Review Katsura Japanese Cuisine - Auckland Central

Japanese delight! You can feast on as many tempura, sushi, sashimi, oysters, prawns etc as you want. Eight at Cordis is a better buffet for me but the icing on the cake at Katsura is the creme brulee and panna cotta.

Many choices of fresh seafood and sashimi. There are options like ramen, teppanyaki, miso soup, oden, fried rice and I love the dessert corner. They are so good. Food refilling and cleaning the table is fast. Got 2hours free parking at the hotel as well. Overall a good experience here.

Food was just amazing. Very fresh seafood you can have here. Atmosphere was good too. Regarding the service, one of the waiter was very rushing and tried to take our plates. When they were cleaning a table, just loud. Asked chef to cook meat well-done but he cooked medium rare twice. One of the chef wasn't friendly. The lady at the cashier was friendly.

I went to Katsura for Christmas Eve dinner. It was an overall well-organized seafood buffet. I just found several minor things that would be better if they could develop, for example, quantity of rice for one piece of sushi, freshness of oysters, information about 2 hours free parking, and I noticed that they barely pick up the phone calls during their working hours (maybe they are struggling with less staff). Except that, they offered quite a good value for a variety of food. Also, the service of the team was excellent. I appreciated their hard work during meal time. Thanks! I will be back

The seafood was fresh and had quite a lot of options. The most impressive part was actually the quality of service from staff members. They were very friendly and nice. It was a bit pricey for the value but seems to be a nice place to visit on a special occasion. Hope they keep up with the same service level.

Omg I'm so going back for the Seafood buffet... If you love seafood , it's an absolute must do. The service was impeccable, restaurant looks amazing, I can't wait to return.

Had a really good experience eating here with my family. The seafood is always fresh and tasty. Other fried foods and meals were also there and that was really good too. The service there was amazing. Staff are super friendly and welcoming as well as everything was completely clean, no complaints! However, the dumplings that I had was a bit hard to bite into because they were not really cooked all the way through(the skin) but it was still okay. The deserts were not the best as they were okay. The fruits however, were amazing.

Free parking for 2 hours. Located right in the middle of cbd. Gorgeous hotel that leads through the atrium and upstairs to Katsura. Doors closed until the start of the seating time. Fantastic welcome and service from start to finish. 3 gorgeous seating areas catering to intimate, group and larger groups easily. Gorgeous decor and lighting which create a lovely atmosphere. Food, food and more amazing food!!! Beautifully laid out, catching the eye and teasing the tastebuds!!! Attention to consistent topping up of all food areas. Great service in keeping tables cleared of used plates and waste, making the experience feel so much lighter. Everything tasted amazing and hubby loved the ice cream that was bought personally to each patron. The sakē creme brulee are an epiphany moment!!!!! Well worth the price!!!!!!

We ordered from ala cart menu - Omakase set. The atmosphere was great, food was tasty and fresh and staffs were very friendly!! Had a great time with friends and will definitely be coming back here with my family and friends!! Highly recommend this place for a weekend or a weekday when you need some great food to lift you up!! Very nice restaurant with an intimate atmosphere and elegant Japanese dishes. We were a day too early for the seafood buffet but dinner was superb and service was excellent.

We throughly enjoyed ourselves at Katsura. We tried the buffet menu. Food was fresh and delicious. We tried almost everything and there was nothing we didn't like. Food was replaced quickly. Staff were attentive and friendly. Atmosphere was lovely. My son even got a complimentary cake as it was his birthday in November, a lovely surprise. We will definitely be going back shortly.

Husband and I have been craving for good Japanese food since the lockdown. Katsura was introduced by a friend. We were offered the shared platter because there was no buffet served at level 2. We were very satisfied with the quality of food and service provided by Katsura. Paying $65 per person for that portion of food is worthy. Highly recommended.

Excellent service and excellent food. Each visit has been fantastic. A good selection of sashimi and seafood. Complimentary parking for the restaurant guests as well which is very handy!

Seafood buffet is the place to be. Nice choices of sushi, sashimi. Love their all you can eat scampi that you can eat sashimi style or cook in a broth. Nice selection of desserts too

This restaurant is quite hidden from the public as it was located inside the Rendezvous Hotel, even inside the hotel its quite placed in an odd location on a corner where few people pass by its good in a way because it’s not too crowded when you want to have a nice and quiet lunch which I did a couple of weeks ago.

I perhaps am bias having enjoyed many awesome Japanese meals in Auckland, however, this was not one of them. The buffet for nearly $90 a head is ridiculously priced, and was only refreshed with fresh items once between our time there of 8pm and 10pm. The lady at the front was friendly, until we gawked at the bill of $250 for 4 people (Even though we had a voucher that two people ate for free, and only bought 1 drink each). For that price I could of provided our table with an incredibly high quality dining experience, which this was not.The "highlight" of the meal was clearly supposed to be the shrimp. They were huge, but slimy, after chomping into one, I ended up missioning to the bathroom. I accidently ended up walking to the staff bathroom, and on the way I spotted the condition of the kitchen, which was utterly disgusting, food and scraps were all over the floor and made me feel quite sick. <br/><br/>The most popular customer I could see enjoying this buffet was foreign business people, perhaps unaware of the extremely high quality seafood Auckland has to offer. This was not dissimilar to a mall buffet, though the atmosphere was relaxing, and the wait staff fairly friendly.<br/>This is my first negative review of any restaurant, however our entire group agreed this place is not the place to go for a high quality Japanese meal. Learn from our mistakes!

