Review Ezumi - Whangarei

I love coming here! The food is amazing, love the variety. Salmon always fresh. Great portion sizing, always leave feeling full and happy. The service is great and the atmosphere is calm and lovely! My fav Japanese place.

One of the few restaurants open on a Monday, Ezumi quality is consistently fresh, tasty and good. The Beef Tataki is divine, and so far has never disappointed. Really enjoyed the rest of meal and being a Monday with only a couple of guests the service was prompt and friendly. Will not wait as long between visits this time. Thank you.

First time here. Beautiful food and so filling. Prices are really good too. They catered to dietary requirements aswell. Definitely a new favourite place!

My favourite Japanese restaurant. I love their food. Always beautifully presented - appealing to the eye and palate! Meals arrive in a timely fashion & service is given with a demure politeness in a ambiance suited to the cuisine.

The space is clean, airy, and luxurious. The taste is very rich, I especially like the rice in sushi is very, soft, aromatic rice, the salmon sashimi is very fresh. I will definitely come again and will recommend my friends to support the restaurant.

Good value for Japanese. Unfortunately it was a long wait. But definitely worth it and the service was great.

Always very yummy tasty food. Able to get a table straight away, kind service & really yum food. Our go to when we feel like Japanese

The food was great. Service was great - we had three young kids who were welcomed. Decor was good - not super funky but effort gone in. Music was just NZ radio pop (I'd prefer some traditional Japanese). The real only improvement l would suggest is the menu cards - plastic laminated with permanent marker changes. Lowered the tone of the restaurant. Definitely would go again.

We went to Ezumi Japanese Restaurant for a family event at 77 Bank Street Whangarei with numerous family members and a family friend. Upon entering the restaurant we were shown a secluded alcove. The restaurants atmosphere was relaxing and once we were served our chilled beverages we ordered several Number 22 Bento boxes, appetizers and Domburi. The Bento Boxes have a gastronomical treat for everyone's tastebuds. Thouroughly enjoyable.

Delicious food, very high quality. the liqueur is top notch. yes the wait time is long as the other reviewers say, but this is normal for traditional Japanese food. Lucky to have this in Whangarei.

Great service and excellent food.

Have dined here several times and always get a bento box which I thoroughly enjoy. Can be a bit of a wait but good things take time and the wait is worth it IMO.

Friendly staff and the food was priced well. Very enjoyable. The unagi nigiri, more specifically the ell slices were quite thin for the price you pay. Generally good though.

A fairly spacious restaurant with a nice vibe. The food is delicious, the tofu entree is one of the most tasty and moreish dishes I have ever had. A great experience all around that we look forward to repeating.

Authentic Japanese food and great service. Like being in Japan for a night.

Love the service here always happy to see you. We have been a few time and the food has always been good. Last night has the Ezumi bento box and that was so good. Lots of variety and good value for money. Highly recommended

I thoroughly enjoyed eating at this restaurant, we went to the restaurant for a birthday, and we all enjoyed the amazing cuisine they gave us. I did take a while to receive our food, but the food was well worth the wait. It was a great night for all, I ordered the fried noodle bento, which was a good meal, large portions size.

The place is a little shabby and so is the food. The service was good but the food is not great. The best part of the meal was the beer. I will not be stopping here again.

I would have to say that I can't sing and dance about this restaurant but nor can I moan about it. I ordered one of the Bento boxes which came as a very generous portion, well presented and although the meat was a little stringy, I would have to say that I really enjoyed it. We did not have to wait long for our food. The service was adequate (and there were about 10 of us) not overbearing but in opposition to one of the other reviews our plates were cleared while people were still eating. Actually this is a pet hate of mine (having been a waitress myself) but the staff were very friendly and were happy to accommodate any requests. I would definitely go back.....at some point.

