Gyoza Bar Ann - Brisbane

TL;DR: "Keep it simple, stupid" is definitely the philosophy that goes around with Gyoza Ann Bar and all that is needed to be known about it is in the name. While it was probably blunted a bit from being delivered, what was still apparent was just how good the food is and it may be among the best Japanese in town. Within the lush Emporium of Fortitude Valley, Gyoza Bar Ann is one of the more quiet and reserved ones which many people easily pass over due to the lack of flash and flair which many of the bigger stars exude from their entrances. Well right off the bat this is Japanese cuisine, where less really is more this time around - and not the other way which often gets confused too much. And from the ones that are quieter and harder working, some of most satiating fare is brought to light as was the case right here. For another day at work, it was time to fire up the UberEats app and see what was around for a meal. So then it was all a case of going through the choices and selecting a place that was open and looked good, followed up by plugging in the requests and from there it was all matter of sitting, waiting, and then meeting at the agreed upon location to pick up the order. Coming onto the service, it was pretty quick and swift from the UberEats end. It was some of the quickest and most efficient which I have seen and experienced yet. Upon the driver's side, there was a phone call querying about the meet-up location (which is ambiguous I admit, and that is all to be revealed) which was quickly reiterated and meeting up for the drop off was smooth sailing. In fact, I think I got there just in time as the car was pulling up - little fuss, and proves how good this app is. This time as well, the food was possibly the quickest yet. The menu is a pretty simple one, and in spite of what the name of the place is, the gyozas are not only but one of the components on the menu, but also a small aspect of the entire selection on offer. The focus is overall izakaya, with several of the known favourites and some more distinctive options. There's teriyaki, there's different sorts of crumbed bites, there's the tapas menu, as well as a solid lunch menu. That one has several sorts of donburi, tower lunches, and options to have gyozas on the side. It finishes off with some sweets. As for when it comes to beverages, boy are the diners spoiled for choice here. There is a range of beers and ciders from Japan, and several house wines plus a few sorts of tea. That, and of course, they got to offer an array of sakes as well. Finishing it all off is a range of cocktails. This cements the whole place as bar food, the catch being it is Japanese cuisine bar food. For my choice, it was one of the tower lunch boxes and I definitely opted to have the one with a choice of gyoza on the side. Two things that can never go bad from a Japanese place are the gyozas, and some chicken karage. In other words, the tower lunch was chicken karage - coming with rice and pickles - and the choice of gyoza was spicy pork. It was a substantial, and very tasty meal, which impressed me from the first bite to the last bite. They managed to serve up the perfect proportions of the components, and it all added up the right portion as well. This was the right meal for a quick lunch time munch. First with the gyozas, some of the best that I have ever had - or maybe even the best. Some gyozas tend to have a crisp here and there on the bottom which was not present at all here - it was all soft, and moreish. The dumpling dough was also solid letting in the filling, and the pork meat was tender and well spiced. Particularly good was the sauce that they gave on the side. The other good part of the meal was the chicken karaage. These were some of the biggest bits that I have ever seen, needing two or three bites as opposed to the normal bite-sized portions that are given. The chicken was tender and juicy, with the coating around it crunchy and nicely spiced. This mixed well the with steamed rice that was given, as well as the pickled vegetables on the side. As something a bit extra on the side, I also ordered a sweet for afterwards. Like it is with the rest of the items, these are small and generally bite-sized. What we have here are the gluttonous rice cakes known as daifuku. The flavour was "ichigo", or strawberry flavoured with a sweet red bean paste in the middle. The appeal of these sweets is definitely apparent, though exactly why is not hard to pinpoint but the difficulty comes in describing them. From my perspective, it is how unusual and unlike other kinds of sweets they are; you can poke and prod them a lot and they have a lot of give but it is still hard to pierce them with a fork. That leaves none other than the teeth to cut into it. From there, just how to describe the texture is a bit difficult as well since it is akin to a range of things. Think of a mixture of a cake and some jelly and that describes the texture; with the flavour, it had its moments of sweetness which never felt like a sugar rush with even the red bean paste being sweetened - all of it going down a treat. Without any doubt, the daifuku was a nice finisher to a good lunch. This is coming from someone who has eaten at a number of the great Japanese restaurants around town, and had himself quite the amount of gyozas in the meantime as well; these were some of the tastiest and most moreish gyozas yet that I have eaten. They were soft, they went down like melted butter, and the fillings were delicious. And that is just the start of it. Great care and attention to detail went into the meal, and with a read around about this place, it appears customer service and everything about the aesthetic is in order. Not only is it to be a place that simply does good food, but the packaging around the food matters just as much. This should definitely be apparent considering exactly where we are talking about. If you find yourself in the Emporium around Fortitude Valley, if you get a long enough shelf life than you definitely know the level of quality that is bound to be offered. From the 4.0 score, I do believe it is possibly under-rating Gyoza Bar Ann as it is, but that is because I wasn't there and am sure that it has some of the best ambiance and with a good level of service to boot. Part of the food being really good comes down to aspects as that, and as much as I have taken to delivery services, this part is still missing. With that aside, each component of the food was very moreish and went down a treat with each bite. It was one of these cases where it is impossible to gauge whether there is a weak link in the entire array that was ordered which may well be the most glowing reception that I can give a place. Without any doubt, the Emporium continues to impress. This gyoza bar is one more example of that. And as well as that, another indication that the best quality can sneak up on you as well.

TL;DR: "Keep it simple, stupid" is definitely the philosophy that goes around with Gyoza Ann Bar and all that is needed to be known about it is in the name. While it was probably blunted a bit from being delivered, what was still apparent was just how good the food is and it may be among the best Japanese in town. Within the lush Emporium of Fortitude Valley, Gyoza Bar Ann is one of the more quiet and reserved ones which many people easily pass over due to the lack of flash and flair which many of the bigger stars exude from their entrances. Well right off the bat this is Japanese cuisine, where less really is more this time around - and not the other way which often gets confused too much. And from the ones that are quieter and harder working, some of most satiating fare is brought to light as was the case right here. For another day at work, it was time to fire up the UberEats app and see what was around for a meal. So then it was all a case of... read more

Ann Gyoza Bar. Good priced tower lunch boxes which comes with rice, main and salad. Gyozas are very yummy and are served on a sizzling plate. Atmosphere is great feeling like you're in Japan. More items on the menu would be good such as sushi. Otherwise great little restaurant but so hard for parking at the emporium.

Awesome food, and even better service! Our host was wonderful and very friendly, and even helped me with ideas for my upcoming trip to Japan!

Dined here at lunch mid-week. Friendly service, appreciated the staff showing us how to order using the iPads and our food came out very quickly. Good choice of Japanese beers and it was good having a $5 bottle special on Friday. The tower boxes were nice, if not a little small. For lunch I think they were a fine size but the goyza was what really made them. They were really nice with tasty fillings - we tried the seafood goyza and pork goyza. We had teriyaki salmon and a beef tower - both were tasty but nothing overly exciting. I was pleased it was on the Entertainment Card as it made it good value. lifelovetravelfood.wordpress.com