If you want a lunch to lift you out of your midweek blues, then I’d say Masu’s new lunch offerings - where Japanese Donburi rice bowls take centre stage - are what you should go for.
From smokey, rich-in-umami grilled unagi to delicate tuna akami and tempura with a lighter-than-air batter, celebrated chef Nic Watts has taken the quintessential Japanese comfort meal to a whole new level.
In Japanese, “Don” refers to the bowl that the dish is served in, and for a typical donburi, what you get is fluffy steamed rice topped with vegetables, meat and seafood all in a one-bowl meal.
Well, the Masu ones are a little bit fancier, and most are not even served in bowls.
One of my favourites is the unagi, Japanese grilled eel, which has a melt-in-the-mouth texture and is gently charred before being served.
The delicate eel is glazed with house-made teriyaki sauce and glazed to perfection, and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds that helps enhance the rich, smoky flavour of this dish.
Masu has reopened its lunch service on Wednesdays and Thursdays, starting on 14 May, with what it is calling a “brand-new midweek lunch experience”.
“Whether it’s a power lunch, a casual catch-up, or treating your team, Masu now brings you fresh, fast and flavourful dishes designed to impress,” the eatery says on its website.
It said the aim was to create something that was “quick and delicious” but “still had that Masu magic”.
The donburi rice bowls, which are at the heart of the new menu, are served with white miso soup and homemade Japanese pickles and priced from $29.90.
Also on the lunch menu is Masu’s atsuzukuri-style sashimi, curated maki rolls and its iconic sides that include Black Origin wagyu and kimchi gyoza and pickled cucumber with soy vinegar.
The donburi selection includes spicy chicken, spring onion and toasted sobacha, crispy pork katsu with onion soy egg and edamame, and wagyu shabu-shabu, teriyaki, tenkasu and benishoga.
Of those that we were served to taste, my top picks are the tempura prawns and seasonal vegetables, tuna akimi and the diced sashimi ones.
The tempura rice bowls have prawns and vegetables coated in a light, crispy batter, finished with house-made furikake, giving it an authentic Japanese flavour profile. But the magic for me was the crispy batter sprinkles that are used as a topping to the rice.
No Japanese meal feels complete without sashimi, and the diced sashimi donburi is one that gives you that 100% Japanese feeling.
Fresh diced sashimi is placed on top of seasoned sushi rice and complemented with yuzu citrus and traditional takuwan pickles, giving a balance of flavours yet highlighting the fresh sashimi.
A star of the show is the tuna akami, which features premium lean tuna (akami) served with Masu’s signature spicy tekkadon sauce and garnished with finely cut kizami nori seaweed and topped with ikura (salmon roe) to provide a burst of umami flavours.
Masu is located in the SkyCity Auckland dining precinct and brings atmosphere, passion and a contemporary twist to the traditional robata style of cooking over an open charcoal grill.
Chef Nic Watt, who helms the restaurant, has led a revered career overseas running successful robata restaurants in London, Macau, Hong Kong and America.
Robata is contemporary Japanese cuisine cooked over a charcoal grill ,where theatre and ambience are as much of the process as the eating.
Diners can view the chefs at the robata cooking hearth, creating food-laden skewers and slowly rotating them over hot coals.
Masu is open for lunch on Wednesday and Thursday from 12 to 2pm. 90 Federal Street, Auckland Central. Ph: 09 3636278
