A Couple of Days of Eating in Auckland

The Store
Address: 5B Gore St
Phone: +64 9-366 1864

There aren’t too many places that are open by 7am on a Sunday morning, so my choices were limited.  I came across The Store in Britomart and decided to have a coffee and light breakfast.  I ordered some granola with yogurt and was surprised to see it served with a small cup of milk on the side.  I would later learn that in New Zealand, people pour milk over their granola even when there is already yogurt as well, which was pretty foreign to me.

I can’t say I was blown away by the simple breakfast, but it was definitely a good enough breakfast to keep me going before other restaurants started opening up later that day.

 

Panda 
Address: Queens Rise, Level 1/125 Queen St
Phone: +64 9-303 2977

Later that morning, I made my way to Panda, a new restaurant that opened just this year, inside the Queen’s Rise Building.  Panda is known to have some cute buns as well as a variety of dishes from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.

They opened at 10am, but I arrived close to 11am and the restaurant was still empty, which meant I got my choice of table.  I ended up getting an order of dumplings and 2 buns.

The yellow pig bun is salted egg yolk flavour, while the white porcupine is kumara flavour. I felt like I killed two birds with one stone as I got to try kumara immediately and also got to eat these cute buns at the same time.  It’s too bad they didn’t have their signature panda buns on the menu that day, as I would have loved to have tried that one as well. The dumplings were neither good nor bad, but the buns were definitely the star.  They looked and tasted great.  I also love that you could order them individually instead of having to order a whole basket full of them.

Another plus is that there is free Wifi inside the Queen’s Rise building.

 

Uncle Man’s Express
Address: 291 Queen Street, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010, New Zealan
Phone: +64 20 4170 1875

For an early super, I made my way to Uncle Man’s, as I had heard all about their roti.  The problem is, there were so many delicious looking items on the menu that I also ended up ordering some chicken skewers and a teh tarik as well.

The food was made to order, so there was a bit of a wait for the food, which I didn’t mind, as I knew I would be getting it fresh. 

The chicken skewers were plump and juicy and full of flavour.  The dish came with packed rice cubes, which is typical of Malaysian skewers.  This dish was just as good, if not better than any skewers I’d had before in Malaysia.

Next, I tried the roti with curry and everyone online was right.  This was one of the best roti I had ever had.  Not only was the roti soft, but flaky at the same time, the curry really added to it.  The curry was rich and flavourful and was a perfect complement to the roti.

I did not have the appetite to finish both of these dishes, but definitely do not regret ordering both to try.  The teh tarik was also delicious, but I wish I had known that they had a cold version as it was a bit difficult to finish such a hot drink on such a hot day.

If I ever get a chance to return to Auckland, Uncle Man’s is the first place I’d want to visit again.

 

Aqua S
Address: 287 Queen Street, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
Phone: +64 9-218 9159

After a rich dinner, it was time for something sweet and I had heard about the salted caramel soft serve at Aqua S that I was really wanting to try.  They change their flavours every 2 weeks, but the salted caramel flavour is consistently on the menu, as their signature item.  I ended up ordering the salted caramel, but didn’t get any of the crazy toppings.  For those that are interested, you can have anything from popping candy to cotton candy on top of your ice cream.

 

PappaRich
Address: Sky World Entertainment Centre
291-297 Queen Street, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
Phone: +64 9-300 3181

I was really looking forward to trying a great deal of Malaysian and Singaporean food in New Zealand and Australia, as there is a much larger South East Asian population in these countries than where I’m from.  Although considered a fast food chain, I wanted to see what Papparich was all about.

I had been wanting to try kaya toast for a very long time, and had to order it when I saw it on the menu.  I also decided to order a Wat Dan Hor, a fried rice noodle dish in a rich egg gravy, along with a kopi cham, a delicious Malaysian coffee with milk tea.

The kopi cham and kaya toast arrived first and both were amazing.  My only complaint was that the kopi cham came in an espresso sized cup, so it was pretty much gone with one sip.  At over $4NZD a cup, it wasn’t the most cost efficient drink.  The kaya toast was exactly what I expected – buttery, coconutty goodness!

Contrary to the coffee, the wat dan hor was humungous.  There was an overwhelming amount of egg gravy, so the noodles were just drowned.  I felt the gravy overpowered the noodles so I didn’t enjoy this dish as much as I would have liked.  I would like to try it again elsewhere to see if this is just a Papparich thing or whether wat dan hor really is this way.

 

Giapo
Address: 12 Gore Street, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
Phone: +64 9-550 3677

This unique ice cream shop attracts a ton of locals and tourists alike with their crazy, over the top ice cream inventions.  I have heard stories about how the line ups can be hours long, but fortunately, we decided to visit on a cold and windy night, so we were able to get our foot in the door right away.

The process starts with one of the employees explaining each type of their ice creams and offering a sample of each one.  The prices were quite high, but you soon realize why as each piece starts coming out.  They really are a work of art and are humungous. 

Giapo is definitely a very unique type of ice cream shop that you can’t find anywhere else.  The high prices are a bit unfortunate, but the skill and technique of the ice cream artists involved makes it a worthy price to pay.