We begin on the perfect Brisbane day in August; not a cloud in the sky and the warmer weather teasing Spring to come.
As I made my way into Howard Smith Wharves to meet my friend Rhi at Yoko Dining, I couldn't help but feel excited about the meal that was to come.
The Place
I was treated to one of the best seats in the house at Yoko - outside but in the shade and looking up at the iconic Story Bridge. The table setting was simple and clean, just like the menu - both in presentation and in contents.
We were greeted by our waitress, Grace - one of the highlights of our meal! She was really friendly and helpful with just the right amount of attentiveness. In fact, all of the wait staff were friendly and welcoming.
On the Yoko Dining Instagram, several photos show flowers hanging from the ceiling for decor. These were not here when we were dining, but I actually preferred it that way. It gave the restaurant a more clean-cut feel you would expect from Japanese Izakaya compared to the Tik-Tok traps that others aspire to now.
The Food
Grace had great recommendations on how to order from the menu and how many dishes to order from each section, but we already had our eyes set on the Yoko Feast. For a modest price of 85 pp, we were treated to a whirlwind of flavours served at the perfect times.
Not included in the Yoko Feast, we also ordered the scallops with citrus and coastal greens from the raw bar - it did not disappoint.
Our first round saw the raw bar scallops and kingfish with goma and cucumber brought to the table simultaneously. Both are fresh, cold, and cut the perfect thickness for raw seafood. The scallops had beautiful citrus to help them shine, while the sauce of the kingfish was creamy and flavourful.
Shortly after finishing our raw starters, the chicken karaage was brought to the table; bringing with it a warm curry-spiced aroma. With a fresh squeeze of lime and a quick dip in the kewpie mayo, the chicken was fresh and juicy with just the right amount of crunchy bits to satisfy. The perfect hot bites to continue our feast, really.
The chicken didn't last long on the table, but as soon as it was gone, a combination of colours and smells was set down in front of us - grilled prawns with kombu butter, greens in shiitake dashi and spicy pork udon noodles. Having the combination of the 3 dishes at the same time to graze on was a sensational combo.
The final course was delicately cooked wagyu striploin, drizzled in a sweet and savoury sticky soy sauce with salt flakes, fresh lime and the option of 3 hot sauces on the side based on wasabi, classic hot mustard, and ponzu mustard. Accompanied by a small bowl of warm boiled rice, it was a great finisher to our savoury feast.
Dessert stayed in theme with the Yoko Feast of being light but flavourful. We enjoyed grilled compressed pineapple on a bed of ice with a dash of chilli powder and miso salted caramel mochi ice cream "sandos".
Accompanied by rose and cocktails, including a Kagoshima-ngo and an espresso martini, our table was never left empty, but it was never overcrowded. All in all, the Yoko Feast was a great way to experience the different flavours Yoko Dining has to offer for a reasonable price.
The Person
Do you have someone in your life who inspires you to be a better person and do more just by being themselves? Rhiannon, or Rhi, is that person for me.
She has built a thriving digital marketing and tech career but also has about 5 other projects simultaneously on the side. This includes a budding jewellery line, a skincare brand in the pipeline, furniture upcycling and flipping, app creation and development, and soon-to-add to-the-list real estate upcycling/investor.
Being on the spectrum has never stopped Rhi from trying anything; for her, she has embraced it and says it feels like her own superpower.
28 years old and barely begun, this woman has achieved so much already and is still hungry for more.
The Standard 10
1) What is your favourite project you're working on right now? Business or personal?
I have a lot to choose from; that's the hardest part.
It's hard to choose because I love all of my projects like my children, and I love them all equally. The best way to describe the projects that I'm juggling at the moment is that a lot of my projects are glass balls, and only a couple of them are plastic balls. The plastic balls I'm ok to drop a little bit like my skincare brand, making apps, and making websites.
To drop them means to leave them on the back burner or to throw them up in the air (give them a try) and let them fall on the floor.
At the moment, my glass balls are actually my job because I figured out I'm really good at it; I'm really stoked! And making my jewellery - those are my glass balls, the ones I want to keep up in the air as much as possible.
2) What was your favourite meal ever, and why?
That is really hard (It can be a specific time or an actual meal).
I'm obsessed with swordfish - swordfish steaks are the key to my heart. (Why's that?)
My family being culturally obscure, didn't really celebrate a traditional Christmas as kids. But every Christmas, you could be sure there were thousands of dollars of seafood, including an entire f**king swordfish in the middle of the table, and the steaks were always grilled to perfection. So that's my number 1 meal!
It was also the meal I ordered when my mum told me about the engagement to her partner, which was another special family moment. (So it's like a nostalgia and childhood memory thing for you?).
I don't have many nostalgic memories anymore, but when I do, it starts with sound or taste.
3) What was your favourite part of this meal experience and why?
I frothed Yoko. Grace gets a special mention; she was lovely. I love waiters who get involved with the conversation, even the waiter that knew who your tattooist was awesome. We didn't get his name, unfortunately. The service and waiters were perfect, amazing.
Catching up with you was great, and getting a hold on the last 3-6 months, we have missed out on.