Worse Restaurant I have ever been to.Two of us arrived at 5.30pm and sat down at a table.No other customers there but us.After looking over the menu,our orders were taken.We waited for 40 Min's before our food arrived.Very slow considering there was still nobody there but us.The entree and main came out together which is not what we wanted.The meal was OK but nothing great.Nobody cleared our dirty dishes away and no one came back to ask us if we would like a dessert menu or even drinks for the rest of the night.We got so fed up with being ignored and putting up with poor service,we decided to pay up and get dessert elsewhere.When we left the restaurant,there were approx 10 other people in there.Hardly busy considering how slow,inattentive and neglectful the staff were.This is the only restaurant I have ever been to where our dirty dishes were still sitting at our table as we walked out,nearly an hour after we had finished eating.The dishes sat there in front of us not getting cleared away all night.There were 3 waiting staff on duty and several cooking out the back.The woman(Owner I think)stood at the door all night welcoming people and taking your money when you left,but she never once helped clear any plates away at all after people had left or even between courses,including ours.She and the other staff saw the dishes there but did nothing about it. Absolutely appalling.I will never set foot in this place again.Worst service I have ever experienced.The Japanese are known for their fast efficient service,but certainly not at Ezumi.

Hi I'm Rose H Pirini and I was living in whangarei until about 3months ago,I would visit every week, not to dine but passing through and i always ordered from there little window on the side. Since i have left i haven't been able to enjoy my favourite japanese food I was wondering do you have the recipes for these special delights, i can only recall a few, which are fish egg, sweet&sour pork or chicken, shitake mushroom, seaweed, crabmeat,anyway that is all I can recall, if there is any chances i could get these couriered weekly, or you could send me recipes to make them myself would be most appreciated, otherwise could you reccommend a restaurant or place that makes these delights your way, pls tell me. Thanks Rose H Pirini

Lost count of how many times we've eaten at Ezumi,never had a bad meal.Staff are delightful,service can be a little slow but who cares with food like this. Good Chefs shouldn't be hurried!

What a difference four years can make. I reviewed this restaurant back in 2010 and at that point in time gave it 5 stars. Yesterday I visited again with a friend and was much less generous with my stars and here is why. Firstly the service was very slow. They certainly weren't flat out busy since there were several empty tables so I'm not sure what the hold up was but the delivery of the first and only round of drinks, the entree and then the main and finally coffees were all preceded by interminable lengths of time. None of our meals were particularly complex or difficult to prepare so its a mystery. My next niggle is lack of service. We had to make a point of attracting the attention of waiting staff to order meals. Consequently we only had one round of drinks so a lost opportunity on their part to increase our spend. The meals themselves were OK. I had the chili chicken bulgogi which is actually a Korean dish. It's difficult for me to say too much about this since it's the first time I've had this dish but I'm guessing it's not supposed to be burnt nor dry. I decided to opt for a special coffee rather than dessert and that was most disappointing. It tasted like a watery luke warm single shot of coffee with a teaspoon of galliano in it - that was after I'd scraped away the 4 inches of whipped cream. Next disappointment was the decor. I counted no less than 4 separate tables within the restaurant that were being used to store various amounts of clutter. Then behind the counter it looked as if they were running a second hand book store as a side line. I hate to see clutter in a restaurant or kitchen since it begs the question of how thorough can the cleaning be? And sitting on top of the bar in front of their espresso machine was a jumbo sized can of fly spray. I've run a lunch bar so I understand pests are a fact of life but you still don't want to draw attention to the fact! And I counted no less than ten lamps and light fittings with blown bulbs. To me this speaks of a lack of pride in the place. One thing that was consistent with my last visit is that they're still playing the same music. I'd prefer silence over Rod Stewart's tired old songs. On the positive side I felt the meal was modestly priced and the staff were friendly when you did manage to grab their attention. Not my worst dining experience but sadly I won't be back.

We eat here regularly, it is excellent value for money and food is always great.<br/>We have eaten in many Japanese restaurants and this has the best Beef Tataki and Tempura we have had. If you like green tea you must try it here. You may need to wave the wait staff over if you want a second drink but they are always friendly and wanting to please.