Grand Seafood Buffet dinner - $85 per head<br/>What are there? Side dishes bar, salad bar, cooked dish section, udon section, shabu-shabu station, seafood station (sashimi, crabs, prawns, scampis, oysters), dessert station.<br/><br/>Who is this for? People who love prawns, sashimi and desserts. <br/><br/>The prawns and scampis looked fresh. The prawns were huuuuggeeee and very sweet! You can eat them raw or cooked at the “communal” shabu-shabu station. I like how they have thinly sliced beef for it too. There is a wide array of sashimi and one type of oyster, they were decent but the crabs were small, very fishy and didn’t taste good (no taste or texture). The prawn tempuras were pretty good! The steamed egg (chawanmushi) was yum but not special. The cooked salmon was delicious.<br/><br/>Their desserts were amazing! I love the sake creme brulee, coffee jelly and chocolate tart. If you do go there, go crazy on them! <br/><br/>Will I come back? No. I’m very disappointed. The quality does not match my expectations for the price and theme and I have been to other buffet that impressed me more.<br/><br/>Although some items were really good, why call it a GRAND SEAFOOD buffet? At that price, they have a very limited selection of seafood. I’d rather pay more and go to a better seafood buffet. To me, it was more like a normal Japanese buffet with slightly more seafood. <br/><br/>The cooked dishes were average overall (most of them weren’t seafood if you are thinking of a seafood fest). For example, the beef on sticks (yakitori) were dry, very hard and chewy. Their beef tataki at the salad bar was equally hard and tasteless. I don’t know if they do different dishes everyday, but none of them stood out. <br/><br/>As another reviewer pointed out, the fruit punch was like canned fruits in diluted syrup.<br/><br/>Service: the lady at the reception was very sweet and accomodating but the waitress who served us was rather cold.

Went to Katsura without reservation and found ourselves in a very elegant Japanese restaurant. The atmosphere is very pleasant with teppanyaki on the side, a bar and seating down the back. <br/><br/>Our waitress was very friendly and attentive, constantly filling out water. <br/><br/>We ordered the beef tataki, lobster salad, medium sashimi, pork ramen and salmon deep fried philadelphia roll. It was perfect for two and came to $103. <br/><br/>The food came out really fast and altogether, with the seafood being very fresh! You can taste the quality.

Disappointing food selections and desserts. Seafood is fresh and refilled very fast but hot food was not great at all. Beef was very very chewy and chicken meat was very hard to swallow. Beef tataki was very chewy and desserts only few selections of mini sized tarts and fruits when i was expecting green tea and japanese mochi desserts. Service was ok but to be fair with $80 i would rather go to different buffet with less fish selections. I think if you are obsessed with oysters sashimi not much on sushi but fresh shrimps this place for you. If you are after a buffet expereince i do not recommend this place.

Only love their Thursday buffet. It's almost like a seafood buffet. All the foods are fresh. both quality and quantity are good. Service of jap restaurant always the best.

It's a shame that all the hot dishes are not tasty at all. They are not average, they are really bad. The tempura dishes are plain with heavy batter, the mussels taste like rubber and even noodles are overcooked. <br/><br/>The deserts are basically can fruit and supermarket quality cakes. The coffee jelly I had are too bitter I'm not even sure it can be a desert.<br/><br/>The sashimi are acceptable but you can't have everything raw for the whole meal. $88 per person for raw food makes me feel I'd rather go to seafood market, the food doesn't require any cook skills anyway.<br/><br/>After tried it twice, I think I won't be back, no improvement at all and the meal just too unbalanced.<br/>

Celebrated our anniversary dinner here and took the 7 course meal.<br/><br/>I'm not really sure why comments say that the sashimi is stale, our one's were served fresh and it tasted fresh too, all else are okay and we enjoyed the combination of our meal where the sorbet has arrived on a perfect timing neutralizing our taste buds before we arrive to our main meal. Only reason why i'm giving it a 4 is that my wife had the wakanui grass fed which was served well done while she requested for medium well. On the other hand we were served a perfectly cooked wagyu beef!<br/><br/>Presentation: 4/5<br/>Taste: 4/5<br/>Ambiance: 5/5<br/>Service: 5/5<br/>Value for money: 4/5

Fine Japanese food in central Auckland is not hard to find. Thanks to Katsura. It has a delectably wide menu that covers the length and breadth of the Japanese cuisine. <br/><br/>However, i’m giving them 4 stars because I found the Sashimi a little stale. The miso soup and chicken yakitori were delicious.<br/><br/>Way to go Katsura!

We went along for the lunch buffet and overall it was a good experience. We were expecting 7 different types of fish in the sashimi selection (as advertised)but there was only 3 although we requested a particular type of fish and they brought it to the table but this is supposed to be an all you can eat buffet. The sashimi was too thinly sliced and I do doubt if the chef is Japanese. There was no nigiri (sushi) and yet 7 types were advertised. The the positive side, the kaarage was excellent, the desserts were really good and the teppanyaki looked good but didn't try it. The staff were excellent and that made for good experience. All in all, we had a good time and ate alot but disappointed in the sashimi and complete lack of nigiri. If they do improve these two aspects we would become regulars.

10/08/2018<br/>We came here to celebrate my dad's birthday. It just happened to be the Friday buffet lunch. The sashimi were thinly cut small but very fresh. Sashi were small but quite delicate and delicious. Everything was yummy expect chawanmushi (egg custard).<br/><br/>When I called to book, I mentioned it was for my dad's birthday, and they made an effort remembering that, brought a small dessert platter with a candle and writing on the plate. That was very thoughtful comparing to the celebration we had last year at The Sugar Club.<br/><br/>For $55 per person buffet, I didn't feel it was quite worth it, luckily I had an entertainment book voucher. But the service was great!<br/><br/>Food: 7.5/10<br/>Drink: 4/10 complimentary green tea<br/>Presentation: 8/10<br/>Service: 9/10<br/>Ambience: 7/10<br/>Portion: As much as you can eat<br/>Price: $55 per person, senior $44 per person<br/>

We had dinner here on a Wednesday night. There wasn't many people there but the food still took ages to come! So maybe go there before you fully starving cuz you will be waiting for a long time lol. I tried the chicken grill and it was really good. The amount of chicken they give you was good portion. So you actually get filled up. I also tried the matcha tiramisu, that was good as well but I thought it did have that much matcha flavor. It would have been better if u could taste the matcha more. I also tried the cocktails and they were really good and will definitely come here again.

