we got one.  It came with brown sugar syrup at the base, and soy powder.

The "cake" was literally just plain clear gelatin.  It wasn't sweet.  It wasn't flavored.  It wasn't anything.  Just, plain, absolutely plain, jello.  In a dome shape.  Did it look cool? I guess?  But, wow, a blob of nothing.

The brown sugar syrup was like what you'd get with boba.  Sorta thick, sorta sweet, and mostly just confused people.  They all thought it was soy sauce, but not quite savory enough.  The soy powder served to further confuse, as it was quite savory, and did taste of soy, although folks thought it was sesame.

No one actually liked this, but they were amused trying it.  That is, all but one guest, who I tried to warn that it wouldn't be good, and he immediately lunged for his water glass, and anything else left around, to taste something else.

**.

Rainbow Air Cheesecake.

The air cheesecake is certainly a signature item, and is available in several styles, mostly with just a different sauce to drizzle over, like matcha.  I went for the "rainbow" version, which was for Sydney Pride weekend.  This meant ... topped with 100s & 1000s, and served with the same brown sugar syrup as the other desserts.

So what is "air cheesecake"?  Well, basically, a mound of whipped cheesecake.  Sorta a hybrid between cheesecake and whipped cream.  Which, if you know me, you know is not something I'll complain about.  It was fairly light, it had reasonable cream cheese flavor, was lightly sweet.  "Is this just whipped sweetened cream cheese?", one of my co-workers asked.  I think yes, but again, that isn't a bad thing, although it got pretty one-note after a few bites.  

The 100s & 1000s added a nice crunch, but were minimal texture-wise.  I think something else crunchy/crispy would greatly enhance the eating experience.  The brown sugar syrup was the same as the previous dish, basically just like boba syrup.  Fine, but not something that really enhanced it.

I was happy to eat more than my own share of this, because I like creamy desserts and this wasn't bad, but, much like the prawn gyoza, I definitely wouldn't say its worth going there for.  ***.