Review Bolliwood Restaurant - Auckland Central

There is nothing to say other than, perfection. We arrived at 5pm, right on opening, we were the first ones in the door and the whole place to ourselves. The service was excellent and the food was quick and absolutely delicious! Definitely recommend it to anyone.

Authentic Indian cuisine value for money $12 for lunch staff are friendly, good location, public parking available nearby, had LAMB ROGANJOSH, it was prefect, spicy just right

Really good Indian food. Awesome service

Three years of hunt for the authentic Indian food has officially ended. This restaurant serves the best Indian cuisine in New Zealand... Trust me this is not exaggeration... Authentic taste, up beat atmosphere and friendly staff... An ultimate trio of service - taste - ambience... must visit...

My favourite Indian restaurant in the whole of Auckland. My friends and I kept going back for more! The staff were super friendly and helpful! They give the best recommendation for food and drinks! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! P.S. Their parathas and yogurt are to die for!

Good food, charming and good intended waiters. I would only add that we would've appreciated if they took our orders faster. We were hungry and had already decided what to eat, but couldn't find someone to approach our table of 6 for the longest of times...

Extremely friendly and absolute delicious food. We had to wait not even 5 minutes for seating but they were apologizing so much. We as German are not used to so much kindness, felt so welcome! Thank you for having us!!!

Good food, a little bit classy. Don't let the big screen put you off - it put me off for years, but is not that intrusive, and the service and food were a great. I've been back several times since

Have been here a couple of times and enjoyed the meal and service both times. Tasty meal although the portion size was a little small. The place can be very loud when it's busy - a very echoey building.

The first time I came here I loved it! I had a voucher, and we werent treat any differently. I had the tandorri snapper which I loved. The sizzling platter was delicious. It has good vegetarian options. The only thing I disliked was I couldn't even hear my partner speak, it was so loud inside. This is not suitable for a romantic date on Saturday night unless your purposly not wanting to hear your partner talk. Ny partner had to shout in my ear hole - it was that loud. I understood as their were many drunk people, could tell the couple next to us werent too happy, but what can you do? Nothing. So we put up with it. I came back as I wanted the tandorri fish, they were out so had to have a different option, this time it was more bland and less flavoursome, which really bought my opinion about the place down.... although staff were very attentive, accurate and prompt, the food lacked flavours. Best to come on a weeknight if you are elderly, a family, or wanting to speak with your antendee.

Amazing food, taste and quantity served is great..<br/>Best part timely service.<br/><br/>Staff is very polite and always as for a feedback...<br/><br/>Highly recommend, with family and great place to sit with frnds for couple of drinks....

Friendly and polite staff , quick delivery and yummy food, amazing ambience. What else do you need when you go out for a meal ;) Go check it out!!! Kudos to the entire team at Bolliwood.

Loved the perfect blend of spices in the dishes!! And the ambience will make you go crazy. It’s different in the day time and during the night 😍

Amazing place and very nice food with a very tasty food.The restaurant is very well maintained and the hospitality is very good and the taste of food is very very nice.

Be ready to shed money at this place coz its serves Delicious food at to on time.<br/><br/>Perfect ambience- indoors as well as outdoor.<br/><br/>The food was remarkably good. We ordered - Tandoori chicken and Goat Handi. <br/>The service was good. The staff was nice and welcoming.<br/><br/>My take - <br/><br/>It has all my 5 rating ! <br/><br/>Highly Recommended, must visit, if u want good food and great ambience...

Good food ,great ambiance and lovely customer service , they really look after the customers and like the maintain a very high level of service

Had ordered the chicken lollipops I will give it a 2/5 and chili paneer 1/5 . The paneer was so chewy seemed like it was not fresh and the taste was so horrible I only had a few bites of the dish. Will never eat here again.

Naans are extremely small hence the 3 star rating. The butter chicken is really good and very flavoursome, a little but runny on the sauce but otherwise very good.

When you really crave food you get in India, this is the place to order. So we did! Vegetarian Fried Rice and Paneer Chilli. The aroma reminded me of streets in India. Coming to the taste, fried rice was perfectly cooked. It wasn't extra spicy or with lots of masala. It was well balanced. Paneer chilli had strong accompaniment of garlic and juliennes of bell peppers and onions. Though the taste was a bit salty which is perfect for Indian palate, the gravy was too watery. But at the end, it was a decent meal.

Friend and myself went to Bolliwood for dinner. Ordered the haryali kebab and chicken tikka masala with a naan each. Curry was good and starter was delicious. However, nothing distinctive that makes this place stand out than the rest. Service was good and staff were polite.

We went here as we wanted to try Honeybear but it was closed. So walked to the next nearest Indian restaurant we found. What a brilliant place! The meal was outstanding, the tastiest Indian meals we have had in Auckland in a long time. We had a vegetable korma, selection of breads, butter chicken and biryani. We had attentive service, and great drinks. A nice breezy table by the open windows was really lovely.

DISGUSTING. My Saagwala had not one BUT TWO goddamn cockroaches in it. Expect to pay $18.50 for a main and extra protein. Will send the pictures to the district health board. I hope you get shut down.This is unacceptable.

