



By suburb: Central city | Eden Terrace | Glen Innes | Grey Lynn | Henderson | K' Road | Kingsland | Mt Eden/Dominion Rd | Mt Roskill | Mt Wellington | New Lynn | Newmarket | North Shore | Otahuhu | Pakuranga | Ponsonby | Remuera | Royal Oak | Sandringham

Central city

BBQ Duck Cafe

350 Queen St (also at 115c Queen St)

An affordable, bright, energetic dining room right near the Civic and the Aotea Centre — this is the ideal corner bolthole for a pre- or post-theatre feed. The king-prawn crispy fried-egg noodles are heaped with prawns almost as crispy as the noodles, and great value at $13. The dry-fried round beans with mince pork are moreish and deeply savoury, and a whole roast duck to take away is only $30.

CANTONESE

●Licensed ●BYO ●Open late

Cinta Malaysian

51 Shortland St

Note: Its Dominion Rd branch in Mt Eden closed September 2018 for earthquake strengthing.

Cinta (Malay for “love”) offers staple hawker classics of beef rendang, chicken curry, wat tan hor, mee goreng, and homemade egg tofu (cooked on a hot plate with chilli bean paste). Their roti canai is made fresh and can be had with a choice of curries, as well as beef murtarbak. Another specialty is tomato kway teow, a dish normally found only in Sarawak — shiok! Downtown workers can now enjoy Cinta-style treats in the lobby of the AMP building in Customs St West, where all dishes — including Hainanese chicken rice — are $11.50.

MALAYSIAN

● Licensed ● BYO

Eden Terrace

Ramen Do

167 Symonds St

They make their own noodles at Ramen Do, using an impressive piece of noodle-making machinery. Perfectly chewy, they’re best served in a Hokkaido-style broth, which is traditionally made by boiling generous amounts of miso paste with specially imported rausu kelp and oily fish or chicken stock (and sometimes lard) to create a thick, rich soup. Topped with meltingly tender, fatty pork (and washed down with a beer), this is the perfect mid-week, can’t-be-bothered-to-cook meal.



RAMEN

●Vegetarian Friendly ● Licensed

Read more: Five great noodle spots in Auckland | The Top 10 Cheap Eats 2018 | 50 things to do in Auckland for under $20 | Auckland's best bars | Auckland's best restaurants | Auckland's best cafes

Glen Innes

Hong Kong Kitchen

290 Apirana Ave

All the locals know and love this Glen Innes gem, which Colin and Joanna Ye opened 18 years ago, and word of its popularity is now widespread. The couple barbecue and roast pork, chicken and duck to perfection and we highly recommend having one or more of these succulent meats in a noodle soup, with a ginger and spring onion topping. Their round beans with pork mince, prawn scrambled egg (served on rice), braised eggplant with salted fish, and the five-spice squid also come highly recommended — as does their Peking duck with pancakes.

CANTONESE

● BYO

Grey Lynn

Epolito’s Pizzeria

166 Richmond Rd

There’s quite an art to edging out the door of Epolito’s with a massive pizza box or two in hand, not to mention manoeuvring it into your car. In true New York style, the pizzas here are big — they come in large (14-inch) or extra-large (18-inch) sizes. The bases are hand-stretched and just the right degree of chewy. As for the toppings, owner Chickalena Rose keeps them simple, and the meatballs and sausage are homemade to family recipes.

NEW YORK-STYLE PIZZA

● Vegetarian friendly ● Licensed

Jimmy The Cook

Grey Lynn Returned Services Club, 1 Francis St



Rock up early for a feed at Jimmy’s, because items on the short blackboard menu — a roster of comfort-food staples based around steak, fish and pasta — often sell out quickly, a testament to the enduring popularity of Auckland hospo stalwart Jimmy Gerard’s plain food cooked well. Down past the pool tables at the Grey Lynn RSC, the meals served by his little kitchen are a sweet match for the unchanging, unpretentious community vibe of the place amid the ongoing evolution of Grey Lynn. Open from 6pm Wednesdays to Saturdays.



SEAFOOD AND MORE

●Licensed

Pizza Rosso Pomodoro

356 Great North Rd

A blistered, bubbling crust like the ones here can be achieved only with a short burst in a scorching, wood-fired oven — 90 seconds or so should do the trick. We love the tacky décor, and the ham-and-mushroom pizzas. Weekly specials like $15 Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Sunday night half-priced desserts make for great (cheap) date nights. The corner stack of games should keep restless kids entertained.

WOOD-FIRED PIZZA

● Vegan friendly ● Vegetarian friendly ● Licensed● BYO

Tiger Burger

549 Great North Rd

Esther Jeong and Matt Shephard are sticklers for detail, going so far as to ferment their own kimchi and gochujang (Korean chilli paste) — the latter takes three months to make — for their Korean-inspired burgers. The couple’s short menu of oozy, drippy, free-farmed burgers makes for great hang-over reading; the $20 kimcheese burger with double patty and double cheese is hard to resist. Line-caught fish.

KOREAN-STYLE BURGERS

Vegetarian friendly ● Licensed● Free range

Henderson

Treasure Kitchen

2/392 Great North Rd



This place really is a treasure in West Auckland, where good Malaysian food can be hard to find. Dishes are made with great care, and owners Sam Ng and Jennie Tang are super-helpful if you’re trying to get a variety of flavours into your group order, or whittling down a shortlist. Try dishes like bak kut the — pork ribs in herbal soup — or salted fish with eggplant rice, both available as $12 lunch specials.



MALAYSIAN PLUS SOME OTHER ASIAN DISHES

● Vegetarian friendly