St Pierres Sushi & Bento Bowl (Oteha Valley) — Restaurant in Upper Harbour

Of all the disappointments in the Auckland food scene, my recent experience at Bento Bowl Oteha Valley stands out for its sheer audacity. The primary offender? The Karaage Chicken. Anticipating that satisfying, shatteringly crisp exterior giving way to juicy meat, I was met instead with a limp, greasy, and tragically soft piece of chicken. The coating had the dismal texture of a wet paper bag. The most frustrating part is that this is such an easy fix; even a quick 30-second re-fry at home would have transformed it into something craveable. It’s a fundamental failure of kitchen execution. This leads to the second gut punch: the price. For what they charge for a single bento bowl, you are well within the territory of a proper, authentic Japanese restaurant. Why would anyone settle for this subpar imitation when you could have a truly memorable meal elsewhere? For the same investment, you could be enjoying impeccable, fresh sushi at St Pierres without the lingering taste of regret. The entire meal felt like a cynical transaction, charging premium prices for a product that demonstrates zero pride or understanding of the cuisine it’s attempting to emulate. You’re not just paying for food; you’re paying for the profound disappointment of what could have been. My advice is simple: save your money and your palate. Go literally anywhere else. At least at St Pierres, you know you’re getting what...

Oteha Valley Rd store can be a bit hit-and-miss unfortunately. Some times they do an amazing job of making the sushi, but other times it can be very disappointing, with wrong orders, funny-tasting chicken, or rotten avocado. The staff often struggle to understand custom orders, so we've found it easier to write our order on a piece of paper and give it to them, which has mostly resolved that problem. There's usually plenty of parking in that block of shops and the store looks clean and tidy. Prices are standard across all St. Pierre's stores and fairly comparable to what you'd pay anywhere else. If you can afford the few minutes extra drive though, the St. Pierre's near the entrance to Albany Mega Centre do a much better job and their...

My little girl and I came in store and shared 1x chicken sushi of the day and 1x chicken on rice with Mayo yesterday. By 11pm last night we were both experiencing vomiting and diarrhoea. My daughter is only 1.5 so very concerning and the stomach cramps are extremely painful. We have unfortunately got food poisoning from your store. I know this as it was the only thing we ate differently to the rest of our family. Im so upset and disappointed. My daughter cannot keep any food or fluids down and if she doesn’t improve over the next few hours she will need to be admitted to hospital. This is not...