There’s so many new restaurants that have opened, or are opening since we got back from Hong Kong, we’ve been finding it hard to keep a track of all the places we want to try. So the solution we came up with was a shared list on our iPhones, and as it stands today, the Girl and I currently have 83 restaurants on a shared list.

Every time we walk past somewhere that looks interesting, or hear about somewhere we want to try, another name goes on the list. You’d think that would make choosing dinner easy; instead, we end up with a little analysis paralysis every single time we want to check out somewhere new.

Too many restaurants, not enough nights to get to them all.

Our usual solution is to work out what we feel like eating first, then find somewhere on the list that fits. On this particular Friday, we felt like Japanese. Hideki had been on the list for quite a while, largely because we walk up and down Burnett Lane all the time and keep passing it. It wasn’t far to walk for dinner either, so we finally found ourselves wandering down Burnett Lane with a destination in mind.

Burnett Lane has so much untapped potential to be one of the coolest little spots in the CBD. There’s already an interesting mix; Felix for Goodness, where we’ve eaten before, Lune for pastries, bars, karaoke and even an axe-throwing place. Quite a range of ways to spend an evening! There’s still potential for more, but Hideki sits right in the middle of it all.

For owners Joe Chagoury and Wasim Ghanem, the former Alba Bar & Deli space in Burnett Lane offered the chance to bring a little of Japan to Brisbane; Joe has described falling for its resemblance to the small places tucked into the streets of Tokyo and Nagoya, seeing it as somewhere their idea for a Japanese-inspired bar and restaurant could take shape. Hideki opened there in late 2024 with charcoal-grilled skewers and share plates, encouraging the sort of eating and conversation that inspired the venture. They’ve since opened a brighter, more casual Hideki Izakaya on James Street, but it was the original laneway spot that had kept catching our attention.

Hideki also holds one Chef Hat in the 2026 Australian Good Food Guide. Between that and the number of times we’d looked in while walking past, we had moderately high expectations.

We arrived right on opening at 5:30pm and were among the first couples seated. Strangely, we were given a table for four. Not that we were complaining about the extra room, but as the restaurant filled and couples without bookings were turned away, we felt a little guilty occupying so much space!

It didn’t take long either. By six, the place was pumping.

The room has that dark, uber-cool feel; black surfaces, a gold crane mural and little pools of light on the tables. The playlist was awesome, and the Girl and I were really digging the groove. It’s a very cool location for a restaurant, and at that point we were having a great time.

While there were a ton of different bites to choose from on the a la carte menu, we went with the Son of Hideki menu, at $138 per person so we could get a taste of the story of the restaurant.

First out was the tuna cornet, and it was a striking little bite in the dark room. Each table had a bright little lamp, which certainly helped with taking photos; the tuna almost glowed under ours, its bright colour standing out against the cone. It felt like a restaurant that understood people were going to want to photograph their dinner.

The menu listed tuna tartare, wasabi salsa and yuzu in a charcoal cone, but what I enjoyed most was the simple contrast when eating it. A lovely crunch from the cone, followed by the freshness of the tuna and that little combination of sweetness and saltiness. Gone pretty quickly, and a delicious way to start.

The kingfish usuzukuri was already in front of us while we were getting through the cornets, so there was certainly no hanging around between dishes. Thin slices of kingfish were swimming in a generous amount of dressing; sweet, with a little bite that lingered after the fish was gone. It was a pretty plate, but more importantly, the fish tasted really fresh and the sauce made you want to keep going.

There was also an even number of slices, which might sound like a small thing, but when there are two of you sharing, it helps! We worked through them with our chopsticks, and our waitress offered a bowl of steamed rice to soak up the sauce. There was certainly enough of it to make that a worthwhile suggestion.

The savoury rosette crisps looked a little like a couple of Michelin stars sitting on a plate. The resemblance was purely visual, of course, but they were lovely little things to look at before getting stuck in.

Inside the crisp coating was smoked fish crème fraîche, with gari gel in there somewhere. I really liked the contrast between the crunch and that smooth, creamy filling; the smoked fish flavour was strong enough to make itself known without taking over the whole bite. Well balanced, delicious, and another dish we were really happy with.

