Review Oi Izakaya - Burleigh Heads

A fantastic Japanese restaurant in the heart of Burleigh! Had the $49(pp) omakase, beautiful dishes served exactly when you are ready for the next. Just enough for 2 people to not leave you wanting more but feeling like you got to try a bit of everything. Food was incredible, honestly might be the best karaage I've had. Incredible service from the floor and wait staff, very cool vibe. Well worth the price!

Absolutely delicious food! Great service & reasonable prices. Staff were very helpful choosing dishes & cocktails too.

As a Japanese, I’ve been to many izakayas in Japan and Australia, so here’s my honest review. We dined here Boxing Day dinner (3 pax), seated outside. As we walked through the indoors area, I noticed it had good atmosphere, however, the outside seating had the shopping centre food court vibe, as it felt like tables and chairs were just added to the outside of the restaurant, where the fun decor ended. When we were seated by the lovely waitress, we were handed oshibori hand towels, just like in Japan, which was a nice touch, however they smelled foul, like ridden with bacteria. We thought the smell would go as our hands dried, unfortunately we had to ask for hand sanitiser to get rid of the germy smell. We ordered 7 dishes and ordered 2-3 drinks each. 1st dish, crispy pork kakuni (5 – 6 pcs) – $20.5 was ok. The flavour was good and skin was crispy, however, the meat was left in the oven too long, and unfortunately it was mostly dried out and the texture resembled a discounted Woollies chook at the end of the day. 2nd dish ponzu cucumber $6 was ok, a little underwhelmed by the portion, as we literally had 2 little bites each (see photo). 3rd up, miso eggplant $15 was cooked tender, however, was way too salty to eat on its own. You would need a big bowl of rice or a bottle of sake to wash down the saltiness. After dining, I read another review commenting on the saltiness of the dish. We did not provide any feedback up until this point, until the next dish came along. 4th dish was the tuna sashimi (6 slices) – $19. We all had a piece each and immediately noticed something was off. The fish was not fresh at all. We immediately notified the waitress and returned the dish as it was inedible. 5th dish was the soft shell crab sushi roll (6pcs) – $23, which was good. 6th dish was the wagyu beef tataki (7 slices) – $17, which did not taste fresh either. Unfortunately, we returned the dish to the kitchen unfinished also. We initially ordered the kingfish carpaccio off the specials board. But at this point, we started to fear all raw dishes were unfit for consumption, so we requested to have this dish cancelled and changed to chicken karaage. During this time, the floor manager came out in response to our returned dishes. He said the tuna was purchased on Friday, before the long weekend and since it was a Sunday of the long weekend, the fish was kept unfrozen. Unapologetically, and matter of factly. This explained why the fish tasted off. I provided feedback on the spot, in the nicest possible way, that if the restaurant was unable to provide fresh fish, then it should not be available to order in the first place. I further added that the cooked dishes were lovely and that we were looking forward to the final deep fried dish. The final dish, chicken karaage (4 - 6 pcs) – $16.5, was served. Marinade was a little on the salty side, and batter was slightly burnt as it was left in the fryer a tad too long. But it was edible as long as lathered in Kewpie mayo. I booked this restaurant after reading the glowing 5 start reviews, but I failed to read the 1 star reviews. Perhaps we would have had a different experience if we were sat inside and ordered different dishes. Wines were ok. Cannot comment on cocktails as we did not order any. As we were leaving the venue, I looked around and noticed not a single Japanese diner was to be found. I realised why. Unfortunately, I would not recommend anyone this place unless you don’t have any other places to go on a Boxing Day, and you are happy to pay 15% public holiday surcharge on top of the already highly priced meals for an izakaya. I understand the restaurant is in a great location and there is great potential to be successful. The restaurant needs to take out some time to review the customer feedback and chefs need to taste the dishes before they serve them out.

Absolutely fantastic service from staff and such scrumptious food. I very much enjoyed my experience with how the restaurant was themed, definitely a great venue to catch up with friends and enjoy Japanese cuisine. Very much worth visiting from the Sunshine Coast!

I have been trying to go to Oi Izakaya for a while now, but it is always booked out. We chanced a table as we were looking for somewhere in Burleigh to eat midweek and we were in luck! We were sat at some high tables in the kitchen area. It was mesmerising to watch the sushi chef prepare many dishes. The food and service at Oi Izakaya was amazing! 10/10!! If you like cocktails or whisky, there’s a large selection to sample. They even have whisky flights. We ate kingfish carpaccio, karagge chicken, pork gyozas and soft shell crab bao buns. We could not fault anything. Our waiter was very knowledgeable and attentive. Not once did we feel rushed, like you can get at some restaurants. We are looking forward to he next time we dine at Oi Izakaya. Thank you team for a wondering time out x

WOW!!! This restaurant is amazing. The food was delicious, the choice of wines, cocktails and then whiskey selection was just unreal. It's very rare these days that you also get great friendly service from staff and amazing food all in one place but i have to say this place has it all. Would definitely recommend!!

Aamazing! 10/10!! Cocktails were delicious. Food outstanding. We sampled many dishes including taco with tuna & salmon. Taco was so good would definitely come back just to eat it again. I’m not sure if any food wasn’t just fabulous. Service on busy Friday night was excellent, even managed to help man who tripped. Truly thoughtful. We are looking forward to our next visit. Thanks team for a wonderful experience & dinner with friends x

Absolutely exquisite fine dining experience. We opted to let the chef decide on our menu and enjoyed the 7 course degustation of which was some of the best Japanese food we have had and will probably ever have until the next time we visit! The service was attentive and friendly and the cocktails were delicious. An experience we will never forget which was also very good value and not expensive. Congratulations to the owners and staff, well done!