Review Kairali South Indian Restaurant - Auckland Central

Lots of coconut flavors in the curries unlike northern indian cuisine. The porottas was very good. Didnt particularly like the mutton briyani.

Best authentic Kerala restaurant in town!! Tasty food and worth the money spent. Quantity was also generous! Miss similar restaurants in Melbourne (except Coconut Lagoon which is almost 1hr drive from our place)

Tasty kerala food, first time today and beef roast + chicken chettinad was super yum, will be back!

Had amazing kerala food in NZ..Must try if you miss authentic Kerala food like kappa biryani, fish fry ,appam and prawns curry. Its spicy, its tasty and just a drive away from the city..The kappa biryani could have been better but overall it was delicious..Must try the prawns....

Very good place for Kerala style food. Nice service and friendly staff. Ambiance can be made better

Kairali was amazing and there was nothing bad with my experience. Authentic Kerala food. Love the Beef fry and Porotta.

Nice authentic food. Enjoyed the kerala food here. Just a small feedback as service can be faster. Really enjoyed kottayam style dishes

Outstanding food! Every bite was full of flavours. Loved their chicken roast, beef fry and appam.. Kerala cuisine is a must try for everyone!

This is a place if you are a food lover. Delicious and authentic food. Highly recommend if you are looking for authenticity/best kerala food in Auckland. Restaurant wasn’t much busy and service was fast.

Biriyani and Porotta was just an average kind. But the beef ulathiyathu was the best and of typical Kerala style taste.

Very nice and 😋 delicious am from Kerala and I get that taste of memories from here ❣️🥰

Excellent place for Kerala cuisine. Highly recommended

Food taste and quality is great and good customer service

The dosa was very tasty and reminded me of authentic food from India. <br/>The staff is very polite and welcoming. <br/>Definitely will visit again.

The kerela beef roast was totally stale, it tasted horrible. When we brought it to the waiters attention he said maybe the coconut cream was spoilt. How can anyone say that to a customer? Also service was terrible..we also brought it to their attention that they have terrible ratings and the guy said well im not the owner, I just work here. That's completely ridiculous, If you work there you are the face of the business. Anyways, will definitely not be coming here ever again.

Went there last week with the family and ordered all their famous dishes ... ordered around 6 dishes but truthfully speaking, most of the dishes weren't authentic as thats not how they cook them in Kerala (South India).<br/><br/>The chicken 65 we ordered had the same masala/spices as the beef ularithuyathu. And the chicken pieces were huge, that was definitely not how 65 should be.<br/><br/>The fish moilee had way too much onion and sugar in it that accompanied the coconut curry ❌<br/><br/>The appams and fried wish was lovely but the prawns had no taste in them at all.<br/><br/>Also the chicken chettinadu wasn't what we expected at all, having tasted the dish on many occasions elsewhere.<br/><br/>The prices were reasonable for the quantity served ✅<br/><br/>One staff member who did his best with the 4 tables that were occupied on the night.<br/><br/>Won't be going back here anytime soon. Disappointed with the dishes. The restaurant has been opened almost 10 years now and the food should have been better. The owner is passionate for sure, but may be change the chef and go from there.<br/><br/>Ambience : ⭐⭐⭐⭐<br/>Staff : ⭐⭐⭐⭐<br/>Food : ⭐⭐<br/>Price : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐<br/><br/>

Wow, what a disappointment.  Went here because it had been recommended by someone - admittedly, someone who had not been for a while.  Terrible.  We were told that this was an authentic South Indian restaurant, and after our local authentic South Indian restaurant had closed, we were in need of a fix of AUTHENTIC South Indian cuisine.  Our first disappointment was when the entree was served with TOMATO SAUCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Tomato sauce???  Seriously?  <br/><br/>The waiter took our order without writing anything down, and made three mistakes in the order - I would suggest he might want to use pen and paper in future!<br/><br/>We requested med meals, and got bland, boring, and very, very, very, very mild.  Maybe because we are European, they thought we couldn't handle hot, but as regular diners at Indian restaurants, where we often eat at the Indian-hot level, it was incredibly disappointing to have such bland and mild meals.  <br/><br/>Not only were the meals bland, but they tasted almost like they'd been made from package mixes.  Not boasting, but we make far, far better Indian dishes at home.  The chicken dishes tasted like the sauce had been pre-made, and the tough, overcooked chicken added later.<br/><br/>It was a total waste of money and we didn't even take the leftovers home - which is a sure sign of how little we thought of the meal.  Wouldn't go back if you paid us.

