YakiSoda Auckland Pop-Up

Overview

Wellington bar and eatery YakiSoda has been serving its unique combo of Peruvian street food and Japanese highballs since last October. In time for the Waitangi long weekend, bartender-owners Giancarlo Jesus and Kerry Burgess are bringing the concept to Auckland for a week-long pop-up. YakiSoda will take over Victoria Park's Hēmi from 4pm until 11pm, Thursday until Sunday to showcase the venue's cocktail and food menu.

YakiSoda takes its inspiration from the combination of Japanese and Peruvian cultures — known as Nikkei. Jesus and Burgess call the drinks list "a flavour journey," that begins with more session-able highballs and moves into more complex, bolder and boozier drinks. To start, that might mean you'll be knocking back a Peruvian pisco highball mixed with Albariño white wine, sake and bitterorange neroli soda. The whisky highball is there, too, only with notes of vanilla, Oloroso sherry and satsuma soda. Elsewhere, wines come listed simply as white, pink and red, and there's one nameless lager and cider.

For some sustenance between drinks, YakiSoda offers South America's toasted cancha corn with chilli, Japanese-style grilled rice balls with pork or eggplant, market fish ceviche, vegetable tempura, anticucho kebabs in either ox heart or mushroom, and a kakigōri shaved ice dessert.