The Don — Restaurant in Waitematā

The Don is a fancy Izakaya Japanese restaurant. They have lunch specials so HERE I AM. I ordered today’s lunch special Chicken Sauce Katsu Don ($16.5).

Ordering Wait at the entrance until staff attends to you. Staff brings you to an available seat. Then you order. Pay at the counter after meal.

Picking your autistic seat Unfortunately I’m too mentally weak to ask if I can pick a seat myself. And where I sit is hard to take a video of the layout. Please check other people’s video.

Water & Napkins Staff brings them to you.

Food - 9/10 The presentation is really fancy, like art. First time in my life I find salads edible. The portion is great. Chicken Katsu is juicy and delicious.

Service - 7/10 Everything is good until I pay at the counter. My gut feeling told me I should have thrown away my nearly empty lipstick. People look down on things like this. I used to talk down my inner voice, think gut feelings is not scientific until I find out no one thinks like how I think. I look away from the real world cuz I don’t want to face the bad and the ugly of myself.

Overall I will give this restaurant...

This is an amazing option not only for the price, but for the quality of food.

I know there are people who look for low prices for some good quality food, this is what you are looking for. Good food at a minimal price, you can fees yourself for for only about 13 dollars, left 80% full.

This food was great, I chose the pork fried katsu I think, and it was quite delicious, the pork was dry but it was flavourful with a generous amount of Japanese mayo and "takoyaki sauce like" spread on the pork. The salad is boring, not much, but it does come with a misi on the side, it does help ease the flavours of the mayo and brings a nice balance.

The area is cozy and a nice well lit place that gives an old fashioned vibe/atmosphere. It's nice to be in a different place to contrast with the modern city it is in. It is small, but doable.

Customer service was just OK, not great but not terrible, they don't seem excited maybe just nervous, but not too talkative, and they speak quietly, but the food came reasonably quick. No issues with the server, no miscommunication, and things...

First time and will be my last came here to get lunch takeaway.

I got recommended by my another friend to try so me & my colleague came and order and the staff said takes about 20 minutes, we are fine & understand since it was lunch time hour so they were bit busy.

20 mins later, food still not ready, we wait just another 10 mins before in the end we ask them if our food is ready. The lady said takes another 5 mins. We wait, but again it is more than 5 mins, we wait another almost 10 mins.

After we took our food everything seems fine except for mine. I order okonomiyaki, when I tried it tasted bit burnt I was thinking only some part is burnt, but nah I check all bottom part was burnt til i can taste the bitterness. I just keep eating it because cant be bother to came back there; wait for another minutes and I already so hungry. But the some parts I can’t eat it since too burnt. Such a waste of food :(

Thanks for made me disappointed by wait too long just to have my...