Visited this restaurant today. <br/>The minute we entered the staff there (very rude first ever rude person I have met in my whole life) asked us if we were in a hurry n told if we were in a hurry we could leave. To which we replied no and sat down. We ordered masala dosa n egg dosa. He told it will take 25 mins to which we agreed. After 35 mins when we asked he told the tawa is not yet hot so we need to wait for some more time. Then finally it came. Masala dosa 1 spoon chutney and 1 spoon sambar. When asked for extra sambar he bgt a little more in a separate bowl. And the egg dosa also arrived. While tasting it, the sambar was smelling so we couldn’t eat it. When we told the staff about it he told it was yesterday’s and they have not prepared anything for today if you don’t want you can leave. What unapologetic staff is that. Kairali needs to prepare good sambar n chutney being a South Indian restaurant. Or else just change ur name or just shut down coz having such rude staff is bad for customer service. We as customers are paying to have food there n mind it the food is not cheap. I don’t know that person’s name but he is the worst n most rude person I have met.

Heard this was a nice place to eat and decided to give it a try and ordered take away. We called in and made an order and they said 20 minutes and after 20 minutes when we arrived we had waited another 10 minutes for the order. The food portion was ok but not that much flavour or taste. Recommend for a one time only.

A quite south indian restaurant, that makes, it succulent, fried chicken, in the Biryani, is mouthwatering Delicious..!<br/><br/>The service, is probably slow, but the food is worth the wait.!!<br/>I always love the taste, it just gets better every time..!

Dinner for two last night. When we walked in yhe restaurant was empty, but two very long tables had reserved signs, a good sugn we thoight, although we had been here dut about 5-6 years ago. Started with a couple of Kingfisher lagers that went down a treat on a hot evening. Shared prawns dor an entree, and they were yum, for mains my wife had chicken and I had spicy beef, both dishes were quite big, we akso had coriander rice and a couple of south indian breads, which were also very tasty. We couldn't eat it all so just had to bring the remainder home 😀. We will definitely be back, highly recommended.

South Indian Restaurant with potential lacking customer service !!<br/>THE FOODOLOGIST RATING:-<br/><br/> FOOD:- 3.5/5( Hit or miss, some dishes hit the right notes some a let down,could improve)<br/><br/>SERVICE:- 1/5 ( Lacking  customer service, Bad reputation ,very unprofessional)<br/><br/>AMBIANCE:- 2/5 (Dead ,green , no vibe )<br/><br/>CLEANLINESS:- 3.5/5( has A grade certificate so will go will trust it )<br/><br/>VALUE FOR MONEY :- 3/5 (Reasonably priced)<br/><br/>FOOD POCKET DAMAGE:- ***/*****( Cost For 2 $50)<br/><br/>THE FOODOLOGIST REVIEW:-<br/><br/>Heard about this place ages back went for a day out to Cornwall park with my partner .  Build up quiet an appetite,looking to see where we could grab a bite i saw this restaurant and it struck me as somebody had mentioned about the food . Being partially a Mallu I got excited at the same time nervous or introducing my partner to the cuisine  as I spoke so passionately to her about it and she would have never experienced something like that . So we decided to dine as soon as I entered it was a let a down . Zero hospitality , zero care or concern . However we had a seat the owners and the waiters looked so disinterested . We ordered our food lucky enough to be severed water . I went for my favorites , the fish Moilee and the beef roast with the Kerala Porota . The food arrived at least all at once the fish Moilee for presentation had a big slice of tomato on it which was unnecessary the Moilee was cold but we were hungry did not complaint . The fish Moliee was more on the sweeter side which is not the case with real fish Moilee it is a bit spicy with the coconut milk sutleness coming through that the way it should be . The beef roast was the highlight . It was well spiced and balanced well usually the beef roast can get your tongue on fire in Kerala as its had with toddy (a local alcoholic drink). But this was good . The Kerala Porota was good I would take it any day TO GET A HANDMADE ONE HERE WAS A BLESSING IN ITSELF .As I know the labor required to make one of these and getting a handmade one was appreciated and reminded me of my holidays in Kerala . The only reason for a two star is the beef roast and Porota and a hope the management and the owners realize the potential and the clientele they have to make this place successful . <br/>Hoping to see good reviews to visit back again

The food in this place is absolutely delicious! Good quality South Indian food especially the chettinad and malabar chicken dishes! The biggest problem with this restaurant is the waiting time! Takes too long to receive dishes after ordering them even when there are not many customers waiting! The staff need to fix this issue. Apart from that the quality and size of dishes is good.