Who disrespects seafood and washes fresh oysters with tap water?! WTF!<br/><br/>Worst Japanese experience in Auckland.<br/><br/>The head chef isn’t even Japanese.<br/><br/>They charge $88 per head, it’s a $10 per head experience.<br/><br/>We went to Japan a few years ago, this is just typical cheap NZ hotel crap food. <br/><br/>Try Ken Yakatori, I promise Ken won’t leave a bad taste in your mouth like Katsura did. Highly disappointing.<br/>

Went with friends last night to Katsura. Being a seafood and Japanese food lover I loved it. We had the first sitting at 6 pm however it wasn't very busy.The scampi, prawns and oysters were very fresh as was the sushimi. The udon noodles were the best that I've tasted as well as the miso soup. I loved that the tempura wasn't covered in batter, the chicken skewers however were a bit dry but I got over it pretty quick. The price however is probably a bit steep for the choices you are given. Service was good, staff cleared plates fairly quickly off the tables and as we had never been there before, they explained how it worked. Definitely go here if you are a seafood lover.

Went for the Grand Seafood Buffet at this restaurant, situated in the Grand Millennium Hotel, Auckland. This buffet offers a fairly wide spread of authentic and fresh Japanese foods and desserts. The foods and desserts are delightfully presented and thus the spread looks really alluring. Nice ambience and lovely staff there.<br/><br/>This restaurant showcases this Grand Seafood Buffet on Saturdays and Sundays only, weekdays are ala carte.<br/><br/>One major point to note for those who don't really fancy raw foods, the majority of the seafoods offered in this buffet are raw, even for the prawns. Therefore, if you are not really into raw Japanese foods, you may have to reconsider going for this buffet.<br/><br/>Food & Beverage : 7/10<br/>Service : 7/10<br/>Price : 6/10<br/>Ambience : 7/10<br/>

One of the best seafood buffets here in Auckland. They have a selection of fresh oysters, shrimp and scampi. I would have to say that I cant really compare this against Cordis Eight as both are  good in there own sense. <br/><br/>They serve sushi and teppanyaki as well as the hot dishes like fried rice, soba noodles and fresh tempura. The only downside is there dessert but the other dishes all makes up for it. <br/><br/>Price wise its about $100pp which includes the drinks. Everything else is good all down to the waiters and the ambience.

Unless you are consuming a lot of raw seafood the price is not justified. A lot of food wastage as people take more than they need. Would be good to have a food wastage policy. There is a lot of competition to get certain food items in the first sitting. The food quality is ok. I enjoyed eight a lot more, and think the price was more worth it at eight.

Food is not that great and definitely not worth the amount they charge. If you are planning to go try to avoid the second sitting because they didn’t refill the nigiri sushi until around 9pm (they only ever refilled it once), and some of the salad and sushi’s weren’t refilled either. Sashimi was nice but everything else is very average. Service was excellent overall except for the chef at the teppanyaki area who looked like he really didn’t want to be there.

Great sushi and sashimi along with spicy squid and miso . Sadly all of the hot dishes were lukewarm at best! Very disappointing. Great service though.

Good grade of sashimi!<br/>Loads of yummy dessert ~<br/>I think it’s better than eight <br/>A great place for Japanese dinner buffet to go ~<br/>But u have to make reservation in advance for buffet .....

STILL THE BEST SEAFOOD BUFFET IN AUCKLAND<br/><br/>If you like fresh raw seafood with a decent prawn & scampi selection, this is the best by far in Auckland. Better than Cordi's 8. <br/><br/>If you like meats and desserts more than seafood then Cordi's 8 is more for you. <br/><br/>The desserts are disgusting especially the sake brulee, however the seafood makes up for it as I'm a seafood guy. <br/><br/>The tempura is yummy. Mom's not into raw seafood, luckily there is a hot pot where you can dip your seafood in and make it cooked. YUM YUM!<br/><br/>Food Quality: 5/5 (seafood)<br/><br/>Food Quantity: 5/5 <br/><br/>Environment: 5/5<br/><br/>Service: 5/5<br/><br/>Price: $100pp with drinks<br/><br/>Also in Entertainment Book!

This is the second time I had dinner here, compared to last time, overall, I say this experience was ok. Last time, we had the buffet in the first sitting, the scampi was fresh and middle or large size. Everything was fresh and yummy. However, this time, due to working hours, I booked the table for the second sitting. The staff said the second serving time begun at 8:15 pm. While when we got there around 8pm, it already begun. Some customers from the first sitting haven’t finished till around 8:20pm. It was kind of messy overall. As they haven’t finished cleaning all the tables. Most of the food hasn’t been topped up yet. The scampi was really small and not as fresh as last time at all. I really don’t suggest to have the buffet in the second sitting, few customers inside. As for fried shrimps and vegetables, not impressed at all, even tombo got better fried pumpkin slices then them. It was coated with too much flour and over cooked, which was supposed to be crispy outside, hot and melting inside.

