The Gaya - Applecross

One fine Wednesday night, a friend of mine invited a bunch of us out for dinner to celebrate his birthday at The Gaya. I've been to The Gaya once before and was neither impressed or disappointed, it was just so-so. This time though, the experience was a much more pleasant one (and the fact the birthday boy paid for everything made it even better! Ha!)

Before I start talking about the food, just a word of warning, usually I would put the name of the menu item and the price in the photo caption. This time, however, I actually didn't know all the dishes that were ordered. Even when I attempted to match up the dishes we ate to the menu, not all seemed to have fit the description! Sorry for the food blogging fail!

The photo above was an entree item, like a deep fried gyoza. This dish was a bit of a miss. there was hardly any flavour, but the skin was nice and crispy. Not a great start to the dinner, but it did get better!

Gaya Chicken ($14)

The Gaya Chicken was another entree dish ordered. I loved it because it was boneless, making it easy and non-messy to eat! The chicken was covered with the "Gaya special sweet and spicy sauce", which was sticky and tasty, and the skin was still crispy!

Gaya Bulgogi ($28)

As The Gaya is a Korean fusion restaurant, we just had to try their beef bulgogi. The beef was very thinly sliced and was cooked perfectly, very tender and melt-in-your mouth. The bulgogi sauce was tasty without being too overpowering, very well balanced.

This next dish is one of the many dishes I do not know the name to! It's a beef soup in a claypot dish. This was one of my favourite dish of the night. The soup was tasty and similar to the bulgogi flavour, but even more subtle and refined. The beef was again tender and fell apart easily with each bite. What made this dish was the warmth, perfect for cold nights accompanied with some steaming white rice! Yum!

The two sushi dishes above (again names unknown =( ) had similar fillings, but topped differently. Both were tasty, with the rice cooked nicely and the seaweed fell apart easily. The sushi roll topped with beef was the tastier of the two as the beef itself was already marinated. Both rolls were drizzled with a very tasty soy sauce and mayonaise.

Beef Cream Roll ($14)

The beef cream roll had to be my favourite dish of the night! The beef roll was filled with asparagus, cream cheese, enoki mushroom, capsicum and cucumber. Again, the beef was sliced paper thin and was very tender. The cream cheese made the roll very indulgent and rich and gave a very smooth texture. The vegtables were a little overpowered by the cream cheese, but added a crunchy texture and cut through the creaminess of the cheese a little bit.

The last dish to arrive was this chicken dish. The red colour signaled the spiciness of the chicken. The dish was very spicy and was a little too spicy for me, but everyone else seemed to have enjoyed it. 

Homemade Red Misu ($8)

The only dessert ordered on the night was the red misu. I had tried this dish on my first visit to The Gaya and loved it. Well it was still as scrumptious as last time. The coffee and liquour was strong, but well balanced. The sponge was nice and soft, but not too soggy and, my favourite bit had to be the red bean crumble on top, adding a nice crunchy texture. I also loved their pebble shaped chocolate, giving off a very convincing "garden" look.

We had a very fun and pleasant dinner at The Gaya. The waitress was attentive and patient with all our requests (we were quiet rowdy). I was surprised to find we were only one of the two dining parties on the night, with the quality of the food and reasonable prices for the quality and service, I expected bigger crowds. So if you were thinking about trying The Gaya, but was a bit hesitant, then you should definitely check it out! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised! I would rate The Gaya 8/10.

Restaurant Information:

The Gaya
Shop 3&4, 3 Kearns Crescent
Ardross
Ph: 9364 8887
Website: http://www.the-gaya.com/
Facebook:The Gaya 
Instagram: @thegaya2013

Disclaimer: Restaurant information and prices were true and correct on 29th July 2015. Prices inclusive of 10% GST.