Good food. Would reccomend the Saagwala, defs one of the best Saagwalas in Auckland. The set up of the restaraunt is quite nice too, and okay service

Pretty hard to go past the $10 Lunch special here. Satisfactory amount of options, good lunch size, great service, and extras (Rice, Naan, Poppa) all included in the $10. Also $5 beers and the lunch special is 7 days a week :-)

Been there twice now and both times were great! The BYO is fantastic and only a $7 corkage. Service was fast and friendly. Meals where awesome and quick. Cant complain about a $14 curry from Mon-Wed. Great place for casual and formal outings. The building inside is actually really nice to sit in. Beautiful blue lighting around the place makes it feel very welcoming. I would recommend this to friends and family

I ordered kadai chicken from menulog it was uncooked which is very dangerous for health worst experience i had, am not gonna eat from this restaurant again

When you think about for indian restaurant this is good place come to your mind after 'Oh Calcutta' to have dinner. They have good ambience.<br/>Definitely good staff with great management. They take care you well. <br/>If i talk about food curries are awesome. I heard many bad feedback from others about food but i feel it's awesome.

Tasty and delicious food. Friendly staff, and clean tables. There's even a bar if you need it. This place is awesome. Would recommend to anyone looking for good Indian food.

Came here with a large group of 17 on Saturday night for my Birthday and it was such a good experience! The food portions were decent and the pricing was very fair. We were all really pleased with the food and the service was great.  Even my one friend who had to leave early asked if hers could come out first and it came out in 15 minutes! I had medium Mango Chicken and it was sooo good, not too sweet, perfect mix of sweet and spicy. Bolliwood was a great place for BYO as well and the staff were very laid back and attentive. Definitely recommend, especially if you are looking for a BYO place to bring a large group, we all really enjoyed ourselves!

Ordered takeaway 2 nights ago.<br/>Butter Chicken and Garlic Naan not bad<br/>Deliver 10 mins before time. big plus<br/>Fair value. excellent service.<br/>And the Pompadoms are always appreciated<br/><br/>

I really wanted to like this place because I've been struggling to find a decent Indian takeaway in the area. We've had takeaways from Bolliwood Ponsonby twice, and both times have been equally as disappointing. The flavours have the potential to be great, but the fact that literally half of the curry is comprised of straight oil completely ruins it. I won't be returning.

Experienced some incredibly poor service here on Saturday night.  Dined in a group of ten people all of whom paid in full for their meals.  The staff miscalculated how much had been paid and alleged there was approximately $60 outstanding.  Half of our group that had already left the restaurant had to return and everyone was required to log into mobile banking to show that they had in fact paid.  We were then required to total how much each individual had paid and reconcile that against the restaurant's record of what we ordered.  When it transpired that the restaurant had miscalculated how much we had paid no apology was provided nor any compensation offered.  Won't be dining here again.

I am a vegetarian and they didn't have many options. The starters took a long time to arrive. For the main course I ordered naan with Shahi Paneer. The naan was the best part of the meal. Soft and melted in the mouth. I had non vegetarian friends who thought the food was ok-ok. Ambience is not amazing. We were really annoyed with the music they played and had to ask them to change the music. There is a huge screen which played songs from flop hindi movies. <br/>Overall experience was good. But could have been much better!

This was suggested to me by a very nice Über driver. I took my friends here for lunch as I had read good reviews and heard about the brand. I believe that if any restaurant can serve value/low prices product properly, the others would be definitely good. So we ordered the $10 lunch with $5 Tui beer. I asked for Indian spicy paneer tikka masala while my friends ordered for butter chicken and chicken tikka. The 'beer' we got was Galbraith's Ale. We okayed it as didn't want to wait to change it as it was already poured. The staff was informed about it. The paneer tikka was the spiciest thing I have ever had till date. I come from a family and place where we eat all possible levels of spice, but this was another level. I washed my hands twice with soap and still the orange colour haven't come out from my fingers. The food was tasty but the spice and 'ale' killed the mood. I would recommend it, but would also recommend to confirm what and how you want it.

Why did I even come to this restaurant? It's not meant for Guests who do not like authentic Indian food.<br/><br/>Ordered the items below and spice level was Indian hot.<br/>Shahi paneer - was fully red, lots of artificial colour and was more of like a paste. Couldn't taste any spices.<br/>Malai kofta - this was more or less like a sweet cashew nut paste. Again no flavour what so ever.<br/>Lamb roganjosh - meat was tender but again no taste at all in the curry.<br/><br/>At one point I thought I had ordered desert instead of mains.<br/>When we asked the staff why were all the dishes so blend we were told they make it according to the taste of white kiwis. Do they really mean that any Indian guests are not welcome or "sorry we do not make authentic Indian food"<br/><br/>Everything in the restaurant suits a kiwi who cannot handle spicy food at all. I felt like eating green chilly after I went home since the sweetness of all curries ( I won't call it a curry it was more of a sauce) lingering in my mouth. Not going here again.

I purchased an order online from this establishment. The order arrived late, I had to actually call them in order for them to even realise that the order had been placed. <br/><br/>When I finally received the meal, it was actually cold, and I had to heat it up in the microwave. <br/><br/>Went to bed and woke up in the middle of the night violently Ill. Vomiting, aches, fever, the full works. Have been so sick, I'd imagine if I was an older person it could have been life threatening.<br/><br/>Be careful ordering from here.<br/><br/>Obviously I will not be ordering from these guys again. <br/><br/>

I first had the opportunity to try Bolliwood at the Auckland Diwali Festival. The combination of rich saag and crisp missi roti tasted heavenly after two stressful dance performances. It felt like a reward. I made a mental note to visit the restaurant in Ponsonby sometime. Now I could go on a rant of how in India you can get much better food for a fraction of the price. But let’s be realistic – this is New Zealand. And compared to other places in the city, Bolliwood is pretty good Indian food for the price. Monday-Wednesdays the mains are as cheap as $10 each.

