A man who tried to use a knife to rob an Auckland eatery gets a taste of his own medicine

A man who tried to rob an Auckland eatery at knife point instead scarpered "like a dog" after the tables were turned by the restaurant's quick-thinking chef.

Vaughn Wilkinson of Lena Urban Eatery in Sandringham said he had just finished the evening's service on November 10 and was closing down the restaurant.

Around 11pm a man with clothing tied around his face and a knife in his hand came flying through the door in and shouted "give me the effen money".

"My wife was on the other side of the till – she's only 5-foot-nothing – and she just said 'no'.

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"At first we thought was one of the customers coming back and playing a practical joke on us. But it obviously wasn't."

SUPPLIED Security footage showed moral of the story: "never try and rob a chef."

Wilkinson said he was out the back doing some cleaning when he heard what was going on.

"I just picked up a couple of chef's knives and shouted few choice words at him, pretended to throw a knife and that's when he bolted.

"The whole thing was about nine seconds. He scarpered, he was off like a robber's dog."

He said the knife-wielding man picked the wrong place to try to rob.

"Chefs are a bit crazy anyway and we've got access to all sorts of razor sharp knives. I'm also ex-military and just made a judgment call based on my training.

"The way I looked at it was he only had one knife, I had two."

Security footage of the event was shared on social media, captioned with the moral of the story: "Never try and rob a chef."