we had a wonderful experience at izakai tonight. stumbled across this place as i was searching for restaurants in tauranga during our visit and did not disappoint whatsoever! the ambiance, service was amazing and the food was absolutely delicious. they are also doing a free edamame promo if you sign up to the izakai newsletters which is a bonus! we ordered beef tataki, wakame salad, chicken karaage, lamb ribs and ika mata. everything was so delicious, but the highlight of our dinner goes to ika mata (sashimi) 100%. every bite of the ika mata was so fresh, flavourful and just divine. we are going to crave the ika mata and come back to tauranga just for this. wakame salad was a pleasant surprise as the seaweed texture really amplified a basic salad. the lamb ribs were the softest lamb i’ve tasted. the batter was a bit powdery for my liking but don’t let the dim lighting of the lamb ribs fool you, it is eye opening with so much flavour. beef tataki was perfect. chicken karaage was juicy soft but defs our least fav from the night. the prices aren’t the cheapest but you are paying for high quality food. all the ingredients were extremely fresh, even the salads. no stale, old greens were used. we haven’t had good quality food like this in a long time so thank you izakai for giving us an awesome experience in tauranga and making us leave the door very full and happy ◡̈