My boyfriend & I went here for dinner and absolutely loved it. My new favourite little place!
I loved the atmosphere, music and the food was delicious.
We ordered pork belly skewers, steak skewers (I highly recommend this! The taste was so succulent you could taste the butter and wine) and the fried cheese skewers! Perfection 🥢
Such a sweet vibe! Totally different and novel. Staff were efficient and quick. Food came out pretty fast and it was glorious! Will def return
Great for a date night, food is good but not the best Japanese but cool atmosphere and a little bit different. Good drink selection as well. Jelly sake, steak with butter and chicken cheese balls are a must!
Went in quite late around 9.30 one weekend and it was still full. The tako salad was different but nice. We ordered pork belly, scotch beef and scallop skewers. Great to grab a few bites while drinking. Service is efficient.
Dora The Food Explorer
+4
The last time I ate at Tanuki’s cave was a crazy 8 years ago. But the quality of food and service were just as good as I remember. While we waited for a table at the Yakitori bar in the basement, we had the Spicy Tuna roll and Tiger prawn roll to start. The rice was fragrant, pillowy and well seasoned. Generous portion sizes of tuna and prawns for what you pay. Next we ordered ourselves the Tender chicken thigh skewers, Scotch fillet steak with butter and sou sauce, OMG this was my favourite. the steak was so tender and oozing with that butter steak juice goodness. We also had the Shitake mushrooms stuffed with chicken mince, they came in great big crumbed balls. In my opinion the chicken mince was on the dry side but flavour was there. After 8 years, Tanuki’s cave still satisfies.
Love this place! The atmosphere is something you wouldnt expect stepping off of Queen st.
Food is delish however was really disappointed with our salmon dish being well overcooked.
Service is always great.
Be prepared to wait for a table
We came here on a Monday night and it was still very busy, but as a group of 6, we promptly got a table. We ordered a lot of yakitori and kushiage, maybe 1/3 of the menu, and they were all delicious! The kushiage had a crispy crumbed coating and it was deep fried to a perfect level. The crumbed coating was not too thin and not too thick, or oily. The yakitori were flavorful and had a smoky aroma. My favorites were the chicken skin and chicken wings, both being very tender and juicy. The chicken heart and beef tongue were both a bit tough so they were hard to chew. Tanukis cave had a very authentic Japanese bar vibe, especially with the dimmed lighting/busy crowd. The service was very good, they took away the plates frequently so it didn't clutter up the table. The only downside was that it was a bit on the expensive side: we had ordered beers on top of the food and it came to $280. It was well worth it though!
Best place to go to before and after a show. They’re so helpful that they would ask what time the show we’d be watching is on. It gets quite busy but the staff is very accomodating no matter how many people I’ve come here with. As it is yakitori style there are a lot of skewer food to choose from. Some favourites include chicken hearts, deep fried cheese and of course good ol’ takoyaki! Warm sake is a perfect partner to these of course but there’s also umeshu (recommended for sure)~ will keep coming back especially for a Japanese food lover like me!
Absolutely love this place! The ambience was welcoming and quaint, the options on the menu was to die for. They had a decent range of skewers for vegetarians like me! The Japanese Mayo is the best I've had so far and so was the hot sake here. The customer service was very good! My evening here was beyond awesome....I definitely recommend this place, be it an evening out with your mates or a date.
I've been coming here for the past couple of years. So far I've tried something different each time. Today I got Chicken Tenderloins Vienna Sausage and Steak on skewers. The Chicken Tenderloins were something different that I tried and now I love it. I've always loved Vienna Sausage since I first tried it. The steak was also a new thing I tried and was very tender. I recommend you come here if you would like a very delicious meal.
Great atmosphere, food and fun. Can't believe this place is 25 years and still going. Great for couples or larger groups. They dont take bookings unfortunately so just try your luck! Service is excellent but the kitchen can slow down during super busy periods. Enjoy
It’s the best yakitori bar in NZ that you can actually experience japanese style bbq and drinks. But it’s quite pricey and busy. If you eat food there until u feel full, it will be over $50 per person bur little drink and few skewers will be $30ish so if you want to spend like an hour there it would be perfect place.
Love the ambiance of this restaurant. Always busy and staff is always polite and helpful.
My friend and I went on a Thursday night, you know it's a great restaurant if it's packed even on a weekday. It's one of the hidden gems of Auckland. We ordered quite a variety from the menu and everything was delicious. My friend did make a mistake on ordering the mushroom with minced coated with breadcrumbs instead of the yakitori mushroom with minced so it wasn't what we expected but overall good taste. Loved the dessert especially. Highly recommended and will definitely return!
Good vibes. Reasonably priced and tasty dishes. Staff are great too!
Went to dinner here in the upstairs restaurant with two others. We ordered a few different dishes - and each one was delicious. I highly recommend the karaage chicken, eggplant and the salmon sushi! Will be going back.
WOW! The food, the service, and the atmosphere; everything was amazing. The scotch fillet with butter was the best part as well as the legend 22 sake. The jelly sake was super yummy (it's basically alcoholic aloe vera drink). Highly recommend coming here but just watch how much you order as it adds up very quickly!
Visited the cave before our dinner booking at Tanuki restaurant. Place was humming, managed to get a standing side table near the wall. Great atmosphere and fantastic experience before our dinner reservation.
Opens later than most places, good food, good service đź‘Ś
A must try in Auckland.
It feels like a tucked away yakitori bar in Japan, from the entrance, the atmosphere and the food.
The skewers are great and I'm not one to like cheese stuffed foods but the chicken mince ball and others are great here. Other recommendations would be the wings, yakitori and the steak.
Best spot is to sit at the bar but there's plenty of other seats around.
The price is decent and in my opinion, worth the price per skewers. Ended up spending around $100 a head most recently.
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