After reading all the comments thought of giving a try. After visiting one tree hill i was so tired and ordered kerala type chicken curry and 2 porottas. I was badly missing kerala porotta like anything. It took almost 15 mins and i must say chicken curry was so authentic and tasty. Porotta disappointed me. It was just some maida mixed paratha. This is not true kerala porotta. <br/>Ambience is good. Ordered tea which was good. <br/>Overall nice experience and i must say a lil expensive when compared to other restaurants. <br/>U can try on ur own risk. Rest all good. <br/>

To be honest I used to love their food...but recently when I went there for an early dinner around 5pm. Very 1st the the attendant didn’t come to us for a long time and when he came we ordered for 2 ghee roast and 1 butter chicken, a fresh lime juice and paneer pakoda. He said the ghee roast would take 15-20 min. We were like fair enough we can wait.. we waited for half an hour we got 1 of our dosa and 10min later the other one. The coconut chutney with the dosa was way to little as compared to what we used to have earlier so we asked for some more. Can we have a little more we were ready to pay more he clearly say that’s all the have cannot make it as it will take time. Being a South Indian restaurant if you don’t have such basic thing it’s a shame. We ere waiting for our butter chicken that’s when we asked for our dish he said when did you order butter chicken wasn’t it butter milk? I was like really?? He said I will place the order. And i dont know within 1 minute where did that butter chicken appear from.. very cold not eatable condition I would say. he said it was freshly prepared on one hand he never placed that order and on the other hand he said we just made it in 1 min does that make sense we asked about our fresh lime juice he said that we will take 15 min more. When we went there to complain what kind of service are you guys offering this is not there that’s not there food is cold, He said if you don’t want it you guys are good to go without even apologising. He even added this not the right time to come for dinner.. and there were merely 3 tables occupied and some home deliveries. And the guy who attended was busy with the home deliveries and never attended people on time. There was one more table who had the similar issues and even they went to complain ahead. Looking at such things, these people are loosing their customers.

Horrific experience, went with expectation of having a good dinner but the service and how the front of the restaurant staff handled it was even worse . Least of all hire some one who understands the responsibility of dealing with customers.<br/> <br/><br/>1) Had to wait 30 mins for a lime juice<br/>Servers reply “ It will take time “ <br/>Fact :it takes 5 min to make a lime juice . <br/><br/>2) Ordered two ghee roast dosa , one had a teaspoon of coconut chutney served with it . Asked for little extra was bluntly refused <br/>Servers reply “ oh that’s is the last of it we have “<br/>Fact : you are running a South Indian chain that even if you run out of coconut chutney you can churn that thing out in 5 mins 🤦🏻‍♂️<br/><br/>3) Order a butter chicken , which the sever first told he heard as butter milk so will get that done in 10 mins . Magically in two mins the butter chicken finds its way on our table , totally cold .<br/>Servers reply I had heard buttermilk but I entered butter chicken . <br/><br/>4) ordered an entree which never turned up while all this was going on <br/><br/>5) with touching the food politely turned to the server and told him see you are not serving us properly so I think we would like to leave and cancel the order .<br/><br/>Servers reply “ you are good to go “ <br/><br/>I mean that’s the most ridiculous reply you can ever give , shows the commitment your staff has to keeping the reputation of your restaurant like a dine in customer means a nickel to you . Pathetic teach them customer handling before you hire such stupid staff which are too arrogant to even listen and understand where they went wrong . And atleast apologise. For this kind of experience you don’t even deserve a 1 star rating

Pathetic customer service.. we ordered our food and it was delivered after 1 hour. Staff was very rude and unresponsive. We ordered one extra sambhar and wanted to pay as well but still staff served it after finishing the food.<br/>Not even one time it happened twice when I been to this place.<br/>Have heard a lot about this place but not a good place for South Indian food.<br/>I recommend not to go this place. In Nz where good customer skills is the key for success of any business and they Dnt know about it.<br/>I wont go to this place again.<br/>

Always a best place for trying some authentic Kerala cuisine(southernmost province of India ) will recommend the Kerala Biriyani and Beef Fry 😋.

Warm atmosphere with Asian music played out of YouTube connected via laptop. Spacious set and tasty food. However it takes ages for food to arrive. Literally take ages. Plan plenty of time. Quality of vegetables is low but preparation style is authentic Kerala. Quantity is very minimal to satisfy the plate compared to a heavy price on all items. Sometimes you will feel you are eating gold plated food. Keep increasing the price may be for their profit increase or business development. Otherwise service is average as money is the most important for owner come manager.

Probably one of the best South Indian place I’ve been to in Auckland. Took my South African friends who wanted to try a nice South Indian meal and they were not disappointed. And their mango lassi is the real deal!<br/>Way to go Kairali!

