Review Yakinku Restaurant Wakana - Artarmon

This is one of the original Yakiniku restaurants in Sydney and is very casual. I came here many years ago and decided to come again. The produce used are fresh and the kaki fry was cooked well. The Japanese owner has been around for more than 20 years and has always had his own following. This restaurant doesn't focus much about service or ambience, but casual dining. I didn't get to try this time, but traditionally the Wagyu curry has been popular. Not much preparation in the sauces or flavours, compared to the restaurants with marinated meat outside. However things were clean and fresh. Pricing was also acceptable.

This is one of my favourite Japanese restaurants. I got the tempura bento box for $22 for lunch, which was great l value for the price. Amazing food and definitely recommend!

Overrated place. Extremely bad service from the elderly man probably the owner. Other than the yakinku (Japanese barbeque) I wouldn't recommend any other dishes. I would have given them one star but the waiters were much nicer than the owner. Curry tasted horrible, worse than home made curry. Salmon, fried oyster and grilled eel were below average, bland taste. Rice didn't taste fresh. The dinning environment wasn't great. Crowded with tiny tables. Extremely noisy. It's a cash only restaurant. They do not accept eftpos or any card payments. Unbelievable for a business operating in the North Shore not accepting card payments.

A friend of mine told me about this place. I love b BBQ so much and this place is def my favourite place. The meat are so fresh and the BBQ cook this meat very well. My partner also love the eel rice from this place.

Okay, I get what people mean about the ambience and the attitude of the owner. However, I think he is like that because of language barriers and he is not accustomed to the quality of seevice in Australia. He came and checked on us and asked if we need the aircon on. I think he is very nice, just not very articulate. The place is definitely not fancy and the floor was kinda slippery. I hope the owner reflect on these comments and put a little bit more effort into decorating/changing the theme of the shop. I really want this shop to be noticed more! The wagyu was out of this world! Very well marbled and so cheap compared to other places. I also recommend the beef tataki! Their sauces are also very good. In terms of food, I really was satisfied and have no complaints at all. Keep up the good work!

yes The elderly man (the boss) is not polite. Yes the overall hygiene has a lot of room for improvement, and pest control is needed. and yes the footy is very tasty though, specially the authentic Carrie udon is not available in many places. The salmon fried rice is very nice. The Benton is very good. The barbecue is on par which is a good options when you compare with the other restaurant is close to the Artarmon station.

the best yakiniku I have ever had in Sydney! Fall in love with everything we ordered for barbecue, fried rice and even sashimi. A great worth for the money! Just remember to bring enough cash haha!

Good quality of beef, BYO, reasonably priced, very friendly staff. These factors I would give 5 stars. What is missing was the look of the restaurant is a bit ordinary. Other than that, definitely worth a try.

Fresh tasty food and friendly staff, very worthy value

No second chance to visit this shop again! This shop used to provide green tea, side dish , miso soup during lunch time. But after we ordered, a green tea is missed so we checked with staff if GT is still serving. He said yes. However the middle aged staff told us that the GT has been taken out from lunch special menu. He came to us with a bad attitude and kept blaming his staff in front of us with an ungrateful whining. He was doing so just expecting no one understand Japanese there. Come on, just a pot of GT! <br/><br/>We have been there with some relatives including baby kids. It’s very common that kids cry for sometime. However, the middle aged man was yelling in Japanese to us , meaning “ you better watch your children” . Is this a nice and respectful attitude to customer? <br/><br/>If there’s a negative score, I will definitely rate it . Just I have no choice.

Have been to this restaurant for years and highly recommended for value for money Japanese cuisines.<br/>A few must-try are:Salmon Fried rice<br/>Curry Beef rice<br/>Deep-fried oyster <br/>Mixed Sashimi on rice (chirashi)<br/>BBQ - Waygu beefRed Bean Green Tea ice-cream dessertsWhile other dishes are okay.Most are under $15 even for dinner. For lunch they will serve free green tea and seaweed salad which is another plus.

