107 Ponsonby Road,
Ponsonby
Auckland,


(09) 360 8638

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Yoko, Gyoza King Japanese Bar & Restaurant’s hard-working waitress, is apparently “more than too happy to cater for any requests”; or so the menu says.

Already I am worried about Yoko. The menu also suggests we ask her for an alcoholic drink to match our meal. Fine; I can do that without compromising the poor woman.

Although we had only intended to come in for a drink the sight of all those meals rushing past to hungry diners and takeaway patrons soon wears us down.

Drinks first. Yoko recommends cold sake ($5) over hot tonight. It comes in a tiny wooden box swimming in overflow sake which we can tip into the glass once we’ve emptied that.

Yoko assures me it doesn’t have the punch of the usual face-smashing-on-the-concrete fire water I’ve had the misfortune to try before. “Same as wine” she says. One sip tells me she’s right. I think the sake might be watered down and it’s all the better for it.

Things are done slightly different at the Gyoza King Japanese Bar & Restaurant but it’s a welcome change to most of the upmarket bars along Ponsonby Road.

As a bar it offers almost everything. A range of beer, traditional cocktails with awful names (Sex on the Beach etc), Japanese cocktails featuring ingredients like plum wine (umeshu), peach liqueur and cherry brandy, spirits—familiar and unfamiliar such as Japanese vodka called shocu ($4.80)—and a reasonable wine list.

A few people sit at the bar but the room soon fills with groups (Asian and non-Asian) who are here for the cheap, good nosh.

The menu takes a bit of reading before you can drive it but the explanations are clear. Gyoza is apparently a Japanese-style dumpling which is first boiled then pan-fried in sesame oil to add flavour. Mostly the dumplings consist of ground pork with veges like cabbage, garlic chives, ginger and garlic wrapped in thinly rolled dough.

Because they take about 10 minutes to cook (Yoko makes this sound like forever) we are urged to buy starters to stop us eating the table. Tako yaki are snack balls deep-fried with octopus inside. They’re fab, as is the steamed broccoli with Japanese mayo ($6).

My meal ($6) appears with a sticker on it with its name, Gyoza King, which reminds me of plastic meals sitting in windows. However, it’s delicious as are my friends’ seafood gyoza and yaki udon noodles.

Pud is a top egg custard ($3) which is rather like a firm crème caramel.

Yoko is run off her feet by now and we hate to burden her with more requests but we do because it’ll make her happy. Umeboshi plums make us suck in our cheeks and pucker our lips. Perfect ending.