Definitely a seafood lover's buffet! <br/>If RAW seafood is your kind of thing, you'll enjoy their array of sashimi, red prawns, scampi and oysters. FRESH + HIGH QUALITY!<br/><br/>They've got another section with hot offerings ranging from tempura prawns/veggies, chawanmusi (steamed egg with mushroom), takoyaki, karaage chicken, seafood marinara stir fry, ginger pork, and fried rice. The Grill corner is around the hot food area, where you'll find the meat kebabs.<br/><br/>A small section of sukiyaki with fresh veggies and raw meat are available for you to cook-them-yourself. Besides that, there's the miso soup/udon/ramen section too.<br/><br/>A decent array of fruits and desserts are available with, with ice cream being served from table to table.<br/><br/>Overall, price is on the higher end, but with their good variety and an exceptionally high quality offerings, I highly recommend Katsura.<br/><br/>Also, did I mention that their service was amazing? I've briefly mentioned that was my husband's birthday prior to the day we dined, and surprise, surprise they prepared a dessert with 'happy birthday' and a candle for him even though we didn't expecting anything. Thanks again to the team at Katsura.<br/>

This place is inside of a hotel which can be convenient. However it is quite an expensive buffet especially for what you get. The food is traditional Japanese food however there isn’t a huge variety of food. Staff do not meal check it top up drinks unless waved over.

This place means something special because my sister used to work there. The furniture and decor hasn't changed but the new revived menu did. It is the very traditional classic Japanese meal and it shouldn't come as a surprise that it is slightly more expensive than the average Japanese meal because it is situated in a hotel. This Japanese restaurant is popular with the Japanese business and Consulates. Great quiet place but also extremely busy when the Teppanyaki is on and running. Service is always great though and thats what you get for a proper service.

We enjoyed our time at Katsura last night. It's not a very cheap buffet but if you enjoy sashimi, scampi and oysters, they have all of these in abundance.<br/><br/>The place was split into stations - a shabu shabu station, a sashimi and seafood station, a sushi station, and a hot dish and teppenyaki station, as well as the dessert table. You get complimentary green tea on arrival, and they also bring around ice cream, or you can ask for it.<br/><br/>Most of the food was good, although the tempura and karaage were disappointing as everything had gone soft. I enjoyed the teppenyaki part, where you can select your own meat/seafood/vegetables and the chef cooks it for you on the hotplate. My other favourite was the sashimi. I would've preferred the scampi and prawns to be cooked though.<br/><br/>The restaurant wasn't very busy at the 8pm sitting and the tables are quite spaced out. The service was friendly and they did their best to ensure that nothing ran out. It was also good that they validate parking for you.<br/><br/>Overall, it was a positive and enjoyable experience.

Thursday & Friday Dinner Buffet <br/>Price: $78/person <br/>Menu: nigiri and sashimi (only fish kinds including salmon, tuna, snapper and kingfish), sushi rolls (the same fish, fried prawn, grilled eel and tonkatsu), beef tataki, raw tiger prawn, scampi, oyster, teppanyaki - japanese stir fry (salmon, prawn, beef, etc with veges (capsicum, mushroms and zucchini), fried hot food, fried rice, takoyaki, gyoza, steamed egg, miso soup, noodles (not udon), shabu shabu - beef, bokchoy, carrots etc (not individual - shared by the whole restaurant) and some desserts (fruits, ice cream: served by waitstaff, pastry etc)<br/><br/>It would be a money saving place for people who love and can eat a lot of scampi and oysters. I saw some people eating a mountain of scampi so it would be worth for them. But for me I would say nah. I kind of expected too much maybe because this buffet is run by a Japanese restaurant at a 4-5 star hotel. <br/><br/>Sashimi was so so. I didn't quite enjoy salmon and tuna but snapper was good. Nigiri was the same since they were all made with the same sashimi fish. The rice of nigiri was not good enough. Sushi rolls were better than the nigiris. <br/><br/>I normally love scampi and can eat lots of them but I could not eat more than 3 scampis here. It was not really fresh so as tiger prawns. I think they would taste better if they are cooked since its freshness is not good enough to be eaten raw. <br/><br/>Shabu shabu needs some improvement. There are two pots of stocks where everyone in the restaurant uses together. Basically you just put the ingredients in the pots until they get cooked to your taste and pick up the ingredients to put on your cold plate. Shabu shabu should be eaten straight after it was taken out of the stock. Eating cold shabu shabu meat felt a lot weird and not pleasing. <br/><br/>Beef tataki lacks flavour and desserts were average. Sake creme brûlée could have tasted a lot better if it actually had that sugar crust on the top. It was just like a sake brûlée taste pudding. I didn't figure out that there was ice cream available too until the waitress started to walk around the tables and serve out ice cream. That was like 50 minutes after we arrived so if we left early we would have missed that out. Anyways, I enjoyed their ice cream.<br/><br/>Best things I liked from this buffet was teppanyaki, gyoza, and tokatsu. Their teppanyaki is really good. The chef cooked all the ingredients I chose perfectly. Beef was so tender and juicy and prawns were good too. Their pork gyoza is seasoned perfectly with some kinda teriyaki flavour and so soft. The tonkatsu was still crispy although it has been there for a while. <br/><br/>I would not come back here for buffet again because I think its a bit waste of money but would like to come back for their teppanyaki which is their speciality. <br/>

Love the seafood buffet. Lots of oysters and scampies, which worth the money for. Clean and friendly environment. Compared to raw food, I wish there were more cooked food options tho. But overall it was quite a nice dinner. Deserts are great too.