This is a hidden gem in a quiet residential suburb!! I have walked pass this restaurant multiple times before and finally had a chance to dine here! Don't let the humble exterior fool you, they offer a variety of meat/seafood and veggies for Japanese bbq; rice/noodle dishes and also sashimi (both fish and wagyu).  <br/><br/>We ordered, 2x premium wagyu, 1x pork loin, 1x ox tongue, 3 prawns and some scallops for the bbq and beef curry rice. <br/><br/>The meat and seafood were fresh; particularly the ox tongue and wagyu. I quite enjoyed the texture of a thicker cut of the ox tongue; and the wagyu was wonderful, very tender and melted in my mouth. The bbq was powered by gas, so the place was not smoky even with the lack of windows. <br/><br/>The curry rice was also remarkable. The portion was huge, sauce to rice ratio was on point, the claypot also kept the dish warm at all times. <br/><br/>Wakana also offers lunch specials with miso soup and green tea (portion size same as dinner) and every item on the lunch menu were below $17. <br/><br/>Highly recommended and will definitely come back for more!

Dont be fooled by the look of rundown interior, this restaurant is the gem in artarmon, they served very fresh ingredients and the price was affordable too!!! We had chirashi rice, cant believe every each piece was really fresh and yum!<br/>Will be back soon!

Nice. Humble owner, fresh meat and good equipment to cook the meat .<br/>Frankly i think it is a good Japanese restaurant, and it is close to rail line and easy to find.

Very humble tucked away little Japanese restaurant and that's what I love. Delicious, warming food at a reasonable price - nothing pretentious or overly done. I absolutely ADORE their Takana fried rice. I used to go for dinners here as a child and I would only eat the Takana fried rice. I'll be honest I haven't yet tried their Kimchi fried rice which is odd as I love kimchi fried rice, but I can't go past their Takana. Their other food is also delicious and a good size for price. Staff are friendly and the whole restaurant is very inclusive and together.

I had premium wagyu karubi, negi shio tan and harami for Yakiniku , Wagyu Kare rice with Tonkatsu. Salmon sashimi<br/><br/>Wagyu Kare Rice = Cheap and Okay.<br/>Tonkatsu = hard to chew.<br/>Negi Shio Tan = cutting is too big<br/>Harami and Premium Wagyu Karubi = too expensive for a low grade australian wagyu beef.<br/>Salmon Sashimi = good<br/><br/>The owner chef is quite friendly, the waitressess are cute, I'm not sure with the other foods but overall, I don't recommend anyone to eat yakiniku in this restaurant as you can get a better beef than this for less than $20 at Kashiwa. For local Washoku around there, this might be a good one.<br/><br/>Definitely not recommended for food lovers / bloggers

Lunch specials here are definitely value for money - especially a big claypot of the Hayashi Rice !<br/>A tomato based Japanese style beef stew with lots of beef pieces in it .<br/>On 2nd visit had the karaage set which was good but the Hayashi Rice wins by a mile for me.

The great thing about Zomato is that it draws peoples attention to places where there is genuinely good food despite being hidden or sometimes not aesthetically pleasing to the eye from the street. This is the case with Waka Yakiniku. From the street to the inside it reminds you of a country Chinese restaurant where the furniture is basic and there is not much more than the bare essentials. This is not to say that the restaurant is dirty when in fact it is very clean.<br/><br/>I wasn't very hungry and read here that their sushi was uber fresh so chose the Sashimi Moriawase (Salmon and Kingfish). But true to genuine Japanese hospitality, they were not going to let you starve so despite the $15 price, out came a small plate of pickled daikon, a bowl of rice, miso soup and the plate of sashimi, which mind you had an extra scallop there! Talk about under promising and over delivering! All these extras were not listed on the menu and this is on top of the already free tea. The sashimi was indeed very fresh. It makes you laugh to think that for $15 in Chatswood, you're lucky to get 8 pieces of sashimi!<br/><br/>Given the quality of everything served, it gives you trust with everything else they have to offer on the menu. The service was very friendly and it just goes to show that sometimes you need to visit the smaller suburbs to find these gems that no popular suburb or city restaurants can offer.

