Review Kai Pasifika - Auckland Central

Delicious food. Portion was big. We ordered a couple of main and side dishes. Fries were great. The lamb was nice and soft. The pork belly was great and crunchy. The beef was so soft and delicious. Priced around 30$ for the main. Surprisingly, this place was not crowded at all.

Food is delicious! Everything we had tasted amazing! I love how they've kept true to the Pacific Island flavours

A long awaited restaurant in Auckland. Our tastebuds have finally been blessed with flavours that were always a flight away. Robert Oliver and his team have brought that to Auckland and what an awesome place this is. I have already been here twice (they just opened a week ago) and no doubt will continue to go many times - I plan on taking all my friends and family to sample all the delights they have. This is a must try and even if you have not tried Island Food, definitely give this a go, there will be something you will fall in love with. A great concept and I look forward to the delights they keep pumping out of this kitchen :). My fav dishes are the Lu Soup, Pua'a Samoa, Ika Vakalolo and the Kokoda. Highly recommended and looking forward to the direction this place is heading in.

Great food, great services, great atmosphere. It's really good to a Pasifika inspired resturant in the cbd with food packs full of flavours.

Loved the beef short ribs which are slow cooked to tenderness. Try also their pork belly and fried chicken.

Service was great. Food are good. Prices is on a fine dine side..

The food was incredible. This is the duck. Proj and beef also spectacular. Tastes of the earth.

One of the best dining experiences I've had in Auckland! The food was all delicious, fresh, thoughtfully prepared, and the menu was developed using recipes, stories, and products from communities throughout the Pacific. The interior was bright and beautiful and showcased art on the walls from female Pacific artists. I know all of this because the story was presented throughout the dining experience. We were welcomed warmly and left happy.

Great food in good portions. Standouts for me were the steamed mussels, the whole roasted fish (yum!) , the cold smoked pork and the Fiji-style raw fish. Amazing tastes & good to see something distinctly 'south pacific' food-wise in Auckland.

Friendly and warm service with pretty decent food. Expected the portions to be a little bigger though. Good for sharing and medium to large group. Love to atmosphere and the feeling of being in a church hall. Legit!

If you like good ol' Pacific cuisine but be a bougee! Kai Pasifika is the place! Went with a mate and we were surprised at how beautiful the food was presented. BUT TASTE wise was if it was from a banquet at a Tongan or Samoan wedding/funeral. DELICIOUS!Had Raw fish, taro, passionfruit salad and some fried chicken. and NOTHING was BAD! Seriously, HIGHLIGHT was the raw fish was as if Dad was in the kitchen whipping up with coconut cream, spring onions, tomatoes... you know it. Getting 2 bowls next time I'm thereService was very good! Waiter made sure we were welcome and well served!

Rate it 3.5/5.<br/>Parking is a bit difficult to find in this busy area of Eden Terrace but that goes for nearly all the eateries in this area.<br/><br/>The restaurant is very clean and the dining space is very spacious. The menu is straightforward with starters, mains and a dessert section.<br/><br/>The food is full of fresh ingredients and vibrant colours. The dishes are beautifully presented.

FoodBusters Luau & Otais in Mt Eden<br/><br/>Situated in the heart of Newton on Mt Eden Rd. A historic building that once was a funeral home many years ago now transformed into one of Auckland’s hot new Restaurants.<br/>What makes this different from other venues is that it’s the only place that specialise in Pacific Polynesian cuisine. Renowned Chef Robert Oliver and a Staff have created fused Polynesian traditional recipes from Samoa Cooks to Fiji into contemporary tasteful flavours.<br/>We were lucky enough to finally dine at Kai Pasifika all 12 of us at one time to eat drink review.<br/>Location is ideal close to the CBD motorways and safe parking. <br/>The decor is clean fresh not cluttered chairs tables comfy.... reminds me of an old fashion Church Hall back in the 60’s.<br/>The Duty Manager was a great Host and made sure we were comfy asking if we needed drinks before giving us a run down of the Menu which he described beautifully.<br/>The Menu is detailed and priced well and the selection is enough cos your not overthinking to make a choice.<br/>Starters $15 Sides $7 Mains $22-$36 Desserts $12<br/>Drink Menu has your favourite beverage beer wine selections.<br/>Starters we ordered Seafood Chowder Smoked fish bruschetta which is made fresh: delicious thick creamy good bite size squid mussel fish melts in your mouth with each spoonful well seasoned!<br/>Fried Calamari & salad: lightly crumbled fried lightly melts in your mouth dipped in gorgeous aioli so good salad is good as well.<br/> Tuna Poke& Kai Pasifika raw fish: OML OMJ OMG Devine fresh amount of zest coconut cream salad fresh tuna and snapper magical.<br/>Mains we ordered Smoked pork belly: the star of this meal was the Veges the pork was dry and crackling chewy <br/>Braised Lamb in Taro leaves with coconut: Lamb was great fell off the bone mash was great taro leaves lacked coconut cream <br/>Passion fruit chicken breast: chicken dry veges ok <br/>Goat curry: amazing we order it again great flavours.<br/>Desserts: Coconut Tiramusu: Delicious has a chokito minty creamy flavour<br/>Mango passion fruit cheesecake: light fluffy creamy yumminess.<br/>Food is great only a couple of misses on the mains but all in all good hearty well presented plated meals.<br/>The only complaint we do have is waiting.... waiting.... and waiting.<br/>We waited between Starters and mains and then desserts at least 45mins to an hour.<br/>Luckily we love to drink and chat which help alleviate our hunger and patience.<br/>Would we come again majority of our group said yes, but the service time really has to improve.<br/>Would we recommend this place majorly of us said yes, great to eat traditional Polynesian recipes given a contemporary twist for fine dining.<br/>Great for any occasion just consider taking children... as meal service is a long wait.<br/><br/>Patience is key!<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>

