Review The Chef - Auckland Central

I had never expected such good Indian food at a foreign land but this restaurant changed my perspective. It was my first meal in New Zealand. Price is reasonable and food is tasty and the owner is super friendly. He politely shared information about markets upon asking. 5/5 for everything.

Had Dinner with my family. They have really good quality food. Good Atmosphere and vibes. Now, they are under new ownership and she has aa good attitude towards the customers. Going to be my regular place for Indian food. Only drawback, they close Sunday But i have requested to open on Sunday to attract more people. Let see when they implement with customer request. Awesome place :)

Went here last night. I had butter paneer and my partner had the chicken korma. The best curry we have had in a very long time! Definitely recommend. The waitresses were lovely too and so welcoming. Will return soon

This restaurant deserves the 5 stars. The food was amazing. From the onion ring starters to the mango chicken, lamb madras and naan. It was all exceptional. We feed 3 people for $70 too, so the price is very reasonable. The cheese naan was the best I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a few. If you’re wanting a good Indian meal, don’t go past The Chef.

The food was delicious! best Indian food I have had since travelling Oz and NZ for 3years since leaving the UK. (The UK has amazing Indian food) Friendly staff, Cosy little restaurant and reasonably priced. Will definitely be returning!

Food was a definite 5/5. Service was good, but had to ask for warm plates and extra lighting. Best chicken tikka masala I can remember having and delicious garlic naan. Rest of the party loved their dishes too.

We love Indian food and this place did not disappoint. The lady who served us was very attentive and provided excellent customer service. Will be coming back again soon.

Delicious Indian food. We had vegetarian curries and the daal and the paneer. Even chicken biryani was good with nice flavours. Walk in for the food. You will have to park near by some streets. Staff was courteous.

Great quiet little place during the day. Food is wonderful, very clean and tidy. Great place to go if you love Indian food, or looking for something different in the Newmarket area. I always manage a single lunch trip here every week 😁

The food was awesome. My daughter will remember her birthday at the chef for long time. Thanks anuragji foe your kind hospitality. Recommending THE CHEF with 5 star rating.

Definitely best authentic Indian food in Auckland, the flavours are amazing, the staff is welcoming. Our favourite restaurant in the city!

Best butter chicken I've ever had! Good price and friendly service. Tandoori chicken also awesome as well! Thank you : ) I'll be back to try orthers.

Fantastic food and great service. The different flavours of each of the ingredients coming through each mouthfull was outstanding. Thank you for an awesome meal.

Delicious food and lovely attentive service. Will certainly dine there again when we visit Auckland. All the best to the new owners.

Friendly staff. Some of the best Indian food I’ve had in Auckland. Will definitely be coming back!

Great food, very friendly and attentive customer service. Fast and good portion size. Will be back for sure. Yum.

Dinner for 4 yesterday was great. The server was attentive and friendly. The curries were excellent: flavourful sauces and generous proportions of meat and paneer.

Great place for dinner. Neha (staff) was extremely good. Food was delicious. Service was exceptional. Completely money worth. Thanks

Nice Indian place, good food all round and pleasant ambiance. Quick friendly service also parking in the rear.

Food and ambience is average and so is the service

Found this place by chance and was pleasantly surprised. Lovely and accomodating staff. Food was yummy and well priced. Meals were a good size. Would happily return.

+ Delicious food especially lamb madras and naan. Great customer service, great sitting and waiting area, drink prices are good, few Parking as well.<br/>- food prices quite expensive compared to lunch deals they have.

They should know how zomato gold membership works and treat customers equally. I went with my partner and ordered small multiple dishes because we both have the membership. They told us we can only use one at the end (although they said we can use both when I asked them clearly when I ordered) by showing the description page they got from Zomato. I’ve asked Zomato customer service and they said we could both use it. Seems like service matters first before thinking about the taste of food. I won’t be going there any time soon.

Decided to try this due to Zomato Gold. I had the lamb korma which was good. Quantity was a bit below average, however the staff was nice and it was quite comfortable place to dine in.<br/><br/>Taste 4/5<br/>Portion 3/5<br/>Service 4/5<br/>Overall 3.5<br/>

What happened to this restaurant? It used to be ok, but has definitely gone downhill. We ordered chilli paneer, vegetable jalfrezi, a couple of naans and onion salad. The naans and the chilli paneer were ok, hence the two stars instead of one. But the vegetable jalfrezi... It literally tasted like I was at home, too lazy to go to the supermarket, and all I had was some frozen vegetables, tomato paste, garam masala and sugar. Vaguely edible, but not worth $16. The only vegetables were broccoli, carrot and soggy green bean.<br/>Won't be going here again, when Delight Spice is just down the road, consistent with their food and 20 percent cheaper.

