Nagoya - Japanese BBQ

On the corner of a quiet chinatown sidestreet we found Nagoya, a small japanese BBQ restaurant. Nagoya is opposite the entertainment centre maccas, a little further up from Cold Rock ice creamery. What drew me in was the quality of the beef they offered. Nagoya offers some of the highest quality beef, Kobe beef.

Having said that I believe they sell the lower-end/medium quality of this high quality meat - if that makes sense.You can get Kobe here for about $100 per kilo or more depending on the market price which they post up on their front entrance, Kobe beef goes all the way up to $1000 a kilo, but I'll have to do a little more research before i can be sure. Anyway, that's not important for this review because my budget won't allow for this beef haha.


The thing that sets Nagoya apart from other BBQ houses is the option of engaging yourselves in a 90 minute all-you-can-eat from a range of meat, sides and veges where most sides are fresh and made on order! 

Starting at $28.80 you get a hotpot for Syabu-Syabu (Shabushabu) or Sukiyaki which unlocks unlimited beef & veg. At $35.80 you get to select from the basic BBQ menu which includes several of the cheaper cuts of beef, pork and lamb and some very simple sides and veges. Paying an extra $3 gives you access much better quality meat and some better sides as well. Finally at $45 you can access some more sides as well as Wagyu, a very good quality beef.


Cooking your own is really nice as it lets you control how cooked your meat is. Personally I like my meat between rare and medium rare and I had quite a bit of fun trying to handle 4 different preferences and burning some meat (which still tasted good). We opted to pay an extra $3 for the better quality beef and we all agreed it was worth paying for.


The only thing that would bring this restaurant down is the service. The waitresses lounge about and don't respond to orders very well maybe because of the language barrier? I'm not sure, but some orders never came out and we ended up re-ordering.


Is 90 minutes enough time? This depends on how efficiently  you work the grill. Be sure to always have food cooking, other than that theres plenty of time to eat, talk, relax and get packed. I could barely manage a waddle after 90 minutes.

Good place for about: 4 people (per table)

Expect to spend: $30 - $50+


Value: 9/10 - This really depends on how much you can eat. Worth it you can eat a lot!


Taste and food quality: 9/10 - Very good taste and quality


Ambience: 8/10 - Theres nothing like sitting around a flaring BBQ pit on a cold windy day


Service: 7/10 - A little lacking, but orders do come out fairly fast and you cook yourself


Overall rating: 8.25/10

 Definitely a place to try for a guy's night out. Girls should think about ordering separately or eating elsewhere as it is a buffet that pays for what it weighs.