Considering it is Valentine's.... service was mediocre. Food came late although it was not busy.... rice came 10 mints after main meal by that time my partner had eaten curry on own!!!!<br/>I was fully psssst off. <br/>Would not come back nor recommend

Charges are high, most of the Indian restaurants charges 10$ for biriyani but here they charge 12 for take away and 15 for dining. Biriyani is quiet nice and they have a lot of other variety food. But they should consider reducing price and thus it won’t be empty most of the time. Timings are quite odd I believe they target only foodies from a particular community.porotta is bad

When I first heard about this place couple of years ago, I got immediately excited as Auckland lacks authentic Kerala or Bengali food. So any chance you get to know there is one it's a must try. I have dined here four times to actually come to a conclusion this place needs help. The management is extremely poor, they kitchen is definitely understaffed and the green walls are a put off. <br/>Coming to the food, used to be average earlier but now it's just disastrous. Their inconsistencies prevail in every dish with a lack of understanding what authentic means, for example Apam was not Apam it was just a fluffy dosa. Coming to this place is a gamble, If you are lucky you will be served good food within appropriate time or else I have waited for 45 min once for the first dish. <br/>Also, this restaurant's location and quality just does not justify the pricing. I would be happy to pay $25 for my fish curry but not when it's absolutely raw. <br/>Overall, I am done giving this place chances and it makes me sad.

The rates of the curries and the starters are really high. If its moderate you will be getting more customers. Try to have some combo deals that would be even better

Pathetic service and rude staff..placed a phone order for biryani and was told that the approx wait time is 20-25mins. Got there in 20 and was told it will take another 35 or so mins not only that but also made a comment along the lines of "you came to get food..so wait". Never had such an experience like this anywhere, will not be going back there again

Visited on their Onam Special week due to which it was very crowded.<br/>The service was okay but the staff was really trying hard to make it better.<br/>The meal was really good and authentic. They served it on banana leaf ( a fake one :) ). The buttermilk, chutneys and pickles were the best part of the meal.

Very disappointing experience... it took them 45mins to serve us our 1st dish.. we ordered for 4different delicacies in veg but we were served the same dish four times just by changing their colours. They didn't have parathas at 7pm...!!!!!<br/>I would prefer starving rather than wasting time and money at this place...!!!!

When you are starving and you hop into a restaurant just to find out that their food is over (really on an afternoon??). I was left with two gravy options as I preferred vegetarian for the day (FYI: the one who attended my table warned that he has to check with the chef if there is any non-vegetarian gravy available). We don't want to delay and we settled for a vegetable gravy, paneer makhani, Aapam (which made no difference to a dosa) and dosa (which made no difference to an aapam). The gravy was okay as it is traditional for a Kerala style cuisine (based on the ingredients) but you cannot make a vegetable gravy with frozen peas and corn and charge the same as other Authentic Indian cuisines. It's better to close the restaurant for sometime after lunch and open for dinner than to invite people all day and serve some leftovers.

This place has a lot going for it but owing to stubborn mistakes, it has never realized its full potential. Probably it now has slightly more patrons than what it had five years ago. The walls inside are painted light green - which might work in Kerala but will only do so in Auckland if you have a terrific menu which Kairali doesn't quite muster up. For starters , its board outside says "South Indian" restaurant but it does not have the confidence to proclaim itself as a "Kerala" restaurant , that being the state from which the owner and the menu's foundation dishes hail from. <br/><br/>Under-staffing has also plagued the restaurant. On some nights , the place is full of patrons but on other nights it is almost empty and the inconsistent cash flow might explain why the place has not been able to afford an A-Team of waitstaff. <br/><br/>Chicken Biryani is the best dish on their menu. Kerala Biryani is a fragrant dish of rice and chicken topped with wonderful fried onions, with clouds of beautiful masala weaving in and out of subtle rice in contrast to other biryanis where often the rice itself is strongly flavoured. Cashews, raisins, star anise, cloves et al elevate the exquisite flavour profile of this dish which can be a meal in itself but Kairali alas is inconsistent in executing this amazing creation, with the quality and texture of the chicken often fluctuating. <br/><br/>Their chicken appetizers (Kozhi Porichathu), cooked on the bone, can be a blast of finger-licking flavour ( Kerala excels in its flavouring of chicken and seafood) and you may then realize how much more special chicken on the bone is rather than boneless. The fried prawn appetizers here are also done well although a gentler hand with the spices wouldn't hurt - it can be a hoot with drinks all of which are priced extraordinarily reasonably.<br/><br/>Squid rings, fried here with Indian spices rather than tired beer-batter version, can be a pleasantly tasty snack. Beef Ularthiyathu appetizer is alas hijacked by overstrong dense masalas. The fried fish Indian-style is also overdone with little intrinsic flavour ( update - the recently introduced Meen Porichathu however is a whole roasted fish that is simply superb as an example of fresh seafood complimented and elevated by confident spices).<br/><br/>The menu does have a fair selection of the better known dishes from North India - Paneer Makhni recently tried, was delightfully creamy and delicious. Kerala Chicken Roast as a gravy is a robust bruiser well suited to those bold palates - you can enjoy this with their wonderfully fresh warm lacy fluffly wheaty slightly crunchy flatbreads called Kerala Parota which is a superb variation of the North Indian staple. To go with this, you can also order Egg Curry - a popular Indian gravy rarely found in NZ restaurants , where the curry with its masalas acquires seductive umami from the egg particularly the yolk (heavily creamy here but still worth it).<br/><br/>The place also does festival specials which have been big hits here - ranging from a Dosa festival (of savoury crepes) which featured daring entries like chocolate Dosa ! to a meal of dozens of special vegetarian savoury items with rice served on a banana leaf during the Onam festival which is celebrated grandly in Kerala. <br/><br/>So that's the story - more waitstaff needed, those moss-green walls aren't as seductive as the owner thinks they are, less cream required in the gravies, more authentic dishes from Kerala would be welcome (I haven't eaten better stir-fried cabbage anywhere in the world compared to the Kerala version, finely chopped with expert anointments of grated coconut and controlled spices but you can't find that side-dish in Kairali). The puzzling thing is that I still keep coming back here ;)

