Review The Yakitori House - Auckland Central

Avigail Larom

This place is really great, and I have had an awesome experience and will probably be coming back soon. The atmosphere is cozy and pretty, and the service is friendly and helpful. I had vegetarian dishes like the vegetarian giozas and the tofu salad and found them very delicious, and the people I ate with had foods that contained meat such as the pork belly and the tiger prawns, and they enjoyed them a lot as well. We also had the Hiuse Sundae, and we loved it. It contained a new and interesting type of food which we had never tried before like the matcha ice cream, the black sesame ice cream and the yukimi daifuku, and it was so different than any dessert I've ever had, it was so great. My personal favourite dessert was the sweet, hot banana and chocolate spring roll. In short, this place is fantastic, it was a great experience and I warmly recommend it.

Mauricio Kimura

Yesterday my good friend Namiki and I dined at Yakitori House, and it was a culinary delight! Firstly, the variety of options on the menu is exceptional. From an array of skewered yakitori to delightful sides, there's something for every palate. The cauliflower tempura was a standout – crispy, flavorful, and simply delicious. What truly sets Yakitori House apart is their beverage selection. The beer was top-notch, and the hot sake was both authentic and satisfying. The combination of these beverages with the flavorful yakitori made for a memorable dining experience. The ambiance at Yakitori House is also worth mentioning. It captures the essence of a Japanese izakaya perfectly, making it a wonderful place for a cozy and relaxed evening. Overall, Yakitori House is a gem for anyone seeking a taste of authentic Japanese cuisine and a fantastic selection of drinks. I can't wait to return and try more. Highly recommended! 🍻🍢🍶

Misha Grover

Absolutely love this place! The ramen, sake, gyozas and beef skewers with blue cheese dressing was out of this world. We ordered all this for $60 which wasn't too bad considering the meat was of a great quality and the food was absolutely delicious ❤️ Will surely be back again!

Lauren Kee

Very cool vibes. The food and black sesame ice cream were delicious. Salmon sashimi was amazing.

Duncan Andrews

A great yakitori restaurant. Food is good and atmosphere is great. Maybe they need another service person as the poor waitress was flat out. One downside is the price is a little high for this type of food. Maybe 3 sticks of yakitori would be better that 2 small one.

Traveling with Apple

We were in Auckland for a few days and we stumbled into this place on a Friday afternoon and we absolutely love it. The service drinks and food were absolutely on point. This sake bar it's absolutely a great concept. Love the hibachi and the skewers served straight off the grill. We had a really good time here and will definitely recommend this place to anyone going to Auckland. Prices are decent both food and drink wise. Keep up the good work 💪💪✌️

Angelo Richard

I'd consider this one of my favorite restaurants in Auckland so far. Everything is so well executed there is nothing off the menu so far that I haven't liked and I've already tried half of it. It is a bit expensive but definitely well worth it. There is a wait time because everything is made fresh so do set aside at max 2 hours.

SAB LIS

A familiar cuisine just make our day after the flight delay & cold rainy night.

Carla Leyson

The Yakitori House serves excellent food and have a wide range of good drink selections. Our all-time favorite would be the Sirloin Steak with Miso Butter (cooked to perfection) and Ox Tongue (melts in your mouth goodness). We always enjoyed the chill vibes here. They have awesome staff and customer service too!!! Highly recommend!

Phillip Ryan

Great little restraunt in Auckland Cbd, great for sharing different food and keeping cost down. HIGHLY Recommend!!

Brendon Wyatt

Just visited again for the first time in years and Khan (the manager) actually remembered me for how much I loved their salmon skewers! That really says something about their friendly people, their welcoming service, and their awesome food. Love the general atmosphere of the place too! Highly recommend these guys and I'll be making the trip to eat there again much sooner this time.