Food-wise, my favourites were the wagyu and the kingfish. (You preferred the kingfish over the scallops when they were your special order?) They still get highly recommended; I liked the variety of flavours and how surprised I was eating it, but the kingfish and the wagyu were perfect. The sauce in the kingfish made the biggest difference, almost like a satay coconut flavour with sesame, AND with the pickled cucumber was the perfect mix. It was all outstanding - if anyone is going to Yoko, you're wasting your time if you don't enjoy the Yoko Feast!
4) What was your least favourite part of this meal experience and why?
Me being late, hahaha. All of this experience was amazing and exciting, and it's exciting to be a part of this first edition of No Picky Eaters. The only sore point was my busyness and lateness, but we'll chalk that up to self-awareness and make different choices in the future.(Even I have no complaints! Sometimes I can get a bit funny with the thickness and temperature of sashimi, but everything about that was perfect. It was cold where it needed to be cold and warm where it needed to be warm).
So absolutely fresh! Every time I have been to Yoko before, I normally get sashimi, and it's amazing every time.
5) What makes you happy?
Freedom to do whatever the f*ck I want, whenever the f*ck I want to do it. And having the means and the support to do exactly that as well. (What is freedom to you?) To me, freedom is having choices and having the consequences of those choices not being super severe. For example, I've decided I want to try being a jeweller, so I'm going to invest like $2000 in starting that up, and so what? That makes me really happy because I can do that and I can spend that money on myself, and there are no restrictions on my choices. I love freedom because I don't think I'll ever figure out one thing that will make me happy or one thing that I will do with my life. So having the freedom and peace of mind to try everything, like a grazing platter of life, makes me happy. I'm a girl who grazes, not a big meal gal!
6) What is your favourite cuisine and why?
Quickly answers Middle Eastern!
Aside from the fact that I am Middle Eastern, I've gotta say I don't like spicy foods, but I do like spices. I think Middle Eastern food is really good for that. You can have a bite with all these different flavours in it, but none of it is too much or overpowering or spicy; it just compliments itself.
If you have lamb on the menu and it's rubbed in some sort of spice mixture, I'm there! Add a lemon yoghurt of some sort on the side, mmmm. (There's such a variety, Turkish, Persian, and more, all have their similarities but unique dishes and flavours). I always can't wait for Persian New Year because I make all of the Persian dishes and put them on the table full well knowing my partner and I can only eat so much - Chicken and barberries, flavoured fairy floss, dark chocolate, things made with that - you know, grazing gal things.
7) What is your favourite, most meaningful or most impactful quote have you heard?
It's not along the lines of famous people's quotes, but I don't care. Some of my old friends and I knew a guy named Steve. 10/10 amazing person. The quote he used to always say to us when we were going out, I don't know if he stole it from someone, but it was "Stay hydrated, look after your mates and try not to be a c*nt about it." Ever since I heard it, those are my 3 rules to live by - I stay hydrated, I look out for my mates, and I try actively not to be a c*nt, haha. I think that's my favourite quote and one I would share with the entire world.
This was from when I was 21, like 6 years ago now, and looking after your mates is a little different these days approaching the 30 hump, but it's still the same. It also means people are looking out for you while you're looking out for them. It's not famous or anything special, just my mate Steve - but I love it.
8) What's the most important part about eating out for you? E.g. the atmosphere, the food, the service
It's a whole experience; I like to really immerse myself when I go out because I like cooking a lot at home. For me, cooking is a big ritual - you knock off, you pour a paired glass of wine, you plan this food to cook, you wash the veggies, and you sit for a really long time while you prep. I feel like when you go out for dinner, you miss out on all of that. You may as well order everything you want on the menu, take your time, pick things you would never pick if you were cooking for yourself and never say never. I mean, I ate ice cream and grilled pineapple today! I don't like either of those things, but I tried them because it was new. If this is what the people at Yoko recommend, I'm open to it. It's pretty much the essence of No Picky Eaters .. not being a picky eater!
9) What do you like to cook at home?
I love French food and Italian food (Ah yes, classic cooking styles). Yes! I like cooking Middle Eastern food, that's great, HOWEVER, I feel I don't have the skill for it. Instead, I do have the skills for French food, a lot of wine-infused sauces, heaps of smoked garlic and smoked salt, which is my number 1 tip to anyone reading this blog - if you are using regular salt instead of smoked salt.. why?
I generally just like to make things up; I'm not really a recipe person. (Do you ever use a recipe?) No, usually, I will just google something that I want to make and then see what people have put it with, which gives me a bit of a flavour profile in my head, and then my "autistic internal flowchart" organises that into my own recipe with my own twist on it.
My recipes are an evolving thing - I think if you stick to the same recipe, you just end up disappointing yourself.
10) Summarise your meal experience today in 1 sentence.
Exactly what I f*cking needed! (I love that, it's so good!)
I had such a busy morning, too many projects on the go, too much "looking after your mates and trying not to be a c*nt about it" and then to have all of that craziness culminate in me jumping in a cab and coming here and forgetting about it all, eating to my heart's content with one of my best friends -
I'm here for it!
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