South Indian restaurant joint.. Keralian to be specific.<br/>We went there on a Saturday afternoon. It was not that busy. Only one table was filled except us.<br/>We ordered 4masala dosa and a pepper chicken.<br/>What we got was not so expected.<br/>The dosa s were tasteless. No salt. Sambar was a thick gravy of green banana. Only vegetable I got in sambar was banana and even the gravy had it. Tasteless sambar. Only peanut chutni was okay. But that was more of paste than chutni. Lastly pepper chicken.. it was horrible. The chicken so hard that we couldnt chew it at all. Nit dure if the food was too old.<br/>We did complain to the cook but he said pepper chicken is fried first that is why it is hardand it is supposed to be hard😐. Weired. Although they didn't charge the pepper chicken as we didn't like that. We will definitely not going back there.

Based on past experiences, we gave this place a miss but on a friend's recommendation landed here and what a waste of money and calories! Appams came out looking like kal dosa - no explanation, just left on the table along with the dirty plates. The biryani tasted like a spiced fruit cake - who puts vanilla essence in biryani? An insult to authentic kerela food.

Awesome authentic food! Great dining seating. Not an amazing setting but exceptional food! Awesome authentic food! Great dining seating. Not an amazing setting but exceptional food!

Horrible experience. Went two times and being told that kitchen is closed. Denied for dine in 40 mins before closing time. What a rubbish. Bad management and rude staff. Definitely not going back.

Good traditional Kerala food. The mutton roast was delicious with a side of appam. Good quantity of meat and a great tasting base gravy. The chicken chettinaadu however failed to please. Only about 4 small pieces with a watered down gravy which was nothing special. A little on the expensive side for such a small quantity of chicken. Overall, not a bad experience.

I love Chettinad dishes and miss them here in Auckland.<br/>Have been to Kairali twice during the last 3 years and both times the Chettinad vegetarian dishes were a disappointment. Nowhere close to the Chettinad dishes I sadly miss. Even the Kerala Roti that was nice and fresh the first time around was not fresh at all. Seems like they have switched to the frozen one available in most indian stores.

Very good south Indian food. Especially if you like malayali food. Their thattu dosa (above average sambar), kerala beef fry and the fish fry.....all very good. Service isnt really to die for but not entirely terrible either. I would definitely recommend this place at least once.

Worst service ever.. asked for kerala porotta and was told that they don't have it... 10 mins later we saw a table ordering the same porotta.. when I asked the staff about that i was told that they booked it the day before.. then the chef comes out and says that they ordered it 30 mins before when we ordered our food before them.. no communication between the staff or pure lazy to cook the food what customers want.. never coming back..

Horrible! No management whatsoever. Kitchen staff say no whenever they are feeling lazy to cook any particular dish. No control of staff. Poor management.

