Let’s be honest. There are few foods better than things on a stick, flame-licked over high heat. Goryon-San, on busy Reservoir Street Surry Hills, is all about things on sticks, but there’s much more to this bustling izakaya serving kushiyaki popular in the Hakata district of Fukuoka. Where yakitori is traditionally focused purely on chicken, kushiyaki applies the same technique to all manner of protein and produce. Goryon-San is a go-to for a fuss-free feast, where you can choose your own adventure without being tied down by an entrée-main format.

It’s as much a raucously good time to quench the thirst as it is sating the hungry beast snack after snack. Step through noren curtains and grab a chair by the windows, at tables in groups or at the kitchen bench in front of the kushiyaki chefs as they twirl their sticks like DJs.

Start with edamame in a sweet garlic-chilli soy sauce, then hit the yasaimaki – vegetables wrapped in pork belly. Tightly rolled lettuce is cloaked in a thin veneer of pork belly then seared ’til crisp. It’s outrageous. Sukiyaki (enoki and kale) sees wagyu as the wrapping, and comes with a slow-poached egg for dipping, while Hokkaido scallops are wrapped in bacon and charred over the grill.

There’s a gamut of chicken bits in sticks – breast, giblet, tail and more – but don’t just stick to the skewers. Light pork gyoza comes in a tonkotsu soup with cabbage, sesame and shallot – an absolute must-order. In Japan they call these venues kakurega – meaning a refuge, a place where you can go to hide – and once you’ve been you’ll want to hide out here again and again.

Must eat dish: Hakata taki gyoza