Kanpai Izakaya
Indigo night tones under lantern glow, dense and atmospheric.
An izakaya is an unfamiliar format for most New Zealand diners. It is small plates over drinks across a whole evening, not a starter and a main, and a group that does not know that will order wrong and leave thinking it was expensive.
Density is deliberate. The room is close and busy, and a spacious airy layout would set up an expectation of quiet dining that the first ten seconds inside the door would break.
Design decisions
- 01
How to order is explained before the menu
Two or three plates each, ordered in waves. Explaining the format is the difference between a table that orders twice and a table that orders once and is disappointed.
- 02
The menu is grouped by ordering order
Not by ingredient. It matches the sequence a table actually orders in, so the menu teaches the format while it is being read.
- 03
Drinks are given equal weight to food
In an izakaya the drinks are not an accompaniment. Treating them as a short list at the back misrepresents half the business.
What is built into it
- Format explainer
- Menu grouped by ordering wave
- Drinks list
- Booking form
Kanpai Izakaya is a design study. The business, its address and its reviews are invented so we can show a finished website instead of a flat mockup. Nothing on this page describes a real client of VinaPage.