Pop quiz. What should a parent do when they have one kid craving a cheeseburger and fries and the other hankering for dumplings? Take them to Harajuku Gyoza Beer Stadium for cheeseburger gyoza, of course. It’s a solution that’s a win/win for everyone. Let me tell you why.
Located underneath ICC Sydney in Darling Harbour, Harajuku Gyoza Beer Stadium is a colourful harbour side restaurant that’s the perfect spot to stop for a delicious lunch on a day of sightseeing, or just because you’re craving Gyoza, one of my all time favourite snacks.
With awesome staff and a selection of wonderfully weird and wacky gyoza, I reckon this place is just about perfect for families. With so many flavours there’s something to keep even the pickiest palate happy. Not that anyone in my family is particularly picky. In fact, we’ll eat just about anything!
We had an awesome time tasting our way through Harajuku Gyoza’s new menu, which is crammed with imaginative gyoza creations and chips so long they’d set seagulls swooning.
Obviously Gyoza are the star of this culinary show and their slippery, smooth wafer thin skins have to be some of the best gyoza I’ve ever eaten outside of Tokyo.
Along with the aforementioned cheeseburger dumplings (which tasted exactly like a cheeseburger, complete with pickles) and those crazy long chips, I was especially obsessed with their spicy buffalo chicken gyoza with blue cheese sauce, a glorious pulled pork stacked taco/gyoza hybrid and a perfect prawn packed, ponzu splashed gyoza that soothed my seafood loving soul.
Then there were the satisfyingly stretchy mozzarella dumplings (that are so good they had certain sneaky chopstick wielding souls coming in for the steal). Thankfully, my phenomenal Ninja defences meant my gyoza remained exactly where they belonged. In my belly!
Then there’s dessert. There was an impressively jiggly, crystal-clear raindrop cake and don’t even get me started on their new dessert gyoza: crispy on the outside, oozing with gooey marshmallow goodness on the inside and served with a side of Nutella, they’re like turbo s’mores and entirely irresistible.
There’s more than just gyoza on offer too, like hearty and flavour-packed teriyaki chicken don and steaming katsu curry bowls, plus a bunch of tasty izakaya faves like chicken karaage, edamame and lotus chips (my fave).
Oh, and did I mention there’s an onsite Japanese craft beer brewery, along with sake and yummy cocktails, so mum and dad can numb the pain when the inevitable bickering erupts over who gets the last gyoza.
Written by Raff – Aged 13
Harajuku Gyoza Beer Stadium
1/14 Darling Drive,
Darling Harbour, Sydney
PH: (02) 9211 4779
The boy in BoyEatsWorld, Raff is an experienced travel television presenter, published travel writer, and an award winning public speaker who is as obsessed with eating as he is with travel. 