Expensive, but why?
We ended our search of a late night feed one Wednesday night at Yakitori Yebisu in Regent Place, quite a legit looking and feeling Japanese izakaya.
Upon approaching the restaurant we were greeted by a staff member who told us quite sternly that we would have to spend at least $30 per head for a seat. That was fine, we thought – but we didn’t know just how easy it would be to spend that amount.
The vibe inside was lively, with several groups of young people, as well as a few couples, drinking large towers of beer and chatting. Ordering was via an iPad tablet system, which was good as it helped us to minimise interpersonal contact.
We ordered a couple of beef yakitori ($7.80 each) and chicken yakitori ($4.80 each)– both were tender and delicious but at a mind numbing price.
We also ordered a variety of sushi, again mind numbingly expensive. We thought that the salmon roe gunkan ($9 for 2) was of poor quality, as it was too salty, but the sea urchin gunkan ($15 for 2) tasted good though much too expensive than it had any right to be. The aburi salmon ($7 for 2) and aburi scallop ($8 for 2) were good, however the flavour somewhat drowned out by the mayonnaise, and the constant thought at the back of our minds was that we could get the same thing for less than half the price across the road at Sushi Hotaru.
Ultimately the food pictured and a garden variety bottle of Kirin beer hurt us to the tune of $72.20. While the vibe was good and the food was reasonable, the exorbitant prices at Yebisu are indefensible.
As young professionals we are somewhat price insensitive but Yebisu takes it too far.
Avoid. (2/5)
Yakitori Yebisu
Regent Place, 7-10/501 George St, Sydney NSW 2000
(02) 9264 3272