Auckland Restaurant Review: Sumi in City Works Depot is Auckland’s ‘Hottest Ticket’

This new Japanese restaurant from chef Jason Lee has made Jesse Mulligan’s heart come alive.

There is a precise and wonderful chemistry to Sumi, a new Japanese eatery next to Tacoteca in City Works Depot. They’ve taken over the space from a hairdresser, but you would never know it. An impressive charcoal grill dominates the room, with a bar at one end and a sushi kitchen at the other. There are bar seats and table seats and then, best of all, a few red plastic Sapporo crates that have been turned into furniture on the pavement outside. The smoke and steam create an anime-style atmosphere around the whole restaurant. As someone who has travelled to and fallen in love with Japan, I felt my heart come alive.

Sweet, wonderful staff hurry around the room. They wear black and, some of them, a blue denim pinafore, and yet they seem like the most stylishly dressed people you have seen in weeks. Service is just a little chaotic but you forgive them a lot in these opening weeks with a full room of (almost exclusively Japanese) customers hungrily making their way through the menu.

Our table didn’t have a winelist and when I looked around I saw that nobody had an alcoholic drink in front of them. Was the restaurant still waiting on a liquor licence? But no, it was just a sign of the times. Young people seem to have the ability to go out for dinner without getting black-out drunk. I know, I’m as confused as you are.

My friend and I ordered four pints of beer and a large carafe of sake to enjoy while we looked through the menu. Absolutely everything looked appealing, so we chose a few cold things to get the party under way.

Chef Jason Lee is a master in the kitchen. Though his roots are Korean (there was a bit of colonial interchange between the two countries at the end of the 19th century) and he moved to New Zealand at the age of 11, he has become one of the most significant Japanese chefs in Auckland. This is thanks, in part, to his friendship with Cocoro’s Makoto Tokuyama, who Jason used to work with and who helped him open up the brilliant Wakuwaku in Remuera. But he has his own style too, adopting the extremely precise approach to casual cooking that characterises the best restaurants in Japan (if you haven’t tried the crumbed pork at his Katsu Katsu joint in Khyber Pass please make plans to visit – you can pick up some of the new, squeezable ice cream pouches from Tokyo Mart next door on the way home).

Nigiri – a sliver of fish draped on an ovoid of vinegared-rice – is a dish I will order every time and every time it will be salmon. But here it was a white-fleshed fish: alfonsino! I haven’t come across this species since I ate at Kazuya almost 10 years ago. I love that our city’s Japanese chefs are maintaining a market for marine obscurities.

Speaking of which, one of the most delightful moments came with a selection of pickles that arrived midway through the dinner. “Is this … tako wasabi?” my friend asked, referencing a famous octopus dish.

“No, not tako,” replied our waitress. “It is … sea snail.”

It was delicious. Sharp, with a rubbery bite and flavours of the ocean.

But I don’t want to give you the impression the whole menu is wacky. A lot of it is simple and equally wonderful. You can get karaage chicken or prawn on a stick (too much admin for me but it looks beautiful and I can see the appeal). Interestingly, the grilled meats come almost mains-style: the lamb chops are amazingly tender and tasty with a smear of red miso, served with grilled onion and mushrooms. There are similar accompaniments with the beef short rib, which unfortunately I didn’t quite understand – the meat so chewy you’re forced to either reject it or swallow the piece whole.

The vegetables are treated with great respect at Sumi, lined up fresh in bowls along the kitchen counter then grilled just enough to give them a little charcoal colour. Radishes, capsicums, tomatoes and even lettuce are scorched then served with a bagna cauda (a sort of warm anchovy mayo) and meats come with a slice of grilled avocado (I know! Jamie Oliver does avo chips in his air fryer cookbook – the world has gone mad).

Order the beef tendon in soup if it’s available, and look out for another special – grilled scallop with soy sauce – that will be arriving on the fulltime menu soon. Yes, I ate and drank a lot. But the meal only cost me $200. This is Auckland’s hottest new ticket – queue to get in if you have to.

Cuisine: Japanese

Address: Shed 2, City Works Depot, 90 Wellesley St West

Drinks: Fully licensed

Reservations: Accepted

From the menu: Sashimi (3 fish) $25; nigiri (2pc) $12; pickles $12; beef rib $25; lamb chop $24; eel $19; vegetables with bagna cauda $19

Rating: 19/20

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