Seowoo Shin

Nice foods and environments. Good place for snack and beer. Dango dog was the best part

Lynetteリネット

Fun cozy place! Even though it was really busy the staff still managed to get out my order in a decent enough time. The food was quite tasty and a pleasure to eat

Ma Jorant

Great place for yakitori and happy hour house lager beers (until 7 PM daily). Good vibes/decor to make you feel as though you’re in Japan. Enjoyed the following skewers: cheesy mochi, ox tongue, chicken/onion and chicken skin. The beef tataki and tokoyaki balls were also decent dishes.

Phunipa Bhurishawarangkul

Nice place for Japanese food with Japanese style decorations restaurants, good beverage. I recommend sake jelly peach, it was so nice for girls. 😊

Alvis Wong

First time to visit this restaurant. Food and drinks were served very quickly. The deep fried chicken skin, the karrage chicken and mini soft shell crabs are to die for! The nigiri sushi set are awesome. Skwers are good too. Overall we really enjoy the dinner and will come back to again to try other dishes.

Sergey Nikolaevich Kiz

There is no words to describe how much I love this place! Everything from food to atmosphere is A+. I Ve been to this place before under previous management and I'm glad to say that in hands of current owners this place is flourishing. I'm a huge fan of Japanese food n visited Japan number of times and can say with full responsibility that this is one of the best Japanese restaurant in Auckland(that alone says a lot).they have chef straight from Japan and duty manager who is very professional at his job. I recommend this place to all fans of good food 😊 5 stars!

Gavin Robinson

Excellent food and great fast, friendly service. Try the grilled cow tongue, it's amazing. Highly recommend this place!

Jon Doherty

Great atmosphere - great people - great food. Japanese chefs cooking yakitori the correct way over charcoal, not gas! Tried salmon ochazuke for the first time - it was sooooo good. Highly recommend Yakitori House!

Anne Varley

My best friend and I use to come to this spot as regulars before it became Yakitori House, and in comparison I was appalled by the food. Everything was undercooked, bland, the sauce tasted cheap and the presentation itself was awful. Especially compared to the previous owners. The food is also an absolute rip off, extremely disappointed.

Koshi Philips

Had a quick lunch here earlier in the week and it was absolutely delicious. Well priced, great portion sizes and the service was top-notch! Will definitely be back!

Takayuki Ibaraki

Service was good but was disappointed by the food. It was mediocre at best and not worth the price. Some skewers were undercooked and that really put me off.

Albert Hayman

Great food great people... Love this place... Real deal Japanese food

Jennifer Smythe

Amazing atmosphere. Food is scrumptious and there are so many options to choose from! Deffinately would recommend allowing lots of time to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the food.

Holly Huang

Friendly staff and good service. Great place to have a catch up with friends over some skewers.

Jason Simmonds

Great food and friendly staff, will definitely be back again

Jarrod Smythe

Awesome service, food came out really quick and was amazing at a great price. Will deffinently be back. Recommend it to anybody who wants a perfect night out with friends or family.

Barry Walker

Great place great staff and food is awesome

Heng Ly

Takashi is a good chef and wooooooooo! Very yummy food!

Ranadi Mitchell

Great food and friendly staff, loved it lots

Debbie Keys

Unobtrusive friendly service. Party of 5. Enjoyed everything we ate. Soo many choices.

Inho Jung

It is so good yakitori and beer i love here

SS

Loved our experience. Service was super amazing and food was served quickly, hot and absolutely delicious. We thoroughly enjoyed our night (ordered slightly too much but hey, it was a great time!) Would def recommend.

Deepak David

Average yakitori, grilled saba caused us stomach issues the rest of the night. Something was really wrong with that dish and the staff said maybe it's just not too poor taste. There are better yakitori in Auckland that offer higher quality than this place. Our first visit was good but it seems they are not consistent because the second time did was so so.