Absolutely disgusted with the service I received at lunch time today. My friends and I arrived at Bolliwood at 2pm, and as soon as we sat down, we were told they closed at 2.30. This is not a great way of customer service. Pushing customers out before they have even had even ordered. Food was horrid - luke warm food. As soon as we had finished our meals we were asked to leave as they were closed. This is not how ANY customer should be treated. At a closing time for any place, you should close the doors, but NEVER should you tell your existing customers at the time to leave. This was VERY inappropriate. Never going back to Bolliwood Ponsonby.

Had a takeaway delivery. Took forever and arrived cold. The Butter Chicken was very light on the chicken about 9 small pieces amongst a lot of gravy. Won't be returning.

Great place was there last night for my sons birthday <br/>Food was great<br/>Service exceptional <br/>They even added candles to the birthday cake we bought with us

Mmeh. What can I say - very ordinary Indian in small portions with larger prices.<br/>Depends on whether you want a good feed or a trendy setting - guess the name says it all.

Came here with friends for dinner and was a bit surprised to how empty it was for a busy night in ponsonby. I order the vindaloo which was more soup than anything else and lacked a spicy kick usually associated with this dish. My friends butter chicken was bland and boring and again more of a "soup" with minimal pieces of chicken. Price wise it's a bit cheaper than other places in ponsonby but the quality isn't great.

I dont knw why that two waitress working there they might be sumwhere in fashion show .. Hospitality didnt mean a wram welcome or a good place its starts only with customers safety. A hygienic place .. I dont knw what the shet was that .. I went there for first n found wrost place in indian cousine in mine whole experience of nz. Service was too low ... Table service was really shet they give us fork to eat gravy (lmao )😂😂😂😂 restaurant ... All staff and manager was standing in corner for chatting and gossips n staring customers really shetly the wrost annoying part of the resturant .no name batch no proper dress -10 /10 <br/>

Been there a few times hoping that they will improve their services but no improvements whatsoever. Food is average and customer service pathetic. One of Staff member told us that they get paid as low as $5/hr . Typical as some of other restaurants we saw lately in paper. <br/>Will never return again .

Food was good but customer service was very very bad ... They should give training to their employee ... They are taking with each other instead of taking care of their customer ... Poor service ...

A beautifully flavoured curry with a very disappointing amount of chicken. Only 3 or 4 cubes. The rice was well cooked and was all served in a timely fashion.

Dropped in for lunch, plenty of space, dark and calming interior, with friendly waitresses ready to take our order. There were only a couple other tables of unqualified amateur diners in use when we got in. Both of us ordered the Bollywood Special Curry, one with chicken, the other lamb.. (ask for medium heat.. or more). For $10 at lunchtime, this is real value, poppadom, rice, naan and curry. The curry was supremely delicious (maybe because I haven't had a curry for so long?).. anyway I left feeling more impressed with Bollywood than I expected.

We enjoyed the beef madras and lamb rogan josh. Lots of thick sauce, very flavourful and meat was tender. Ordered medium but both could have been much spicier and I've found that Bolliwood aren't too consistent in that sense. Naan wasn't as good as other places that I've tried - a bit thin all over so it ended up crispy rather than doughy textured for dipping. Price for Monday to Wednesday dinner special has gone up from $10 mains to $13. My friend and I usually come here annually for early Christmas catch ups and weren't stoked to find the price increase but I suppose it's still cheap for the area. There were many staff onsite but very slow to notice when we needed them. Food was long finished but dishes not cleared, water glass was knocked over but no staff member offered a napkin as they were all talking in a corner. I had to ask for some napkins when the waitress finally cleared. Five minutes later, I had to ask again with no apology from them. It's a bit awkward waiting there with wet clothes thinking they'll tend to you soon but they never listened to your request in the first place. For the increase in price the service certainly hasn't reflected so. I've had great attentive service in the last but not this year. Might search for something new next year.

Serves amazing a North Indian food !!! Great variety of dishes !!! Amazing taste just like back home in India !!! The food is yum and a must try for all Vege Indian lovers !!!

Just your average Indian restaurant in a posh suburb. I wouldn't say it's really amazing but it's not bad either as I have had worse! Food was good, good amount quantity and not too pricey either. Service was decent we didn't have to keep waiting or waive our hands at someone to get service. Would I come back here? Yes I would. Maybe not frequently but once in a while.

Disappointed with the amount of chicken in the curry as I always went to the Browns Bay one and was always satisfied with their servings. Considering that it's an extra $2.99 for the Mon-Wed special. Will not come back here again.

A great establishment with great service and great food. Onion Bhaji and The Vindaloo "Hot", My favourite were the choice of the evening. Chicken Tikka Masala. The lamb was succulent and tender and the chicken was the same. I don’t think I have ever had a bad meal at Bolliwood. Always impressed with the quality of the meals and the service. Well Done!

