Goryon-san is a Japanese Hakata Yakitori Izakaya known for their yakitori & grill omakase courses and umeshu drinks. Located in Surry Hills, Goryon-san is a short walk from Central station and set in a cozy but spacious storefront suitable for both small and larger groups. There is a cool omakase-like set up with some seats stationed around the bar area where they grill the yakitori (sorry forgot to take pics!).

Location: 47 Reservoir St, Surry Hills NSW 2010
Price: $89 per person for set menu, wagyu tartar $29, drinks cost additional
Website: goryon-san.com.au
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goryonsan_surryhills

James: 4 out of 5 – Enjoyable Izakaya-type dining experience, with honestly no bad dishes but a bit pricey for what you get.

To kick off the night, we ordered one of Goryon-san’s signature dishes, the Wagyu Tartar Millefeuille, which is not part of the set menu and had to be ordered A La Carte. This dish was really good, a generous serving of beef sashimi that sat on top of a bed of avocado and egg yolk on top to mix it all through. The wagyu beef was well seasoned and combined well with the avocado and egg to make it smoother and easier to eat – not like you’re just eating mince meat. I’d recommend trying this here if you’re a fan of beef tartar. However, still not as good as the one from Sekka Dining (check out our Sekka review for more details on that 😂).

We chose to order the Kushi Omakase set menu which was $89pp and that begun with the Premium Chef’s Selection, featuring a slow-cooked baby scallop from Hokkaido, o-toro tuna – pictured in the middle – and duck foie gras terrine w/ balsamic black peppers sauce. To start off, the baby scallop was super fresh, well cooked, soft and tender, couldn’t really fault this one but could have used some soy sauce. The o-toro tuna was a stand out and my favourite item of the night, known also as fatty tuna, and it practically melted in the mouth and was delicious.

Finally the foie gras. For anyone who is a loyal Feeds For Three reader (shout out to you), you’ll know I’ve had my trials and tribulations with foie gras recently where I really didn’t enjoy the duck liver orientated dish from Tetsuya’s set menu just a few weeks ago. So it was a pleasant surprise to me that I enjoyed this dish at Goryon-san as the foie gras was a lot more subtle and combined well with the strawberry and balsamic peppers sauce to pack a sweet, salty and sour punch.

Onto some of Goryon-san’s specialties, the skewers. A chef’s selection of 5 skewers which featured Chicken, Sukiyaki, Asparagus, Shiitake Mushroom and Prawn. All the skewers were good, nothing amazing but very solid snack like items for eating while drinking, typical in izakyas. Stand outs here for me was the asparagus and prawn skewers both of which were wrapped in meat, I believe pork for both. But the asparagus was sweet, peppery and the meat added some saltiness. While the prawn was also well seasoned and had a sauce to go with it that tasted like a mini potato salad. Every skewer here was well seasoned and you can see the chef cook it right in front of you on the grill if you’re in the bar/omakase seating area.

Onto one of the mains you could say, next up was the Yuzu Saikyo Miso Toothfish (pictured below) which was a really smooth, well cooked piece of fish that was again well seaosoned. The yuzu sauce went really well with the fish, giving it a nice sweetness and although it doesn’t look like a lot of sauce on the plate, it was probably the right amount without being overpowering and taking away from the actual fish itself. A highlght and one of my favourite dishes from the night.

Next dish was shared between 2, and is a house recipe pork gyoza & super thick ramen. After the premium selection and a round of skewers it was really good timing to get some hot broth and soup in. This dish comes out like a hotpot, piping hot in the stone bowl and was pretty decent. The gyoza was really good and tasted really fresh, like it was handmade that day. I really enjoyed the broth, it was a thicker, salty ramen broth and was perfect for the cold and rainy day.

Finally the desserts, we got 1 of each option which featured a Matcha Tiramisu and a Yuzu Match Roll Cake. While the Matcha Tiramisu was a bit too bitter for me, I really liked the Yuzu Matcha Roll Cake which was another stand out dish of the night. Light & fluffy like a LAB cake (if you know, you know), the yuzu really balanced the bitter matcha taste with a bit of honey on the plate to add some sweetness. Highly rated this and wished there was more!

So overall I enjoyed the food and experience at Goryon-san. We went on a Wednesday night so it was really chill and had a calm ambiaence. However the reason for my rating is because ultimately, for almost $220, I’m not sure this was totally worth it. While yes the food was good, it really burned a whole through the wallet and I didn’t walk away feeling completely satisfied for the price. The skewers and ramen while yes tasted good, didn’t feel particularly difficult to prepare, and quantity wise you’re not getting a lot from the Premium Selection nor the Toothfish. Maybe I’m being harsh here, and I’d still recommend trying Goryon-san but I’d say have a go at ordering a la carte and trying their selection of skewers but don’t expect to walk out completely full or satisfied with value.