Wakana is probably the best Japanese Yakiniku restaurant in the Artarmon-Chatswood area. The restaurant was not fancily decorated. Simple, humble and clean are the words that comes into my mind every time I dine here.<br/>I've tried their Yakiniku a few years before and I still remember how good and fresh the meat tasted! Today I went to have lunch with a friend. We've ordered a Salmon fried rice and Wakana Don (sashimi with raw egg and seed weeds on rice). Both dishes tasted very good! Sashimi was fresh. The raw egg helped to blend every component together and the bit of vinaigrette taste of the marinated sea weed made the dish very refreshing! Salmon fried rice was not bad as well! Serving of the dish is generous and pure YUM! <br/>Also I've tried their $10 Wagyu beef don and their Katsu curry. Both are pretty good. Worth to try and keep trying ;)

One of our favourite BBQ restaurants! Authentic Japanese food, great quality meat at a reasonable price, fresh ingredients, efficient and friendly service… we are never disappointed!

this is my fav japanese restaurant in my neighborhood. came here a few times. food is always good. their curry is really good. this is unagi box i had for lunch. not much unagi on the photo, but actually lots under the rice. value for money. yummy! will come back again!

Overall good, cream croquette creamy, wagyu beef curry good, tonkatsu a bit dry.

Overall, I rate Wakana Yakiniku an 8 out of 10. Their ingredients are superbly fresh, even on Christmas Eve, a day before a public holiday. Their set menus are quite good value, but I would recommend choosing one “Sea Side” and one “Grass Lands” if you were to go and dine as a pair, as that will give you a bit more variety at a better price. Don’t forget to order the black sesame ice-cream when you’re there!

There's always something happening when you eat yakiniku. Yakiniku, or grilled meat, involves a smoking hot grill, lots of dishes arriving on your already crowded table, and a frenetic pace of food photography. Argh!

Great food, quality meats and veggies. Friendly staff.

Good value, great taste. Came here for the first time on Saturday and we loved it. Had the lunch specials and they were good value around $10 -$14. Curry was tasty and beef was chunky and tender. Katsura chicken set was also fantastic. Kid friendly too and service was attentive and prompt. Definitely will be coming back.

Superb home style Japanese that's very direct to the point. Had the wagyu beef curry that warms your taste buds and heart on a cold winter's night- perfect balance of curry flavours and soft veggies and beef portions. The unagu mabushi (eel mixed with rice) had a dollop of wasabi which was surprisingly great condiment to the slightly seasoned sweet soy rice. The flavours weren't over the top but they tickled the taste buds! LOVE IT! Also superb value for money (only $10 for the wagyu curry) ... Looks like great lunch specials with alot of variety too! Might wanna try their yakiniku next time (more pricey though, but seems like their specialty).

Curry Beef with Egg. I had the curry beef with egg. It was pretty good. The portion was slightly big. <br/>I had it at lunch so it came with miso soup, small salad, green tea, and pickles for the curry.<br/>What's the difference between the regular curry beef and curry beef with egg? One has nicely cut hard boiled egg on top.

Fresh, cheap, cheerful. The place it's self offers simple yet neat decor, but the food is what keeps me coming back. The lunch menu is fantastic value - i've tried many of the menu items, but the sashimi is my all time favourite. Its fresh, delicious, delicatly prepared and comes with miso soup, rice, a delicious light salad with the famous Wakana salad dressing, pickles and green tea - all for $14!!!!!!!!<br/><br/>Mr Manabu, the owner and chef always greets you with a cheerful hello and is more than welcoming and accomodating! I am there on a weekly basis.

We keep coming back.... Let it be said, we don't come here for the decor. We come here for the food. The sashimi is always excellent, the nanohana tasty, the gyoza hot and juicy, and the complimentary entree salad is light and fresh.<br/><br/>The BBQ option is also good with the "Aussie beef" being my favourite, followed by the salmon.<br/><br/>The staff are reasonably attentive, the food always great. We tried the curry once but perhaps we didn't really know what we were getting - it wasn't to our taste.<br/><br/>As mentioned earlier the decor isn't sensational but this isn't fine dining, it's good eating. It's relaxed and the price reflects this - my wife and I regularly eat here for less than $50 between us. It's not the only Japanese eatery in Artarmon, but it's our pick and we keep going back.