Helen

We were greeted at the door by very friendly staff, and the excellent service continued throughout the entire night! The cosy restaurant wasn't too busy on a Thursday night at 9pm, and we were very quickly drinking and dining on some truly fantastic food! Starting off with small dishes - the soft shell baby crab, teriyaki tofu, and grilled unagi were all absolutely delicious. Our favourite had to be the takoyaki though, these were sinfully good! We definitely went a bit crazy with ordering the yakitori skewers - overall though, everything was cooked to perfection and went down a treat paired with a big mug of Suntory Kakubin Highball! Must tries are the chicken skin, chicken gizzard, and beef tongue. To go with everything, as skewers are only so big and our stomachs were craving more goodness, we also ordered karaage chicken (crunchy chicken goodness!), potato croquettes (mashed potato heaven), and deep fried squid tentacles that were a texturally perfect pairing with the prawn fried rice. We rounded off the night with some deep fried camembert cheese with berry jam and a glass of red plum wine - wine and cheese, how could it not be a match made in heaven? Our meal at The Yakitori House will be one for the memory books, so thank you very much for an absolutely amazing feast!

Bella Qian

Amazing service and awesome Yakitori. Skewers and the food are well priced and I loved the atmosphere. Ordered quite a lot to try and loved every dish. Special mention to the beef tongue, nigiri, and grilled rice ball.

Carla

Ending the work week with good food, good time and good company. My husband and I always loved Japanese food, so it was exciting to learn about The Yakitori House. Their skewers were surprisingly tasty, karaage chicken juicy, donburi delectable and desert sinfully delicious. Staff were friendly and accommodating.

Beyoungka - BEYO3535

My bf and I celebrated my birthday here because I was craving for Aburi Salmon Sushi. I have tried almost every Aburi Salmon Sushi in Auckland and their Aburi Nigiri set is the best. The skewers, tuna sashimi, chicken karaage, and gyoza were scrumptious too. My bf, a picky eater, is willing to try more Japanese food now which pleases me immensely. My birthday dinner would not have been enjoyable if not for the excellent service provided by their friendly staff. We also loved the ambiance of the place and everything was just perfect.

Sharon The Foodie

Dude I would come here every week! The best yakitori in town! The 𝘀𝗸𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀 were welly grilled! The meat were flavoursm and juicy and not dried! The 𝘀𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗺𝗶 were definitely worth! The fish were sliced thickly and that bowl of sweet prawn (ama ebi) was like a mountain! The 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗳 𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗶 were sliced thicker than usual and I thought it would be chewy but NOPE. It was super soft and tender. The beef went super well with that sweet citrusy dressing and raw onion! The batter of the 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝘄𝗻 𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗮 was a bit too thick for me but all good I've got the pork+cabbage 𝗴𝘆𝗼𝘇𝗮 to replace it! The BIG bowl of 𝗵𝗶𝘁𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗵𝗶 was dayum good! It comes with a tea pot of soup/broth that you could pour in. But I suggest ti just have the eel and rice together only. Ended our meal with the 𝗮𝗯𝘂𝗿𝗶 𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗿𝗶 𝘀𝗲𝘁! Loved the charred sweet sauce aye! The seafood literally melt and explode in your mouth! Oh and by the way, they have happy hour till 7pm for a $7.50 beer/ plum wine/ wine!

Tony Ma

Delicious drinks bbq and snacks! Best yakitori bar in Auckland! I love the skewers, the flavours and textures are amazing too! Don’t forget to order from their yummy drink selection! They often have event days too so can keep an eye out. Otherwise just go when you feel like a satisfying meal. Service: 5/5 Environment: 4.5/5 Food Quality: 5/5 Food Quantity: 5/5 Presentation: 4.5/5 Price per person: $20-$40

Marcus Kwan

Very very nice place. We are glad to have found this place. Drinks were great! We didn't have any food as we came after dinner, but we were quick to realise our mistake. Definitely will be back for food and drinks in the near future!

