Tok Tok (North Shore City, New Zealand)
I got to know this restaurant at the Taste of Auckland event which happened 2 years ago they have a stall at the event and I can still remember it was packed with lots of patrons. A couple of years later I decided to dine in at their Takapuna restaurant, I know its late but its better late than never.
I sort of know what to expect as I saw their menu way back in that Taste of Auckland event. Tok Tok offers a Pan Asian cuisine where you can see a good influence from Thai and Chinese from starters down to the deserts.
It was quite packed when we dined in here, luckily we reserved a place for us as I knew beforehand that this place is really busy at dinner time. As we were seated we immediately ordered our starters which we already decided on when we were looking at the menu on the front doors.
We grabbed some Popping Prawns ($15.00) spiced with curry leaves, chillies and almond. This was quite enjoyable to eat, it’s not too hot but the nice tingling sensation is there, perfect with an ice-cold beer.
Another starter that we grabbed was this Char Siu Pork Ribs ($15.00), this is spiced again with chillies, sweet soy and lemon. Less spicy than our first starter but it’s as enjoyable. Again good with beer, but I reckon this would be better eaten at home as I was tempted to nibble on that tasty bones, it wont be a good sight in a nice restaurant like this.
While enjoying our starters together with our choice of beer, we started looking at the mains and decide on what to have. All of the food items here looks really good on the menu, I think I would love them all but since our stomach have a limited capacity we just have to order what we think was the best for that night.
We were craving for some fish during that day so two of our orders were seafood. First one was this Manuka Smoked Salmon Orange Curry made with turmeric and tamarind served with palm heart salad ($28.00), it is such a flavourful dish, just imagine smoked salmon, tamarind and Asian curry spices in one bowl, this is a deliciously rich viand.
Next up was another fish curry but this one a dry one. Crispy Hapuka Dry Red Curry ($29.00) prepared with fresh herbs, toasted cashews, ginger and pickled chillies. I love hapuka specially when it is fried and crispy, it’s so meaty inside and crispy on the outside and spicing it up with red curry is its cherry on top. This too have its zing and they had perfectly balanced it with the other flavours.
And for the non fish dish we had this Crispy Half Duck ($34.00) flavoured with orange, ginger, viet mint and spiced salt. This dish reminds me of the crispy duck we had in Berlin a couple of years ago. It was indeed crispy and the serving was enormous, it certainly can feed two people.
All the savoury dishes were amazing, they were all tasty and delicious. While this place caters mostly non Asians, definitely Asians like me will never find it tasteless like other Pan Asian restaurant with similar demographics. It was not salty as the original Asian dishes but the flavours on each dish liven it up.
To end a really good dinner should be a good dessert hence we ordered this Panna cotta which is quite unique in flavour. Called Bay Leaf Panna cotta ($13.00) this jelly is flavoured with banana caramel and drizzled with peanut praline, a dessert that is a great combination of textures and flavours.
I can rate this place really high, it will definitely satisfy a wide array of demographics. The place is good, the serving was great and most importantly the menu items were delicious. I will definitely recommend this place, in fact I have recommended this a lot of times to friends and it never had let me down, so what are you waiting for try this place now.
Tok Tok  
Address: 129 Hurstmere Rd, Takapuna, Auckland 0622, New Zealand
Phone: +649 489 3988
Website: http://www.toktok.co.nz
