Nikuya Japanese Restaurant - review

Nikuya is a swanky restaurant in the Valley just outside the Brisbane CBD.  It resides in M & A Lane, a bit of a hipster hangout by the look of it.  Mr Pickings and I were settling in for an evening at home recently when we got an unexpected call from friends asking if we wanted to try out a restaurant with them. "Why not?", we cried casting aside our bowls of gruel and throwing on our glad rags.  An hour later we were on our way in their swish new 4WD, being chauffeured to our culinary destination.  We love Japanese food, so we were very excited to be trying out the BBQ delights on offer upstairs in this 2 level establishment.  Downstairs they have the Izakaya menu, and upstairs is where the BBQ'ing goes on.  I confess I am not entirely sure what Izakaya means.  I did look it up and was informed it means a drinking establishment that serves food. Ok -  not much clearer:). Anyway you know it means food!  Gyoza, sushi, sashimi, seafood, chicken, pork, you name it.  And speaking of pork - they use meat from a special type of pig called Kurobuta (aka Berkshire Black), which is apparently a special old breed.  You will also find Wagyu beef here, which as we all know has intense marbling, and a lot of fat.  Fat = flavour, as the chefs say!
We took the service lift up to the 1st floor as my knee is still acting up (there were a lot of stairs). You find a very large space with queer, copper tubes hanging down.  These are the extractor fans that hang over the BBQ plate at each table. Really beautiful in themselves, and practical too.  Our friends are the insurance brokers for this restaurant (no, we didn't get freebies), so they knew that the fit-out had not come cheap.

ground floor Izakaya space as you enter the restaurant     

beautiful aren't they?  copper extractor fans     

cooking up our Yakiniku platter 

it didn't look like much meat but at the end, we were full!  

The 4 of us chose the banquet for $55 per head, which was a very satisfying and filling meal.  It included meats, soup, salad and ice cream.  Oh and spring rolls, and sashimi and kimchi and edamame.  So no, you won't go home hungry. There are also other banquets at $70 and $90 per head. Our friends decided to try the Sake Tasting List, which consisted of 5 different types of sake.  They were surprisingly large tastings we thought, and our friends got a bit heady after trying them all.  I had plum wine flavoured with brown sugar - oh my, so delish, so moreish - so I had another.  Mr Pickings had his usual ginger beer, only one as he is the designated driver when we go out together, and he just couldn't get out of the habit even though he wasn't driving!

Mr Pickings loves ginger beer  - $5

brown sugar plum wine - so delish!   - $8.50  

steamed rice and dipping sauces

miso soup

octopus balls - I ate Mr Picking's share as he just can't stomach octopus:)   

prawn spring rolls - I have to admit I ate Mr Picking's share of these too 'cos he doesn't eat shellfish!   

salad on a beautiful plate- very fresh and palate-cleansing  

edamame (soy beans in their pods)-crunchy and moreish  

sake drums  - now that's a lot of sake  

I loved this sword/beer tap contrivance.  Look at the condensation!    

green tea ice cream 

toasted sesame seed ice cream 

The ice creams were really different and delicious.  I had a try of the sesame seed version; it tasted at first like sesame oil which did odd things to your brain as you expected it to then be savoury but it was sweet, and Miss Mandy said you just forgot about the savoury aspect as you kept eating.  The green tea ice cream had a very intense tea flavour, and was a great end to the meal.

looking down on the pendant lights from the stairs   

a seriously gorgeous kimono hanging in the stairwell   

I would love to go again and eat downstairs as that seems less formal, and it is very close to the bar which has single malt whiskies, which apparently is all the rage in Japan at the moment.  Also, as Mr Pickings and myself are not usually big meat eaters, I would like to try other dishes like the sushi and sashimi and the dumplings, etc:)  You can't deny though that the meat here is seriously delicious, tender and flavoursome.  So carnivores will be very happy, as will anyone who likes fresh, delicious and interesting food.  Oh, and one last thing, the house specialty is "passionately coated loin"- how could anyone resist that?