Came here with a friend who loves Japanese food so I was hoping the food would be good in addition to being plentiful.<br/><br/>The ambience is nice, somewhat posh, relaxing with big tables to let yourself spread out, I did like the motif and that it is in a hotel. The staff are very polite but their service was really lacking, I felt it was an upscale place but they never checked on us unless that's a given for a buffet and they gave us a pot of green tea for the table but it was only a quarter full, again unless that's how it's suppose to be given but they never asked again if we wanted more water.<br/><br/>We ordered 2 mocktails, one being a martini and mojito. They both tasted same, a mix of sugary and unpleasant cordials with the only difference being the mojito had mint in it.<br/><br/>They've got everything there mentioned on the menu but it's all a bit sad, we were there from 8 to 10 but they only brought out a hand full oysters at 9.20, some of the salads weren't topped up and the hot foods had been typically but understandably made ahead of time.<br/><br/>Desserts were also hit and miss, coffee jelly was good, it's like a play on a cup of coffee, good strong and sweet coffee jelly with a hint of milk, it was my favourite. The matcha panna cotta should be called match rubber, it had a good taste but it just had so much gelatin in it, still edible though. The sake brulée is just a baked custard, there's no crust on top, everything else is run of the mill buffet desserts.<br/><br/>Very much a case of quality vs. quantity here, there wasn't anything exceptionally tasty here but being a buffet you can fill your boots. Just looking at the reviews here and their website I thought the quality was up there but it was a typical buffet which is fine because there are certain measures you have to take to run a buffet, understandably.<br/><br/>I was disappointed when I paid, I was told at that time there is free parking when dining there, I can't see it mentioned anywhere on their website. <br/>You'll have to excuse my overuse of the words "typical" and "buffet" but it's pretty much reflective of the place. Come here if you like stock Japanese food in a typical buffet format.

Loved their seafood buffet. Prawn tempura galore, tepanyaki station, and the sashimi was one of the best I've tried in auckland!Coffee Junkie and i enjoyed their food! We'll definitely be back! Hope the serve katsudon next time.

Loved the lunch buffet! It worths the price, and good place to catch up with friends. Sashimi is fresh, Nigiri and sushi roll is average but match the price. Hot bar is with full selections of pork, fried chicken, tempera prawn and steamed egg (yummy egg, recommend). Fruit and dessert bar is full of fresh fruit, canned fruit and nice cake. My favorite is Green tea flavor desert. Also they have miso soup, soup udon and ice cream for u. Will definitely recommend this place to my family and friend.

Had Friday lunch buffet at Katsura, very good experience. Six types of fresh sashimi, a variety of sushi, salads and plenty of hot food to choose from. Love the grilled salmon! Very good and friendly service. Will definitely come back again.

The new menu is really great. Loved the food and the service. Would definitely recommend giving it a go. Definitely one of my new fave Japanese places to eat

Went to Katsura on 28/01/17 for dinner to celebrate my sister's birthday.   They re-opened on 26/01/17 and the dinner menu has been totally changed.  Couldn't find the food that we want to order, also the price is a bit too high, compare with previous menu. <br/><br/>The staffs are very friendly and tried very hard to explain about their new menu.  Unfortunately, all of us were not impressed about the food.  The chef used a dark plate to present the food didn't look very attractive. At least, we don't like it. Very disappointed and will not go back again (unless they change the menu again).

Very disappointed with Katsura Japanese Restaurant. <br/><br/>Made a booking for the buffet dinner to celebrate a family member's birthday, and then received a call a few days later saying they just got a reservation for a private function, and that they will be cancelling the buffet meal. This is not how you treat your customers. How dare you just change your mind on us with a booking that was made AFTER OURS (from our perspective, it looks like you just wanted the more profitable solution which was to neglect us and others who may have booked before that private function group). The least you could've done is let me know during the call that the buffet may not be available if something like this happens.<br/><br/>We will never dine at Katsura, and will be informing our friends and colleagues of how we were treated. If the manager wants to speak with me, feel free to do so. You will have my number there.

I stayed in rendevous grand for 4 nights and i ate at katsura on 3 of those 4 nights. That's just how good this restaurant is. Their assortment of fresh seafood is always great

Japanese Buffet that actually includes all sorts of sashimi and sushi. Had my fill with tuna, salmon, snapper and squid sashimi with a side plate of fresh oysters. It's a bit pricey but totally worth it, good for special occasions. Will come back here again soon.

Took 5 people for birthday dinner. Everything delicious served in a timely fashion by excellent staff. Had 2 Benito Boxes, Pork Katsu and  Sea breeze Teppanyaki. All excellent. the Sake Brulle and the Cheesecake birthday cake for the birthday boy were delicious. The green tea presentation at the end was really nice.  Would have had the teppanyaki  cooked at the table if had known we could have had a private table  as my main reason for choosing a la carte was so we did not have to sit at at table with strangers. Would return again for special occasions. Car parking free a distinct advantage as spent enough for this.

i think the $78 buffet is a great value for money, huge sushi and sashimi selection, hot food cooked on the spot on one of those japanese hot tables and very friendly service

Love their dinner buffet spread (Thu/Fri only), seafood and sushi are fresh, and plenty of Japanese delicacies/desserts to indulge on. It is quite steep at $78pp but we only go there on special occasion as a family. Service is top notch and booking is highly recommended. We usually starve ourselves for the whole day as we want to try every little bit!

First time trying the Teppanyaki - was kind of OK...nothing fantastic. Maybe my expectations were too high? lol One thing that really impressed me was that the chef was very attentive, and remembered our food preferences/allergies. Not a big variety of food offerings or quantity tbh. Ice cream was really average - might pay to add more flavours rather than just plain jane vanilla!