We ordered the lamb kebab, lamb briyani, butter chicken, chicken bhuna.<br/><br/>The good: chicken bhuna. Flavourful, not too salty and medium spice was perfect. <br/><br/>The bad: everything else. <br/>Butter chicken was watery and bland, also waayyyy too sweet. <br/>Lamb briyani was very average. The lamb felt dry and under flavoured. Best part about it was the yoghurt...<br/>Lamb kebab was average.<br/>MY CORONA TASTED LIKE CURRY!! Probably from the lemon wedge but damn, never had that in my life. Might be a positive or negative? Up to your imagination.<br/><br/>The ugly: I forgot to unlock my zomato gold before I ordered. My fault. No lenience given by the owner though - fair enough, he wasn’t obligated to. But what difference does it make if I said it before or after? You going to give smaller portions??<br/><br/>I live within 3 minutes of walking distance so I thought it would be good to give it a try in case it became another one of my local favs. Nope. Disappointed. <br/>Would I come back? Lol no. I’d rather drive to the famous curry place in mt albert.

Great food, good service..nice ambience for a family outing. The location is great for people in Auckland central. Finding parking is not an issue on weekends.

4.5/5<br/>My parents and I love Indian food, and while they were up here visiting (early July) we noticed this restaurant was close to their motel. Seeing as it had been a while since we'd had North Indian cuisine, due to some very good South Indian places opening back home in New Plymouth, we thought we'd give it a try.<br/><br/>We were all very glad we did! Delicious food and lots of it. I had the best chicken tikka masala I've had in a long time, and even my vegetarian mother who's notoriously hard to please, enjoyed her meal. Only reason it's not a full 5/5 for me is the service left a little to be desired—having to ask for a lot of things like warm plates etc. Otherwise it was excellent!<br/><br/> My parents are visiting again soon and we will be going back!

Visiting Auckland from Australia and stumbled across this cute little Indian restaurant. The smell drew us in! The food was absolutely delicious! I ate so much and felt so full but I couldn't let it go to waste. Staff were friendly and polite and everything was spotless - so clean. Highly recommend

Outstanding food and service <br/>Went looking for taste sensations and hit the jackpot<br/>The naan were as good as it gets<br/>Can't wait to take Krishna and Mini and Arbi and Prashan<br/>Definitely on the go to list for Newmarket<br/><br/>

Dined here yesterday. Excellent food. Great customer service. Wonderful ambience. Good food portion. Wide selection. Would recommend to all.

Absolutely delicious food here not an enormous fan of curry but every once in a while I do and this is certainly one of the best along with very fast and friendly service.

Have heard from a friend but never tried , tried two weeks ago , staff was very happy to take us late in weekend, I was impressed, As soon as we entered we were greeted well & every single was served above standard & took one of our comments very positively on one dish & he changed it without any hesitations, Great service with tasty food , will definitely go again

Was traveling to India and wanted to start eating more spicy and authentic food to get a good idea of what I wanted over there/ what to expect over there. This restaurant was excellent for that, the chef came out and explained the history of the spices and what foods to expect them in and it was a really great experience. Have been back since, eating in is always great as it is a cosy spot. Thanks again

wow went there last night  and was blown away by the food we asked for hot and it was hot but not so hot you lost all the taste, we had the bhuna lamb kadhai chicken fantastic,  all three staff that where on where all fantastic , 5 marks for service and making us feel very welcome, I understand it has been recently renovated and they have nailed it, especially liked the music being very middle of the road so didn't dominate.  well done guys we will be back and telling all our friends, only wish i lived closer as live up by Warkworth, but next time we are in Auckland .

Great spot - delicious Indian food, large servings and plenty of vegetarian options. Service was great - very attentive. Vegetarian starter platter was sooo yum.

The food was lovely to eat. The meat platter was a meal in itself for two people. We got to enjoy leftovers the next day. They had prompt service though we were early in the evening and on a weekday. Our water glasses were kept topped up and there was a free poppadom each.

