Zool Zool

The service is great! Everyone is so warm and seem like they genuinely care. The food is brilliant, for someone that hasn’t ever had Japanese cuisine before, I loved it! The tiny wrapped ice cream was pretty awesome.
I especially enjoyed the wine.
Probably not the best place for a group of more than 5. Slightly loud and sometimes crowded.
The atmosphere is warm and inviting, so are the staff. ¹⁰⁄₁₀ will recommend. Great food and good prices.

I love how it’s totally ok to dine solo at Japanese restaurants and Zool Zool is a exceptional place to try this out .
Seated at the bar I ordered a highball of Bowmore Islay 12 yr old whiskey with smoked salt, the salt was light on the smoke flavour. But the whiskey had a slight malt flavour and was very easy to drink.
I wasn’t quite down to eat a steaming bowl of noodles, so went for tempura soft shell crab and Kakuni honey braised pork belly buns — HEAVEN!!! Soo much stickiness I loved these wee presents of the food gods !
Lastly ordered a chocolate pudding served in a small jar which was reminiscent of milse styles. But heart warming all the same, I swear if it was ok to lick the inside I would.
Get here and see what I’m on about.

So, so stoked to finally have eaten here and that its close to home. On a cold night you can’t beat a bowl of ramen and this spot has some epic bowls of solid flavour with super fresh noodles and a side list almost worthy of a meal in itself. I had the tan tan ramen which had some chilli & sesame flavour that warmed me right through. The chicken karaage was tender and moreish, I’m just sad the Takoyaki and pork buns will have to wait till next time bThe drinks list is well solid and there are some cheat day worth sweet treats in the cabinet. The atmosphere is warm and welcoming and the staff know their stuff. Love it. Can’t wait to go back!

I’m a ramen lover! I love a good broth and great texture ramen that you know are made fresh.
Atmosphere: The place is cute and smaller than I expected.
Food: Tonkotsu Ramen is my go to. The broth was a lot creamier than my usual and I could really taste the pork bone flavour. It got a bit too heavy for me. Ramen was standard, I was looking forward to a more chewy texture.
Chicken karaage was a big disappointment. The batter wasn’t crispy and not much flavour.
Overall, the ramen does satisfy and leave me feeling warm and full, but I prefer ramen takara’s soup and noodle.

Really enjoyed our meal at Zool Zool. It was just the two of us and it was perfect. Not a great place for groups, but awesome for a date.
The food was fresh and came nice and hot. We both had a chicken ramen; one with normal stock and the other a soy sauce stock. What to say other than, «YUM»!

I’ve been eying off Zool Zool for some time, and finally decided to try it out the other night. The last time I had ramen was in Tokyo, so this place had a lot to live up to! First of all, I wished they had more comfortable seating — I’m short, and perching on a high stool isn’t my favourite way to spend an evening. The staff were all super friendly! I got the tan tan men, and my husband got the tonkotsu ramen. It was my first time trying tan tan men, and I mostly liked it, but it was a bit too oily for me to eat the whole thing. The flavour was great, though. We were on a budget, so only drank water, but next time I’m totally having some of their warm plum wine! We shared their homemade crème caramel for dessert, which was out-​of-​this-​world creamy and divine. Will definitely come back to try another kind of ramen!

This is a great little Ramen bar with an awesome high ball menu. Excellent service and knowledgable staff to help you with those hard to pronounce items.

Came here with a relatively large group — you probably woudn’t fit more than 10 people in the restaurant as it’s not large at all, so smaller groups and couples are the best option. The service was a bit patchy, but they were friendly and trying hard and it’s just opened so will put that down to the staff finding their feet. They accommodated our group really well and happy to move tables around so we could all sit together — so a plus for that.
Drinks are very good here. Lots of choices of sake and a large selection of asian alcoholic and non-​alcoholic beverages which is exactly what you want with a ramen bar. Excellent cocktails as well, plus an extensive wine, beer and non-​alcoholic list.
Food was fantastic. Can’t say much more than that. I had the gyoza and the pork buns and both were great. Gyoza was tasty, fresh and perfectly fried and the dipping sauce was tasty. But the pork buns blew me away. It’s a deconstructed pork bun so you get two plain buns and a bowl of cooked pork belly in a lovely sauce and you make your own. There’s a salad too. You have to get these when you come here. The dishes the others in the group had were well received — a lot of ramen’s. They do need more condiments and sauces to put in the meal though.
The only downside to the whole evening was that you can’t split the bill. At all. So you can’t pay for what you ordered or even split the bill evenly. One person has to pay the whole bill, or everyone has to have the exact amount of cash. This is pretty poor and to be honest that’s far too much hassle for me, so I’ll only be coming back to eat by myself or if I owe someone a meal or vice versa. Hopefully they get with the program like every other restaurant in Auckland soon…

