Overview
Get ready for wagyu with a view in West End's West Village, with Ippin Japanese Dining set to join the growing space. When it opens its doors in 2023, the new restaurant will sit inside the precinct's Garden Pavilion, peering down on openair lawn The Common from the second floor — and pairing a menu bursting with Queensland seafood and meat, plus products imported from Japan, with greenery-filled vistas.
Mark April in your diaries, Brisbanites, and prepare for company, with Ippin seating 140. It's already badging itself as a hidden gem given that it'll be one level up from West Village's hustle and bustle, but word of great Japanese eats spreads fast in the River City.
If you're fond of yakitori grill, toothfish, wagyu beef, tempura cuttlefish and lobster popcorn, prepare to have your tastebuds tempted, too — they'll all be on the menu. If the latter sounds familiar, that's because it's a Sydney favourite thanks to Kenny Lee, the restaurateur and owner of the New South Wales capital's Kuon Omakase, Allta and Funda restaurants, with that dish making the leap to Queensland.
Lee has helped whip up Ippin's menu with head chef Tatsuya Miwa, plus owners Helen Lea and Jane Ma, with the culinary lineup also slated to include traditional Japanese seafood starters — and a rotating array of two-to-three desserts made by a specialised pastry chef.
Keen on tuna? Ippin will host showcases dedicated to the fish, with Tatsuya chopping up a whole tuna in-venue, then auctioning it off. These will be ticketed, sake-fuelled events, doing their best to make you feel like you're in Japan rather than at a precinct based around Brisbane's old Peters ice-cream factory.
Ippin's decor will tie into its both its culinary influence and its setting, however, featuring Japanese touches but working with the timber and brickwork that's prominent around West Village.
Drinks-wise, expect sake — naturally — as well as a small lineup of cocktails and spirits, and a list of Australian, French and Italian wines.
The new Japanese go-to joins West End's already hefty range of food options, including gelato, burgers, Italian eats, doughnuts, Mediterranean cuisine, Hungarian pastries and Greek eats.
Find Ippin Japanese Dining at West End's West Village precinct, 97 Boundary Street, West End, from April 2023 — we'll update you with an exact opening date when one is announced.