Attentive staff who hovers around to ensure they bring us our main course when we are done with our starters. We ordered seafood chowder and raw fish for starters, pork belly and catch of the fish (medium rare tuna), and panna cotta for dessert.<br/><br/>The portions are huge and the food was so flavorful! I love the coconut-infused couscous in my tuna dish and I thought everything went together very nicely. I also like the roasted vegetables in my tuna dish. My friend and hubby got pork belly dish and it came with a kumara has. The pork crackling was on point and I like the smokey flavour that the crackling has. I mixed the kumara hash that my hubby gave with the coconut couscous that came with my dish and they tasted really good today. The panna cotta was, however, just average although I love the ice cream that came with it.<br/><br/>Overall I really enjoyed the evening at Kai. The only issue I had was that my water was only topped up once throughout the whole evening, so if more attention was paid to this small detail, I would have given it a 5. All in all, I felt that the place is really reasonable given the portion and quality of food that's served.<br/>

We had the duck confit and the fish of the day (tuna). Both were delicious and had a nice island inspired spin on them. Nice to have a Vailema too - just for kicks!

Such a great place to dine! Went here last week for my sister-in-laws birthday dinner and upon reading the reviews, I wasn’t expecting much. But that soon changed when we walked in. Our waiter was so kind and proactive with making sure our drinks were refilled and not to mention how bloody amazing our food tasted! Portion sizes were well worth the price we paid. For once I left a restaurant full lol. Highly recommend this place. Great staff, great atmosphere and GREAT FOOD!!!! Will definitely be coming back :)

I decided to treat my parents to a nice dinner and we were totally blown away. Great service by our waiter and the food was amazing. The octopus was my favourite followed by the pork with Koko glaze. My dad being the biggest critic of Samoan food, couldn’t believe the faiai fe’e (octopus) was done exactly how he remembers it back home in the islands. Thanks again for a great night guys. We’ll be back for sure. Nati.

This restaurant is not at all what I expected. Although they did offer island cuisine, it didn’t have much taste. I order the IKA MATA (Cook island raw fish) which was very small and overpriced, but the taste was awful. Other dishes were bland and the lighting was terrible.

Finally went here after hearing great reviews from my family with my partner and struggled to see just what they liked about it. They went on the first days so maybe the restaurant went all out for their first opening days. <br/><br/>It was empty but then we went during the week. Despite having only two other tables in the restaurant the service was slow. Friendly but slow. The decor was not what either of us were expecting and figured that maybe they were still decorating as I expected more colours especially with the vivid logo and photos of food my family took earlier. Despite this I was looking forward to the food. We got our menus picked the fish and then after deciding were told they didn't have fish or lots of other things on the menu. So ended up picking the chicken dishes, with chop suey, that bean salad and taro. It took ages to come but it was all either too dry or too salty. The chop suey was so garlicky that I could barely eat it. The chicken was dry and rubbery. However the taro was alright and we both used this to try to mask the tasted or the other things. The waitress disappeared during our meal which meant that we couldn't even order more drinks to help wash the saltiness from our mouths. I was sorely disappointed and when the waitress finally turned up, when she asked how our meal was I told her it wasn't that good. She obviously heard what she wanted and thought I said it was great or something and said to me 'that's good' as she took our plates away.<br/><br/>I was glad to leave but then again they had issues with their eftpos so had to wait yet again as they fumbled to sort it out, leaving us just standing there. I was sad that this was our experience after being so excited to show my partner our Pacific food in a restaurant setting. I might give it a go again later but after reading a few other reviews I feel like it's a luck of the draw if you get good food and service or not. So won't be anytime soon.