Zool Zool is a modern ramen bar with a killer whisky list to boot. Ever since Uni I’ve been a huge ramen fan so I am stoked this trend is finally hitting NZ shores.
We came here recently for dinner with a group (note. They don’t take reservations) and were luckily able to grab a few tables upstairs before the dinner rush. A few of us arrived early and were ravenous so ordered some edamame (spicy) and takoyaki to start. The edamame came in a large brown paper bar covered in spice. A cool idea, but ours were overcooked and in need of a good sprinkling of salt. The takoyaki on the other hand, came with a generous garnish of dancing bonita flakes and were light and crispy — delicious!
On the recommendation of the waiter I ordered miso ramen for my main and a karaage chicken to share. It was way too much food but if there’s fried chicken involved, I’ve got to try it.
Back to the ramen, the flavour was more refined that others I’ve tried but still really well balanced and meaty. The noodles were perfectly cooked but I have to agree with Milly H, it was missing a few garnishes that I’ve come to expect. The Karaage was, in my mind, perfect. Light & crunchy on the outside, perfectly cooked, moist chicken on the inside — highly recommend.
The service was friendly albeit a bit patchy. It seems like they don’t have sections and because about half the seating is upstairs you have to grab a waiter while you can before they disappear below. There were lot’s of loud «excuse me» ‘s from different table trying to get the waiter’s attention.
Zool Zool have only just opened and are probably still trying to iron out some kinks. I plan of heading back there when the weather cools down. There’s no outdoor seating and ramen + AKL humidity is not my favourite combo.

I’m not a fan of noodles, always a problem when you come to a place and everyone’s ordering ramen! Instead, I decided on the chicken karaage (enjoyed) and honey pork belly buns which were a bit of a surprise (not a bun at all, but a bowl of slow cooked pork belly with red beans, 2 pork buns and salad, make your own). Passed on trying the Takoyaki, looked tasty but just not keen on the baby octopus inside, not a very adventurous Unilocaler! Overall, a great place to catch up with friends and share a few plates.

I am a full on Ramen lover, since uni, that’s almost a decade!
I was really excited to find a modern ramen joint, but found it slightly lacking.
I think it’s been tailored a wee bit too much to kiwi taste buds and a few of the fun things left off.
The sides were all really delicious — the Ka’raage chicken was juicy and light. The Takoyaki was the best i’ve ever had. Friends had the pork buns that came deconstructed and with a good amount of pork that looked super juicy and well braised.
The whiskey high ball list is cool — something i didn’t know much about. We had prosecco which was really good!
When it came to the ramen itself — did choose a ramen i don’t usually go for — the Tantan, which was quite flavoursome, albeit a bit too sweet, and not spicy enough.
There were no options for extra toppings except for chilli oil. I was looking forward to some fried shallots, garlic, sesame seeds, ginger, chicken scratchings or sprouts as garnishes.
To be honest i feel like it’s all about the extra’s but the depth was good, and the noodles were great.
I would fully recommend this place to Ramen first timers.

First off who doesn’t like sake!!! We had the zool zool house sake warm (of course) and it was beautiful. A few sakes later and we were all enjoying ourselves a bit too much.
Now I know that this is a pretty big call but I’m going to say that their pork buns are the best iv had in auckland! They were full of flavour and the buns were steamed to perfection.
Our table of six pretty much ordered half of the menu from the snacks such as squid tentacles and chicken katsu, all the way through to a few bowls of piping hot ramen.
I can honestly say everybody enjoyed it, can’t wait to go back again and try the rest of the menu!!!

Zool Zool is the brand new ramen bar on Mt Eden road nestled in with the other popular eateries. To be honest it wasn’t on my top places to visit, but for a simple late night feed it’s a good option.
I’m definitely no noodle queen, but from the ramen bowls we had, theres a great amount of flavour in the broths. There was a small complaint from my friend that there wasn’t enough meat in her bowl, but ramen is normally about the noodles vs the other accompaniments. No different to pasta dishes at italian restaurants.
If you want a broth with a stronger flavour choose the Tantan. It actually wasn’t too spicy. If you’re more into subtle flavours go with the Tonkotsu bowl. I loved that the ramen soup spoons were wooden. The texture gives it a really smooth feel in your mouth and the scoop is perfect for sipping the soup plus fits the noodles perfectly. The ramen were presented in beautiful bowls and at a appropriate size to eat from — which sounds weird to say, but I have eaten at other places where the bowl is too big and awkward to eat from. Lastly if you love edmame they come in 4 different flavours served in old school lunch paper bags with a punch of flavour. The garlic edamame was extremely salty but extremely good.
Zool Zool is cool cool.
Rating
Food: ⁸⁄₁₀
Service: ⁸⁄₁₀
Value for Money: Very Good
405 Mt Eden road, Mt Eden
Opening Hours:
Tues-​Sat 1130am-​10pm
Sun 1130am-​230pm