When I first saw this restaurant a couple of years ago I was excited to try it as I had not had food from this region of India before. I ordered a chicken dish with a light nutty sauce (similar to a Korma) I have forgotten the name of now as a takeaway and it was extremely disappointing, as the meat itself was coated in tandoori paste and very hard and dry. It was so dry in fact that it seemed as if it was leftovers from another night re-immersed in a quickly made base sauce. The tandoori paste coating around the chicken pieces while in a light colored sauce would also seem to confirm this.  Also the temperature of the chicken meat was virtually cold yet the sauce was warm. This is very unsanitary when it comes to chicken as the potential for campylobacter or other bacterial contaminations rises a lot when chicken is not cooked properly or reheated improperly. I'm tempted to report them to the council actually as it really was that bad, though I did not get sick from it.<br/><br/>Considering I have not been here for over two years I will give it another go sometime soon if I am feeling daring !

If you love spicy food and feeling a little adverturous...then this is the place. <br/><br/>To be honest... I'm not a fan of spicy dishes but this restaurant make really good food that I just have to try it!<br/><br/>I glad I did. 👍<br/><br/>The dosa is a must buy and also the mutton dish. <br/><br/>The staff and service is friendly. Overall we happy with our meal and service. 👍👍<br/>

The curries are over priced. But we thought that just cause they give complimentary rice probably that would be the reason for pricing. But the last time we went there, we ordered the Malabar fish curry and along with that they gave us a lesser quantity of rice compared to the last time. When we asked another portion of rice, the new person there told us that he would be charging us extra for the rice. This was something new to us cause we have been there for atleast 5 times before and they never used to charge us for the additional rice. Since then we felt that the dishes are overly priced and hence stopped visiting that restaurant.

Ordered chicken chettinad (recommended to us by the staff) was awesome! Had perfect fluffy appams and some kerala parottas. Tried chicken Malabar also but chettinad wins.Very authentic keralian cuisine. Went again on the weekend to try the thali $15 only. Was amazing see photos. A good way to try many things at once for those who have never had keralian cuisine.

Over priced but really enjoyed the food the couple of times that I have been here. Only complaint is about the chicken dishes. Even an amteur can tell you that it's the same cooked chicken used in every dish. And the chicken is definitely over cooked.<br/><br/>Authentic kerala dishes - 5 stars<br/>Chicken dishes - 3 stars

Amazing dinner great value for money. Very fresh and tasty only downside was that I found a hair in my food. <br/>Highly recommend the food although the restaurant needs a revamp.

authentic and very well priced food. went here for lunch with my wife and another couple friend on Friday afternoon. person who serving us was really helpful. some of the dishes were not menu for lunch, which my friends had during dinner time when they visited. after making an inquiry about those items, waiter checked with chef and advise we can order those dishes too, if needed. that was something which made me think and i thought i will write a review about this place.<br/><br/>must try dish i will say is fish curry and rice. loved it. and ultimate Upamm. (may be wrong spelling)

Great food. Not typical Indian food or the South Indian food you get from other Indian restaurant.  Price is reasonable. This is different and great food. Lots of choices. Not the best ambience, but this Kerala food is yummy and a must try. We did dine in  one day and did takeaway another day. Staff are friendly. The chef could put a smile on his face when giving take away order. :)

We were looking for a good restaurant this Saturday and decided to try South Indian cuisine at the Kairali. The orders placed were Chicken Chettinaad, Chicken 65 and Chicken Biryani.The base curry for the Chettinaad was tasting good as seemed that right spices were used, but the chicken seemed overcooked as was quite hard to eat with a roti. (Parottas were from the packs available in the supermarket) would prefer the ones made in the restaurant. Chicken 65, which was ordered as a starter but was delivered after the mains? Deep fried and over cooked pieces of chicken which were not succulent atall. Almost hard to eat which I had to bring it to the notice of the staff on the counter. The explanation received was due to a few guest complaints on the chicken not cooked properly and completely they had to cook the chicken a bit extra. Extra? it was hard deep fried.Biryani: I have read in a comment that it is not the usual Biryani, agreed, but at least make a good one. Egg in the Biryani was over boiled, could see the sulphur rings on the yolk. Chicken as usual faced in the other 2 orders was hard. Actually we had plans to order some vege options but the menu was not having a good choice so opted for Non veg as the options were good.Service and ambience was good and the music certainly made a lot of difference of giving a south feeling but lacked in providing good.

