Azabu is a Japanese restaurant on Ponsonby Road in Grey Lynn, and its menu leans on Nikkei cooking, the Japanese-Peruvian style that joins Japanese technique with Peruvian ingredients. You can see it in the tuna sashimi tostada with corn, wasabi tartar and jalapeño, and in fish dishes finished with rocoto ponzu, aji amarillo mayo and huancaina. Alongside these sit a miso soup with silken tofu, spicy edamame, a 200g beef fillet with Japanese chimichurri, and seasonal vegetable tempura served with the house hatcho miso dipping sauce. Dishes are marked gluten-free, dairy-free or vegetarian on the menu. The restaurant has been a fixture of the Ponsonby dining scene for years, and its website says it has won awards for its cooking.
The bar is worth a look too. It pours a range of cocktails with yuzu, lychee and rose, and it puts pisco, the Peruvian grape spirit, on the list as an aperitif. Azabu adds a 15% surcharge to bills on public holidays. You can book online through its website, where gift cards are also sold. Our pick in Ponsonby for a long dinner built around sharing plates.