Hungus Girl

You wouldn't think much of it as its next to dominoes but don't be shy step in and you will be surprised its a cozy Japanese bar/restaurant. Great ambience. Very Japanese vibe. Almost felt like a number of restaurants/bars i went to in Japan! Positive thing is that at least in Nz the staff speaks English 😁 very friendly and attentive staff! Food is tapas style. Yakitori is typically skewers and grilled/bbq foods. They grill the food amazingly well and flavours are sealed in. Omg the salmon skewers were the best.. and the banana fritters with sesame icecream def worth trying! Drinks are also recommended with a wide selection of sake, beers and a few variety of wines. Asahi beers chilled on tap is always good here! Even better happy hour prices are daily!

Paige Pomana

I was thoroughly happy with the food and friendly service at The Yakitori House! Amazing all round experience, would love to go back again some time!

Mashed_Potato

Good location and extremely friendly staff. Tried sparkling plumb wine jelly which was worth the try. The food itself is rather average unfortunately. Soft shell crabs were incredibly small and the Karaage chicken a bit dry. Not bad for what you pay for though.

EyeVan Ho

I think it's worth 3 stars as it was just ok. Not bad but not the best. Unfortunately some dishes didn't have much taste. Great environment and friendly staff tho.

Carmen

First time eating at this restaurant and wouldn't be our last. Yummy yakitori as well as other items on the menu. Price are very reasonable and staffs are extremely friendly. Great place to chill with friends and families.

Bryan Chen

It is an authentic Japanese Yakitori place that is spacious, and relatively quiet. One of the best place to catch up and hang out with friends. It is also has good variety of Japanese alcohol with reasonable price.

Samuel

Decent place to come for a few drinks and dinner. pretty good Japanese food and service is prompt. nice little cosy place tucked away a little bit. Will be back!

Flames And Skewers

This place can be hard to find so let me make it simple for you. Go down the staircase, and through the door on right hand side of Domino's on Shortland Street and you'll emerge on the other side. The ambience of the place is amaxing and the hosts were really friendly to us. We had some hot sake and the range is amazing. The place has the largest sake menu I've come across so far, in Auckland. A must try restaurant for people who are into beverages. I DID NOT try the food, so can't comment on the taste but other people did and it looked amazing.

LuNa The TuNa

Great food, nice sake . Had a lot of fun. Staff are quite obliging. Good place to relax after work. I like the scallops the best. And also the sweet alcohol.

Totally Fried NZ

We got totally fried at The Yakitori House on bottomless karaage. This is the first and only time walking through a door marked Dominoes and being ok with it. We are praying no one sees us do it. We cleared our schedule for @theyakitorihouse all-you-can-eat karaage chicken. There hasn’t been a better deal in Auckland since the Pizza Hut buffet in Royal Oak closed. RIP the national treasure. Bottomless karaage is every bit as glutenous as it sounds - golf ball sized pieces of karaage chicken fried to perfection with a bottle of that liquid cocaine aka Kewpie Mayo on the table to be applied as you wish. And at the first site of white cardboard at the bottom of the tray, a basin-sized bowl of crispy chook arrives at the table ready to put that bottom back out of site. We are given an hour and half to get totally fried and waddle out feeling like we just ate the Kewpie Mayo baby. We didn’t need 90 minutes. We left in pain after only 40. Overall: 4.4/5 What we had: Shit loads of karaage chicken (we lost count) $20 each

Karen

Came here for lunch and got a lot of food for a decent price. Food tasted pretty decent but didn’t quite hit the spot! Felt like it was possibly a little basic and there was nothing too special about it. Ambiance is good but more of a nice night time place than lunch perhaps. It’s quite dark inside for lunch. Nonetheless service was good and food came out quickly!

Wendy Wang

It’s next to dominos pizza, and you need to go down stair to enter into this restaurant. Food are good, staff are friendly, and the environment is very Japanese. And it close late, so good for late causal dinner.

Tony Shi

The skewers we had were average. Flavours were not balanced e.g. too much black pepper on the beef tongue, pork was too sweet. Not the best but not the worst, still great to have with a beer. They were served quickly which is a plus.

