Tokyo Club Japanese Izakaya — Restaurant in Waitematā

WOW... Many years ago proper restaurants used to have a Maitre'D (Maître d' is short for maître d'hôtel, which comes from French and literally means "master of the house). They would make you feel like your at your aunts house for a special occasion and charm you with their soft voice.

Well this place definitely sticks to tradition and the Maitre'D is Sarasa. The Japanese owner (only been in NZ for 22 years) hosts all guests and making them all feel like VIP guests. Seriouslly impeccable service with genuine and traditional Japanese fare reminiscent of Tokyo Izakayas (I lived in Tokyo for 3.5 years and this place is as close as it gets for food, ambience and service).

Quickest way to feel you are in Tokyo is grab a counter seat and chit chat with Sarasa and the Japanese staff. Order a bento box (actually very cheap at $32) and wash down with Asahi beers.

Campai!!!

Will be back Sarasa San...

Ordered a blue water bento and it was delicious, gripe is that it's a bit overpriced for $39. The sashimi was really good but there are only 6 pieces, the salmon rolls are nice but could have more avocado. The salad is obviously quite worthless and didn't taste all that good and was almost a third of the bento as you can see. More sashimi, less salad please! The grilled scallop was amazing though, but there was only one piece. I would recommend getting one of their sashimi or grill plates rather than their bento as you get given a whole bunch of random stuff to pad up the size of the bento. Like if you removed the salad and rice from them you'd barely even have a meal. On the upside their service is very attentive and friendly....

Met up here with a mate for dinner and was pleasantly surprised by the whole shebang before we went bar hopping. The venue owners and all staff are Japanese. The food was fantastic, fresh, and authentic. You can watch your food being cooked virtually in front of you so you can see what's going on. The service was great with friendly, attentive staff. The atmosphere was nice, being it was in the Ponsonby Central Foodary complex, but surprisingly not noisy and overpowering or distracting as one might expect in such a large busy foodary. Conversion was easily heard between us. I should add it was a Thursday night, so Ponsonby was quite busy...