Review Golden Phoenix - Auckland Central

My new fav yum char and i have been to loads of top ones in Auckland. Such great flavour, choose from menu and they cook to order so its super fresh and hot. Its in an old building with great views over the city. It's definitely a great spot for a bunch of people to yum char together.

We often come for Yumchar and dinner, and they always so amazing for everything. The food was extraordinary delicious! Especially the taste of dim sum was so traditional Cantonese flavor! And my family always surprised about the portion of the dinner food, it is absolute worth the price! And all the service ladies are very friendly and nice, which make us always feel like we r in HongKong, as we haven’t back to HongKong for three years because of the disease. It is nice to have a great restaurant like this.

Recommended yumcha place to visit both for lunch and dinner, amazing food and lovely customer service,Fresh Yumcha. Always the best choice to go with my family. I have been there sooo many times. Recommended dessert ,Durian puff soooo good!

My family have been coming here for years, lately I've been obsessed with dumplings as well as my toddler we love going here.. one thing to note it can get super busy on the weekends and people do have to wait. food wise thou I loveeee all their prawn dumplings

The best Chinese I've ever had. Yeah I know big statement but I mean it. I went 6days out of 8

Food is Fresh, Delicious and scrumptious. Great service. Nice People. Amazing Social Distancing. I Recommend you to come to this Yum Cha Restaurant.

A great experience. We will go again

We normally come here for Yum Char lunch but decided to give dinner a go. They offer some yum char options and have a dinner menu. The food is flavourful, and comes in big portions. The workers are friendly and can recommend great food options.

Very nice yum char and reasonable. We had a huge meal and tea for $28 each. The place was nearly full and mainly Chinese folks, which is always a good sign. Staff were attentive and were quick with our special orders. Will go again. Good parking outside too. I'm now a regular at this restaurant, it's always good, though it'll be better once we're back to using the trolleys again.

Beautiful food. We ordered too much, but hey, it was yummy. Need ice though...especially if you offer $1 corkage for wine and its too warm. Many thanks for the lovely service

Best won ton soup I’ve ever had. So much flavour in prawn dumplings too.

My favourite Chinese takeaway restaurant on the North Shore. Highly recommend for yum cha and for Chicken and cashew nuts dish. Friendly service. Massive menu to select from. Bit pricey but worth it for good food. Tip - call your order in instead of ordering online as sometimes the restaurant doesnt get the online order.

Amazing food! We came during the lunch rush hour so it was very packed! Food came out a little slow but we didn't have any issues with that considering how busy it was. They noticed our food was coming out really late so they gave us free dessert and waved off the price we had to pay for tea. Very kind workers, good service :)

Food: 1/5. Very poor food quality. Can tell the food is not fresh. <br/>Service: 1/5 very bad and slow service. Came here in the morning and no one cared that you were there. Had to find my own table, sat down and no one acknowledges you.<br/>Atmosphere: 1/5. <br/>

Very bad taste and service. Food were over steamed that’s why the sumai and bao were way too soggy to pick up by chopsticks. Several of our order didn’t serve because they forgot. Very slow service and horrible taste.

Quality of yum cha there is very low. I had rice roles there and it wasn’t holding it together kind of melting. <br/>I will never go there again. Disappointing quality.

Always a pleasure to dine here. My family and I rate Golden Phoenix as one of the top 3 yumcha restaurants in Auckland and we come as often as we can. The food is always good and the occasional wait for some menu items is worth it for the quality and taste of what you get. Michelle always makes each guest feel welcome and works hard with her staff to make sure everyone gets looked after well.

Birkenhead in New Zealand’s North Shore City has a lot of restaurants and other food establishments and we are quite regular here as we have some of our favourite restaurants located in the vicinity. Every time we go here we always see this restaurant on the second floor of the building beside the Fresh N Save Asian Shop and was intrigued what it offers. Even though we always see them I don’t know why we never dined in, might be its not that inviting or the location is not that handy? Luckily when a large group of us wanted to grab something after some Filipino community gathering the restaurant we are after was closed and this establishment was the one in front of it. We then crossed the road and see whether there are tables available for our large group, to our surprise there were lots of empty tables and we were seated immediately.

