Twelve (Auckland CBD, New Zealand)

If you love Korean Fried Chicken then Twelve may be the best place for you, why? I think of all Korean Fried Chicken restaurants they have the most variety of chicken, 9 to be precise. Having said that they also sell other items such as soups where there are 11 different varieties plus a whole lot more like your typical tteokbokki and other items new to me, like rice balls and interesting pizza flavours.

My daughter graduated recently, the graduation ceremony ended around 9PM and since her favourite cuisine was Korean this was the best place to have a small celebration. It was conveniently located at Auckland CBD just a few minutes away from Spark Arena where the graduation celebration was held. Definitely a place to consider for large celebrations specially for university students in Auckland CBD as this place is quite huge compared to Auckland restaurants, they close at 3:00 AM in the morning and the price is quite affordable but how is about the food? Were here to find out.

And as my intro states, it’s one of the few Korean Fried Chicken restaurants that offer many options, so we grabbed three different flavours.

The Yangneom Chicken (NZ$35.00), basically it’s a deep-fried chicken wings with their home made sweet and spicy sauce

Snowing Chicken (NZ$36.00), another deep-fried chicken wings topped with cheese powder

and the Carbonara Chicken (NZ$36.00), like both, it’s a deep-fried chicken wings but served with cream sauce drizzled on top.

They have an option to have it in bone in or boneless, we chose bone in as they tend to be tastier and juicier, which indeed it was. The Yangneom was spicier than most Korean Chickens I tried in Auckland, for me it was good, nice tingling sensation that lingers after every bite, definitely a soju would help. The carbonara chicken was a surprise, it was creamy and cheesy. The snowing chicken on the other hand was different, unlike the others that I tried where it is flavoured with powder, their version was topped with a generous amount of cheese, not totally a fan but it was still good.

I was also intrigued with their Pizza as the flavours they had was unheard of, at least for me. One of the flavours was the Gorgonzola Pizza with Honey (NZ$17.00)

and another one was the Blueberry Pizza with Cream Cheese (NZ$17.00)

Both pizzas were served with a pita style dough in double layer which is interesting, and the flavours seemed to work really well, it’s basically the magical combination of sweet and savoury. Both flavours were really good but was quite disappointed with the bread layer.

Moving on to the next order, we had two types of Tteokbokki, first was the Rose Cream Tteokbokki (NZ$28.00), made with stir fried rice cake with sausage, bacon and glass noodle in creamy Korean spicy sauce. This one was really good, and I love the addition of the wide glass noodles which added a nice texture to the dish.

Then for the next Tteokbokki they call it Spicy Rice Cake with Rice Ball (NZ$24.00), it’s the usual Tteokbokki served with rice that you mix by hand (gloves provided off course) and form into a ball before gets eaten, this is new to me and I love the flavour combinations on this one, creamy, a bit sour and seafoody.

Finally, we had the Nagasaki Jjambbongtang (NZ$37.00), a mild spicy Nagasaki style seafood stew. For me this was our best order, it had a really nice taste, very addicting soup, not spicy at first but there is a small kick after every slurp.

With all of the items we got two or three of each and it did not even cost and arm and a leg, what’s best of all everyone got enough food there are even many to take away as I never expected that the serving sizes were huge. The service was good but take note we did preorder early by SMS and asked for a more secluded spot. Staff was very attentive to our needs and the food came out quick as they are finished preparing them. The only downside of this place is that they are full of young half-drunk people, so it can be quite noisy at most times. The doors are wide as well and most of them grab a ciggie mid drinking session so you can smell the smoke coming inside as they close and open the doors. Overall if you are not fussy of the noise and young crowds then this spot is for you, anyways if its way past midnight there are no other spots for you to dine in the city apart from this place as far as I know.

Twelve Restaurant
Address: 1 Courthouse Lane, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
Phone: +649 369 1002
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/twelve_akl/