nishiki 錦

love it! can't get away from it and it's never too much food.
service is a little bit disappointing some times, but the food and the atmosphere makes you want to come back over and over again.
the best japanese i have ever had.

nishiki is the place to go for japanese. not only do you get friendly and efficient service. the food. oh the food. as a seafood lover, their salmon ikura don is to die for and it's a must-get, all the time, every time. fresh raw salmon and salmon roe on rice. simple yet perfect for me. also, the soft shell crab, the great variety of sushi rolls, the beef tataki, the chicken wings, the kaisen don...the list goes on. but get there early, otherwise you'll have to join the queue!

this place is consistently good, the food is awesome and it is byo which is always a bonus. it is definately not a fine dining atmosphere but the prices reflect this....great place to go with a group of friends and the menu is designed to be share plates so with a group it is easy to go crazy and order everything on the menu (which we have done a few times!) and believe me everything is super tasty!

so good! yummy food, such a good price and byo!

nishiki is such a great place - ponsonby's beautiful people's kids out to play - st. mary's bay lite, if you will. it gets a bad rap for slow service and chaos but the whole point is to come and relax and soak up a bit of 'youf'. in these digital days of sites like this, an establishment's offerings and ethos are pretty much out for all to see. as ever, sharing's the thing and the drip-feed of dishes makes for a perfect catch-up and chat over tastier than tasty dishes. as the turnover is quite high, they list some left of field items which are well worth a try although the 70's classic of deep-fried cheese i tend to leave for others. the whole grilled squid and mackerel are both tender and toasty/smokey; i love the freshly grated ginger on the squid which counterpoints brilliantly with the slight charring. octopus - both as takoyaki and takowasabi are both delicious as are the rest of the usual suspects, especially salmon/ikura don. a highlight is the byo policy which means that you can feast with friends on a budget - it's fun in a can. given all this - what's with the beefing? booking is essential and problematic but nothing worth having's easy, huh?!

japanese winner. this is japanese izakaya style at its best. most people associate japanese with sashimi and high prices. not so, izakaya style is a very common and popular form of dining in japan and nishiki have managed to deliver a very authentic experience to auckland. huge menu allows diners to cater to almost everyones tastes and the izakaya style lends itself to sharing and trying many small dishes. food was great, prices very reasonable. we don't have this in adelaide you lucky devils, but we will return next time we visit ! enjoy it.

a group of seven recently visited nishiki in freeman's bay on a busy saturday night. i have been many times before so this review is based this experience but with previous visits also in mind.

nishiki in one sentence: amazing food at a good price with lively atmosphere but with super slow service.

the best way to eat robatayaki is to order many dishes to share. i had the pleasure of being designated to order for everyone. we ate 1 to 3 dishes each of edamame, chicken teriyaki, takoyaki, gyoza, miso dengaku, vegetable tempura, cheese fry, gobo salad, beef carpaccio, tori wasabi mayo, bei-naso miso cheese. we had 1 vegetarian and 1 non-fish eater and there was no problem accommodating them. the star dishes were the beef carpaccio, tori wasabi mayo and the bei-naso miso cheese. the miso dengaku was also very good.

we also ordered chicken karaage but before it arrived, the staff began to clear our table and told us the kitchen was closed. i think it's important for the kitchen not to close until all orders are complete. we arrived just after 8.30pm and were there until the kitchen closed. they are always busy so booking is a must.

we can't do anything about the super slow service, but we can byo which will make the long waiting times bearable.
the service has always been and will probably always be terrible. i've waited 2 hours for a beer to arrive, which i think is unacceptable. drinks are often take before the food arrives and sometimes arrives after you have finished eating. it seems that only 1 or 2 staff is allowed to take drinks orders so your drinks order gets lost with drinks orders for the whole restaurant. one way nishiki could rectify this situation is to have 1 waiter per table who oversees both drinks and food.

we paid $33 each which covered food. drinks were byo.

service slow, disorganised, and brusque. food patchy - most items good or very good, some pretty awful. clearly more staff needed when they're full.

have a regular table on weekends here and a regular order of salmon tataki, seaweed salad, tori soboro meshi, agedashi tofu. love the food/pricing here and the service is fast and excellent.
make sure you book ahead as it is very popular.

went to nishiki the other day for dinner. the place was full but service was generally attentive and fast. they had some interesting dishes and these mostly comes in small plates. i love japanese food and rank how good a place is according to the freshness of their sashimi. unfortunately for nishiki, this fell well short; definitely not top grade fresh fish. if you're looking for good authentic japanese, i'd say give this a miss.

i dined here with friends on a very busy wednesday night and the place was full.

service was prompt and the food was excellent. we got everything we ordered and i was impressed with each dish i tried.

only letdowns were having to get up for our own water, luckily we were close to it and it got uncomfortably warm in the restaurant by the time we left.

will visit again.

nishiki is my favourite japanese restaurant in auckland. it's best to go with a few people as you order a few small plates to share and you'll want to try everything and their menu is extensive. all the seafood is so fresh and tasty, i always order too much as everything is so good. it's also not too expensive and they also do byo. for these reasons they are often fully booked with a waiting time so i advise booking ahead. my favourites which i always order are the salmon tataki and soft shell crab.

i have eaten here several times and it has a great vibe and is cheerful with reasonable food.
tonight it was awful.
i was told i could have a table but had 45 mins due to bookings.
fine i said, it was a quick dinner. unfortunately though i ordered straight away the food took half an hour to arrive.
i ate as fast as i could but half way through my dinner at about 5 to 7 i was asked to leave! appalling as it was their slow service that had caused the delay.
very grumpy - will never return. very rude bad service. food was quite nice... shame.

i went to this busy japanese restaurant last night and initially signs were positive. the atmosphere was good and the place was packed. we ordered and the waitress struggled a bit, her english was pretty basic and she seemed to be mostly relying on us pointing to the pictures, she was friendly though and clearly doing her best. i ordered two things chicken katsu and wedges. the former arrived about 20 mins later and was quite nice, after a further 20 mins i enquired about the wedges to the same waitress who seemed to - after some recourse to the menu, understand. a further ten minutes later i enquired again. five minutes later the chicken katsu arrived, again. i explained that's not what i ordered - i've had that, i wanted my wedges. so we embarked on yet another trip through the menu and this time low and behold something resembling my wedges did arrive. but it wasn't wedges it was chips with the same sauce. hungry and thinking this was the best i was going to get i ate them anyway. now all this was bothersome but not enough to actively annoy me. i was just one of those unlucky diners doomed to a series of mishaps and misunderstandings - it wasn't my night.

but what came next really did irk me. upon going up to pay i explained the situation, explained it had required three separate exchanges to get my food over a very long period of time and ultimately what did arrive wasn't really what i ordered. i said i would rather not pay for it as the service had been so poor. the proprietor kept emphasising, 'but i had eaten the food' i pointed out that it wasn't so much the food that was in question here so much as the appalling effort that had been required to get it to arrive. this he did not seem to understand and raised his voice. i explained i was giving him an opportunity to make this right and it would shape my experience. take it or leave it.

he charged me the full amount.

attend this restaurant at your peril. the food is good, the service a gamble the management completely unaccountable.

always a good place to catch up with some mates over a japanese meal.
food: 4/5
speed:4/5
ambience: 3.5/5