Shinobi Sushi Lounge
For those who like Japanese cusine, I can recommend a new restaurant.
The Shonobi Sushi Lounge is next to the old Original Thai Restaurant at the corner of Vivian and Tory streets. Had dinner there on Sunday night – their second night of business.
The dishes were first class, and very reasonably priced. If you go along, I recommend you try the Ruapehu Rocket – divine.
Make sure you are good with chopsticks – they have no cutlery available, even if you are uncoordinated with the sticks!
I was with friends of the chefs, so it might not be typical, but the service was very friendly and good.
Definitely a restaurant I’ll go back to. Japanese is probably my second favourite cusine after Italian.
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Tags: Reviews
July 14th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Many many moons ago the contemporaries of my ancestors decided that eating with fingers and sticks was inefficient and invented tools much better for the purpose.
Unfortunately some of the world’s peoples didn’t have the smarts to do the same, some still don’t.
Should those people then turn round and effect snobbery or ignorance to the point where they demand I revert to stick-age man when dining at their establishment they can dine alone.
I’ll be eating elsewhere with the much more practical knife, fork and spoon.
July 14th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
…While some of our ancestors had the ability to learn to use the full range of tools available. Such skills were passed on to the lucky ones. Those whose ancestors were not so able (simple people) struggle to enjoy the myriad forms of enjoyment that the majority of us are lucky enough to experience…
Jerk!
July 14th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
NOt1tocommentoften, I bet the one thumb down you got was from MT_Tinman…
July 14th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
You ain’t lived until you’ve eaten Vietnamese tucker. Chinese without the glug.
Reminds me of an early cartoon from The Cannibal Isles. One big Fijian looks at the other after they’ve just eaten a chunk of roast human flesh from an early Chinese trader.
“Bula! You know, the trouble with Chinese is that no matter how much you eat, you always feel hungry.”
July 14th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
In Auckland, I recommend Sakanaya, near the corner of Symonds Street and Khyber Pass. Similar reasons.
July 14th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
I once lied to my conservative strict father that they only had chop sticks at the genuine chinese restaurant we were at (no street front signage, at the back of shops, upstairs, and were the only whiteys there). I let him suffer for a while trying to eat with a chopstick and his porcelain spoon left over from the soup. Then I took pity on him and got him cutlery from the secret basket at the back
Still not sure if I am back in the will.
July 14th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
> I’ll be eating elsewhere with the much more practical knife, fork and spoon.
Practical for dealing with large chunks of meat and vegetables on a flat plate — for sure!
Consider a Japanese meal, where there are no large pieces of meat, and where one is presented with several small bowls (one for rice, one for miso soup, one small one for the pickles, one for the salad and one for the pre-cut meat (or whole small fish)), then Japanese chopsticks (with their pointed ends) — and not the thin metal Korean ones or those blunt-ended, square-sectioned Chinese ones — are the way to go.
Hashi (Japanese chopsticks) are excellent for attacking salad. They are also the best way to eat small fish — you pare the flesh from the tiny bones. A knife and fork really isn’t up to the task — but then, Kiwis don’t eat small fish (they give them to the cat — what a waste!)
A knife and fork simply won’t cut it with Japanese food.
July 14th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Can you order deep fried Sushi?
July 14th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
GL, yes. They call it KFS. Keaps of it available in the South Auckland electorates.
July 14th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
I’m with Tinman on this, the outright snobbery of some diners and eateries is only matched by the snobbery one finds in the art world.
From the total wankers who insist on having an outside table in a howling Wellington northerly while they sip their triple shot coffee’s just so they can be “seen” to the equally pretentious Jafa pricks who will make sure they only eat at the “in” establishments and insist on doing so while wearing the latest pair of sunglasses long after the sun has gone down.
To open a restaurant and refuse to provide the local eating utensils is the height of ignorance, no doubt the head order taker (who calls him/herself a maître d’) will have got the job on the basis of a claimed knowledge of all of Wellingtons “A List”, I suspect that this place will be every popular with the in crowd for a short while (the very best reason one needs to stay well away) and then it will go out of business as that same in crowd become bored with it or some other equally snobbery eating establishment opens its doors.
Wellington and NZ are just not big enough for this type of culinary masturbation.
