Agent Hippo: Japanese Meals in Auckland

Japanese food is one of my favourite foods. Whenever I get to choose what to have, Japanese food will be the first that come to my mind.

In my opinion, it’s always worth it to have Japanese food when I am in New Zealand and Australia. The prices are comparable to the prices in Malaysia. In addition to that, you can get a better and fresher quality in New Zealand and Australia.

During my visit in Auckland, a few of my meals were Japanese food. The first Japanese meal that I had been was in the Atrium of Elliot, Auckland city for brunch. They have a very wide variety of choices for you to pick. All looks delicious to me and took us awhile to pick our choices. We ended up choosing:-

• Unagi sushi

• Salmon roll sushi

• Tuna roll sushi

• Yasai tempura

• Fried potato

Brunch at Atrium of Elliot

The standards of the foods are comparable to those Japanese restaurant that we had in Malaysia, i.e. Sushi King and Sakae Sushi. Or I could say some is even better than them.

Another Japanese meal that I had been was Tanuki Japanese Sake & Sushi Bar at Auckland. My friend was supposed to bring me to try out Tanuki’s Cave Yakitori Bar. However, we were early and we ended up with Tanuki Japanese Sake & Sushi Bar. Most of their staffs are Japanese as well.

Interior of Tanuki Japanese Sake & Sushi Bar

They have a Sake/ Sushi bar provided as well as a few wooden tables and chairs as part of their interior. Besides, they do have some decorations with Japanese beer cans and barrels.

Decorations of Japanese beer

In there, we started of our dinner with sashimi set and seaweed salad. The sashimis are very fresh as compared to those that I can find in Malaysia.

Sashimi set

Seaweed Salad

Then we continued with salt grilled salmon fillet, Tanuki’s steak and chicken katsu as our sharing main meals. The salt grilled salmon fillet was quite ordinary and don’t look so presentable as compared to the Tanuki’s steak and chicken katsu. However, it is still very fresh.

Salt Grilled Salmon Fillet

Meanwhile, I find Tanuki’s steak was very special as it was cooked with Ponzu sauce (citrus-soy vinaigrette) using scotch fillet. It was very appetizing.

Tanuki's Steak

Besides, the chicken katsu that I had was totally different from the one that I had in Malaysia. The one I had in Malaysia are usually breadcrumbed chicken thigh only. However the one I had at Tanuki was served with Tonkatsu sauce and salad. Hence it’s more appetizing and delicious as compared to the one I tried before.

Chicken Katsu

Lastly we ended our dinner with sesame mochi and red bean macha ice cream as desserts to share among ourselves.

Dessert: Sesame Mochi & Macha Ice Cream with Red Bean

The last Japanese meal I had in Auckland was lunch in Gion, Parnell. Gion does not only sell food, but it also operates a small shop next to it by selling all the Japanese items.

Gion

Gion has this special lunch promotions that are very affordable and attractive to us. The promotions are to choose two of your favourite foods from the list provided to complete our lunch selections. The two foods selections are served with Hikari white miso soup, vegetables salad with Gion special dressing and mayo, side dishes which consists of tobiko wasabi, sweet Japanese omelette, red pickles cucumber, Botan premium steamed rice and seasonal fresh fruits.

Sushi Mixed and Karaage Chicken Bento Set

I had chosen the combination of salmon sashimi and mixed tempura. Meanwhile my friend chosen the combination of sushi mixed and karaage chicken.

Salmon & Mixed Tempura Bento Set

After the bento set, we were very full; however we still need something sweet to end our meals with. Therefore, we had ordered 3 different desserts which are the banana katsu, black sesame ice cream, and mochi.