Wonderful food at very nominal price. Where will you find an authentic south Indian thali for $10. And the onam sadhya, man, what can I say. One the best meals I have had ever. Some of their signature dishes include appam , parotta ...<br/><br/>Some pitfalls that can be corrected:<br/>Staffs, please smile more and suggest dishes rather than just taking the order<br/>Please reduce the amount of cream, you ruin the real taste

REAL AUTHENTIC KERALA CUISINE<br/>After countless times of take aways we decided to dine in for a zomato review 😊<br/>Not your typical Indian food. I can guarantee that. And not all Indian cuisines are the same. Good flavour. Great service. Always fresh. Constructive feedback always taken into account. Not a flashy ambience. But food is what I care as I can always take away.<br/><br/>Whenever we miss home or home food I just get a take away from here and everything is back into normal. It's that good!!<br/>Must try : Chicken biriyani. Not the usual biriyani. This is malabari biriyani, kottayam beef Masala, chicken roast. Travancore fish.<br/>Try the porotta too. It's not the usual one

The place and ambience was bad. The toilet was extremely unsanitary. I noticed the owner cleaned up the table and didnt wash his hands and served to our neighbouring table. The food was nothing that great for the price. The service was the worst of all.<br/>I would NEVER go there and would suggest anyone considering...Please Dont.

Been here a couple of times with my Mallu friend. Excellent taste of Kerala in Auckland. My personal favourites are Malabari Fish Curry and Travancore Fish curry. Want to try the beef roast next time. However I wish they could do neer dosas too, cause their Appams are too thick for my palate. Others like me can try the parothas. Really soft!

Experience has taught that the less we judge a book by it's cover, the better off we are. All I really look forward to in a restaurant is great food and good service. i must say Kairali blew me over with the authenticity in its flavours in the food we chose to try. It was unquestionably closest to home when it came to beef fry, porotta, kappa and fish curry. I am a food enthusiast and I would not have it any other way. The service was great - prompt and efficient. The chicken stew has scope for improvement I must say and the ambience could do with a makeover but when you have the flavours sorted, who cares? But if you would like this to be a wholesome keralite experience, you could perhaps warm the place up, have semi classical instrumental music in the background, dress the waiters up and voila!

Favourite spot for South Indian food. The beef fry is exceptionally delicious and I love their parrota. Service is okay and the pricing is very reasonable. Great restaurant to introduce yourself to the world of Kerala cuisine.

Good food - only place I know who serve appam - primary reason for my repeat visits. Pair the appam with egg masala and yummo!! Can't remember other dishes we tried. Guess these two were the best.

One and only authentic Kerala restaurant in Auckland. Their tastes are so authentic that we rush there whenever we miss our hometown.<br/><br/>Taste needs to be a little more consistent, but never bad.<br/><br/>Busy during the weekend and always better to phone order and have take aways.

One of my favourite restaurants and the flavours are amazing. Prices maybe a bit higher compared to similar indian places but the well worth it for the taste. Highly recommended. <br/>

Good food but prices are a high in comparison to the portions they serve. Cannot take a big group as they will be still hungry after spending a lot of money.

For authentic South Indian food, this is the best. Not all their dishes are great - the kappa biryani and kappa meen curry all lack the needed flavor. The beef curry, their parothas and the veggie sides are great.

Probably one of the best Indian meals I've had. Very flavorsome, delicious dosa, flacky parottas, lovely spicy dishes. Very pleasant staff who were attentive. Very reasonably priced for such delicious food.

Our group of nine was given very attentive service - the host was friendly and kept the dishes and drinks coming. The dosa was lovely and I recommend it. We had a selection of curries and poratta, all very tasty with plenty of heat. Everyone was happy and we'd definitely go back. Very reasonably priced as well.

Long wait, horrible services and food tasted disgusting!<br/><br/>We waited over 2 hours just for starters. It was so cold and lacked spices. The mains had unpleasant smell and again, the food was cold/under cooked. The place is so expensive but the food is mediocre. Spoke to the Owner who is the waiter as well but he was so rude and said he can't do anything about it. Also, he kept touching the food every time he served it.

We were very regular to this restaurant a few months but from April we had very bad experience. We are vegetarians and food was very delicious but the most disappointing thing is customer service. Once we ordered the food over phone and still we have to wait about 1 Hr to get us served. Instead they were serving Takeaway orders making us to sit in there. We stopped going there from April food is good but too spicy. I felt that management is not bothered about customer service. Next time about 3 weeks later we rang up there to ask about the we got the same answer that it takes long time . Never bothered to go back again. At least if you order 3 hours before you may get your food on time may be???<br/>I just don't go where there is no service.

One the cold winter night we popped in to see what this restaurant had to offer to the local community. Tacked away behind the bus stop it was a fascinating experience of the southern Indian cuisine to the highest standards of flavor. <br/> Thoroughly enjoyed the tasty entries and the beautiful fish Masala and the chicken Khorma. Fabulous!!! <br/>Don't judge the book by it's cover. :) <br/>Will be back.