On Friday I went<br/>to the Rendezvous Hotel for dinner with the intention of celebrating my guest’s<br/>birthday which was the following day. The purpose for going to the Rendezvous was<br/>because the hotel claimed their Katsura restaurant provided “an all-you-can-eat<br/>experience” from their “extensive seafood selection”. From the menu, my guest<br/>and I were attracted to the fresh Scampi and Oysters, so were eagerly looking<br/>forward to the “all-you-can-eat experience”. <br/><br/>Alas, our<br/>aspirations of having an enjoyable meal were abruptly dashed when we were<br/>unable to get any Scampi of the first serving (that eventually came at 6:15<br/>p.m.) – in fact we weren’t able to get any Scampi at all. For both the fresh Scampi<br/>and Oysters, if you weren’t standing in the queue you were going to miss out<br/>altogether. I stood in the queue for the second serving of fresh Oysters and<br/>managed to get 2 – Wow! Several people in the same queue had to walk away with<br/>an empty plate. I didn’t bother to queue after these experiences. I did<br/>enjoy (2 pieces of) the Eel Sushi, but when I returned for ‘seconds’ the dish<br/>was empty and after 5 minutes had not been replenished. This was also noticeable<br/>with several other dishes. <br/><br/>What a huge disappointment when we and other diners are paying<br/>$78.00 for a 2 hour dining experience that was well below expectations of a reputable<br/>Hotel restaurant. <br/><br/>As a regular (every) Friday night restaurant diner, I am<br/>extremely disappointed as to what the Rendezvous’ Katsura restaurant buffet dinner provided for me and my<br/>guest. A very untasteful “all-you-can-eat experience”.

Greeted by friendly staff and seated straight away with complimentary bubbles. The atmosphere and decor was sophisticated, nice and relaxing with a touch of Japanese . <br/><br/>The seafood buffet was right up my alley, multi selections of sashimi, sushi and Japanese teppanyaki! Fresh produce, light and tasty. The matcha tea (my favourite ) was smooth and went down well in between my plates of seafood ! <br/><br/>Of course the buffet would not be complete without a Valentine themed dessert <br/>Table. Everything was delicious especially the cheese cake and the heart shaped macaroons!! <br/><br/>The only negative was the lack of hot food, some Japanese pancake and gyoza would have been perfect ! <br/><br/>Overall we were Definitely beyond satisfied, will not be needing any sashimi for the next couple of weeks :)<br/><br/>

I have always just come here for the buffet! And seafood buffet only!! It used to be only available on Thursday but now Friday too. Food is still awesome!! Scampi, scampi and more scampi! They were fresh & juicy!! Oysters were equally yummy. Great selection of Japanese dishes. Highly recommended! And totally worth it!

The Grand Seafood buffet on Thursday and Friday is just wow, the live cooking show with the flaring chef is radical, amazing selection of sushi and sashimi and chicken karage my favourite, also all sorts of food for everyone, even if you don't like fish, it is excellent value for money for sure, best seafood buffet in town i think

Every dish was fantastic with good dishing up. Dishes are served quickly with fresh materials only. Very warm-hearted service was provided by every staff there. The price is $78.00 pp but it's certainly worth it.

We went there for my birthday dinner. We had Teppanyaki. The chef were friendly and cooked delicious food. The meat and sea food are good quality and fresh. It doesn't need the yum yum sauce to make it tasty. Even though not much performance like flying knife, we are very happy to have a safe family dinner.

I have only ever eaten the buffet at Katsura and my recent visit was no different.  The food on offer is of a high standard, especially the sushi and sashimi.  Octopus, scampi, scallops, beef tataki, it's all there with a variety of hot dishes that support the main event well.  I also like the soft egg, which has a custard like consistency and has goodies hidden inside.  The staff are always courteous and the atmosphere is quite peaceful considering all of the action in the room.  Buffets are never a pretty way to eat (I have a constant battle with will power) but this one is worth a look if you like your Japanese food

Japanese Cuisine at the Rendezvous Hotel in Auckland City<br/><br/>We decided to try this nice Japanese restaurant as we had a discount voucher. We arrived a little late so we weren't able to try the buffet so we later came back to try it. This visit, we decided to get the Kaiseki Katsura (4 courses) which were a selection of entrees, sashimi, a choice of beef, chicken, fish cooked teppanyaki style and dessert. It was a quiet night and it was around 8pm so most people were finishing their meals. The lovely waitresses were really polite and attentive. We waited around 10 mins for our entrees. It came with mussels with lemon and some onion, slightly cooked beef with lettuce, crispy potato and some chicken sushi. I really liked the beef and potato, the mussels had an interesting taste with the onion but always nice to try something new. The sashimi arrived soon after with fresh salmon, tuna, kingfish and prawns. You could tell it was fresh and just melts in your mouth, very delicious. I decided to get the beef which was tender but wasn't very special and it came with some mushrooms. My friend got the fish which was average, a little salty. The desserts were sesame and red bean ice cream. Red bean was really nice but the sesame tasted really bad.. Did not enjoy it at all. That's probably how it's meant to taste though, not sweet at all and bitter. Overall dining experience was really nice and so we later came another night for buffet.<br/><br/>We came on a Thursday night at 6pm and it was really busy. There were a lot of people, basically the whole restaurant was full so we were excited to try everything. They had so much variety from fresh sashimi, oysters, scampis, lots of different types of sushi, cooked teppanyaki foods and an assortment of desserts. We were honestly so full afterwards and we loved how they had so much variety. All the people were going for the oysters and scampis cause I guess you gotta get your money's worth! My favourite items were the fresh sashimi and the desserts. Everything was really tasty and the waitresses were always very attentive if you weren't sure what the food was or how to make the food.<br/><br/>Pictures:<br/>- The selection of entrees<br/>- Fresh sashimi <br/>- Teppanyaki beef with mushrooms<br/>- Teppanyaki snapper with vegetables<br/>- Sesame and red bean ice cream<br/>- Fresh sashimi kingfish and salmon<br/>- Selection of sushi and side dishes<br/>- Selection of sashimi<br/>- Oysters and scampis<br/>- Selection of nigiri<br/>- Fish soup<br/>- Selection of mini desserts<br/>- Shabu shabu meat<br/>- Selection of fruits<br/>- Selection of desserts<br/><br/>For the 4 courses, it was $60 per person and the buffet was $78 per person. I felt like the buffet was much more enjoyable and better value seen as it's all you can eat. The 4 courses were nice but I would prefer eating all kinds of foods and for $78 it's not too bad seen as there's such a variety. I don't tend to eat buffets cause I don't eat a lot so I probably will only come back for special occasions with friends but it was really lovely and mainly, very fresh!