Bolliwood! my local favourite curry! gotta love the look of the restaurant it s lovely inside and I religious have the goat curry here, they have brilliant $10 deals and its definitely one of the places you want to order from on a day you arent wanting to cook #g1

Went there on Sunday, ordered starters, Manger on duty came to us and asked us to order the dinner now, because it will be busy later on and then won't be able to prepare the food, seriously you are the manager and you should know how to manage busy restaurant. <br/>Anyway we ordered the food without arguing, it got busy later on, three staff member at cashier and people we waiting to get served.... What a waste of time and money!

Meh. Been here twice. Both times were nothing special. Nothing wrong with the place, food is all basically the same though. I've had good Indian and amazing Indian but most places seem to walk the line between ok and terrible. This place seems to narrowly escape that judgement.

I still don't know how Bolliwood manage to serve such a tasty curry, complete with rice and popadom, for just $10. Such great value is hard to find even in a dingy food hall!<br/><br/>The butter chicken first class, made from authentic roasted tandoori chicken that adds to the flavour before it is immersed in the gravy. A few other Indian restaurants skip this step and just put chicken in the sauce.<br/><br/>The lamb masala is another favourite, as is the mango chicken.<br/><br/>Setting is clean and open, positioned right on Ponsonby Road. An absolute local favourite.

Good value for the lunch special. But quite inside when we visited. With the lunch special you received a curry, rice, naan and a drink. The curry was ok, but not memorable, tasted similar to the quality you could make at home. Not enough flavour and spice.

Ok, came in for a curry special. Was good value but nothing memorable. Would come back for a cheap feed if craving Indian. The decor isn't too bad but wasn't very busy when we went so you can feel like you're dining in a big hall.

My partner and I decided to visit Bolliwood because we were craving some Indian cuisine.<br/><br/>We decided to order from their set menu. The set menu was $35 per person and included Samosa, Onion Bhaji, Chicken Tikka, Seekh Kebab for the entrée and butter chicken, lamb roganjosh, beef vinaloo, vegetable korma, rice, naan and condiements. This is such good value! <br/><br/>All of the food was served quickly and the curries were nice and creamy. We left extremely satisfied and with full bellies!<br/><br/>It’s definitely not fine dining but if you are craving Indian food and are starving then give Bolliwood a try!

Service: 5/10<br/>Food: 9/10<br/>Cleanliness: 6/10<br/>Value for money: 9/10<br/>Overall: 7.25<br/><br/>One of the best curry I've had in Auckland. Great value for money.

The food is awesome, it's a shame your staff are so rude and unpleasant to be around. You can never tell who's actually working there either because no one wears any sort of uniform. And no one likes to go out and pay for a night out and have their waiter "roll their eyes at you" after simply asking to sit at a window table instead of right in the middle of other tables.....especially after we had booked and no table was ready for us when we got there. Get some better staff. Or give them a lesson in how to fake a bloody smile.

You guys should serious look at the volume that you play music at. Understand there is a private function on but that doesn't mean you ignore the rest of the patrons. Dining at close to 100db is no fun.

The atmosphere is lukewarm, like the service and food.<br/><br/>The waitress seemed tremendously annoyed that we would tarnish her presence by audaciously asking for a table for 4. We must be crazy. What do we think this is? A restaurant? <br/><br/>The menus were slammed down, she muttered something about specials, something about drinks. I asked if they served chai and received some rolled eyes and was informed they don't serve chai but they do coffee. Sweet, I'll have a flat white, please. I never knew that could be taken as an insult until now. This is truly an amazing place.<br/><br/>The menu is the standard fare, It's nondescript Indian in that it doesn't really have any geographic identity, just a mishmash of brown things on rice with varying levels of heat. I ask for a channa masala, the most basic dish of all and everywhere in India (I lived there for a year in my 20s) from palaces to slums. They don't do that. But they have all the stuff on the menu, could they make an exception? I'm sure chef would love the chance to actually create something authentic. Nope, he can't do that. Can you ask him? Nope. The menu is the menu.<br/><br/>Okie doke. You win some you lose some.<br/><br/>I ordered some paneer thing, my 3 dining partners ordered some other myriad of dishes along with a naan bread each and what I'm assured was enough rice for 4 people "and more". Whenever people say that, I know they're lying. It's only true if I'm eating with my grandma who thinks anything which is too big for an eggcup is a big meal. She wasn't here.<br/><br/>Alas, the rice arrives and it's like a dinner plate with rice placed on top. It isn't piled, more spread. I take a tablespoon, so do the other guys. We take another couple and then it's gone. I have now about half a palm's worth of rice on my plate and a small unbalanced bowl of what I think is watery brown/yellow gruel with things swimming in it. Luckily someone has seen sense and dropped some leaves on the gruel from a great height. This makes it look more like a pond (a bonus) and less like the chef has eyesight (bad).<br/><br/>But you never know, some of the best food in the world looks like it came from a sewer. I'll give this a go and.... holy jeez. This is like water with curry powder in it. My prodigious amount of supplied rice doesn't help and the naan bread in its greasy oily sadness can do nothing but wilt and flop. I'm sad and I'm shamed. India has some absolutely tremendous food, stuff that will blow your mind with its depth, colour, flavour and passion. What I have in this plate is something Oliver Twist would be sent as a joke. It's bad man, really really bad.<br/><br/>I end up drinking it like a drink. As a drink, it's not bad actually. Tastes kinda like a weird thin soup, like a mulligatawny with all the flavour leeched out of it. Then I eat the rice with some salt and pepper which they weirdly supply. At least it tastes of something though.<br/><br/>The ice maiden returns and clears the plates without a sound. She's like a really pissed off ghost and, like a ghost, the air chills a few degrees when she's around.<br/><br/>Not good at all. they bring you in with their enticing $10 mains or whatever it is, then they let you down, treat you like scum, feed you swill, and smile when they give you the bill. <br/><br/>This isn't just bad Indian food, it's just bad food.

