My Kitchen

Sorry guys – I’ve been lazy. Period. But have been eating a lot as I have gained weight, or probably a combination of being lazy and eating.

My Kitchen is located on 543, Dominion Road. They have a takeaway section, and dine-in section upstairs. Weekends tend to be quite busy. I’ve been here a few times, some samples below:

Wine Chicken.

Dumplings.

Taiwanese Sausage (Spicy).

Tofu with Century Egg.

Beef Brisket on Rice.

Curry Chicken on Rice.

Fried Chicken Chop on Rice.

Japanese Pork Chop on Rice.

I didn’t manage to take note of the price – but the dishes that come with rice are reasonable, hovering around $12 I think. There are plenty of side dishes which are great, I think around $10. Portions are good.

There isn’t much to say but it’s a great place to try out. Do go for the rice dishes, unless you’re really hungry, you can get the side dishes. There’s been many times the food cannot be finished!!

Rating = 8.5/10.

Mamak Malaysian Restaurant

If you’re craving Malaysian in Auckland CBD, you’re in luck. We have Mamak Malaysian Restaurant, located at 50 Kitchener Street. Generally, most Malaysian food are in food courts, especially in the CBD, so it’s great to see one located by itself.

Some samples below:

Tofu Salad ($8)

Nasi Lemak with Beef Rendang.

Satay Chicken on Rice.

Beef Murtabak

Teh Tarik.

I didn’t keep track of the prices, but they are around $13 per meal. The tapas are around $8. It’s located in a nice place. If it’s not too cold or windy, it’s a great place to eat outside. In terms of pricing, the dishes are a bit on the high side, especially the tapas for its rather small portion size. The staff is friendly and the dishes are not bad. The laksa, mamak mee goreng, beef murtabak and curry chicken dishes are recommended.

Have a go. Rating = 8/10.

Kiwi Country Fast Food

This is one of my favourite places to go in town. But not everyone likes this place – especially my work colleagues. Perhaps it’s the deep fried part of the dish. I am cutting down, I hope.

Kiwi Country Fast Food is located right next to BBQ King (on the corner of Queen St and Durham Lane).  It’s not on the ground level, but at basement level. So it can be hard to spot.

Chicken Chop, Tofu and Vegetable on Rice ($10.50).

Herb and Spicy Chicken on Rice ($9.50).

My favourite would have to be the Herb & Spicy Chicken. The curry sauce has some addictive elements that I can’t get enough of (MSG?).  The pricing of the dishes are very reasonable and food is served quite quickly. The taste is pretty good, but again, it is different for other people (i.e. my work colleagues). Dishes are served with a side of vegetables – which is not bad. But try to avoid eating the deep friend chicken – not great for your health.

I will be bias, because I quite like this place. Rating = 9/10. Great price and great food. At least try it once.

Herbal Legend

I heard this place was THE place to eat Shanghai food. Herbal Legend is located on Dominion Road at Mt Eden. It’s close to the shopping area where Foodtown is.  The first time I went to this place, I couldn’t get a spot and had to settle for somewhere else to eat. This time though, I didn’t have any problems finding a spot. However, it is noticeably packed for some reason and I wanted to know why.

Cumin Lamb with Bread.

Sweet & Sour Pork Rib.

Mapo Tofu

The prices for the dishes in this restaurant range quite a bit. The cumin lamb is $22 and appears to be the most popular dish. The sweet and sour pork is $16 and the Ma Po tofu is $10. Out of the 3 dishes, I didn’t like the Ma Po tofu cause it was kinda average, however the other two wasn’t too bad. I quite like the cumin lamb with the bread. One thing I realised is the ridiculous speed they made the dishes! I think it took less than 10 mins for them to prepare the 3 dishes above, which leads to the question – how so? Probably they had like 10 chefs in the kitchen or it was too easy to cook? Who knows.

Anyway, I did hear good things about this place but in the end, I found that it was alright. Perhaps it doesn’t suit my palate. The price is great and service not too bad (friendly I thought). Taste is OK as I said before. Ratings 7.5/10. Perhaps might suit some people, but not me.

