Kiraku, Auckland City

Kiraku specialises in noodle soup and bite-sized savoury dumplings. Picture / Carolyn Robertson

Ain't no love in the heart of the city, reckons Mary Coughlan, and after a stint as an inner-city citizen I'm bowing to our lady's wider experience and making for the county line.

Twelve months of a charmless cell block near city hall and I can safely say I'm over The Edge.

Police, fire and St John stations within a 50m circle certainly provide ambience. Or ambulances, usually around 2am. Get some sleep before the trash trucks come by at 4.30am. Kip until the city gardener power-vacuums the leaves from 6.30am. Every morning.

The menage a trois of brothels gives the street a woman's touch. Oh, the patrons beat the bejesus out of one another in the wee smalls, but you could be sure of a cheery wave from the builders on the 12th floor next door as they revved their skilsaws in time for the opening credits of Nightline.

That's the dark end of the street. The bright side of the road is the movies, the library, the concerts, biking around the bays, meeting and guiding tourists from America, Europe, South America, a world of foodstores, a global village of restaurants.

Just before the CBD drove me Completely Bloomin' Demented, I lucked into the tiniest restaurant in Auckland.

Kiraku is newly opened on Elliott St. Eight barstools, L-shaped counter.

Joe Funayama yearned for a hole-in-the-wall, drop-in noodle bar like the ones back home so he and his wife, Shalinee, opened this one. Don't think it's got a wall big enough to put a hole in.

They specialise in ramen (noodle soup) and gyoza (bite-sized savoury dumplings).

"Most are flavours that [Japanese] expats would recognise," he tells me. "Our traditional gyoza uses New Zealand trimpork flavoured with garlic chives and other Japanese seasonings. But Kiwi tastebuds are adventurous, so we have more exotic combinations such as tiger prawn, chicken chilli and kaffir lime and seasonal vegetables with a touch of cream cheese. It's easy to get them wrong, but when we make them, they're delicious."

Right. Like most Japanese food, gyoza looks simple but the taste comes belting through. Healthy, too - they can be pan-fried or cooked in boiling water using no oil.

Most business happens around lunchtime, when suits and students and shoppers eat in or take out to the seats in Elliott St.

I drop in around 7.30pm. Three seats are taken. Power-suit has the stool at end of the row. Slopping ramen and absorbing the atmosphere, or rather Woman's Day, she tucks into chicken dumplings.

A couple arrive from the gym. He is concerned about the ingredients: what is vegetarian, what is the provenance of the oil they're cooked in? Joe assures Gym that his abs are not an endangered species, that his food is not only geographically correct but politically and gymnastically appropriate.

For me, a big pottery bowl of noodles, half a boiled egg, a couple of slices of pork, slipping the black square of roasted seaweed into the broth to sharpen the flavours. On the side, five mouthfuls of tastebud-zinging dumplings, dipped into a row of condiments. Chilli and soy sauce is my preference. The perfect match: Bundaberg ginger beer (the hard stuff, not that wimpy diet muck).

It's fast, it's filling, it's fiscally frugal - $12.50 for that meal - and darned good.

They say Kiraku roughly translates to "no worries". Don't think that Joe and Shalinee should have too many.

KIRAKU

Address: Elliott St, City
Phone: (09) 302 0156
Open: Mon-Sat 11am-9.30pm
Cuisine: Japanese noodles, dumplings
From the menu: Gyoza - 5-piece vegetable $4, 5-piece pork, chicken or beef $4.50; Ramen - $7.50-$8
Vegetarian: In spoons
Wine: Unlicensed
Bottom line: Fast, filling, fiscally frugal - and darned good