SuMei is an Asian fusion restaurant and bar at 3B West Street in Pukekohe, blending Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese influences across a menu of dumplings, bao buns, ramen, donburi and shared plates. The kitchen also runs a rotating dessert selection and a dedicated lunch specials offering.
Alongside food, SuMei has an extensive drinks list covering cocktails, wine, sake, whisky, gin and beer on tap, making it as much a destination for drinks as for dinner. Many dishes are marked with gluten-free, vegetarian or vegan options, giving diners flexibility across the menu.
SuMei takes bookings through its website and is closed on Mondays, opening Tuesday to Thursday for lunch and dinner sittings, and running continuously from midday to 10pm Friday through Sunday.
SuMei occupies a spot on West Street in Pukekohe with a simple but ambitious idea: one menu that travels across Asia, from Japanese ramen bars to Chinese dumpling houses, Korean street food and Southeast Asian hawker-style rolls. The kitchen treats these traditions as a single, generous table — plates designed to land together, be shared around and paired with something interesting from the bar.
The menu runs through dumplings, bao buns, small shares, large bowls, sides and desserts. Dumplings come by the four-piece serve in five combinations: duck with cherry and spinach, cumin-spiced beef and celery, prawn and pork with Chinese garlic chives, lobster and prawn with kaffir lime, and a shiitake, smoked tofu and cabbage version for vegetarians and vegans.
The bao buns are single serves meant for mixing and matching — a Spicy Korean bun with bulgogi pork and kimchi, a banh mi-style bun layered with roasted pork and duck pate, crispy tofu with cos and kimchi slaw, and crispy prawn with pickled cucumber and yuzu mayo.
Small shares are where SuMei shows its range: tuna and salmon tartare on a crispy prawn cracker, agedashi tofu in dashi broth, chicken karaage with shichimi mayo, Cantonese wok-fried pork ribs with spicy tamarind glaze, lemongrass beef summer rolls, takoyaki, crispy master stock pork hock and spicy Sichuan fried chicken. Two plates feel like house signatures — SuMei crispy beef with its sticky orange and ginger glaze, Sichuan mayo and pickled daikon, and the beef cheek rendang, slow-cooked and topped with a fresh herb salad. Even the fryer gets playful, with mac spring rolls stuffed with wagyu, cheese and mac sauce.
Diners who prefer one committed bowl are covered too. The SuMei tonkotsu ramen and its spicier sibling build a rich tonkotsu broth around chashu BBQ pork, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, soy egg, butter corn and tempura nori. Tokyo miso ramen takes the miso route with mushrooms and corn, while the donburi pair rice with bulgogi pork belly over kimchi rice or crispy karaage chicken under ten don sauce and shichimi mayo. Steamed Asian greens with nori butter, roti paratha, kimchi and edamame fill out the table.
The drinks list is a destination in itself. Signature cocktails include the SuMei Yuzu Sour — Roku gin, chilli, lychee, Toki whisky, yuzu, pineapple, cucumber and egg white — plus a Sichuan Negroni, Ginger Mojito, Lychee Martini and Pineapple & Chilli Margarita. Wine stretches from Veuve Clicquot champagne through Martinborough sauvignon blanc to Central Otago pinot noir, while sake, sparkling sake and plum wines — including a house Black Doris plum ume shu — cover the Japanese column.
Whisky drinkers get the deep end of the shelf: a long Japanese whisky list running from Toki and Nikka Taketsuru up through Yamazaki, Hakushu, Hibiki Harmony and the aged Yoichi and Miyagikyo bottles, with bourbons, rums, vodkas and tequilas alongside, and gins served with a choice of Schweppes 1783 tonics and garnishes from lemongrass to kaffir lime leaf. Beer drinkers share Tiger, Kingfisher and Monteith's on tap, bottled Heineken and Sol, and three-litre beer towers built for the middle of the table. Non-drinkers have their own cocktail list.
SuMei serves lunch and dinner Tuesday to Thursday from 12pm to 3pm and again from 5pm to 10pm, then runs continuously from midday to 10pm Friday to Sunday; Mondays are closed. Lunch specials give the midday visit its own rhythm, and reservations can be made through the bookings page on the restaurant's website.
The kitchen marks gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan options across the menu and says it will always try to accommodate allergies, though it can't guarantee trace elements won't be present — worth flagging dietary needs when you order. Whether the plan is ramen and dumplings or a long share-plate dinner that ends in matcha cheesecake, SuMei's mix of pan-Asian cooking and serious bartending makes it one of Pukekohe's more adventurous tables.