Excellent food, highly recommended. The Chef matches smart modern decor with quality food. We enjoyed a range of dishes from starters to mains and all were excellent. Keen to return at next visit to Auckland and try other dishes on the menu.<br/>

The food here is amazing! I absolutely love the personable service and atmosphere, I have quite specific tastes and this place consistently exceeds my expectations. I really love the cheese Naans and the lamb dishes! The prawns are great too if you want to try something a little different. Oh and finish it off with their Mango Laasi!

My wife, our daughter (6 months old) and I came here for dinner, as we were staying nearby on Alpers Ave. We read the reviews on Zomato while looking and it looked to be excellent and we have enjoyed a lot of Indian food on our various travels around the world.<br/><br/>The food was excellent. We had ordered the mixed non-vegetarian platter, it came with sizzling aplomb, very tasty chicken tikka, some kind of sausage (though the menu said it was seekh kebab), a few pakora, and two samosas. It also had two dips, a mint yogurt type, and some kind of sweet (plum?) one also.<br/><br/>We ordered in addition to that a Kadhai Chicken, and Bhuna Lamb, along with a Lachaha Pratha, and for drinks, the Chef Masala Tea.  All of the mains  were really great. The chicken however tasted better than the lamb, with the lamb being similar but not the same to a korma type.  The rice was bountiful, the dishes plenty in sauce and meat (though the meat pieces would have been cut a little smaller, not so large chunks)  was cooked wonderfully tender and succulent.  The pratha was okay, nothing special unfortunately.  The tea was a good flavour, and I sweetened it to my taste, and my wife to hers (appreciating that we could add our own sugar to it, rather than it being a pre-determined sweetness).<br/><br/>Unfortunately the service level is why I was unable to put a 5.0 for you, though I really wanted to.  The staff who sat us down were very polite, which was great, but they were very quietly spoken.  We had asked for recommendations, what was 'something special here', and they asked chicken or lamb. We said lamb, and it was offered either the rogan josh or korma, which either they must have been very special, or they thought we just wanted something at you pretty much could get at almost all (good and bad) Indian places.  <br/><br/>In addition to this, we sat at a small table, which was originally plate placed for 3.  Our 6-month old daughter was seated in one position, and was obviously not eating, however your staff did not have the presence of mind to take away the cutlery nor the plate that was placed for that seating, which meant it was very crowded once all of our drinks (two water glasses, plus two mugs of the tea), plates, the sugar bowl, jug of water, two dishes, and large rice dish was place on the table.  I do commend that they came to ask if everything was okay, but it was so quiet that I barely realised we had been asked, before they sped away.<br/><br/>In the grand scheme of things, I didn't have a lot of expectations beyond that the food would taste great, which the main dishes did. It is now nearly three hours later as I write this, and I am still feeling very full.  Next time we come to Auckland and are in the area, if The Chef is still open for buiness (and I hope it continues to prosper strongly), then we will definitely come again and try more of the menu.<br/><br/>tl;dr - Great tasting food, plenty of rice provided with dishes, well priced, servers need more confidence.<br/><br/>Edited for Spelling.

Best Indian restaurant I've ever visited in the entire New Zealand. The chef is providing excellent services along with  delicious food...

We went to have our eid dinner and we enjoyed the service and food alot we ordered some dishes asked for recommendations recommended food was so delicious as all the food there is so good. Highly recommended.

SUPERB! We have been on a bit of a curry tour of Auckland lately. I now lunch here at least twice a week. The flavours are so deep, I've only ever known 1 other restaurant in Auckland have the depth of flavour in their dishes. Superb.

Finally, a good Indian restaurant in Newmarket! I've really enjoyed both the Tikka Masala and Madras I have had. Definitely flavorful, spicy, and not oily at all. The Monday-Wednesday $10 specials are also great on the wallet, and definitely enough curry to give you two portions.

Wow. One of the best Indian restaurants!!! Tandoori chicken served on a hot plate as a starter put our taste buds into high gear. Our mains were unparalleled. chicken tikka masala was packed with flavors. chicken madras was creamy and aromatic. All chicken were cooked to perfection. moist and tasty. It was a celebration of flavors. We will be back for more

Absolutely pathetic food..was a stale curry..paneer was not fresh and food was disgusting..naan bread was okay but overall a thumbs down...a big NO

Had an awesome Indian food at any restaurant after long time. Music and hospitality do differentiate and adds a lot to great experience. Guys coming back soon :) Cheers

very good place to eat...order tikka masala and kadhai chicken....yummy as<br/><br/>owner/manager was very helpful i will come back to eat here<br/><br/>highly recommended

We ordered delivery for butter chicken and chicken tikka masala and really enjoyed it. We asked for the curry to be Hot and we were very happy with how it turn out, will definitely order again!<br/>The delivery was fast and portion was good.

