While the Gold Coast has had trouble accepting the flavours of Asia in the past, it is now a city diversifying its palate and expectations and embracing the offerings of the Orient.
Research tells us that our challenge with Asian cuisine is caused by its difference. While many Western cuisine combinations are formed around complementary tastes, East Asian dishes are known for pairing ingredients and textures which clash, such as sesame oil and garlic.
However, as the availability and frequency of world travel increases, experience of other cuisines has increased knowledge, challenged tastebuds, and raised expectations.
People now crave new palettes of flavour, as an artist does colour, demanding a reinvention or recreation of traditional cuisines. And, cuisine that seeks a balance of different flavours, colours, textures, acidity and crunch owes much to the influence of the clash of pairings of Asian cuisine.
While some of the most exciting openings on the Gold Coast in the last few years have tapped into Asia for inspiration, it’s still ‘toe in the water’ territory. There are many more flavour tones yet to be explored: bolder curries, richer sauces and the yet-to-be-discovered bowl food so popular in Southern states.
But Gold Coast restaurants are giving it a go. Read on for a list of some of the most authentic Asian eateries on the Gold Coast.
Can Tho Kitchen dumplings
Etsu, Gold Coast
Sugarcane Prawns and Kingfish Sashimi at Hideaway Kitchen & Bar
Spring Rolls from Jimmy Wah's
Passionfruit Tart - Mamasan Kitchen & Bar
My Thai cocktail, Mamasan
Alaskan King Crab from the Omakase course at Ten Japanese
Can Tho Kitchen and Bar
Can Tho Kitchen and Bar
5/465 Oxley Drive, Runaway Bay
When Tara and Vien decided to renovate their restaurant Can Tho (named after their home town in Vietnam), they travelled back to their roots. With the help of graphic artists Frank and Mimi, the walls and branding of the restaurant plunge us into a stylised rendition of the family’s life story.
The lush vegetation of their homeland in the Mekong Delta (the rice bowl of Asia), is overlooked by an imposing image of Emperor Quang Trung, one of Vietnam’s most powerful and popular leaders, and their long voyage across the sea is documented by family photos and a stamp commemorating their landing on Vien’s third birthday: “Australia 16 – 04 1981 Viet-Nam”.
Everywhere it’s old and new together: old and new homeland, family recipes with a modern twist, stories of self and family presented to a new audience, an ancient heritage and harrowing journey presented as a 21st century work of art.
Their homeland, the Mekong Delta, echoes in the menu as well. Our food arrives in little courses to share: softshell crab, handmade chilli steamed dim sim, Banh Xeo (or Vietnamese pancake), pork and prawns in a clay pot, and mung bean dessert.
A licensed venue, the cocktails also echo Vietnamese flavours and names: Mekong Delta, Saigon Mojito, or if you prefer, Beer Hanoi.
“We want to welcome you into our home through traditional Vietnamese flavours from our kitchen recipes,” says Tara. “Vien uses Mum’s recipes, adapted where necessary for the Australian palate. You’ll notice that the tables are smaller. We want people to eat the way we eat at home, sharing dishes, having a drink and taking time to relax and talk around the table. When friends and family gather, all good things should be shared.”
Read the full restaurant review: A Taste of Vietnam
Etsu Izakaya
2440 Gold Coast Highway, Mermaid Beach
Etsu Izakaya is an experience for all your senses.
Like the brown paper wrapped package, Etsu Izakaya is a hidden treasure. A red lantern outside the fortress-like wooden door is an auspicious symbol of good luck. ‘Come inside,’ it beckons, and so we do.
We push through the doorway to find ourselves enveloped in the barrel of Hokusai’s Great Wave, a rogue ocean okinami which runs the length of the restaurant. It’s a tunnel-like cavern traversed by a long bar, with a giant bonsai flanking a side wall as the restaurant opens up, story-like, into a satirical comic book mural by local artist Mark Wilson.
As fascinating as the restaurant’s internal landscape is, Etsu’s food is as much of an adventure: the freshest edamame we’ve tasted, salmon and kingfish tatake laced with seaweed and pickled cucumber, pork gyoza, Omakas’ mixed tempura with light crunchy batter, crunchy softshell crab and amiyaki wagyu steak.
It’s traditionally prepared, beautifully rendered classic izakaya fare of small dishes to be shared, paired with a good range of Japanese drinks. There’s sparkling sake to accompany your sashimi, beer to team with tempura, varieties of sake and shochu, delicious plum wine and Japanese-inspired cocktails.
“We spent a lot of time and effort on the fit out,” owner Mitch McCluskey says. “But the whole experience has been surreal. We look around us and see everyone having a good time. It’s a great atmosphere.”
Hideaway Kitchen & Bar
2657 Gold Coast Highway, Broadbeach
Hideaway is the latest addition to the Gold Coast’s Asian street food scene. It’s the dark backstreets of Asia that owners Scott Imlach and Simone Tunbridge visit in their latest restaurant, reminiscent of dodgy bars and hawker food carts cooking skewers and pho on street corners.