July 14th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Then its the missionary position for BB & tinman …
July 14th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
big bruv (4002) Vote: 0 0 Says:
July 14th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
I’m with Tinman on this, the outright snobbery of some diners and eateries is only matched by the snobbery one finds in the art world.
From the total wankers who insist on having an outside table in a howling Wellington northerly while they sip their triple shot coffee’s just so they can be “seen” to the equally pretentious Jafa pricks who will make sure they only eat at the “in” establishments and insist on doing so while wearing the latest pair of sunglasses long after the sun has gone down.
To open a restaurant and refuse to provide the local eating utensils is the height of ignorance, no doubt the head order taker (who calls him/herself a maître d’) will have got the job on the basis of a claimed knowledge of all of Wellingtons “A List”, I suspect that this place will be every popular with the in crowd for a short while (the very best reason one needs to stay well away) and then it will go out of business as that same in crowd become bored with it or some other equally snobbery eating establishment opens its doors.
Wellington and NZ are just not big enough for this type of culinary masturbation.
Wow. I don’t think you actually realise how much more anal you sound than the people you’ve described in your post there man.
July 14th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
For sushi use your fingers. It is not the end of the world.
July 14th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Oh yes, how terrifically snobby of me to eat food like the Japanese. I will remember to ask for a fork, knife and some Watties next time I brave it into a Sushi bar
July 15th, 2009 at 6:01 am
Clint,
Could I get my sushi cooked a bit? I don’t like that godamn native raw fish stuff.
July 15th, 2009 at 8:02 am
Why do people equate sushi with raw fish?
Sashimi, I could understand, but most sushi in NZ does not contain raw fish. In fact much of it doesn’t contain any fish.
July 15th, 2009 at 8:20 am
Indeed. Most sushi isn’t raw. I love it either way. I want to eat dolphin sushi!
July 15th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Anyway everything Japanese has been ripped off the Chinese or Koreans. Japanese cuisine is fairly pedestrian. OK if you like plain food and they do it well. The problem is in NZ until very recently there were no good Chinese restaurants all that Cantonese ginger chicken bollocks. As for Korean in NZ it is good hardy fair. (Korean restaurants in NZ they usually do one dish very well. Koreans travel to a particular restaurant just to order that particular dish.)
In NZ until recently the quality of Chinese & Koreans restaurants made the Japs look good. I doubt if there are any really good Chinese restaurants in a provincial town like Wellington, but there are some pretty good ones here in the heartland Auckland.
And if you want to use chop sticks but don’t know how also use a spoon.
(don’t know how to do those smiley faces)
July 15th, 2009 at 9:40 am
I doubt if there are any really good Chinese restaurants in a provincial town like Wellington, but there are some pretty good ones here in the heartland Auckland.
Oh, which ones would you recommend?
July 15th, 2009 at 11:08 am
I also wont go to a restaurant that only provides chopsticks. I decided long ago that I was simply too misco-ordinated to use chopsticks and gave up trying, plus a knife and fork were a superior solution to the problem of getting food from plate to mouth. I’ve never looked back.
July 15th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Are you mad simon? Granted I haven’t been to china but I’ve been to a number of excellent chinese restaurants around the world (LA, London, Sydney, Singapore, etc. etc.) and the food from big thumb, grand century and the majestic in wellington is on par with anything i’ve had from the so called “best” chinese restaurants in these world cities. Still waiting for the day I can go to beijing and have a proper imperial banquet though!
July 15th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
I accidentally went to the Eastern Egret, a Cantonese restaurant in Waikanae (of all places), recently and the food and service were excellent.
It’s one of those places that fools you with a menu that looks like any other ordinary Chinese joint, then the food turns up and it’s unexpectedly delightful.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
“Still waiting for the day I can go to beijing and have a proper imperial banquet though!”
Skip it – go to the Uigher area in Beijing for the best lamb kebabs you’ll ever eat.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Sichuan 333 Remuera Rd
Steamboat Restaurant 17 Crowhurst St, Newmarket
China Restaurant 2 Beach Rd CBD
All these are good. There are a few more. Much better than anything avaialiable in Auckland say 10 years ago.
Just remembered if anyone is interested there is a Korean restaurant top of Queen St oppostite Myers Park that does Korean versions of Chinese cooking. Don’t know the name but it is very good. Sort of a cross over.