It's hard to miss Bolliwood on Ponsonby Road with its blue star like lights illuminating the awning and a large bright sign. Inside the decor was modern and appropriately a large screen showed bollywood clips.

I've been here few times for $10 lunch deal. The food and service are NOT cheap like the price which was surprised me little bit.<br/><br/>I really like Bolliwood Special Curry and upgrade the deal for $2 more for cheese naan bread. Definitely worth to try if you are around.

Now I could go on a rant of how in India you can get much better food for a fraction of the price. But let’s be realistic – this is New Zealand. And compared to other places in the city, Bolliwood is pretty good Indian food for the price. Monday-Wednesdays the mains are as cheap as $10 each.<br/><br/>Their lamb saagwala is delicious. I wasn’t that impressed with the vegetarian Malai Kofta though. I would suggest ditching the cliché “naan bread”, soaking up that tasty curry with some roti instead. Full review at goo.gl/Nak2aK

Excellent service great food always enjoy to go there on my night off and never been disappointed. Well done guys great job. <br/>And fantastic outside sitting especially on hot summer evenings.

A famous indian restaurant located in a good suburb just outside auckland cbd. Ambience is nice n service is quick. Food is good too. After your meal you can have a good 15 minute walk into the cbd n njoy an uce cream cone there.

Never been to dine in, but ordered home delivery a few times. The food tasted really good, and the price is affordable too. There is a lack of Indian restaurants that do home delivery in the vicinity. This is the best option of all.

Wanted to give Zero. These guys dont know how to talk. I cant say anything about the food. Ponsonby branch customer service very poor. I wish these guys knew how to talk atleast

Food was good, but they wouldn't honour a gift voucher that we had received directly from them. Before the meal we discussed it with the assistant manager who said that the voucher was fine to use. After the meal, they said that we couldn't use the voucher and that we had to pay full price.

Personally I didn't like the curry very much (I've had better multiple times for the same price) but I still enjoyed. We booked and we got there and there was a table. They gave us more rice when we wanted it. Some of the waiters/waitresses were good the others, not so much.

Worst experience! I went to bolliwood ponsonby for dinner. One of the lady staff was grumpy. She Did not serve us fresh cutlery after starter. i have ordered for paneer tikka masala. There was only 4 small cubes of paneer in it and it was very very hard. Paneer is an Indian cottage cheese it should be very soft and creamy. <br/>For starter we ordered sizzling platter. Everything on the platter wasn't cooked fresh. The onion bhaji was soggy, Onion pakoda was dry. It wasn't freshly fried it was precook and chucked on the sizzling hot plate.<br/><br/>Towards the end of the night we asked for takeaway the remaining curry. they had put rice in the middle, put vegetarian curry one side and chicken curry the other. <br/><br/>What an awful experience. Not going there again!

4 stars for food +1 for the service n staff.<br/>Lovely staff (especially Harry), really accommodated us considering there was a huge party going on......the food was good, especially when I compare with other Indian restaurants. Chicken Vindaloo, Balti Chicken and Fish Masala were just amazing.....made my Dad's birthday really special......thanks team Bolliwood.....

My Partner and I used to visit Bolliwood on a regular basis. This restaurant used to be our favourite. Its really hard to say this place is not as perfect as it used to be. There food, taste has changed alot. <br/><br/>We decided to have a takeaway last night and being told ur food will be ready in 10-15mints however it tool like 30mints. And finally when we got our food we went home and started eating their entree paneer pakora was really really bad. The panner pakora was really tough and hard to eat.. Then the main chilli chicken which suppose to be hot but it was sweeet like sugar. and panner tikka masala no paneer in it, taste was not good nd sooo coloury. <br/><br/>I am really sad because this place was my fvt nd in tops nd now it comes under my disappointment list.

Went here with a voucher with a group of 6 friends. The voucher included entree platters and curry with rice for mains. <br/><br/>The entrees were quite nice, although they filled us up before the curry which was amazing. We tried so many different ones and I enjoyed all of them, but the Chicken Tikka was one of the best.<br/><br/>It's BYO as well which is great for a cheap night out. We were sat upstairs on the mezzanine as the place was pretty full. It had a cool atmosphere with the old building with really high ceilings, and Bollywood movies playing on one of the walls downstairs. It was just a shame we weren't down where everyone else was. Also there was a very very loud obnoxious table downstairs but that can't be helped.<br/><br/>Overall, great food, great space and a great night!

$10 lunch special <br/>look at the advertising:curry+rice+naan=$10 <br/>I only got:curry+rice+HALF NAAN=$10 <br/>got told when i picked up my order only HALF NAAN for each order,which totally not mention on the advertising at all.<br/>so next time may just have 1/4 if they like.This is so misleading,don't you think?! it was from the ponsonby Bolliwood<br/>other Indian restaurant will give you a WHOLE piece of naan.<br/>I posted this comment on their facebook,they deleted it!Shame!

