This new Japanese restaurant that has recently opened in Dublin city centre is not your regular sushi or ramen bar.
We tried the food in the recently opened Okky on Aungier Street and we loved it. Head chef Haru's recipes are all either original creations or have been passed down from her grandparents, who owned a restaurant in Japan.
She prepares pretty much everything from scratch, using Irish products whenever possible. The restaurant specialises in okonomiyaki, which is essentially a savoury pancake with cabbage and a delicious cheesy topping.
The name Okky is actually short for okonomiyaki, which owner John Ennis admits is "a bit of a mouthful". He first tried adding the dish in the menu of his other restaurant the Lucky Tortoise in Temple Bar, which was an instant success, prompting him to open a restaurant dedicated to the dish.
They also have another thing rarely found in the Japanese restaurants in Dublin - tamagoyaki, which is basically rolled omelette. Fans of the Japanese culture have probably seen in Japanese dramas and anime.
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Since the kitchen is literally behind the bar counter, we had the chance to see how everything was prepared. The batter for okonomiyaki is made from eggs, water, flour and cabbage, and then chef Haru throws that on the grill and does both sides.
She then adds some toppings. There are various options: cheese, bacon, prawns, mixed veg and mushrooms. Then she finishes it off with a bit of scallion, a bit of crispy onion, some Japanese sauce.
We got okonomiyaki with melted cheese and tuna flakes topping. It was beyond delicious. The flakes gave the overall taste a richer, more savoury flavour. The sauce was like a superior version of a BBQ sauce and the egg on top was a great addition.
The sides we had tried were were spinach salad - a new favourite - and cucumber salad. Both of them were spicy but we heard there are options to change the spiciness level.
Many restaurants that do spicy food only rely on that, without bothering much with other seasonings. However, the salads were a burst of different other flavours as well- salty and sour being the main ones.
The tamagoyaki, which is made by rolling together several layers of fried beaten eggs, also had nori - the edible seaweed used for sushi - making it look a bit like sushi. It was also really delicious.
Finally, we had the veggie gyoza. They were a bit different - in a good way - from most gyoza we've tried before since the main thing inside was red peppers. They came with a spicy oil dip.
Overall, Okky shows a new side of Japanese food, with a burst of new flavours.
John told us that he has lived in Japan and South Korea for four years, adding: “When I was in Japan, my favourite food to eat was okonomiyaki. I was surprised that it wasn't really for sale in Ireland. There was no restaurants doing it.
"Obviously we’ve lots of ramen, we've loads of sushi restaurants in Dublin but not okonomiyaki.... I think people are very familiar with Japanese culture and food over here at the moment but okonomiyaki is still slightly new so there's a lot of curiosity from the customers and things like that.”
Okky works between 12pm and 10pm from Sunday to Wednesday, and between 12pm and 12am from Thursday to Saturday, perfect for for a post-pub meal. They don't do bookings, just walk-ins, but they do takeout and eating in.
They will be working with Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat from next week.
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