Wongs Kitchen (Rosedale, North Shore City, New Zealand)

by Raymund · Published January 22, 2019 · Updated July 1, 2021

This place was an accidental discovery after the restaurant Hakka Hut which is beside them was fully booked when we planned to have some yum cha. Here it was quiet, still quite sceptical because like most we follow where most people eat this time it was just a necessity as we were quite hungry and don’t want to find other places.

When we dined in here there are lots of free tables, there were some diners but I think it was 25% at capacity. We were greeted and seated with a smile and like y our usual Chinese restaurant we got offered some tea then the menu arrived. Menu was quite huge, lots to choose from, luckily some have photos so we just chosen from the photos on the side rather than reading it.

We grabbed a lot of food, that’s the problem when you are very hungry, you tend to over order and here is what we got. We started with some Deep-Fried Chicken Soft Bone with Salt and Pepper (NZ$17.80), after trying them on Po’s Karaoke a while back this became one of our favourite things order. Bones might sound absurd but this crunchy crispy chicken dish is a nice nibble to have with beer or while waiting for other dishes, very tasty and not too oily, I love the nice spice they add which gives it a bit of kick.

Then we grabbed another fried item in the form of Deep-Fried Squid with Salt and Pepper (NZ$16.80), these tender squid pieces like the chicken soft bones was great, tasty and most probably used the same spices as the chicken.

Then we had dumplings, at first, we can’t decide whether we get the boiled ones or fried so we grabbed both Boiled Dumpling Pork with Cabbage (NZ$11.80)

and Pan-Fried Dumpling Pork with Cabbage (NZ$11.80), both are served with 20 pieces each, both were great. I personally liked the pan-fried ones as it was tastier thanks to the extra oil, plus it has more texture, soft on top, crispy on the bottom.

Next order was this Stir-Fried Beef with Oyster Sauce (NZ$16.80), this is the usual stir-fried beef, tasty and savoury. Beef was very tender and like our first two orders there was a bit of kick from the chillies. A great classic dish.

Then we tried their Mapo Tofu, they call it Stir Fried Tofu with Chilli Soy Sauce (NZ$14.80), it’s not as great as its Szechuan counterpart as it does lack that numbing sensation but it was good, I bet this would be perfect for those who does not like their dishes spicy.

We also had some soup in the form of Spinach and Meatball Soup (NZ$16.80), a simple soup of pork meatballs (I think) with spinach and bean tread noodles. This one was so good I recreated them at home and since then I became a staple dish.

Similar to our next dish, it was also added to our recipe arsenal, Okra Ginger and Chillies (NZ$16.80) is something new that we also loved, a simple steamed Okra smothered with chilli, garlic and ginger infused light soy sauce. A perfect side dish to most of the fried dish we ordered.

Finally, this is where you will distinguish a Filipino family dining in a Chinese restaurant, we always order rice whether its yum cha or casual dining. We grabbed two orders of Stir-Fried Rice with Combination Meat Seafood (NZ$11.80), a nice filling dish to accompany every order we got.

Midway our lunch, people started to flock, in fact the restaurant was nearly full, it was either the popular place beside it have more overflows or they might be their loyal customers, I don’t care, what I do care is that we loved it here. There were some takeaways not because we don’t like it, but because we ordered a lot and there was no more room left to finish it up. Food was really great, well-seasoned, well spiced and arrived really quick fresh from the wok. Staff was very friendly and served with a smile, luckily the place next to them was full otherwise we will not discover this one.

Update (25 April 2021) : Photos from succeeding visits