After reading mixed reviews about Bolliwood Ponsonby and having not been there for a couple of years I was a bit apprehensive about my meal out but my three friends and I had a great meal, serving sizes were adequate and very tasty. We had the sizzling and the vegetable platters to share, the samosas were yum. The lamb korma and the garlic naan I had was delicious. <br/>The service was extremely good and would return again for their value for money $10.00 specials Mon-Wed.

Not bad, not bad. Decent service and $10 curry night is a big hit in our house! It works out very economical to grab a $10 curry and split it along with an entree to share and you still feel like you've had a night out.<br/><br/>However, if you are struck with by the smart male waiter who takes advantage of you after a couple of kingfishers and up sells you, you may end up walking out with a considerably lighter wallet - well played ol chap!<br/><br/>The wine selection is a bit below-average, but the price tier is indicative of this which is fair enough. <br/><br/>The toilets are clean enough.<br/><br/>The decor is plain, but the lighting scheme and bolliwood movie on repeat adds to the ambiance and it's quite pleasant.<br/><br/>The only thing that lets Bolliwood down is the food. The curries are a bit underwhelming and the raita is runny. However the Chicken Tikka is to die for. By far the best thing on the menu. Consistently good. I could not rate it highly enough.<br/><br/>So a mixed bag, but still worth checking out!

While I find myself unable to stomach some of the food items, I'm definitely in love with a lot of the food. For their appetizers, they have the second best samosas I've ever had so far. Their vegetable samosas taste great, and their chicken tikka are so good that I'd go back to the restaurant just to get some. <br/><br/>As for their entrees, they have a good variety of meat and vegetable dishes. Their lamb roganjosh and butter chicken are full of good flavor, and I've heard great things about their dhal makhani from my girlfriend and her friend. I personally love the dal curry and aloo gobi vegetarian dishes, mainly because of how great they taste with virtually everything else on the menu. <br/><br/>And the naan, oh boy. The variety is amazing. Don't get the rice in my opinion, opt for trying out different types of naan and going for the ones you like. I typically order the garlic naan, but their chicken naan and paneer naan are both worthwhile to my tastes. <br/><br/>The desserts are special to me, because I've never found myself liking cheese balls before until I tried their gulab jaman. It's like flan with more texture, with a syrup that's similar. If you love flan, you'd more than likely love gulab jaman. <br/><br/>I typically don't go to their Monday specials because of the price and limited selection - I opt for the choice. It's usually cheaper that way, and I already know what I want. If you're a lover of spice, chicken, or vegetables, I know you'd love some of the dishes that this place has to offer. As far as I'm concerned, this place is legitimately my favorite Indian restaurant.

Wouldnt recommend any one to this restaurant. We had no problem with the service but the food is really dissapoiting.

My friends and I used to visit Bolliwood on a regular basis however both the food and the service levels have really declined! <br/><br/>We booked for 6 of us at 7.30pm, and despite the place being almost empty it was over half an hour before our orders were taken. It then took nearly another hour to get our meals! <br/><br/>Firstly the entrees came out, one of them was specified on the menu as Tiger Prawns. It was no way tiger prawns but very small prawns which were very tough and over cooked. My friend sent these back and as it had taken so long said not to worry about remaking them. Then the mains came trickling out... we got the naan bread first then 5 mins later came 5 out of 6 curries. 5 mins after that another curry. Then another 5 mins before we got any rice.... By that time most of the naan bread was stone cold along with most of the curries! All of the curries were extremely bland and most of the meat was overcooked. <br/><br/>When we expressed our disappointment we were offered just a 15% discount, and after paying we saw that we had still been charged for the tiger prawns which we returned!!

Ate at the Browns Bay Bolliwood last night and it was TERRIBLE! I ordered medium Chicken Jalfrezi which was so bland in spice and heat, and only seemed to feature a few pieces of chicken and a bright orange tomato sauce. For what it lacked in spice and heat it made up for in an overpowering, tangy tomato sauce. Certainly not like any other Jalfrezi I have ever tasted. I could not finish it all, and did not bother with the cold rice. <br/><br/>My dining partner had a hot Chicken Madras which certainly had a little bit more spice, but again was not a great Madras and certainly not 'hot'.<br/><br/>Great to see restaurants branching out, but how about getting the basics right first. Clearly I like spice if I order a medium or hot and it is a let down to receive such a below par meal. We did not know it was a $10 night, but that should not affect quality nor serving staff.<br/><br/>We were excited to see a new Indian restaurant in Browns Bay and hoped to make it a local, but we certainly will not be returning until we start to see better reviews.