Jasveen Kaur

We went here for the $60 all you can eat. Lots to choose from and all nice dishes but nothing spectacular. Was worth the money for all you can eat and we had a nice time so good job overall.

Erin - Gold Code For 20% Off : CATH6386

My first zomato gold visit 1+1 food experience to these nice hidden gem in the city.. i like the atmosphere of the restaurant, and yes they served nice and yummy food.. we ordered sashimi and unagi donbury but they run out of unagi so changed order to udon which is nice and tasty.. i like it.. tempting to order sake but maybe in next visit..

Julirose Supremo

Love their Katsu Curry meal and Karaage. But the best part is that They usually have unli karaage promotions. So keep your eyes posted for announcements! 😉

Guy Richardson

Amazing flavours, generous portions, great service and an incredible restaurant fit-out and feel. Can’t recommend highly enough, and all at a great price.

Tina Crooks

Have been here multiple times and have enjoyed every visit! Nice atmosphere even though the shop isn't huge - reminds me of a lot of tapas bars/izakaya in japan. The ALL YOU CAN EAT KARAAGE/CHICKEN on Tuesdays is a must. We were topped up regularly and service was fast. Only downfall is that the remaining menu is limited during this time so there isn't too much else you can order. When the full menu is available, I always order the Temaki Sushi, Beef Tataki, Fried Gyoza and the Pork Belly & Ginger Yakitori (skewer). The sparkling sake and plum wine is a nice drink for the ladies too :) I recommend booking in advance if you have more than 2 people so that you can get a nice booth seat.

Jay

Pretty good place. Miso Soup was really good, the skewers were well made. Yakitori isn't as great as Japan (accepted) and nothing home to write about, but the atmosphere of the place is good and the service is excellent and fast. I don't know what it is, but just felt off. I wasn't delighted, but not disappointed either.

Bex Ellis

Great service which made it that much better. Food is ok some hit and some misses. The corn was terrific but the tempura wasn’t a fav. Overall the experience was ok.

Louise

Came here the first time they had the Fried Chicken all you can eat. We had a booking for 6-7 which would have been plenty of time to eat before we got sick of eating fried chicken. It took a while for the waiter to bring us our first round of chicken (approximately 10 minutes?) and then the food slowly came out, although we did have to wait a while between each round. Nothing mind blowing about this fried chicken, it was nice and tasted good with the sauces that were provided. (Maybe it was a bad move on my behalf but I assumed they would give us extra sauce once they noticed ours was empty so I sat around waiting for my sauces to be replenished. Which they never did...) In all fairness I would give this a 3.5. The staff were very friendly and helpful, but I feel as though they may have been understaffed as they had to turn away many customers before the 7pm mark. Will most likely come back to try the Actual Yakitori (or possibly the Fried Chicken Wing all you can eat)

Sonia Son

Nice place to have dinner. Few of them were little bit salty but overall food was good :) Tried warm sake and highball and it was really tasty

YukiYuki

Went there at Saturday night 7ish, but we found a number of tables available. We tried a variety of Yakitori. Although we usually are a huge fan of yakitori, their yakitori was just average honestly. Some were dry inside/burnt outside. However, their service was pretty good and they've got an excellent ambience where you can feel like Japanese local bar. Not sure if we come back. You could probably find a better Yakitori bar.

Kirsten

Habe always walked past this Yakitori house, and decided to try it out. Ordered the Scotch filet steak, Pork belly, Grilled Rice balls and the Chicken and Spring Onion. My favourite in terms if taste was the chicken and spring onion; juicy and full of flavour. The scotch filet steak tasted a bit bland, only the sauce made up for it. The grilled rice balls were average; i expected some sort of filling inside. The pork belly was a bit too chewy for me. It was nice to experience dining at a yakitori restaurant (friendly staff), but the food needs more flavour and it tool a while for our food to arrive.

