Koji — Restaurant in North Island

The service was lovely and so was the location. The food suffered from some execution issues though. Here is my summary of the different dishes:

We started with sashimi which was warm, badly sliced and thrown on a plate with a badly balanced sauce. None of the guests ate more than a piece.

The tartare next was nice but forgettable served in a bowls of grain. The grains clearly weren’t for eating and felt like they were being reused, which made it uncomfortable to eat as they stuck to the tartare.

The eggplant was great, would recommend. The udon noodles went pretty badly as they don’t mention the raw egg on the menu so some of the guests had to scoop the egg out. There was also only three small pieces of meat which just doesn’t feel very generous. Maybe slicing would have been a better way to go than a couple of nuggets.

The lamb was burnt, it had a black crust on the outside with a very distinct burnt taste.

The kingfish was tasty but overcooked.

The dessert of coconut and mango ice cream was tasty but pretty ordinary. Would really have loved something a bit more creative.

My only other comment is that wine list’s tasting notes are pretty misleading. Our server was gently trying to steer us away from some of the choices but we...

Our new Welly fav! We had an amazing weekend lunch at Koji for my husbands birthday which was our first and definitely not the last visit to this friendly passionate team of foodies. We are both gluten and dairy free which can make eating out a bit hit and miss. Our dietary requirements were not an issue at all here and we had the most amazing nine course chef's choice experience. The food was incredible - the mix of textures and flavours in each dish make my mouth water just remembering them. The great thing about chefs choice meals is that you get to try things you might not otherwise experience which is half the fun. Favourites were the battered cauliflower in strange sauce - crunchy, chewy, moist melt in your mouth with a sticky sauce. I loved the raw fish dish we started with, and the juicy baked aubergine with seaweed, black sesame and pepitas. The textures and flavours were just devine. Can so recommend coming here for a fabulous experience. We loved the booths and that we weren't packed in with other diners so we could enjoy the experience and actually hear each other. So often tables are packed in and you have no privacy. Can highly recommend visiting the...

After some recommendations from friends and positive write-ups online we decided to try Koji as a belated Valentine’s Day dinner. Unfortunately our attempts at booking online and by phone we’re unsuccessful so we decided to take the risk of a walk-in on a Friday evening. Thankfully the duty manager (I think? If so, thanks Abbie!) was able to rearrange a few tables to fit in our party of four. Perusing the menu we decided there were just too many options to choose from so we went for the full Monty - 9 courses of chef’s choice. And it was definitely the best choice, we got to sample so many top flavours from the kitchen. My top three were the yellow curry beef doughnuts, the chicken and prawn dumplings (swimming in delicious ‘strange flavour’ sauce and chili oil) and the amazing dessert of mango and coconut ice cream. Would we have chosen the Cloudy Bay clams? No but it’s always good to push your boundaries every once in a while. We did have one hiccup of a missed course, but to be honest, I’m not that upset on missing out on the sashimi. Cold fish, not my bag. Overall, a great night out, topped off with some standout cocktails....