I also write this with great sadness. Bolliwood has been home to countless magical nights for our households' inaugural 'Curry Enthusiasts Club', which takes place every Monday night without fail. Because of our most recent visit we shall be taking our passion for fine curries to Raviz down the road however. The following areas need immediate attention before we would be willing to re-embark upon such a weekly commitment and close relationship with the team at Bolliwood:<br/><br/>The waiters/waitresses quite frequently make a mistake with our order. Now usually this wouldn't bother us too much because the curries are usually great and we are not the type to make a fuss about something relatively minor. The final straw however was tonight's visit when instead of getting the three Kormas we ordered, we received three 'Cream Chicken' curries.<br/><br/>After notifying one of the young waiters of the problem, he explained that the curries were in fact Kormas and the reason for such drastic change in taste was due to a new Chef. This didn't make sense to us because regardless of Chef, a Korma should still taste like a Korma and struth, do we know our curries some. We didn't question them further however our Curry Club is a humble one and we prefer to not complain excessively. <br/><br/>When it came time to say goodbye and pay, the same waiter who had dealt with our complaint before listed off the items on our bill - "Three 'Cream Chicken' curries and 3 garlic naans. Wow. We could not believe what we were hearing. To him I replied, "But we didn't order Cream Chicken curries, we ordered Kormas!". To this he replied "thats your fault for not saying anything. We could have replaced the curries with Kormas". The audacity.<br/><br/>As a party we cannot believe being treated like this considering we are without doubt the restaurants most regular customers. <br/>Bolliwood, its been a fantastic journey but I'm afraid we are going to have to part ways. Thank you for all the delicious curries, laughs and memorable times we have shared.<br/><br/>All the best,<br/>Curious Curry Club (CCC)

I really enjoy this place. I've also been to their Takapuna one and apparently they are opening in Browns Bay also. Love their $10 main nights (BYO also).. how can you beat that. The meals are really good and service has always been excellent.<br/><br/>Thanks team!

I write this with great sadness. This used to be my favorite place to go in ponsonby. When the place started up the food and service with excellent. I have gone twice in the last 2 months and had delivery once. Both dine ins were very sub-par and I think the chef has changed since long ago. Bland and non exciting for expensive curry. Orders have gone missing and or have been incorrect. When I ordered delivery I waited 3 hours one night with no explanation or discount. All I got was heres your food and BYE. I cant give this place another try. Not going back.

I am working in CBD. Always walk pass this place never tried before. Went there for lunch with my two colleagues. We ordered Chicken Madras(HOT), Rogan Josh (MED) &amp; Butter Chicken(Mild) and two garlic naan. All curries were very good. Hotness was excellent as we expected and naan was nice and fluffy. Full marks to waiting staff, very helpfull and knowledgable. Will be back and try dinner.

I think the top level management should shape up their act.<br/>Ordered Tandoori Platter? Guess what came out, A sizzling platter. Again ordered a tandoori platter this time it was correct. For a $25 for a 2 person platter the portions are appalling and the 2PCs tandoori lamb cutlets were dry, tough &amp; chewy as. Tandoori lamb when marinated in yogurt and other ingredients never tastes like this, it's always moist and the meat is tender. For the chefs of bolliwood restaurant this should not be even rocket science. The waitress dropped a spoon full of mint chutney on the floor when picking up the hot plates...which splattered on my jeans and around the floor area where i was. I think common sense should prevail to at least clean up the mass on the floor. The 4 mains ordered is another story. 20 Min's into the order....a very large group of diners came in...and my gosh they were bringing out food and attending to them like anything, great service i must say. Anxiously I then asked the manager (guy at the cash register) if there is any hope of getting the same kind of promptness in our four mains which by then we had waited 30 Min's. He said sorry and 5 minutes after that our mains came out. <br/>My whole family was very disappointed in the overall service of bolliwood. I think rather then training your staff to saying sorry and more sorries and charging us for the full so called dinning experience from a past winner of Metro ‘best Indian Restaurant’ award....target in passionately achieving a customer satisfaction from start (when they enter) to finish (leave) with regards to public relations, food quality and table managment skills.

My partner and I had dinner at Bolliwood on Saturday night and I wasn't very impressed. I bought a voucher deal because I've always wanted to try the restaurant. The food wasn't anything special, quite bland. The curries were no better than a foodcourt and quite pricey so I'm glad we had a voucher. I'll be sticking to my local Indian restaurant in the future.

Yum yum indian in my tum<br/><br/>Nice to finally find a decent curry in NZ, bit of a rogan josh connoisseur, or at least the english versions and this place gets the Pom seal of approval .... wot wot<br/><br/>Staff are friendly, recomended.

I along with 10 other friends went to Bolliwood Restaurant on Valentines Day. Must say , it was very welcoming. The restaurant was very well decorated for the occasion- very romantic feel to it and to add to it the food was outstanding. They were very busy but the service was exceedingly good . There was a waiter for every section. Had to get up and enquire about the owners. Looks like it the young lot are paying a lot of attention to the business.<br/><br/>Yay!! Well done boys!<br/><br/>We will be definitely back.

Average food and service. The $10 menu is a bargin but the waitress was so pushy about do you want drinks/naan/rice/starters/sides it got very uncomfortable.

Went to Bolliwood, Ponsonby on Monday night for the $10 dinner special in a group of 9 people. The restaurant was very busy. We didn't have the booking but we were seated very courteously by the staff member. The food was absolutely delicious specially the mutton handi and the service was great. The best indian restaurant in Auckland. Great to know they have a branch in Takapuna as we like to dine in Taka too, away from the hustle and bustle of the town. Once again, I would like to extend my thanks to the management of Bolliwood- Lovely modern restaurant with very authentic food. Well done guys! keep up the good work.