This place is honestly one of those “don’t judge a book by its cover” places. It doesn’t look that great but the food is so so good. Friendly staff, easy to get a table. Yum.

Great, reliable yum cha. Food is super tasty, and the service is always great. Price wise I find it more reasonable that other yum cha in Auckland

We turned up on Sunday night and one third of the restaurant was full. But the services was slow, too slow. We waited for 50minutes to get our first dish . But the food are all yummy ans big portion.

This is a Clip Joint - I've eaten here many times over the last 20 years. Generally it's good food and is reasonably priced. What has changed is the rude staff and the price gouging. 5 people for Yum Cha Lunch and the bill was $152.00 that's $30 per person, for Yum Cha lunch. This was my go to place, for Yum Cha, not any more.

Been this restaurant a few weeks ago, it isn’t that bad as previous reviews. <br/>They are not busy when we got there, the food served very fast and tasty as well, which are biggggg portions. Thanks the waitress to tell us and stop us to order lots of food😂😂. But the portions we ordered, are still enough for our next day’s lunch, which was good to save money by paid for one meal, but can feed for two meals. <br/>And the food was great and delicious 😋. And it’s around $23 per person for 5 dishes.<br/>And I was told that they also served the yum cha at lunch time, definitely will come back and try the yum cha~<br/><br/>For my opinion, if you feel not sure with the food, you must ask the waitress, I think they glad to solve your problems.

Love this place.....fresh tasty yummy....all the good words you can think of......i wish i can go there more often but busy life style.... But when i do go....10/10 everytime....chinese food is bestest!.....mmmmmm

Decent food here. We came here for yumcha on a friday afternoon. The place wasn't super busy so we got a table easily. Yumcha here is great, especially love the prawn dumplings and shaomai. They have a decent selection of dishes although they don't circulate very often and when they do its just a small hand held tray (instead of those large carts). Prices are good compared to other chinese restaurants and portions are good too. Service wasn't unfriendly by any means but you may have to try grab the waiter/waitresses attention as they don't circulate too frequently.

Have been here before a couple years ago. It has gone downhill quite a bit. They had there children in the kitchen with their hair floating everywhere. Bad service - had to call waitress over a couple of times until she actually came over. When we received our food it had been over 1 hour wait. Food portions are very small so after we went over to another restaurant nearby.

Have to agree with the other reviews <br/>Like the others experienced Rude service with long wait before order taken even though it was pretty empty <br/>We had a couple of rice dishes with fish <br/>Ate some and paid for it later in the night as was sick .<br/>Decor needs a tidy up as well<br/>Was last in a year ago but looks likes it has gone downhill in a big way <br/>Definitely won’t be returning

Well Sunday’s seem to be the most popular day at this place ...I’ve been coming here quite frequently for the last 5 yrs and it seems the quality and service has slipped significantly ..ie the wait time for food is too long and variety coming out now is basic and standard ..and slow and if your not in a central table You tend to get ignored ..and wave over and re order for the waiters to Bring special or specific items which never seem to arrive ?,...may be their has been a change of head chef or manager ?...or drop off in organisation and enthusiasm,it’s a shame ..but time to try another yum place until this one picks up its game again ....

Most disorganised restaurant I have ever been to. Really bad service. Staff gets aggressive if you ask a question. Food is below average. Three dishes took them an hour to prepare. I would not recommend this place to anyone.

Yumcha always is the bestttt!!!! Good taste of the food, service is fine, but once they got busy, it might be a little bit upset about it, but as the old customer that we knew they all try their best to do the service, because they always got BUSY!? So just leave 1 point for improvement, hope u guys get better. The comments at bottom, I assumed that they never work in hospitality industry before?

Went here for dinner. Food is decent and the portions were massive. However, we had to wait an hour for our food, they didn't have most of the food we wanted (fried rice, noodles, congee, etc- normal Asian food) and service was really bad, the ladies who served us were really rude. Would not recommend to anyone and would not return ourselves.

