Mighty Hotdog (Auckland CBD, New Zealand)

Korean hot dogs, this is what this shop Mighty Hotdog offers. While it may look like a corn dog, it is far from that, trust me it is way much better. Unlike corn dogs where it uses cornmeal batter, this one is more like a dense chewy fluffy doughnut filled with hotdog and/or cheese then deep fried, it sometimes had French fries included in the batter which makes it more interesting. To add its weirdness (in a good way), it can be rolled in sugar and then drizzled with mayonnaise, ketchup or any of your favourite sauce, it may sound strange, but it does work.

In South Korea, it is quite popular as a street food, it is called “gamja-hotdog”, now it’s in Auckland but I am quite late in trying this out.

The first time I had heard of this was when my daughter told me to make one, I said I want to try it out first before giving it a go but due to COVID we were not able to until last December. There are very few shops that offer this, on my last search I only saw two, one was a food truck, and another was this shop in Chancery called Mighty Hotdog.

Located between the coin operated karaoke and Obar, this place is quite popular with international students, hence my daughter knew about it. The place is quite small, no dining facilities inside but there are several seats outside where you can enjoy your orders. On our first visit to this place we tried two items, first was the Giant (NZ$7.00) and the Mozzarella (NZ$7.00). The Giant is filled with an extra big sized sausage while the Mozzarella is just filled with mozzarella.

When your gamja-hotdog is ready, you will be asked if you want it to be rolled with sugar. At first, I was shocked as this was a savoury dish, but my daughter told me to try it that way to get the most of my first-time experience, I complied. To make things even more interesting, there was a sauce station where you can drizzle whatever you want, so I went full out by drizzling cheese sauce and mayonnaise on top.

Now the first bite with the Giant! It was bewilderment, this thing was good, it’s like eating a dense chewy sweet doughnut like malasadas then a savoury bomb hits your plate because of that large sausage which tasted more like an American hotdog. Your mind is confused but your mouth continues to love it and that’s what I felt. Moving on to my next bite with the Mozzarella, same feeling but the filling is another experience totally different from the sausage, it was gooey, stretchy and cheesy, I was in heaven after every bite.

Overall it was good, it was very filling, that dough was the champion, I guess even without the filling I would still love it. I wanted to try a third one that day, but it was just too much, so I will reserve that Mighty Potato or Mighty Kumara on my next visit.

Mighty Hotdog
Address: 47 Chancery Street, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010, New Zealand