Thoroughly unimpressed. It began well, Bolliwood Ponsonby, with simple modern decor, although apart from the projected images of Indian dancers in the corner it could have been any restaurant. The menu included an unexpected oriental platter. That they were able to accommodate our table of 16 on a Friday night at the last minute should have been a red flag. <br/>We had to ask to have our order taken, the waiter hadn't numbered the meals on the docket so every meal that came out was yelled across our table, one waiter spilled yoghurt on my friend's pants then burnt his hand on the hot plate as he placed it on the table. The garlic naan bread did not taste like garlic. Another friend was disappointed when he ordered his curry 'hot', sent it back when he discovered it was mild yet when it came back it was only mildly hotter. <br/>He was further disgruntled later when a waiter dropped a knife and fork down his back while clearing dishes. The waiter apologised and moved on. When I pointed out there was still food all over the chair, the waiter used a used napkin from our table to wipe it. Stunned, I asked the obvious, "are you using a used napkin to clean that?" - his response was "no, no, it is clean". My friend's girlfriend spent the next 15 minutes trying to get the curry out from his shirt so it wouldn't stain. I was also unimpressed by the waiters clearing the dishes of some people before everyone had finished - clearing after everyone at the table is finished is basic etiquette of restaurant service. One comment from the table was, "Why are they trying to hurry us out? It's not like they're busy." In fact, at that time the only other customers were a couple and their screaming baby. <br/>When we went to pay, I saw the bill included 10 bottles of corkage. Knowing one bottle I had brought hadn't been opened, I said so, a friend said that she hadn't opened one of theirs either, so we explained that it should only be 8 bottles. The manager argued, saying we had used 12 bottles and they were only charging us for 10, then suggested I go back and count the bottles. I did, came back and said we opened 8 bottles. In amongst his unprofessional, rude, inappropriate response he said "you don't trust" and "fine, pay for what you want". I said we were happy to pay for what we used. When I began to say that the way he was handling this was exemplary of the bad service we had received, he again interrupted me and I could see my feedback was going to fall on deaf ears so paid and left. A memorable evening, none of us were impressed nor will we be back.

I was so shocked by our experience the other night! Me and my 2 friends went back as the last $10 Wednesday night we fell in love with the place, great food and service BUT THIS TIME it took so long to get a waiter to our table (who if had cracked a smile would have been an shock) once our meals came out my friends mango chicken was way too sweet and all of our garlic naan breads were missing the garlic! and me and friend #2 medium korma was so bland! After telling the man at the counter we were very unhappy he was very rude to us, my friend did not want to pay for her mango (as she ate no more then a bite) and he continued to be rude and say he couldn't do anything as 'it was in the system' in the end he did - have to say we will not be returning! Very disappointing after the fantastic time we had the first time! and if he had just of apologised it may have been different!

Two of us walked in on a busy Thursday night. After a 10 minute drink at the bar they had found us a table.<br/><br/>It was suggested that we have the banquet for two. The food was great and too much for us to eat it all.<br/><br/>It had been years since I had last been to Bolliwood and I will be returning a bit quicker next time.

My partner and I went here last night, it seemed very busy and we didn't have a reservation but they still got us a table.<br/>Since we went on a Tuesday the meals were only $10. The service was fast and the waiter was very helpful in helping me choose my meal as I wasn't sure what I wanted!<br/>There's something for everyone on the menu, the Naan bread was really good and the Mango Chicken was great.<br/>I usually have my Curry Hot but this meal was reallyyy hot. Next time I think I'll just get medium.<br/>I'll defiantly go back, I'm really fussy where I get my Indian from so now that I've moved here I'm happy to have found a place with yummy Indian

Good food but will NOT be returning. This place will rip you off (by $100 for our group) and refuse to do anything about it. Pitty, because I would have happily gone back.

Was never a big fan of Indian cuisine but after going to Bolliwood my mind has changed now significantly. I'm not sure what happened to the person below but I have been to Bolliwood now at least 3 times in the past month and each time, service had been immaculate!! All waiters/waitresses are exremly polite, we were made very welcome. Our meals were not only delicious but served promptly! The naan bread is amazing!! Highly recommend the sizzling platter.<br/><br/>Very much looking forward to my next visit.

TERRIBLE service.<br/><br/>My friend and I stopped over for some Indian cuisine in Ponsonby one night.<br/>We didn't have a reservation, so the waiter took us to the very back of the restaurant where there were no lights.<br/>The waiting staff barely acknowledged our presence, and took too long to take our order.<br/><br/>The meals were too salty and we couldn't even see much of our food (as there were no lights around us!).<br/>Once we managed to scrape the food off of our plates, the waiter hurried us out of the table.<br/><br/>I had NEVER experienced more horrid service than this anywhere else.<br/>Their staff are rude, inconsiderate, and are in a dire need of some proper hospitality training.<br/>We were very offended and will NEVER return

the curry was good - naan was good. service was good. but the price is abit high, i mean you can get good curries for half the price. location is ponsonby hence the price.

This place has a fantastic cheap lunch special that i would highly recommend. $10 for basically a meal! I have found at night when I have gone that it was saltier slightly but otherwise I LOVE this place!

My family and I came to Bolliwood because we were gifted some vouchers from a friend. We decided to be adventurous that night and order things other than the usual Butter Chicken and Garlic Naan (we did get those though..). Our waitress was extremely attentive and knowledgable and was able to recommend a few more dishes for us. My favourites throughout the night were: Honey Cauliflower, Veggie Manchoorian. For full review of my visit, see: http://lucyeats.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/bolliwood.html