The best curry house in auckland yet.<br/>This new place is a go to place for a good indian dinner.<br/>Had butter chicken, lamb madras, chicken saagwala.<br/>All of them were just divine. Especially the lamb madras!!!!<br/><br/>Good job guys!!<br/>Definitely coming back! Now we dont have to travel far to Paradise for good indian :)

This place is fantastic! Their dishes are so flavorful and, according to my Indian colleagues, 'authentic'. Their service is attentive and professional. I was even given a magazine and glass of water without asking when I was waiting for my takeaways recently. Firm favorites in the Epsom area.

Fantastic food and fabulous personal service! Widest range of vegetarian dishes. Absolutely delicious! Our regular go to for the best Indian in town!

At first I was a bit unsure about what to expect as I knew this restaurant has only recently opened and I hadn't heard much about it. I can say I was pleasantly surprised with the beautiful food that I was served tonight. My partner had the lamb madras and it was the best madras he had ever tasted. I had the vegetarian option "dal tadka", a yellow lentil dish, and it was so fresh full of flavor. The staff were really friendly and I would definitely eat here again.

Visited with some friends to sample the newly re-opened Indian restaurant at the end of Manukau road - The Chef! Great lamb madras, rich flavorsome sauce, reasonably priced. Service was prompt and welcoming. Will dine again soon!!

Tried Butter chicken today for lunch and it was nicely cooked and with acceptable hot spices. chicken chunks were cooked properly and was not over/under cooked. Very friendly receptionist and she was very polite as well.<br/>Highly recommended.

I have worked in hospitality for 15+ years and know good food and service. First impressions:  I found the service to be friendly, so welcoming and genuine. This restaurant has had a great make over, a fresh lick of paint and a tasteful, contemporary fit out. Everything looked fresh and clean, and simple.<br/>The food its self- I opted for one of the Paneer curries and chose medium heat. This was served with long grain, fluffy, perfectly cooked rice in nice crockery - not the traditional heavy brass bowls which I personally don't like. The curry was fresh, vibrant, herbaceous and had well balanced heat and creaminess. I also had Peshwari Naan which was again, delicious and fresh tasting. I paired this with the Stoneleigh Pinot Gris. The wine selection was good, all very pleasing and drinkable. If I could've fitted in dessert I would've. I thoroughly enjoyed talking to the owner of this restaurant who was genuinely passionate about delivering high quality indian cuisine in a tasteful setting. This was a welcomed change from the tired mediocrity delivered in many average indian places. What made this unique for me was: I was initially going to get take out but because the greeting and fit out was so nice I decided to dine in, and when I did I was served very , fragrant and fresh curry. Not pretentious, very delicious and priced perfectly to reflect the food quality and atmos. I wish the business owner all the best and wished this was in Wellington!

We dined at 'The Chef' this weekend and loved every bit of it! The decor is fresh, the food amazingly tantalizing, an great selection of wines and spirits, and great service.<br/>This is by far the most authentic Indian food I've had in Auckland....none of that greasy, heavily laced with food-colour curries that you see at many other Reataurants. The curries here tasted as they do in India, and were well catered to the varies degree of hotness (or mildness) as we ordered. The beat part is how they've managed to keep the use of cream/oil to a minimum while still retaining the authentic flavors.<br/>As for the naan bread....I can't rave enough!!! It is simply heavenly.<br/>I'll certainly be back!

Awesome food. Great experiance.<br/>Very good interior and atmosphere<br/>Friendly service<br/>Great food -authantiic Indian food<br/>Less oil and less food colour<br/>Good quantity and quality<br/>Best value<br/>Highly recommend<br/>

The food was excellent. Served hot and fresh with a lot of taste and flavour. The ambience was very good and the setting is excellent. Plenty of off-road parking. Service was friendly and professional. With the highlight being the mixed platter and the biryani.

Great food! Excellent atmosphere, friendly service. Food was healthier compared to other Indian outlets, lesser oil and cream and food colour used. The bar is a highlight with a wide range of varieties available. Would recommend to everyone!