Up next was a total winner, the popcorn prawns were simple and amazing. There was a generous serving here, tons of sweet sweet mini prawns inside a lovely light tempura batter, so you got plenty of crunch without losing the flavour of the prawns. The dipping sauce had a little sweet heat, but nothing that caused my usually cautious and spice-resistant palate any trouble.

The bowl wasn’t particularly suited to dividing everything onto separate plates, so the Girl and I took turns fishing out prawns with our respective chopsticks. One for me, one for her, and repeat; ostensibly to make sure we each got an even share. It became a little game of getting our chopsticks in for the next one, and we ended up scoffing the lot. They were so delicious that neither of us wanted to miss out.

The Wagyu beef and salmon teriyaki skewers arrived together on a stone plate, with a wedge of lemon between them, and this was the first point where things started to slip. The Wagyu was beautifully cooked, but it was a little cool; not quite down to room temperature, but missing that warmth you expect when something has come straight off the flame. It felt as though it had been sitting for a little too long before reaching us, and it was much the same with the salmon; generous pieces, beautifully grilled, with a lovely sweetness and a squeeze of lemon to go with it, but too cool to have the impact it should have had.

One of the best things about skewers fresh off the grill is that lovely heat as you tuck in, and it was missing from both dishes, taking some of the enjoyment out of what should have been a lovely plate of food. They were okay, but nowhere near as enjoyable as they could have been. The restaurant was getting busier by then; whether that had anything to do with it, I couldn’t say for sure, but it really shouldn’t have been.

Up to that point, we’d worked through the opening dishes in about half an hour. We’d been enjoying the pace of dishes coming out of the kitchen, the funky tunes and the composition of the food, and had no reason to think we’d soon be struggling to catch anyone’s attention.

Then we waited. And waited. And waited some more.

It was around another half-hour before the main dish of chicken Maryland with Hideki salad arrived. Chicken Maryland felt like an unusual choice for this sort of Japanese tasting menu, and the presentation was more like that of a ballotine; a rolled preparation with prawn mousseline (complete with prawn chunks).

Because of its resemblance to a ballotine, I didn’t mind it, but the Girl didn’t love it. It was certainly filling, but neither of us found it particularly memorable, and by then our perplexity about the dish was mixed with annoyance about how long it had taken to reach us. The excitement we’d had over the prawns was feeling a fair way behind us.

Unfortunately, finishing the chicken didn’t get things moving again. We settled in for another wait of about half an hour for dessert.

At some point, the Girl and I started playing with the little lamp on our table, taking turns switching it on and off to see who could get there fastest. While we were pissing ourselves laughing and filling in the time, our waiter seemed rather less impressed. He came over to ask whether we needed the light to be dimmed, and we explained that we were just having a little fun while we waited for dessert.

There wasn’t much else happening at our table!

We also started discussing whether we should just get the bill and leave without it. By then, the main and dessert part of the meal had stretched across roughly an hour, and we’d gone from really enjoying ourselves to being pretty fed up. The pacing had fallen off a cliff.

When dessert finally arrived, it was essentially a take on strawberries and cream; fresh-cut strawberries and strawberry granita over a yoghurt base. I couldn’t quite place whether the yoghurt was vanilla-flavoured or simply creamy, but the overall texture felt a little stodgy. It was okay, without being particularly memorable.

What made it more frustrating was its simplicity. After all that waiting, this was what we’d been hanging around for. We ate it quickly, without really savouring it; by that stage, we were ready to finish. Serviceable at best, an afterthought at worst.

It’s a shame, because there was a lot to like about Hideki. The location is cool, the room has a great vibe, the playlist was excellent and some of the early food was genuinely delicious. We’d been having a really good time, and the popularity of the place was easy to understand.

But food is only part of the experience. However good those first few dishes had been, it was the last couple, and the long gaps between them, that lingered in our minds. We still managed to have a laugh together, but playing with a table lamp while debating whether to abandon dessert wasn’t quite how we’d expected to spend the second half of dinner.

We’ve walked past Hideki plenty of times, wondering when we’d finally get in. Now that we have, we probably wouldn’t go back.