New restaurant Oh No! brings pan-Asian menu to Manuka

The coasters spell out the phrase. The sign on the door switches between "Oh damn we're closed!" and "Oh yeah, we're open!".

Even at the top of the stairs, spray painted on the concrete flooring there's "Oh no, big stairs!".

And that's entirely why the owners chose the name - because they could have some fun with it.

"We were trying to get a creative idea that was going to both match the cuisine, match the style of venue and match the playfulness," co-owner Simon Hammond says.

"There's been a lot of 'oh no' moments [during set-up], for sure, so it started to become very fitting after we got the name. But it's really just a creative playful name for the cuisine.

"We could see with the name how far you could take it creatively - like with the coasters.

"So I think when we started to look at it more, we were like 'Oh no, this is the right sort of name for us'."

Oh No! quietly opened its doors on Flinders Way on the weekend, bringing with it a fresh take on pan-Asian flavours.

Split into three sections, all with a modern take on Japanese design, the bar and restaurant are dishing up culinary treats such as a sesame prawn doughnut - a delightful take on the classic (and nostalgic) entree prawn toast - Korean fried chicken, melt-in-your-mouth cumin lamb, ho fun noodles and pressed watermelon salad with shiso and jalapeno, which brings freshness to the menu.

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"The pan Asian was a venue that I always was inspired to do, it was a bit of a passion project for me," Hammond says.

"I was just waiting for the right space and COVID also was a bit of a factor in there. But once this space became available, we really jumped at the chance and tried to work with the landlords to make it work.

"The style of dining has been done a little bit in the city. So I didn't really want to go treading in there and Kingston, and Manuka was a place that I felt there was a market for.

"I've got history back in Manuka - in the early 2000s I worked in bars and knew the potential of the area. So really we were looking for the right spot ... [that] was the biggest thing for me.

"We really wanted to do dumplings and modern twists on some of the classics, like shantung chicken. But [we're] really trying to push modern dumplings and small plates and sharing."

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