Restaurants

Okra Kitchen

Permanently closed   |   Western District

Okra Kitchen offers small bites with a worldview, distinctive sake and is a space for jokes and laughs

 

In many ways Okra Kitchen is
a restaurant that captures the current zeitgeist. It has a global perspective, is inclusive of multiculturalism and not afraid of being straight-up weird. The low-key space serves izakaya-inspired fare, but nothing would be found on a traditional izakaya menu. Following the concept of small plates suited for alcohol pairing, dishes incorporate Japanese ingredients or flavours but are filtered through a lens of locality and personality. Quirky dishes such as Nigari Sai farmhouse tofu looks like cubes of goat cheese 
or fermented soy bean paste, but
a surprisingly creamy texture is a nice contrast to the Okra “black pigeon sauce”. An indicator of Okra’s shrug to conventional contemporary restaurant culture 
is the strangely named hentai pigeon tatsuta. Available in “original style” or “spicy flavour”, the latter resembled American buffalo wings. The hot sauce is spicy, acidic and sharp, marrying well to the slightly salty, gamey meat. Thankfully,
the resulting dish wasn’t anything nearly as bizarre or perverse as the name suggests. Contrasting the smirk-inducing menu, the sake list at Okra should be taken seriously. Identified by season, the sake menu features a unique selection of natural, unpasteurised sake.

Tatler Tip

Adding to the quirky personality at Okra Kitchen, American Crystal Hot Sauce is available for purchase for those who want to recreate or add a bit of Southern twang to their home cooking.

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