Sitting in cosy booths surrounded by neon signs and the amazing graffiti art of Jamie Cutrupi, the restaurant brings the intimacy of a clandestine street meet. Fortunately for us though, this is a sanitised version of Asia – no chicken beheadings, unpleasant odours, or sitting on milk crates on street corners. Instead, enticing aromas drift out from the kitchen as we face decision time with the menu.
From Head Chef Jon Hizola’s (ex-Etsu and Nobu) signature yellowtail sashimi (which seems impossibly clean-flavoured given the setting) to dumplings and dim sum, sticky lamb ribs, BBQ Asian prawns, satay, pad shai and steamed whole fish with ginger and shallots, the menu’s 60 items encompass as many Asian countries as there are nationalities in the kitchen, Scott tells us.
It’s a fairly safe list of dishes, not delving too far into pungent unknown flavours, dirty masterstocks or bowl food, yet it holds more than enough scope and flavour to keep diners coming back to share a plate or five.
For Scott, this journey may seem in a different direction to other establishments he’s founded, however the good choice of Asian beer and sexy cocktails (here’s looking at you Mr Hemingway), not to mention some ripper boutique wines as well, lead us to think that come summer, the outdoor umbrellas will be swinging and the place will be rocking.
Jimmy Wah’s
1724 Gold Coast Highway, Burleigh Heads
“Good morning, Vietnam!”
Jimmy Wah’s brings a huge smile to our face. Not only is it a sideways nod to the local GI bar in the 1987 movie Good Morning, Vietnam, but its combination of talented owners – Jake Cooley, highly regarded former head chef of Social Eating House + Bar and Shelly Greaves, former owner of the hatted Verve restaurant in Broadbeach – brings the certainty of an excellent new dining hot spot.
The fact that the pair have chosen modern Vietnamese as their predominant cuisine excites us even more. Far too polished to truly reflect its moniker establishment, Jimmy Wah’s is sparsely decorated on a fairly neutral palette, lit up by the beaming exuberance of Jimmy Wah, a two-metre high mural by local artist Mark Wilson.
Open for both lunch and dinner, Jimmy Wah’s menu is cleverly balanced between modern versions of popular classics, such as banh mi, pho bo, rice paper rolls and viet pancake through to Pan-Asian dishes with a wider range of flavours and derivation.
Catering to a wide spread of diners and dining scenarios, most dishes are well balanced between soft and crunchy, sweet and sour, zinging with fresh flavours, however reinvention has upset the balance of other dishes, especially in the lack of accompaniments to the cha gio (spring rolls) and pho bo. Maybe it’s the mistrust of oppositional flavours at play, but sides of lime, lettuce, mint and chilli for texture and flavour make all the difference. Desserts are more carefully poised, teetering on the edge of sweetness, right on trend.
Jimmy Wah’s is a great addition to the Gold Coast’s growing showcase of modern Asian cuisine.
Read the full restaurant review Jimmy Wah’s
Kiyomi dessert
Kiyomi, Gold Coast
Mamasan King Crab Ravioli Dumplings
Rick Shores
Kiyomi
Jupiters Gold Coast, Broadbeach Island, Broadbeach
As the centrepiece of a $345 million development, Jupiters Gold Coast opened Kiyomi Restaurant with Executive Head Chef Chase Kojima at its helm (ex-Robert de Niro’s Nobu in Las Vegas, Dubai, London, Los Angeles and the Bahamas, before founding Sokyo restaurant at The Star in Sydney).
Situated on the mezzanine level overlooking the lobby bar, Kiyomi’s minimalist design nods in reference to traditional Japanese restaurants: muted brown tones, the privacy of booth seating along one side, Japanese murals and layered wood features. Yet it’s overtly modern as well, a fluorescent UV-lit artwork by Tokyo-based Houxo Que at the rear of the restaurant and a fabulous cocktail bar on entry, serving from an extensive drinks list of Japanese beer and sake, Japanese whiskies, cocktails and wine.
Kiyomi’s share plate menu contains dishes which are perfectly balanced, holding surprising combinations, in elegant detailed presentation: seared scampi with foie gras, apple and mizuna, the scampi shells standing guard around their lightly seared sashimi-like meat; tuna tataki, the best we’ve ever tasted, sourced from one single fisherman in Sydney who delivers it to the Gold Coast in pristine condition; the highly sought after dengakuman toothfish, still smoky from the binchotan grill, served with caramelised miso; wagyu +9 holding smoky aromas in its melt-in-your-mouth tender meat.
Desserts continue the playful, intriguing cuisine. In mochi ravioli, pop culture meets fine art, whereas Goma Street’s serious complexity combines the richness of tempered dark chocolate with caramelised white chocolate mousse and white and black sesame to make a legendary dessert.