3rd time and sadly last !! 1st time I ordered the chicken nilgiri and it was the nicest dish I have ordered...2nd visit was given a brown chicken curry, asked waiter to have the nilgiri and was told that was it ??? Tonight ordered it on line and have a green tasteless sauce over 4 pieces of chicken. Very very bad. Won't be returning.

The food is mouth-watering, with all the individual flavours of the ingredients. Delicious! But be warned that to cook food this way takes time, so be patient and enjoy the company of your companions.

We really enjoyed this restaurant. It was quite nice going to an Indian restaurant and not having all the usual options on the menu.<br/>We ordered the Chicken 65 as an entree, Fish Masala and Mutton Chettinad as mains. They were all fantastic, my favourite was the Fish Masala, the gravy had a delicious flavour and texture.<br/>The service was excellent, I was really impressed that the owner recommended a change to our order as two of the items we ordered were of similar flavour. I have never come across this in an Indian restaurant.<br/>I can't wait to return to try some other flavours which I have not yet tasted!

I've been there couple of times and both times the customer service was really disappointing. The food is expensive and took one hour to arrive. The place had no restaurant feeling. The owner was walking around all the time but was not taking our order. I have been to raviz, satya and almost all indian restaurants in auckland. And by far Kairali have been the waste experience in dining out.

I'm writing this review for takeaways with takeaway standards in mind.<br/><br/>Indian takeaways are a favourite weekend nosh for us and we've ordered from pretty much every such restaurant in Mt Eden, Balmoral, Epsom and Royal Oak.<br/><br/>For me, Kairali is unquestionably the best takeaway in the district. The Malabar chicken and Chettinad mutton were beautifully fragrant and spicy. Also, a different kind of flavour from the usual run of kormas, butter chicken &amp; vindaloo that appear in most places.<br/><br/>Great value too, only $29 for two curries, rices &amp; breads. So we'll be back!

the food quanity is too low.. even not enough for one.. i think he gave me a low quantity when came to know that i am using the voucher bought in treat me..<br/><br/>Food is OK... a little pleasure for a change.

An absolute shockingly bad experience.<br/><br/> I can't believe this restaurant is still open. You walk in, no music, bare, tables aren't set, deathly quiet silence. The owner im assuming, who is also the waiter... has no idea how to run a restaurant. Firstly, old sneakers and worn out jeans are not the normal attire. We were served laminated single sheets as menus while another table came in and were given leather bound multi-paged menus.. interesting. The menu itself is completely useless. You don't know what you're ordering half the time as everything sounds the same ' in gravy sauce' or 'tempered in indian spices'. It took over a half hour to get our drinks order taken.( we just wanted water). Our appetizers were pathetic portions of over-seasoned shrimp and chicken rolling around on dollar store serving plates. And our mains were dried-out chicken curry that tasted like it was a few days old, and a dish that i swear on my life was just chicken in tomato soup from a can. <br/>If you came looking for authentic quality indian, just go to Satya... far better by a landslide... don't waste your money!!!!

The food at Kairali is such a refreshing change - it is flavoursome and absolutely delicious. The waiting time is quite long so if you are pressed for time always call and order over the phone. Great value for money - the biryani is highly recommended!

I enjoy the food at Kairali - they've got good chefs and their prices are reasonable - however their waiting staff need to be a lot more welcoming and at least smile at the customers. I've been there several times now and the seemingly unfriendly manner of the wait staff (probably completely unaware of how unfriendly they seem) doesn't provide much encouragement to return despite the good food and prices.

Stunning food, this place deserves to be so much busier! We have beens fans of Satya for years but this is way better. Fresh, tasty and interesting dishes, good value for money.

It was astonishing to taste the authentic cuisine thousands of miles away from home. The food was accurately priced and quantity sufficient to fill up. It would definitely be more popular if there was weekend specials like dosa mela or buffet. Overall hats off to the Kairali Team. Dr Gopal &amp; Family

I am very impressed with the menu and the food they served. It is different from the same old butter chicken you find at all Indian Restaurants. They serve authentic Indian food . Cheers to Kairali!!!!!!!!!

The place is clean and tidy but the set menu was not up to my expectation. Very dear ($18 per person) when compared to other restaurants such Zaika, Mantra,Chapthi &amp; Santoor. There was a small portion of one non-veg, one veg and little rice served for 3 people. The taste of the food for not that appealing.<br/>There was only one person to serve all the customers.

The food was good but the price was on the higher side with respect to the quantity offered. The taste was authentic keralite but it failed to impresses me in some aspects. The appam was more like uthappam and sambar was uneatable. But after that the curries and parathas were awesome. Really loved the main course . The lime and mint juice was superb.