Origami is a cute and casual Japanese fusion (read, adapted for Westerners) restaurant on Cuba St. We stopped by on the evening of the CubaDupa festival, having browsed through many stalls and deciding we wanted something relatively fresh and light. Origami was bustling, but a table of 2 was available and we were seated promptly.
We started with some takoyaki (octopus balls). They cost $7.50 for 6, which was reasonable and on par with what the night markets outside were charging ($5 for 4). When we’ve had takoyaki in the past, they’ve usually been served freshly made and blisteringly hot – to the point where we have to take care not to burn our mouths. These were served lukewarm, which is safer on the mouth, but we’d have preferred them a bit hotter. The flavour was fine but standard – it’s hard to screw up with mayo and takoyaki sauce – and there were sizeable chunks of octopus in there. We were a little disappointed there weren’t more bonito fish flakes on top (who doesn’t love the way those things move?) but it was an adequate starter.
Demi was feeling in a chicken and avocado mood with no worries about authenticity, and ordered both the chicken avocado maki and the chicken avocado roll to compare ($11.50 and $12 respectively).
It was the biggest sushi she’s had before and she struggled to finish! Demi and Nicole did disagree on the teriyaki sauce, with Nicole disliking it and finding it too sweet, while Demi, who normally isn’t a big liker of teriyaki sauce, had no problems with it. Nicole suggests ordering it on the side instead to give it a try.
The pieces were nice and warm which was much to Demi’s taste, but again Nicole disliked this – Demi did grow up eating western style chicken sushi for near every meal whereas Nicole is a more of a seafood lover, so make of it what you will!
Nicole ordered the only nigiri sushi set option. It was $21 for 11 pieces, which was a little unfortunate as Nicole wasn’t feeling particularly hungry (having eaten quite a few octopus balls and other nibbles from Cupadupa) and she wasn’t able to finish all of it (the inari was left untouched, and she offloaded the egg/tamago one onto Demi). As with the chicken sushi, the nigiri were BIG with a lot of rice and rather sizeable pieces of fish, too. It was not possible to eat a piece in one bite. This is not very authentic (Westerners like bigger sushi pieces it seems), but the rice was again seasoned well.
All the fish tasted fresh, and the nigiri held its own compared with some of the sushi we’d had in Japan. The (raw) scallop in particular was delicious – soft and succulent, a delight for the mouth. Scallops need to be very fresh to be eaten raw, and this one definitely passed muster.
The sushi was quite beautifully presented, with a daikon butterfly garnish. We probably should get a better camera for our food photos, as the sushi’s colours looked much richer in person.
The staff at Origami were nice and friendly, but they seemed a bit overwhelmed by the number of diners. Several times, we had difficulty flagging someone down. This may have been a one-off because of Cubadupa, but still something to be aware of.
The ambience at Origami is clean, minimalistic and modern. It’s fairly casual, more like a nice cafe than a proper restaurant.
You get decent bang for your buck here – like a cafe, it straddles the happy medium between “budget” and “typical restaurant”. Nicole has been to Origami a few times and has always ordered too much, thanks for its generous portion sizes (for Japanese food) and reasonable prices. It has a number of small/sharing plates on the menu, so you can order as a group and share if you’re so inclined, but people wishing to dine solo can do so easily as well.
Would we return? We certainly plan to. Sushi-wise it’s not as good as, say, Tatsushi, but with Origami’s prices, TJ Katsu is a more likely competitor. And Origami beats TJ Katsu handily.
Our Ratings
| Food | 7.5/10 |
| Service | 6/10 |
| Ambience | 7.5/10 |
| Value for money | 8/10 |
| Overall | 7.5/10 |
| Would we return? | Yes |
Address: 158 Cuba St, Te Aro (in the stretch between Vivian and Ghuznee)
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