Omni
Kingfish, yuzu, white soy
Brussel sprouts, sunflow seed, miso
Meatballs, tare
Oyster mushrooms, black sunchoke
Brown butter sake cake
There is a very special bar and restaurant I would like you to meet. Omni opened at the end of July to quiet fanfare. A small and intimate space situated at 359 Dominion Road, it provides a uniquely intimate experience you’ll share with but a few lucky others, the restaurant having just two sittings a night. Sitting down at Omni feels like having dinner cooked for you by your talented friends. Omni’s dining room is unusual in that it is shared by their very open kitchen, where a team of three could be seen whizzing around heating coals on a gas burner and tiny cakes lay in wait on a cooling rack.
Omni is the brainchild of John and Jamie, the former heading up the kitchen while the latter oversees the management side of things. Between the two of them, their experience in hospitality has spanned the world, from Denmark to Hong Kong, Melbourne and now Dominion Road. Omni is a nod to the Japanese cuisine and izakaya-style of drinks and small plates of food. But don’t call them a Japanese restaurant. While certain dishes are a more obvious nod to the Japanese cuisine, its influence is sometimes subtle, like the savoury undertones of miso in the roasted Brussels sprouts, or the bitter hint of sake in the brown butter cake.
Omni is equally a bar as it is a restaurant and their wine list is a well curated line-up of natural and biodynamic wines. I wish I could tell you what the lovely white was that I had; it was something the team had pulled out of the cupboard but was off-menu. There is something special about a place that can listen to what you want and find something right for just you.
My friend Sigourney and I were torn between the fantastic options available and decided to leave the decision making in the hands of the house by ordering the set menu ($70 pp). The team started us off with something light and refreshing and today it was kingfish sashimi with yuzu and white soy. The red petals of kingfish were buttery-soft and lifted by a refreshing green onion and yuzu oil and a subtle white shoyu cream John had cultured with kefir grains.
This was followed by the much anticipated katsu sando, a painfully pretty cookie-cutter round sandwich of ultra-fluffy white Japanese milk bread with a crispy, panko-crumbed meatball in between. The juicy pork meatball was well-accompanied by finely shredded iceberg lettuce and tonkatsu sauce which glazed the top and had a fruity, chutney-seque tang to it, keeping the balance of fat and fresh in check.
You cannot visit Omni without sampling their binchotan grilled yakitori. In true yakitori style, all parts of the chicken are consumed in skewered form. We were treated first to chicken thighs with green onion, soft-bones and then chicken wings, and lastly something that wasn’t chicken at all, but pork meatballs with tare. The chicken thighs were very juicy with a lovely smoky flavour and was the most approachable option to start with, a gateway skewer so to speak to weirder and wonderful things. If you’re wondering what part of the chicken a ‘soft-bone’ is, it is the chicken knee which features some cartilage to chomp through. This skewer would not be to everyone’s taste mainly from a texture perspective, although Sigourney thoroughly enjoyed this aspect (I not so much). The chicken wings with that ubiquitous chilli pepper and black sesame seasoning of shichimi tongarashi had a nice crispy skin and a good amount of pep without being overly hot. The tare meatballs were a highlight: a rich umami puddle of concentrated meat juices that was accompanied by a golden yellow egg yolk that you mix together to create a luscious, silky sauce. The meatballs were studded with tiny nuggets of water chestnuts which added a nice bit of bite.
All this meat was followed by two gorgeous vegetarian dishes. The first of them was the Brussels sprouts with sunflower seed and miso. The sprouts were perfectly roasted with little crisp browned edges lending loads of flavour to a long misunderstood vege. The Brussels sprouts were ever so slightly sweet and beautifully foiled by the barely shooting mung beans that lent a refreshing bitterness to the dish; the sunflower seeds adding a nutty end note. Jerusalem artichokes (also known as sunchokes) are one of my favourite vegetables. I’m sorry to say they have such a narrow season that they may not be available for you to taste in the newest iteration I’ve enjoyed them in. Omni has blackened them to sweet, dark perfection so that they are reminiscent of black garlic, and pulverised them into a luscious puree to accompany charred oyster mushrooms that are arranged around this rich sauce like a laurel crown.
The highlight of my meal, much to my surprise, was the dish that initially looked supposedly the most simple. A plain looking brown butter cake with a fat squiggle of sake custard on top. This cake has a surprising denseness to it and a caramelised crust that reminded me of a canelé, which I savoured in each bite. The silky custard aloft was spiked with a touch of sake which added a bitter edge to an otherwise sweet cake. This cake is a testament to Omni’s kitchen: simple, clever perfection.
I left Omni that night and found myself recounting each dish to as many people who crossed my path as I could, particularly about the brown butter sake cake. I hope by now you’ve been thoroughly convinced you must book yourself a seat at Omni as soon as possible.
Omni
359 Dominion Road
Mt Eden
Auckland