Agent Hippo: Shoubu Japanese Bar & Restaurant, Parnell Auckland

When it comes to Japanese food, my partner and I will never be bored or afraid of having too much Japanese food in a row. It is one of our favourite cuisine. Last Sunday, we had our early lunch at Shoubu Japanese Bar & Restaurant at Parnell.

The restaurant opens at 11.30am and we were their first customers for that day. before we entered to their restaurant, we saw one of their Japanese staff was writing on the promotion board for their TODAY'S SPECIAL! As we walked up the stairs, we were greeted by their friendly Japanese staff. Since we were their first customers, we were allowed to seat at whichever place that we like. We choose to sit by the window as it was quite a sunny day.

The surrounding of the restaurant are being decorated with handmade dragonfly. Why dragonfly? I guess it used to be in their logo. Dragonfly can also be found printed in all their cutlery such as plates and cups.

We were then presented with their lunch menu with explanation by one of their Japanese staff. The pricing of the food is not expensive at all. It is very value for money. During their lunch hour, they have three different types of lunch set for you to choose. We chosen their NZD15 set lunch, which inclusive of 2 main selections, miso soup, salad, pickles of the day, rice and green tea.

I had chosen yasai tempura and sushi for myself, meanwhile my partner had selected sashimi and karaage chicken as the main.

We were first served with green tea, miso soup and salad. They have some seaweed in their miso soup but not the tofu. However, I discovered that they have some bits and pieces of salmon in the miso soup that makes the soups taste a little sweet as well. This is my first time seeing salmon in a miso soup. Very out of ordinary!

Then one of our mains were being served with rice and pickles. The total presentation of the food was quite good as there's some fencing and raft decorations available. Both myself and my partner always share our food together in order to get a taste of everything. Hence, I get to taste the sashimi that he had ordered.

As I put one of the salmon into my mouth and while chewing it, I start to feel like there's bones in the salmon sashimi in my mouth. And true enough, I found a small tiny bone in the salmon sashimi that I had. Of all the sashimi I had tasted so far (irregardless at which country), I never encounter any of this experience before. It is totally unacceptable to me. It may get me choke if I am not careful with it. In total there's three pieces of salmon sashimi and two pieces of it have bones in it. Kinda disappointed with that.

Apart from the salmon sashimi that I am disappointed, the rest of the foods were quite okay. I mean where can you find a lunch set of NZD15 with such a portion and the taste is also not too bad right? After all it still worth the money for NZD30 for 2 sets of lunch meal. What say you?