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Saturday, December 5, 2009

Kura



Welcome to Kura, a modern & sophisticated Jap restaurant located in Queenstreet. It's easy to pass by this place because of the small sliding doors. Be careful when you step inside as there's a long and pretty steep staircase to walk down to the restaurant.



Table for bigger groups


Or for your average 4-6 people table


Mum & Dad introduced me to this place, after we saw the Russian ballet - Swan Lake! Ooh, the ballet was lovely and the dancers were so graceful & elegant. We really enjoyed ourselves.



For appetizers, we ordered Seafood Salad ($14.50). It's a mesclun salad with sashimi, prawns, squid, mussels & scallops. The salad was not bad, although the portion was miserable and there wasn't much seafood. Note that although the menu states 'scallops', we were only given 1 scallop. I'm not a big fan of salads so I didn't touch much of the greens and my parents thought it was so-so. All salads come with a choice of dressing and you can choose: Jap style dressing, Sesame dressing & Oil Free Jap Shiso Leaf dressing. We chose the Sesame dressing for ours.



Dad's main was Seafood Lovers Donburi ($18.50). It was quite a plain dish, just assorted sashimi with rice with a few pieces of egg & crabmeat. Thumb's up for the fresh sashimi and for the fact that the portion was quite big as compared to my main.


Rainbow Roll Sushi ($16.50). This was the biggest disappointment because although the presentation was nice, the salmon sashimi inside the sushi rolls were really tiny (as you can see). It was mostly rice and although there were slices of assorted sashimi on the outside, the overall taste was just average. The avocado & salmon inside was way too little and it wasn't worth the price.


For my main meal I had Kura Delicacies Donburi ($16). This was a mix of sashimi (just a few slices), raw egg yolk and according to their menu, assorted Jap delicacies which includes, grated yam potato paste, "natto" fermented soy bean & "mentaiko" spicy fish roe.

I thought it sounded quite unique & interesting so I gave it a try. I find this dish quite nice, although there's nothing much to rave about. The beans and vegetables didn't have much taste and the crabmeat & egg was just so-so. Portion was small as compared to the Seafood Lovers Donburi.


I pushed the lettuce away to expose the few slices of sashimi hiding below. The fish roe wasn't spicy at all and the first time I tried it I thought it was quite unique as even though the roe was tiny, it gave a small burst in your mouth however, towards the end of my dish I got quite sick of it.


After mixing everything together


Prawn Tempura ($13). Prawns were served hot & they were pretty fresh. Satisfying.


Note that all donburis come with miso soup. The miso soup there tastes ordinary, nothing special. It cost $3.50 if you order it on it's own. A bowl of steamed rice cost $3.50 as well.


Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab ($16). Served with ponzu-citrus sauce. Both my parents agree that you'll find higher quality ones in Singapore and it tasted just so-so to me.



My first impression of Kura was that although it was a little dark, I liked the ambience as it was quite spacious and comfy. Overall I thought food was just so-so and was quite pricey as compared to other Jap places in Auckland. If I come back again, I would probably order the Seafood Lovers Donburi because I wasn't that satisfied with mine and dishes like Rainbow Roll Sushi was just a waste of time.

They do have 2 other donburis - Teriyaki Chicken ($19) and Teriyaki Eel ($17). I find both of them too simple and the taste is quite common as I eat teriyaki dishes quite often so it would not be something I would order. They also have a few other grilled dishes, such as the Jap style Grilled Scotch Fillet ($24) and Grilled Beef Tongue Steak ($16), which I have not tried.
I've heard that the Beef Tataki ($14.50) is not appetizing and both of my parents didn't like it when they tried it on their previous visits here, which was why we didn't order it this time.

Kura Jap Restaurant
315b Queenstreet, Auckland

Phone: (09) 3795656

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad to see you guys are back. Actually the delicacies donburi looks good. I m hungry now! Boo.

Cher said...

It seems quite pricey tho. $3.50 for rice????? Geebus