I had the $20 express lunch and it was awesome. The ingredients were high quality and fresh, not your average food court /takeaway bento box stuff. The portion sizes were more than adequate. The only let-down was the service. Although they are nice, they take ages to do stuff eg being water to the table, possibly because they only had two floor staff, but there were only about 5 tables.

Wonderful service here. The food was delicious and very entertaining watching our chef cook our food teppanyaki style. I had a menu of edamame, salad, teppanyaki style of salmon, Angus rib eye, chicken thigh as well as Asian vegetables, steamed rice, and miso soup. Finished with vanilla ice cream.

My husband and I came here for a four course set menu. The food and service were excellent! We chose the sake paired with the meals. That too was a very pleasant experience. I highly recommend this restaurant. <br/><br/>

My friends & I had an early dinner at Katsura on a weekday.  There were not a lot of customers.  The waitresses were friendly & cheerful. We ordered set dinners. Sushi & sashimi combination has a good variety & nice - I wish we had a bit of dressing to go with the side salad (unless it was there to look at & not to be eaten). The second course was 4 pieces of tempura - too oily & just average.  For the main, a couple of my friends had char-grilled chicken thigh; they had their thumbs up.  Another friend & I had pan-fried market fish - salmon - which was absolutely bland.  Dessert was bean-paste waffle - average, red-bean ice-cream - excellent & crème-brȗlée with sake - not impressive.<br/>(Food - 3/5; Service - 3/5; Ambience - 4/5)

Wonderful duck, sashimi and sake brûlée fantastic but meal was brought by room service and was quite cold. Also the Japanese veges were just ordinary stir fry.

We are fortunate to have eaten tepanyaki at a few places in Auckland and in japan. Katsura has all the elements to make it a truely great place to eat. It has windows looking out into a lovely Japanese garden. The place has a contemporary feel to it and the service from the waiting staff is perfect. They have an extremely good Sake menu and the wait staff are knowledgable about their product. The food was what we would expect. But there is something missing.WE  go for tepenyaki for the experience and entertainment as well as the food You expect a few laughs with the chef and to generally have fun. THAT element was missing.-the FUN We felt like we needed to speak in hushed tones whilst there. As in the title It has all the elements to be a truely great place to eat but misses the mark. If it was the only experience we had of tepan cooking we might not have been disapointed. We weren't put off enough so we will never return. But disapointed

This is good but pricey for what I imagine. It loses its appeal after the first time.

Although the service at Katsura was very good, the dinner buffet was a great disappointment. Apart from the sashimi, the food was equivalent to that provided in food halls for less than $15 pp and was certainly not worth $78. The hot food was lukewarm. It would be helpful if the food trays were labelled.

I had teppanyaki at Katsura with a group of 13 and was very disappointed with the quality of the food and service offered. Having been to a few teppanyaki restaurants in New Zealand, I must say this was by far the worse experience I've ever had. The food was burnt and served very inelegantly. The chef was also very rude, dis-engaged and seemed uninterested. It would have been polite for him to introduce himself but instead, he just cooked the food and left with the comment that he was glad the the night is finally over.<br/><br/>Overall, the food was terrible, the chef was very rude and not entertaining, I would be able to get a better quality meal and services from a food court.

Went there last night with the entertainment book voucher to use. Had a great teppanyaki. Much more food than we expected for a modest $45. The chef did a great job and was friendly and entertaining. The staff were lovely and very happy to help when I asked for extra sauce and mayonnaise. Nicely decorated. Validated parking, so free parking for the night in rendezvous hotel car park :-)

We were a party of 9 for dinner on Saturday at one of the teppanyaki table. Chef was doing basic cooking with no flair or showmanship one expects from teppanyaki cooking. Two of us had fried rice and it was very salty. In fact the others in our party said the pork, chicken and prawns were all on the salty side. After being served drinks, none of the waitresses came back to ask whether we want some more. We had to wait and hail a passing waitress to get us some water in the end. Sashimi was good. Dessert was just plain vanilla ice-cream. Expected maybe Japanese green tea ice-cream. Not sure whether the suction fans were not on full blast or filters are clogged, but we all went home with clothes smelling of cooking smells. Overall we were disappointed we did not enjoy all the food and were not entertained by the chef.

Food tops all. Service was very nice. place appeared clean. great atmosphere just what we wanted

We went Katsura for the seafood dinner buffet. There were lots of selections, especially types of sashimi. Surprisingly,the quality of their sashimi was superb and did not compromise because it's a buffet. I love their dessert as well, I tried two types of Japanese pudding and mango ice cream both were very yummy. One thing that they need to improve is their hot food range. Firstly the hot dishes were not as many selections as sashimi. Secondly, they seems not that fresh, I tried one piece of tempura, it tasted like it has been sitting there for ages.<br/><br/>The interior of Katsura is really peaceful like a Japanese style garden, their service was flawless, polite and efficient.<br/><br/>I personally think it was worth every penny we spent.

