Sumi

It’s a Tuesday night in Auckland city but you’d easily mistake it for the weekend at Sumi. The new izakaya spot by owner-chef Jason Lee (Wakuwaku, Katsu Katsu, Tsuru Tsuru) in City Works Depot is humming.

Packed with queues out the door, we’ve got the best table out front—on comfortably cushioned chairs made of Sapporo crates looking into the restaurant and out into the street. The centrepiece of Sumi is a charcoal grill (Sumi means carbon in Japanese). Skewers of surume ika (squid) and king prawns are standing up around the open flame and ready for snacking, irori style and hokke (mackerel) hang from above. Bar stools surround the grill, a full house of diners seated alongside baskets of fresh produce propped up on the counter—woven baskets with red pops of capsicum, golden orange kūmara, ready for crispy tempura.

The dinner menu is divided into different categories of cooking techniques—starting with snacks, a.k.a. otsumami. Literally meaning “something to pinch,” they’re small plates which are the perfect accompaniment to a beer (of the Sapporo variety, of course). Their house beer comes in small glasses too—the perfect size to go with a few small bites after work. There’s an entire sake menu offering hot, cold or yuzu-infused, plus wine, chu-hi and hi-ball drinks. 

We start with the signature irori yaki unagi (fire pit flame-grilled eel), skillfully skewered and brushed with a sweet and salty glaze before the flame renders a smoky, blistered and crackling skin. The presentation is like an art piece, the large ribbon of eel is raised over a wooden box and garnished with autumn-toned Japanese maple leaves (or whatever leaves that represent the season, Chef Jason explains). Asking if unagi is their signature snack so far, Chef Jason, laughing, exclaims he’s going through “too many eels.” 

No bar snack is complete without deep-fried goodness (yes, there’s a dedicated deep-fried section) and the vegetable tempura is a no-brainer. Thick slices of courgette, kūmara and eggplant are coated in crispy batter. When dipped in tentsuyu (tempura sauce), the batter dissolves in your mouth like butter.  

Don't skip the charcoal-grilled section—Sumi's three hexagon logo is, after all, reminiscent of bincho-tān, a white charcoal used for centuries in Japanese grilling culture. We let the staff choose for us and have no regrets over meltingly tender miso glazed lamb chops, crispy skin salmon fillet lightly seasoned with shio, and half a Hokke grilled bone-in. Paired with tangy yuzukoshō and finely grated daikon oroshi to balance all the naturally fatty and salty flavours from the flame-kissed belly, the latter is the ultimate beer-pairing snack. With a bowl of pearly, creamy koshihikari rice to soak up all the flavours, you know you’re going to be sitting here snacking all through the night (plus they have free refills on rice, miso soup and salad).

We finish our meal with matcha imakawayaki for dessert. A popular street snack in Japan, it’s like a stuffed pancake—a matcha-dusted exterior gives way to a fluffy interior, oozing with warm matcha custard. A swipe of chilled custard reminiscent of shio koji on the side contrasts with the warm imakawayaki, and complements the golden matcha notes. There’s a quiet hum of content all round—the dessert is the perfect not-too-sweet finale, a warm bite before we venture out into the cold.

Book here.

Words: Vicki Young | Image credit: Wono Kim.