{"id":357328,"date":"2026-03-31T19:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T19:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/357328\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T19:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T19:51:11","slug":"nocturnalists-musician-j-y-lee-on-aucklands-best-old-school-food-courts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/357328\/","title":{"rendered":"Nocturnalists: Musician J.Y Lee on Auckland\u2019s best old-school food courts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nocturnalists is brought to you in partnership with\u00a0T\u0101taki Auckland Unlimited.<\/a><\/p>\n

Nocturnalists are spirited members of Auckland\u2019s nighttime scene, and in this series they take us on a tour of their favourite spots in the city after 5pm. Up first is J.Y Lee.<\/p>\n

Photos by Sophie Miya-Smith shot on location at RE:Seoul and The Audio Foundation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been to a gig in Auckland anytime in the past few years, there\u2019s a pretty good chance you\u2019ve seen Jong-Yun J.Y Lee at work. A saxophonist and flautist (who also plays a little bit of clarinet), he\u2019s shared stages with acts as varied as Tom Scott, Chaii, Dave Dobbyn and Romi Wrights, and played with combos including Yoko-Zuna, The Circling Sun and the DAYBUS Jazz Orchestra. As a musician, J.Y is well-versed in Auckland after dark. He sat down with Emma Gleason to share some of his favourite spots \u2013 including where to get a Korean dish that\u2019s the ultimate hangover cure.<\/p>\n

What do you love about the city?<\/p>\n

I love my community and the music scene. There\u2019s a really vibrant creative scene here and there\u2019s so much going for the size of the city. There\u2019s so much amazing stuff that comes out of here\u2026 so many musicians and creative people just doing cool stuff.<\/p>\n

Do you have any favourite venues?<\/p>\n

Whammy<\/a> and Public Bar<\/a>. I spend a lot of time there. They\u2019re a very integral part of the fabric of the music scene in Auckland. I\u2019ve played so many gigs there. As a musician, it\u2019s important to be able to find community, play music and develop your craft\u2026 Audio Foundation is hugely integral as well.<\/p>\n

\"AIn the office at The Audio Foundation (Photo: Sophie Miya-Smith)<\/p>\n

What makes the Audio Foundation special?<\/p>\n

They do artist residencies, installations and exhibitions, so it\u2019s like an art-gallery-slash-venue space. There\u2019s a lot of experimental noise music, jazz-adjacent stuff and improvised music there.<\/p>\n

So, a place you can go to get your mind blown a little bit. Do you remember your first show there?<\/p>\n

Yeah, it was 2013 I think\u2026 we were putting on a gig there for the first time. The person who runs that place, Jeff Henderson, is a saxophone player as well; he\u2019s always pushing and leading the avant-garde, improvised jazz side of things. I\u2019ve played a lot of gigs with him. I\u2019m learning a lot from playing with him in that sort of world.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve played with some big artists like Dave Dobbyn too, have those shows been at some of the city\u2019s grander venues?<\/p>\n

Yeah, those venues are really cool. Having those sorts of spaces in Auckland is so important. When you play in Auckland Town Hall or The Civic, it\u2019s a bucket list sort of thing\u2026 I played at the Town Hall with Tom Scott and Avantdale Bowling Club. That was the best. That would have been 2022.<\/p>\n

\"AThe Audio Foundation: A place for \u201cexperimental noise music\u201d (Photo: Sophie Miya-Smith)<\/p>\n

I hear you\u2019re a regular at Lim Chhour Food Court on Karangahape Road? What do you love about that kind of dining format?<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s something about having multiple options of places. But especially places like Lim Chhour, they\u2019re so old school, right? And that\u2019s what I love about it. Food courts are kind of disappearing. Like there used to be Food Alley, that was such an iconic place.<\/p>\n

And Mercury Plaza. What\u2019s your favourite place at Lim Chhour food court?<\/p>\n

Swordsman Chinese Cuisine. It\u2019s definitely an underrated spot. All the food there is really good.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your order?<\/p>\n

I usually get the beef brisket and potato with rice. There\u2019s also saut\u00e9ed pork in Chongqing style. Those are my go-tos\u2026 Pretty much anytime I come into town and I\u2019ve got a gig or something and need to get a feed, if that place is open, I\u2019ll usually go there.<\/p>\n

\"AOne of J.Y\u2019s regular spots, K.Soup (Photo: Sophie Miya-Smith)<\/p>\n

I hear you like Queens Court food court too? I feel like that place is great, but a bit slept-on.<\/p>\n

Definitely. It\u2019s kind of hidden away and not many people know about it. You kind of look past it\u2026 which I did a couple times, before actually going inside it.<\/p>\n

Yeah, same.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And then I was just like, oh, maybe I\u2019ll just like, go inside and check it out sometime. There\u2019s a Persian spot there\u2026<\/p>\n

Feri Cuisine. It\u2019s meant to be amazing and I really want to try it. What have you eaten there?<\/p>\n

The kebab kobideh. There are a whole lot of variations of that\u2026There\u2019s also so many good Chinese spots in Queens\u2026 There\u2019s a rice noodle spot, Gui Rice Noodle, that\u2019s really good\u2026 I guess that\u2019s the thing I like about the food court vibe as well\u2026 these kind of mom-and-pop, low-key sorts of shops, not trying to be fancy.<\/p>\n