We had medium size group of 8 people and booked table in advance. The food was great, and service was very good, too. I tried lamb ribs, octopus (starter), and raw fish (starter). The only little minus was a that main dish comes without side, so you need to order side; and they had run out of raw salmon starter. However, the taste of food was great. I enjoyed every bite of lamb, and octopus. Raw fish has a tiny portion, I shared that meal and had only two pieces of fish. My colleagues ordered cocktail, but they did not like the taste and asked staff to replace it, they got complement cocktail and they also give us complement half bottle of white and half bottle of red wine, which was a very nice touch. Overall, my experience with that place was very good, would definitely recommend to try this place out. Planning to bring my family on some occasion here soon.

It is a tiny restaurants but I'm so glad we've finally had Pasifika food in a restaurant. The food is amazing and would love a bigger selection. Great service and so much fun. Thank you for everything. This is a place where you need a big group to share.

Went here once with my husband (a few months ago). Did not enjoy our meals. Was expecting authentic pacific taste but our raw fish dish was average and our chicken dish was quite average too. The otai looked better than it tasted. As a result, we did not eat half of the 2 dishes we ordered but guess what - YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO TAKE AWAY ANY OF YOUR LEFTOVERS!! What a shame! As polynesians, this is so common because we dont like to waste our food, so you would expect a Pacific restaurant to follow suit. Food is overpriced and i wouldnt want to return. The only good thing about this restaurant is their friendly staff.

The service was great and very helpful. The KFC chicken was really delicious and the lamb racks were ordered for our table which were nice as well.

Firstly I want to acknowledge the fact that the staff are warm and friendly. The restaurant needs a makeover as it's large wasted space with virtually nothing for decor but I do love the chairs and enamel plates. The actual evening experience was the huge disappointment. This Pacific Island restaurant is NOT great for large groups which I would have expected to be fantastic. <br/>The food took a long time to come out even for the $50 set menu per adult (our group consisted of 11 adults and a 9 year old, 4 year old and 1 year old). This $50 set menu was not what I wanted or asked for when I booked our table for the evening. It was decided for us and announced as we arrived that it was what we would be getting WHAT THE ?!?! Too late we were there and our guests were arriving. I guess the kitchen didn't order enough food to feed our table 😤 even though I booked well in advance. <br/>I was some what taken back by the audacity of the man who told me about the set menu and the fact it was decided for us. IMPORTANT NOTE: Don't be a fia poto and just don't on behalf of your paying customer make that decision without confirming it's what they want. <br/>So the menu was rattled off to us by the lovely staff member and I thought 'ok sounds good for $50 per person' I kind of relaxed after hearing for $50 per person we would be served: caramel popcorn 2/5, chicken wings 0/5, lu soup 3/5, ika mata 0/5, flounder 1/5, lamb flaps disguised as lamb ribs 1/5, sapasui and taro 3/5, KFC 3/5, pavlova 0/5. Hmmm after asking a couple of times how long until we get the mains an hour after we arrived and our appetisers were finished my annoyance kicked in again when our mains arrived. Firstly all menu items scored 0 is because there was not enough to go around so I didn't eat any!!!!!! <br/>Menu items scored 1 is because I got like a couple of tablespoons full of the food item as there wasn't enough to go around. Menu items scored 3 is for the fact I was able to eat more than a couple of tablespoons to taste. <br/>Please do not decide for paying guests you will serve a set menu with sharing plates as it's a joke. It's even funnier when you are happy to serve a table of 14 only 4 small enamel plates of each food item to sample. SERIOUSLY WHAT THE !?!?!? <br/>The cake we ordered was not really 'lovely' as described by the fia poto male on the phone, it was average for $50 we paid. <br/>For $50 per person set menu you will receive a tasting sample plate (not even a platter) experience not a full course meal as most other restaurants provide. <br/>Most other restaurants when you order a set menu each paying customer receives one full portion of each food item not a slither or couple spoonfuls of food items that is to be shared. Kai Pasifika needs to order enough ingredients ahead of time and put on extra chefs in the kitchen to cater for a group, increase the number of shared plates and portion sizes so people can leave satisfied with dinner and paying for it. <br/>We will not be coming back to Kai Pasifika unfortunately. We felt ripped off and you killed my daughters birthday dinner just because the fia poto man decided what was best for our evening without asking. Next time you decide a group will have the set menu you may want to call ahead and ask what we would like to have. <br/>We were all very happy to order off the menu as I sent to each of our guests the link for them to peruse. People wanted to try Kokoda, curry, calamari, pork belly which wasn't part of the set menu. <br/>I think this was $50 worth of a rant of the disappointing set menu experience. No photos to post as I wasn't feeling it. The only other one bonus apart from the friendly staff is kids are free as they can pick off the little portion of food on your plate...

