Nishikian

Nishikian

After coming back from Japan we really wanted Okonomiyaki so after some googling and research we decided to go here. It is a New Zealand franchise which was surprising to us and has only been open for about a year and it was busy. It was a petrol station once but since then converted to a restaurant. 

It is a large brightly lit restaurant and they made you feel welcomed when you entered. They had a wide variety of food to choose from.

We ordered a range of food and the first thing we ordered was skewers, we had beef tongue the other was Pork belly with onion and garlic salt. The tongue was a good texture and not tough. It had a different seasoning so I enjoyed it as i don't normally like tongue. The pork belly was juicy and soft and mixed well with onion and garlic.

We ordered the large sashimi platter which had Salmon, Snapper, Tuna and Kingfish and a few other fish. The fish was all really fresh and melted as you ate it. The wasabi tasted like it was home made and not the tube ones. I almost felt like i was back in Japan.

The Okonomiyaki was really good but not sensational like Japan, it was just missing something and i don't know what.

The Takoyaki was sweet and the octopus was tender, it tasted fresh not like some places that give you frozen ones that become very tough to eat.

The tempura vegetables included beans, eggplants and massive mushrooms. The batter was light and crispy, and the mushrooms are juicy. I was happy with how they tasted.

The Eel on rice was yum , it had no bones and the sauce was not much but enough for the Eel. We decided to order some dessert as we were still hungry.

There was Green Tea, Strawberry and Custard Daifuku with Ice cream. Mochi is a rice paste cake that is the outside, when you fill it with something like ice cream or red bean then it is Daifuku. It is very sweet and its hard to find good Daifuku as if it has been frozen thawed out then refrozen you get ice crystals in the middle and it looses its flavour and texture.

Nishikian is a lovely little place but servings are a bit small for my liking but the food is great and we will go back.

Kind E-gards
Dale Stewart