Taisho — Restaurant in Waitematā

I have never left a restaurant review but this the food here is exquisite. No tedious sushi overwhelmed with rice; no basins of noddles in broth which are wholesome and fun to slurp. This is an entirely different level. Tiny portions of tasty pork, lamb, salmon, shrimps wrapped in bacon etc all so simply and intensely what they are, not adulterated or played around with. Everything is cooked on tiny racks over a rectangular ditch containing the charcoal. The maestro Japanese chef stands in his kimono and head scarf watching his customers as he manipulates the delicate and tasty morsels with chopsticks before each is placed in tiny bowls and born by delicate looking Japanese waitresses. I went last night and wish I could go again tonight. And the...

First thing you notice at this store when you walk in is the open kitchen which the chef does the BBQ skewers in, the open kitchen is surprisingly quiet as you could not hear it at all. The presentation and aesthetics are one of the better ones compared to other Asian dinning I've been to in Auckland. However this brings me to the next part. The price is well, shall we say... Expensive. Pictured below, is a dish of "chef special" skewers which sell for just south of $30 of which while looks good, is ultimately disappointing as the taste is average and portion abysmal. You're looking at spending $70-80 for 2 people if you want to have a full stomach. But as the location is up market, the price is...

Overall it was good. Sashimi was so fresh!!! Yakitori was also yummy! We ve got chef selection and chicken heart. The chicken heart was real good !! Chef selection was good deal for what you get but next time, we would prefer to order individual yakitori as we can pick what we want. We added karrage chicken in the end. I felt the chicken didn't have enough seasoning. a bit blend to me. We will definitely be back to have...