9 Bowls Japanese Eatery — Restaurant in Howick

We visited 9 bowls for lunch and ordered two katsu chicken donburi, and one Korean fried chicken donburi. Queried whether I was able to order the fish and chips in a kids size (*as there were no child specific items offered on the menu), but was informed this wouldn’t be possible, which was cool, not all eateries have capacity to cater for children, so I ended up ordering fries for my child instead to avoid any excess food being wasted - all good. We also ordered taro milk tea with brown sugar boba, and the watermelon and guava soda with green apple popping pearls.

My whānau highly recommend the katsu chicken donburi, the breading on the chicken was light and crisp/sauce was sweet and flavourful. I highly recommend the taro milk tea with brown sugar pearls and the watermelon & guava soda. The milk tea was silky and offered just the right amount of sweetness. The watermelon and guava soda with green apple popping pearls was delicious - could taste each individual flavour clearly (so yum!)

Probably would not recommend the Korean fried chicken donburi. The donburi bowl I received was simply chicken and sauce on top of rice with no vegetables. (I wasn’t aware you needed to specifically request salad be added to your donburi, as other Japanese eateries I’ve ordered donburi from in the past have included veg without it being specifically requested - *I accept I could have missed where this was noted in the menu though) The breading on the chicken was fine, however the chicken itself was considerably dry and chewy throughout, and the sauce used tasted like trident sweet chilli sauce. The one positive thing I would note about this dish, is that the portion size...

9 Bowls is physically located in the same building as Han's Kitchen. They also share the same dining area but have different operating times. Most of the items on the menu were under $20. There are menus for both at the front. I went with the Korean option but my dad went for the chicken katsu bento and we were able to order at the same time. The food was delivered to the table when it was ready. For each item, you had options of having it on rice, with udon or as a bento box. I also ordered the taro milk tea and that was really good. The taro flavour was really nice. They didn't have pearls but had jelly which had a nice chew to it. The bento was loaded with the chicken katsu. The katsu was really crispy as it was coated with cornflakes. The rice portion was quite decent as were the other side items. Although the bento was about twice the price, it looked like there were twice the portions. It was a really nice place to grab some food even though it is a bit out of the way. I really liked the option of being able to get both Japanese and Korean food at the same time but their opening times differ so it might only be available during...

Cool little food joint hidden amongst the industrial East Tamaki area. My partner & I ate in for dinner. Food we tried included… (Gyu Beef) added fried egg, Slaw & melted cheese 10/10. (Corn Cheese) Sweet mayo cheesy oniony flavour 10/10 (Curry Cheese pie) Crunchy Panko outside with cheesy mozzarella + curry sauce inside 10/10 (Choco Pie) Same as above except chocolate filling 10/10 (Spicy Rice Cake) little inconsistent some nice & chewy then some a bit hard 6/10 (Prawn Dumplings) Nice sauce but pretty standard 6/10 (8 Piece Wings 2 Flavours) Spicy + Honey Butter. Batter was a little heavy. Quite pricey $18 5/10 (Original Milk tea) 6/10

Unfortunately they forgot to give us our complimentary Friday waffle fries but no biggie lol

We definitely enjoyed this Food Spot & obviously enjoyed some things more than others but everybody has different taste buds & this is just our experience. We would recommend to others for sure though.

Overall...