I love Polynesian food so I was very excited to try this out. Was surprised by the look of the interior of the restaurant - I expected Pacific decorations (fans, hats, or bags etc) and at least some Pacific music to be playing, but there was none of that unfortunately. <br/>The service was outstanding. The waitresses really knew the menu inside out which was very helpful as well as having beaming smiles and humour. <br/>The food was rather average. I absolutely LOVE Ota (raw fish) but the Kokoda that I ordered was not up to standard. Very few pieces of fish and had more pieces of apple in it. Very small portion. <br/>Presentation however was beautiful. <br/>I would love to see this place succeed but perhaps a step up in food quality and atmosphere would help create that real tropic vibe.

Enjoyed it thoroughly.<br/>Highly recommend the Ika Vakalolo. <br/>The service is warm and welcoming and would come again. Constructive feedback I will pass on is the seats were hard and cold at night.

Service: warm & welcoming.<br/>Atmosphere: beautiful and relaxing.<br/>Food: fresh, appealing, flavoursome and tasteful.<br/>Experience: pleasant, entertaining and a memorable experience of fine dining with a taste of Pasifika.<br/>Fa'afetai tele lava!

Auckland really needs to have an authentic and awesome Pacific restaurant. I really want this place to succeed, but it's got a long way to go. The service was great! Some of our food was lovely, like the raw fish entree options although the portions were small. The mains were a bit average. I had the flounder, a fish I have grown up eating, and often cook myself. It's such a delicate and delicious fish, and so it needs simple treatment. This just had too much going on - grated coconut, coconut sauce, basil leaves, chilli, etc. <br/>Our main issue was the decor and ambience. It's dull, just not Pacific! It needs colour, vibrancy, flowers & greenery, Pacific stuff & Pacific music. It would be so much more appealing if this was improved. Good luck!<br/>

This place has a plain/bland ambience. I guess I was expecting a more tropical setting with tropical plants similar to Aotea House or Kimchi project. The food was average, not terrible but not outstanding either. However, I do recommend the lamb, the marinade was delicious and not too overpowering. The other dish that I recommend is bread & butter pudding with Koko. I'm not a fan of Koko or bread&butter pudding however this worked very well.

It's been open about 4 week just up the road from Galbraiths. It's big, spacious n roomy with retro furniture. The classroom chairs and campfire enamel plates are not really my thing but you've got eat off something. Reminds me of eating in the islands excepts the serving are smaller n better presented. We ordered the pan fried sesame crumbed wahoo with coconut cream twice cooked taro and coleslaw. I'm not a fan of Wahoo (chicken of the sea) but this was delicious. Our other dish was a mix of cerviche, umu pork, supasui, taro with coleslaw. The supasui was strong flavored than I what I typically have but it worked with the other ingredients.  The umu pork portions were good but like bacon their can never be enoughThe dishes we selected were probably wrong for a shared plate but that was our fault. We had too much coconut cream going on and that deflated the experience.The dessert we ordered where a hit n miss. the parfait with almond ice cream was a clear favourite. That was heavenly. The iced koko with whipped cream needs to be wheeled back into the kitchen n overhauled, sadly it don't work. I'm sure you can resurrect it. Its early days n honing the operation will improve it. being crowd funded is really cool though. I would have preferred this to be like a Chinese restaurant where I can order dishes to share around the table with family. It isn't the case but seeing families coming after church to share a meal give me that impression.The waitress you was orsum, your folks raised you well. The palagi fella, not so nervous eh, loosen up n smile, we're not gonna "Captain Cook" you? As for Chef mate, catch up with Fiji whanau later you gotta serve them hungry customers 1st. Them customers are payin the rent.I'll be back, this project is pioneering n I know it can succeed. I look forward to another Akld venue preferably with no paid parking