Arrived a little late but were welcomed by the cheerful maitre'd. that was pretty much the last time the staff spoke to us. We were seated for teppanyaki without being given an option of the A La carte, but thought why not give it a try now we're there. I really wish we hadn't bothered. The restaurant was cold to the point of keeping our jackets on and the extractor fan above the griddle was dripping fat in front of us. The entrees in our set meal were terrible. A small ramekin of cold and flavourless endamame beans followed by a 'here's one I prepared earlier' side salad gave no sense of the Japanese cuisine we'd been expecting. It was all significantly overpriced. Not going back.

I took mum to Katsura for the Saturday lunch buffet for her birthday yesterday. The sashimi were pretty good and the dessert was nice too, though not many selections. Mum loves tempura a lot and was very looking forward to having some nice tempura ... however, we were quite disappointed that the tempura was not hot at all and the food at the teppanyaki section were all cooked and been sitting there for quite a while so they were not hot. I would say that with that price range I would have expected better.

Had been the restaurant a few times before and it was always good. This was my first time there this year for lunch buffet, not 100% authentic, not many selection as before and the price was higher.

My partner and I came here for dinner (and lunch) on our holiday. The food was absolutely amazing! We originally had a Tepinyaki(?) table chosen but later on asked if we could change to a regular as my partner had looked at the menu online and chosen what he wanted. The staff were just the best. We were served by a lovely lady named Grace. Anyone who says there was a "western feel" is crazy and silly. The pricing was pretty good. The wait between getting food was a bit long but it was quite busy with a few large families that night. The ladies that worked that night with Grace are the most amazing ladies ever. I had unfortunately lost a bear pendant and rushed back in shaken and in the middle of an anxiety attack and they all happily and calmly helped me look around where I was sitting. Eventually he was found outside (-.-) but I am so grateful for the ladies taking a few minutes to help me look. Great service, amazing food, the authenticity was spot on and I am definitely going back there soon!!!!!

I love Japanese food, and this is the best I've had in Auckland. I ordered the "Healthy Bento" (i.e. vegetarian), and it was simply delicious. The price was quite high, but I got a LOT of food and it was very flavoursome. I have a small appetite, but as per the meal's name felt great after eating - not at all overstuffed. <br/><br/>If you need protein in your meal, you'll need to grab something else as this was a very low-protein meal - almost 100% vegetables. Personally, my protein needs were fulfilled by an interesting take on creme brulee - sake brulee with miso-flavoured shavings on top. I am more than happy to forgo protein in a main if it means I can justify dessert! As with most Asian desserts, this was not super-sweet, and the umami flavour of the miso cut through the sugar coating of the genuinely sake-flavoured custard in a very nice way.<br/><br/>One final thing to mention is how beautiful the restaurant is - a very soothing environment, and it does not feel like a hotel restaurant at all.<br/><br/>Highly recommended.

I enjoyed some incredibly good sashimi here at Katsura this week. The quality and freshness of the kingfish, salmon and other sashimi fish was magnificent, and the wasabi was of such flavoursome sharpness, I just really loved it.<br/><br/>I came for the 2 course lunch offer for $38, and my only complaint would be that it was too filling, as it was a huge amount of food for lunch for me! I think next time, I'll just get a sashimi dish, as that would be plenty for me. Also, from reading the ad I saw on here, it seemed that they gave me more food than what was listed in the offer?! As it came with a main of beef (which I normally prefer not to eat red meat, but I made a pretty good dent in it), and salmon and beautifully tasty veges.<br/><br/>The entrée also came with a yummy 'jumbo' prawn, tempura style, and two succulent fat pieces of chicken teriyaki.<br/><br/>Plus a beer.<br/>And a miso soup.<br/>Did I mention I was very full after my meal?!<br/><br/>The surroundings were very peaceful, and being in a fancy hotel, everything was spick &amp; span as you'd expect.<br/><br/>Kimono-clad waitresses were warm and helpful.<br/><br/>It's a top-notch Japanese restaurant, and I think the stand out aspect for me, was the very high quality sashimi.

Very terrible, we went for dinner buffet on a Thursday, got charged $75 per person. With only very few choices of bad quality food. The worse buffet I have ever had in New Zealand. It's so ridiculous for $75 buffet. Honest suggestion: Stay away from this robber, don't waste your money.

Simply the best Japanese restaurant in Auckland.<br/><br/>Great quality of the food and friendly service from the staffs.<br/><br/>Price is a bit high but this would be perfect occasion, if you want try real Japanese dishes as well as Japanese styled service.

OMG!! This is the best Japanese restaurant you could ever get to in Auckland. The quality of foods that served in here is really seriously different to any other Japanese places in Auckland. Even if you go to Japan, you'd have to pay good $$ to taste stuffs like this. Buffets on Tuesday and Thursday dinner are both excellent. Despite the high price, it's totally worth going. Friendly Japanese staff serving with kimono on. Great place for the special day!

Very very disappointing. Hard to comment on service as we feel there was none! We were a group of 7 that ate there on a Sunday evening so they were not busy. From the start we felt that we weren't welcome. The chef tried to be funny but came across as having a bad attitude and made us feel uneasy. <br/>The food was ridiculously overpriced and the helpings were very meagre. We each had the miso and salad , both in very small bowls,and an assortment of meat and seafood.One of us ordered the beef and only found out later that this wasn't even available, after the waiter had taken the order for it !? We also had the dessert which was fruit salad from a can ....I am serious! For $50 this was not acceptable. We all felt like we had been robbed. <br/>We should have complained at the time but had the impression all would have fallen on deaf ears.

everything is lovely, food was good, but pricing!!! too expensive for 1 ppl $80

The buffet is excellent and is very well-priced for the variety of shushi and sashimi available.

The decoration was not very attractive but the food and attention worth a visit.<br/>So far the best Japanese food in Auckland.<br/><br/>Try special lunch menu now for $19.95

Me and my friend enjoyed our dinner here! Food is excellent<br/>