Like maybe there\u2019s one gas burner, but they\u2019re making something amazing.<\/p>\n

I find that at places like that, the food\u2019s the best\u2026 And if the food\u2019s good, that\u2019s all that matters, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AExploring the top block of Queen Street (Photo: Sophie Miya-Smith)<\/p>\n

Another kind of slept-on area is that top block of Queen Street across the road from Myers Park. What can you recommend up there?<\/p>\n

RE:Seoul. That\u2019s a Korean spot that just recently opened up. The thing I usually get there is soondae guk, which is a pork soup with Korean blood sausage \u2013 they chop that up and put that in there. There\u2019s something very healing, very comforting about it\u2026 I get it whenever I\u2019ve had a night out, or need to replenish myself. It\u2019s the best hangover cure.<\/p>\n

Hot tip.<\/p>\n

Yeah, so you have your soup, and then they give you a bunch of condiments \u2013 things like salted shrimp, perilla seed powder, salt, chilli paste and stuff \u2013 and you add those in and adjust the taste, dump all that in and just mix it up. That\u2019s the thing I end up getting all the time, whenever I\u2019m feeling like I need my Korean food fix.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Your family is Korean, right?<\/p>\n

Yeah I was born in Korea, but came here when I was two years old. I grew up eating Korean food. That\u2019s what I end up cooking at home as well. So yeah, I go to RE:Seoul, get that stew and it replenishes my Korean levels.<\/p>\n

\"AA big feed at RE: Seoul (Photo: Sophie Miya-Smith)<\/p>\n

What are some of your nighttime haunts when it comes to music?<\/p>\n

Definitely Whammy, Public Bar and Audio Foundation. And a place I play gigs at called The Nightcar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That bar on Imperial Lane, off Vulcan Lane, right? It\u2019s very cool.<\/p>\n

Yeah, they have gigs at Nightcar every Tuesday night, and we play jazz there once a month.<\/p>\n

I read that owner Daren Zhou was inspired by the lounge-bar train carriage in Snowpiercer. That\u2019d be such a beautiful place to play jazz.<\/p>\n

Yeah, we\u2019ve been doing that for the last two years. Laura Lop\u00e9z Lop\u00e9z, who works at Goblin now, used to be the bar manager at Nightcar and got that music stuff started. Laura\u2019s awesome, super supportive of music and the arts.<\/p>\n

\"AJ.Y on the sax (Photo: Sophie Miya-Smith)<\/p>\n

Are there any upcoming gigs or music events you\u2019re looking forward to this year?<\/p>\n

I want to see Fat Freddy\u2019s Drop at The Civic. Founding member Mu [Christopher Faiumu] passed away last year, so this is kind of the first time that they\u2019re having a new iteration of the band, with live drums and bass\u2026 Cory Champion, a drummer from Wellington, is playing drums in the band and Johnny Lawrence is on bass\u2026 I\u2019ve seen Fat Freddy\u2019s a bunch of times, but this will be different.<\/p>\n

Watching them at The Civic will be amazing. It\u2019s such a beautiful venue.<\/p>\n

Seeing them in that space will be pretty special. They\u2019re an amazing band and obviously they\u2019re New Zealand icons.<\/p>\n

Anything else?<\/p>\n

This Japanese guitarist, Masayoshi Takanaka, is playing at the Town Hall in April\u2026 I\u2019m really keen to see that. He does like jazz fusion, but with a tropical island vibe.<\/p>\n

\"On\u201cI feel very fortunate and lucky to have grown up here\u201d (Photos: Sophie Miya-Smith)<\/p>\n

We get so many interesting artists coming down to New Zealand. Not to mention the whole local scene. There\u2019s stuff happening all the time. And Auckland is a Unesco City of Music! Which people forget.<\/p>\n

Yeah. I feel very fortunate and lucky to have grown up here. And to be part of the scene. The music scene here is just really special. So many people are doing different things. It\u2019s quite unique in the sense that because it\u2019s so small, everyone knows each other, and everyone\u2019s collaborating and doing stuff together, so it\u2019s a big melting pot.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s just so much happening within a three-kilometre radius, with so many venues in the city.<\/p>\n

Yeah, and because of that, it\u2019s like a small village, right? And everyone just kind of does different stuff, plays in different bands, creatively feeding off each other. I think that\u2019s what really creates the unique scene here. It\u2019s like nowhere else.<\/p>\n

Any night of the week you can go out and there\u2019ll be something cool on.<\/p>\n

A lot of friends who go overseas and check out other places, like New York, Europe and Asia, they always come back like, \u201cman, New Zealand, it\u2019s really special\u201d. There\u2019s kind of nowhere else like it. I think there\u2019s something about having the freedom to just do whatever the fuck we want. I think that\u2019s what kind of creates this unique, incredible music.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This content was created in paid partnership with Auckland by Night. Become a Nocturnalist \u2013 head to Discover Auckland<\/a> to find out what that the Auckland city centre has to offer after 5pm.<\/p>\n