Auckland restaurant review: Kim Knight eyes the menu at Nook, St Kevin's Arcade. Yvonne Lorkin's lowdown on drinks

One bar, two kitchens. Nook (right) and Lowbrow (left) have perfected the art of fun and informal dining in St Kevin's Arcade, Karangahape Rd. Photo/Babiche Martens

It's winter - do your carb-loading at Nook, where the rice (and the toast) is more interesting than usual, writes restaurant critic Kim Knight.

I ordered the salmon but what I really wanted was socks.

Nook was freezing. Nook was nothing like the word implies (warm, cosy, secluded). Nook was a long row of low tables in the drafty section of St Kevin's Arcade. The high stools were occupied by the cool kids. Glittery faces, shoestring-strapped shoulders. They didn't stay long. Cool is good, hypothermia is bad. I wanted to drape them in my boyfriend's puffer jacket but he wasn't even giving it up for his girlfriend.

I ate the salmon. I drank the $10 happy hour pinot. In Japan, I learned it is more correct to drink sake cold. At Nook, we ordered it warm. Anything to defrost.

Why didn't they turn on the heaters? I jiggled my bare ankles and frowned at James when he said he wanted the beef tartare. "It's unseasonal," I complained. It arrived and it was possibly the most delicious thing I've been served on a square of (better than it reads) rice paper-coated nori. The $5, three-bite combination of piquant, mushroomy puree and chewy red meat on a teeth sticking-crunchy cracker was irresistible. I immediately ordered another.

When you go to Nook, wear layers. Maybe they will have turned on the heaters. Even if they haven't, the food is so stupidly good it will eventually warm the grumpiest of hearts.

The restaurant is from the team behind Culprit and Lowbrow. The latter (with its short-order sandos and wings with white bread) is directly across the way from Nook. Two menus and two kitchens; one bar, seating area and service crew who probably don't feel the incoming chill because they literally spend their evening jogging from one side of St Kevin's Arcade to the other.

Nook takes its culinary inspiration from Japan - a handful of skewered and grilled kushiyaki, some raw things, some cooked things, lots of references to miso and a selection of rice bowls to fill up with. Eat the salmon belly stick ($9 for two) while it's hot and let that fatty, crispy skin go snap-crackle-melt in your mouth. I had high hopes for the skewered chicken heart special ($5) but, if this dish appeals, I think Dominion Rd's Omni does it better - Nook's was bigger, but a little dry.

Beef tartare, loaded rice, pickles, prawn toast and skewers, all on the menu at Nook in St Kevin's Arcade. Photo/Babiche Martens

I adore rice and the $7 luxed-up version they serve here is ridiculously good stomach-lining value. Basically a giant bowl of carbs loaded with kewpie mayo, chilli oil (spiked with cumin), fresh spring onion, crispy shallot, toasted nori and sweet-sour tare sauce, this is perfect Friday night prep (but also, could someone please put this on a morning-after brunch menu, stat?).

Karaage chicken ($14) was a late and excellent decision on my part. It was quite salty but had that excellent "dry" crust that helps you forget you're eating fried food (until you hit the small, flat bits - zero meat, all skin. Swoon).

New Zealanders have a tendency to sneer at surimi but in Japan it's a bona fide art form. Done well, the textural bounce and the subtle, sweet flavour that goes into "kamoboko" (sometimes translated as "fish sausage") is divine. Still not convinced? Go to Nook and get the prawn toast - an enigma, inside a jumbo tiger prawn head, on top of a piece of delicious fried white bread. The prawn head is real enough, but I think there's a whole lot more cleverness going on here. $9 extremely well spent.

Our final dish was the fried eggplant with yuzu miso sauce ($15). So. Much. Miso. More like a dip than a sauce, and the aubergine was wildly undercooked. Or so we thought. Eat this with your mouth, not your eyes because that pale colour was due to an unexpected tempura batter and the vegetable itself was sublimely smooth and creamy. The ordinary made elegant, a gumboot-tea-in-a-bone-china-cup moment.

Nook is cheap and cheerful and while it might consider investing in more heating, it cuts no corners when it comes to flavour or technique. Take a date - and sit close.

Nook, St Kevin's Arcade, 183 Karangahape Rd, Auckland, ph (09) 300 6410. We spent: $122 for two.

NOOK/LOWBROW DRINKS LIST

I love that Nook's beersies have a Japanese bent and that you can choose between Asahi Dry Black, Suntory, Kirin and Orion, as well as locals like Hallertau's Mr Yakimoto and Piha Brewery's Lowtide. Lowbrow have a rotating tap list but their packaged brews consist of an eponymous Lowbrow Lager and offerings from Sawmill, Fortune Favours, Boundary Rd and a cider from Three Wise Birds. I couldn't see any zero-alc beers listed — and with this being one of the fastest-growing beer categories — there's no valid reason for omission. Nook's house sake is Otokoyama, but they'll happily pour you three of our own international award-winning, Queenstown-based Zenkuro sakes, expertly crafted by certified sake professional, Dave Joll. Whisky-wizzes can wander through no fewer than 12 Japanese examples, plus there's a sneaky little corner called "etc", housing sparkling sake, house-made yuzucello, umeshu (plum liqueur) and a couple of "chu hi", which are sort of like shochu-based seltzers. Wine-wise, if you're a fan of the natural, wild, skinsy, slightly sour and funkily feral styles, then you can fill your faux-leather boots from Lowbrow's list, because that's all that's on offer here. And if herbaceous, smoky stuff is your thing, then go large on their house-hopped cocktail dubbed "Gin & Chronic". I reckon the shared-drinks list idea is groovy and the fact that between 3pm and 6pm Lowbrow and Nook have $14 negronis and $10 wine specials, gives me all the carrot I need to visit.

— Yvonne Lorkin