Not so lovely with an dead fly inside our food. They didnt make any positive approach to us, they just asked us if we wanted another one (still paying for full price) cool. Thanks for the extra “nutrition”

If you actually want to have yumcha. Don't go here. Lack of options. Staff skipping tables. When you call out to them that they did, they think you're rude. Never coming back.

Food is ok, originally I wrote a good review, but today’s service was terrible, it took almost two hours for the food to come out and the servers weren’t being helpful or apologetic at all. Their excuse was that we ordered last so that’s why the food came out late, but that is definitely not a good enough excuse that they didn’t warn us nor were they apologetic. Will not come back.

Nice food, this yum cha restaurant has the largest portion of dim sum I ever have in AKL, and the taste are quite nice too, the price is relative cheap than other restaurants, as well as in fair price. Service is good, just sometimes the waitress are quite busy, but they are all try their best to respond and help us.😁

We always go there for dim sum lunch. The place may look a bit dated but the food is delicious, hotly served and often offers with a great variety. <br/><br/>The staff here are friendly, helpful and multi-lingual but be prepared to wait as there's a lack of staff but with so many customers. Gotto be patient and considerate. And I wanna advise non-Chinese speakers that it's a yum cha custom to remind waiters for service. Don't be shy if the food is served a bit late here.

An alright yumcha. Food was good. Fast service. Only thing that was a bit unsettling was the hygiene rating . After finishing seeing it was an E put me off from returning.

Had a birthday dinner for my sister there on Friday night. The place wasn't packed, only a few tables booked so we were served fairly quickly and so food flow out quickly as well. <br/><br/>We ordered 7 large main dishes in total. Reasonably priced and the food was fairly average. Aside from the combination meat fried egg noodle. The meat was very bland and noodle was a bit on the dried side. <br/><br/>Might be back next time. <br/>

Sunday afternoon yum cha service. Very average food. Edible but not very tasty. The provided chilli oil was so weak. Service acceptable. About $20pp for us.

3waitresses serving 50people, long waiting time for everything (e.g. Tea refilling). Low diversity of dishes, average taste for dishes. The hygiene level is an 'E' for this restaurant,but when I ask the managers why the grade is E, they told me they have no idea.

This is one of the places you don't really expect to be as good as it is. Food is great value for money and they definitely don't skimp out, little greasy, but wouldn't complain about it. Staff are friendly.

Unfortunately, I had a bad experience for the first time I ate here. We found a hair on the chicken feet and a steel wool brush piece on their har-gao. Food are just ok. Services is quite poor since they didn't apologize for the mistakes. Lucky for them that I didn't reported this to Auckland Council. I was even looking for their food grading certificate and didn't found it displayed.

Was deciding where to eat for lunch and ended up choosing this yum cha restaurant. As soon as I saw the stairs and the walls, I knew this place was run down and needed renovation. Stood at the front desk, waiting for staff to take us to our table. They weren't aware of our existence. Was really disappointed with the BBQ Pork Rice Rolls. The waitress told us it was BBQ Pork, when we clearly saw that it was pork mince. We all know that BBQ Pork is supposed to be red on the outside, and we kept telling the waitress that this was pork mince. Their siu mai and chive and prawn dumplings were bland. Spring rolls were acceptable. Turnip cake was a bit too oily. That aside, we ordered a plate of Fried Beef Noodles. We were told that it would be ready in about 15 minutes. We ended up waiting for 25 MINUTES. We were so fed up with the poor service of this place, we asked whether the noodles were ready. Turns out that they didn't even start cooking the noodles. As a result of this, we left the restaurant very unsatisfied. Never coming back here again. This place needs to re-train their staff.

I've been here for yum cha on a Saturday morning, but never for dinner. <br/><br/>It's always hard to review yum cha because the dining experience is made up of so many dishes, but overall I liked the food here. <br/><br/>A surprise stand out dish was the deep-fried prawn dumplings (basically a fried, elongated har-gao). Their siu mai are pretty substantial, and I loved their steamed BBQ pork buns!<br/><br/>However, a few dishes were off. I was disappointed with the BBQ pork rice roll (the sauce was not quite right and the bits of meat didn't even taste like BBQ pork), and by far the biggest let down was the Xiao long bao. These dumplings didn't have any soup in them, so the filling was a bit dry and the skin wasn't the best quality either. <br/><br/>Service was decent. They officially open at 10:30 but food service doesn't actually start till 11.