Maddy

Came here tonight with a group of 12. The staff were amazing and so friendly. The food was perfect, such a great night, everyone was happy. We even ordered extra food to take home!!! Will be back!

S J

the yakitori here were far away from the one I know in japan. most of the meat was overcooked and dry or chewy. the taste of sauce is week and there's no chargrilled flavour at all. it's harsh to say, but I don't call it yakitori...

Thom

Good place for skewers in the cbd, variety is not that great and taste and char are also just ok in my opinion. They are very friendly but there is something off about the service, we sat for 30 seconds and were asked if we were ready and kept happening over and over while we weren't ready, I suppose it is more like nibbles but it is quite unsettling. And when asked for water refill the waitress came to refill my friend's glass and his glass only. Not a bad thing but it was quite odd :/

Ho Nom

Came here with 10 other people and everything was spot on from reservation, to service and most importantly the food! Such a nice vibe and located conveniently in downtown cbd. Probably the best service I’ve had in cbd restaurant :)

Chomnomnom

Wow what a difference under new management! Staff are actually friendly and smile! Lobster salad was my personal fave, and soft shell baby crabs were interesting. We had the mixed yakitori which was good. Bummer they don't do BYO anymore, otherwise a great improvement.

Nataliepham0908

My friend and I went to here on a Sunday night, therefore it was not crowded. We both love the food and the ambience here; especially, the funny names that they gave for the sake. Not to mention, there was a variety of foods to eat and I think that it was not pricey at all.

Blackpearl

Were craving for some yakitori and stumbled upon this place on saturday night. Ordered some warm sake, karaage chicken and their yakitori sets with rice and miso soup. Yakitoris were nicely grilled, not the best I've tried but it was good enough, love their miso soup. Karaage chicken was so-so but enough to satisfy my cravings in the middle of winter night, paired with sake I was content.

9gna

Excellent service, super friendly staff. Addicted to grilled beef tongue and lobster salad!!! Great place to hang out with friends for drinks and food!

Michael Riordan

Just got back from having a fantastic meal here. Everything was delicious and well priced. Probably the best service I've experienced at a restaurant of any kind. This will definitely be my new Japanese go to!

Serge Foodini

I put it simply :5 stars! As far as grilled meat a-la Japanese -style concerned this is the tastiest Japanese sake bar/restaurant in Akld.I ordered chicken thighs, scotch fillet and chicken mince!then I repeat my order again and again...warm sake was the as good as authentic as one I tried in the middle of Tokyo itself...staff was friendly and funny.this was my second time and I firmly believe I'll visit this place again.well done guys!

Tony Chen

Told by a friend that this place is under new management. Gave it a try, food was amazing! Staff are friendly and helpful in choosing what we should eat. I would recommend the: Chicken mince (no where in NZ does the same) Chicken and spring onion Bay soft shell crab Prawn wrapped with pork Chicken knuckle Owner told me that they will have new additions to their menu in May! Must come back here again in May!

Allen Tang

Best Japanese restaurant in the city, good wines and tap beers. Chicken skin and beef tongue are very nice. It is a good place to hang out with friends in city at night till midnight. Will definitely go with friends again.

Darren Big Belly

Nice setting with mood lighting. Friendly staff. Highly recommend the chicken knuckles. Interesting soft shell baby crabs, haven't had anything similar before. Definitely try the chicken mince. Very good selection of Japan beers, some exclusively available here.

Bella Lin

Pop into this newly opened restaurant last night. This place reminds me of Japan. Staff so friendly great to chat with and food soooooo delicious! You couldn't ask for more! A real place to drink and enjoy great authentic Japanese yakitori food! Loved it!

Ashton J Lee

Just been there, they have nice food, service's perfect and atmosphere's great, was surprised about this rating i mean 3.6 out of 5 come on! but the manager said it is from previous owner, and Zomato wouldn't allowed them to open a new account since the bar falls into the same category.... had to come rate it a 5 star to help with the rating lol