Insider: Review
Anthony Huckstep visits Yoko Dining, newly opened on Brisbane’s Howard Smith Wharves precinct, and falls hard for the stellar homage to Japanese cuisine, with all the spirit of izakaya dining.
Yoko joins Brisbane’s food revolution.
THEY HAD ME at fish collars. Forget the crisp-skin premium fillet (well, for a brief moment), because the gelatinous scalloping flesh on the ‘collars’ just behind the head is arguably the best bit of most fish – plus you can even hold them like a lamb chop.
In this instance, at Brisbane’s Yoko Dining on Howard Smith Wharves, kingfish collars are marinated in teriyaki and charred on the hibachi grill so the skin is crisp and the flesh pearlescent and slipping off the bone. They’re so damn finger-licking good I could work my way through a half dozen, but in doing so
I’d miss out on all the joy coming out of the kitchen of co-owner Jonathan Barthelmess (The Apollo, Greca, Cho Cho San), group executive chef Ben Russell (Aria Brisbane) and head chef Kitak Lee (Kisumé, Momofuku SeiŦbo).
Yoko Dining is a waterside izakaya of sorts. In Japan they’re mostly rowdy, dark dens filled with locals keen for a drink and a decent snack, but here, on the banks of the Brisbane River, it’s all sunshine and cocktails and just a little Mediterranean in a long languid lunch kind of way. It may be more restaurant than izakaya, but they’ve managed to capture the izakaya spirit and have delivered it in a manner in which we like to dine.
The timber framework of the heritage venue has been given renewed energy by interior designer George Livissianis, with bursts of yolk-hued yellows, concrete, blonde timbers, booths, mirrors and Japanese noren curtains that flow with the breeze. Downstairs there’s alfresco, bench seating and indoor dining, while upstairs there’s a function room and bar where vinyls are spinning and arms are bending to the cracking cocktail and sake list.
Pleasingly creamy kingfish sashimi wades in a sesame oil dressing and plays nicely against slivers of lightly pickled kohlrabi and amaranth leaves. Sweet Hokkaido scallop hides beneath silken tofu foam, salmon roe and yuzu kosho. Steamed mushroom gyoza are delightfully light pastry parcels served in a puddle of ponzu, and a golden, crisp panko pork chop ( tonkatsu) reveals blushing pink flesh inside and is smartly partnered with a bowl of Japanese curry to dunk each mouthful in. It’s all simple, beautifully executed and so enjoyable. Add a sake or two and you, too, will be flowing in the breeze like the noren curtains. Finish with the refreshing and palate-cleansing pineapple with umeshu (plum) and lime before you float off into the night. Brilliant.