Sichuan in Remuera Restaurant

The restaurants in surburbia land are getting more and more, especially in Auckland. Maybe it’s always been like that? Those were the days when the closest thing to Chinese food near your house was the odd takeaway next to the Dairy. On top of selling fried rice and random Chinese food, they also sell fish & chips.

The Sichuan in Remuera Restaurant is one of those, except more decent and formal. It’s situated behind the Remuera Shops (off Remuera Road), but you’d have to drive to the back. It’s relatively hard to spot unless you know the area well. Anyway, I heard things about this place and decided to go.

Three dishes were sampled as shown below:

Honey Pork Chop .

Mapo Tofu.

Sizzling Fillet Steak in Chinese style.

Overall, the experience was somewhat disappointing. Perhaps because I didn’t try the traditional Sichuan food. The menu was littered with every single “standard” Chinese food you can think of. Nothing in the menu stood out. But surprisingly, there were people going in and out.

The Honey Pork Chop was $18, and it was quite average tasting. The Mapo Tofu was slightly better costing $18. The Sizzling Fillet Steak in Chinese Style is $22. Clearly, the food was quite average (for me anyway) but it wasn’t bad tasting. If there was a Sichuan Restaurant, I’d prefer HP8 on Nuffield Street.

My rating is 7/10. Average. If you’re hungry and near the area, go for it. Lai Lai Noodle House is a much better alternative, but I don’t think they do dinner.

Penang Cafe

It has been a while, and I thought it’s about time to post.

I knew about Penang Cafe from my previous job – it was close to the old office. Penang Cafe is located in Otahuhu, not exactly the ideal place to live (and park your car). But they do have some reasonably good food outlets like Vietnam Cafe, a food court etc. So, when you go to Otahuhu, take the lousy car and make sure your third party fire & theft car insurance is up to date. =)

I visited Penang Cafe for lunch as I was in the area. I was actually looking for a bike somewhere along Great South Road. Anyway, two dishes were ordered that particular day, the Wat Tan Hor and honey garlic chicken rice. Pictures below.

Wat Tan Hor.

Honey Garlic Chicken Rice.

The Penang Cafe menu is quite easy to figure out. They had two sides, one side is the lunch menu and the other side was the dinner menu. There were some pictures outside for those that might struggle to decide. One thing you’ll immediately notice – almost all the lunch dishes were around $7.50!!! The Wat Tan Hor was $7, and the honey garlic chicken rice was $7.50. They had other dishes like Hainanese chicken rice, curry chicken rice etc. Just for the price alone, it’s shockingly below market price. But don’t get your hopes high, their dishes are generally smaller than other places. It’s not ridiculously small, but it’s still worth it! Perhaps go there and see for yourself.

As usual, I was being a busybody and it seems like the Hainese chicken rice was the most popular. It looked good as well. The Wat Tan Hor was extremely good value for money – delicious and cheap. The honey garlic chicken rice was not bad, but there was hardly any “meat”, in fact it was more like deep fried boned meat pieces. But I couldn’t complain. It’s only $7.50 and it didn’t taste bad. Probably should have picked the Hainanese chicken rice.

Impressed with the lunch menu, I decided to come over to Penang Cafe for dinner! Several dishes were ordered as shown below.

Braised Duck on Special Sauce.

Pepper Pork Chop.

Minced Pork on Sizzling Tofu.

Hainanese Half Chicken.

There were actually five dishes ordered for dinner, missed out on the picture of the vegetable (which was Kangkong Belacan). Penang Cafe served us “chicken rice” that means the yellow, fragrant rice which was pretty good. I loved the tofu which was $18 and the Hainanese chicken $15. The pork chop and braised duck was not bad, for $20 and $24 respectively. No complains at all.

The environment is not “posh” but clean, and Otahuhu isn’t exactly Remuera. For the price of the dishes and its variety, I think it’s definitely worth a try especially for a lunch outing. Like I said, check your car insurance and maybe bring a steering wheel lock.

My rating, an 8.5/10. Extremely cheap lunch and great variety, however, pity about the location!