Kiyomi (a rare Japanese citrus fruit, a hybrid of mandarin and sweet orange) reminds us of the balance which is an integral part of Japanese-inspired cuisine. With origins in both traditional and modern culinary techniques, a meal at Kiyomi brings unique combinations of the freshest ingredients to our table; a surprise and delight to discerning diners.
Read the full restaurant review Kiyomi
Mamasan
Oracle Boulevard, Broadbeach
Mamasan Kitchen & Bar is a sophisticated, upscale eatery serving modern Pan-Asian food, with particular influence from China. Owners JP Duitsch and partner Lauren Mitchell (also co-owners of Moo Moo’s) chose Chef Ray Choi (ex-China Doll and China Lane) to head the kitchen. Ray has created bespoke dishes for Mamasan – the same techniques as China Doll, similar flavours, but different combinations of ingredients and cultural nuances. His hand has reached into the cuisines of Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia and Korea to gather flavours to round out this Pan-Asian menu.
Yet it’s thoroughly modern as well, with gluten-free and vegetarian options clearly marked. In fact, over half the dishes can be adjusted to suit diners with food intolerances.
With unexpected twists of exotic flavour, traditional dishes are turned on their head and given new inspiration. King crab dumplings are the lightest melt-in-your-mouth ravioli, delicately floating in a coconut sambal bisque – simply sensational! Prawn and bamboo shoot dumplings are housed in a crispy skin of coconut, perhaps a take on taro pastry-clad dumplings. The Pork bao is the best we’ve tasted. Inspired by the original street food of Asia, the pork has been sichuan salt cured for three hours before being cooked for ten hours in the sous vide. Perfect! To accompany you on the journey, try the big boss cocktail – a chilli-infused Don Julio Tequila whose kick is balanced by pineapple, agave and lime.
Whether you visit Mamasan for bao and beer, dessert and cocktails or a full three courses, your taste buds will be challenged. For us, there’s sheer delight in being lured out of preconception into expected flavours and textures. It’s a joy to be surprised!
Read the full restaurant review Mamasan Kitchen & Bar
Rick Shores
43 Goodwin Terrace, Burleigh Heads
Like a waft of warm tropical air, Rick Shores hit the Gold Coast.
It’s a bold move by the owners of LONgTIME, Fortitude Valley, to choose one of the most revered but precarious spots on the coast, the ground floor of the iconic Burleigh Pavilions. Enter the restaurant down the same few stairs that take you to the beach to stand with sandy feet at the restaurant’s reception desk. The upper levels are ‘lingering’ territory. Turn towards the ocean and the colours of the tropics take over. The restaurant opens out fan-like, pointing through floor to ceiling glass to the view, the main focal point of the restaurant. Set on an aqua blue tableau of a Caribbean summer and brilliant white shores, the vista is dotted with people, surfing, lying, playing, talking; a microcosm of life unfolding before our eyes.
With a menu divided into snacks and larger dishes to share, there’s no doubting the culinary skills of Executive Chef Ben Bertei (ex-Longrain and The Spirit House) and Head Chef Jake Pregnell. Picking up ingredients from across the archipelago, there’s a range of flavours, interesting combinations and, best of all, the element of surprise which is too often lacking. The food is matched by a wine, craft beer and cocktail list.
Certainly, Rick Shores goes some way towards addressing the yawning gap in Asian-influenced modern cuisine on the coast. What’s more, it’s a top iconic spot to spend some time. So, grab a group of friends and share some extraordinary flavours. It will be like discovering your fifth sense of taste.
Read the full restaurant review Rick Shores
Ten Japanese
Meriton Pegasus Building, 2679 Gold Coast Highway, Broadbeach
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci
In the past few years, Japan has increasingly gained world recognition for culinary excellence. If there’s one restaurant on the Gold Coast which embodies the essence of timeless simplicity in a most sophisticated way it is Ten Japanese. Walk in past the impressively stocked wine cellar with vertical holdings of Dom Pérignon and a selection of some of the finest Australian and world wines to the intimate luxurious dining areas seating in total only 35 – 40 diners. Two main areas comprise the simply elegant Sushi Bar and the magnificent round-grilled Teppanyaki Bar with its dramatic high-backed chairs, and stainless steel vaulted ceilings.
The menu shows off the house specialties: sushi, teppanyaki, and kaiseki-style dishes in a range of set menus or à la carte. As you’d expect, it’s a menu packed with top calibre international ingredients. The set course menus range in their number of dishes and scarcity of ingredients, priced accordingly. The pinnacle of Ten’s dining is the Omakase Menu (‘I will leave it to you’) featuring eight or more courses which may include Tasmanian lobster, Foie gras, Truffles, Patagonian toothfish, Master Kobe Wagyu beef or King crab.
Ten is a quintessential Japanese culinary experience of international standard. From its tranquil pace and elegant design to its exquisite food, Ten Japanese is an essential stop for the serious diner; a ‘taste of heaven’ on the Gold Coast.
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