Terrible service, we waited 10 mins to get seated and the waitress just walk in front of us and see us as an air. Food is terrible and another long waiting. Totally been pissed off.

Went to yum cha today, Sunday around 1p.m. Food was ok. except in one incident where I ordered the egg tart, the egg tart wasn't cook properly.Price wise, it was quite cheap compares to others - 10/10 for price. Other than that , it's just an average yum cha place if not below par.<br/>here's my ratings:Service 4/10 - waitress and waiter keeps on forgetting when we asked them for chili :(  - have to remind them like 5 times<br/>frequently of food availability 5/10<br/>taste of food 5/10 - steam pork buns are small - possibly due to its cheap price?<br/>Would i go back there? No

One of our family's favorite place to eat yumcha.<br/>The food is above average (nothing special) but they are reasonably priced and good value for money.

We went there yesterday for lunch. The food was really good however the service was quiet poor. Friendly staff but they were really slow with bringing the food out and by the time they would come to us al the good stuff was gone.

We intended to go for the Mediterranean for lunch, but were just too early. So we had yum cha instead. Food wise, everything was just OK - nothing was outstanding. Tea pot looked horribly unclean (see photo). (In fact, I understand that tea stain is hard to be rid of, but that's not an excuse.) Its fairly high rating is inexplicable. (Food - 3/5; Service - 3/5; Ambience - 2/5)

3 as a restaurant as a whole. lunch is awsome, you get what you pay for and its good food. ( nevermind the hygiene grade B) but dinner is a sham. yum cha again is awsome~

Tasty, good, traditional yum Cha. Hard to find places that do it for dinner but this was good. Loved the spring rolls, BBQ pork and spicy chicken was delicious!! Definitely recommend going here but disliked the sweet and sour pork and deep fried won tons could do with improvement.

Nice food，and good service！My family also went to have dinner！<br/>I like the yumcha food that they are serving，because it is freash and delicious

We came here on a week day and the service was amazing! The lady who is always there was extremely friendly, kind and engaging. It wasn't busy like a weekend, of course, but the food was fresh and they kept coming nonetheless! I noticed their food hygiene wasn't an A (think it's a B?) But other than that, we have been told the food was top notch and we think it's one of the best too!

For yum cha this place is hard to beat. Sure the surroundings are a bit down and the service is often slapdash but you come for the food. There is a constant flow of trays from the kitchen and as it is usually busy, there is a good turnover. Everything we've tried is fresh and hot. The prawn wontons and prawn and coriander dumplings are some of the best I've tried in the city. If egg tarts are your thing, these are pretty good. Plates of bbq pork and duck are a real hit. Siu mai are probably the weakest things on offer. Plates range from $3.80 to $8.00. For a family brunch that is a little different to the regular eggs benedict and coffee, Golden Phoenix is a winner.

Often go to this place for yumcha with relatives and it's not too bad. But for dinner it was quite disappointing. <br/><br/>Ordered their eggplant dish and it was so bland and flavourless. The soup given as a condiment was full of flavour.... Full of MSG.... 👎🏼 the taro & duck dish we ordered was so dry and pretty much tasteless as well. And the duck had a lot of "fur" aka feather bits all over it. Was very off putting. <br/><br/>Overall, so disappointing. Service wasn't that great. Would only come back cos of my relatives (wanting to go), otherwise no thanks.

Great food, so delicious and to top it all off we had the mango pancakes. Ate way to much. And the service was so friendly and prompt. Not like what some of the other reviews say.

Nice yum cha. The prawn dumplings and the park buns are delicious! Definitely going back for more.<br/>Service is also very good, the waitresses explain everything properly and are very helpful when choosing dishes.

This is good chinese yum cha. Better customer service of all chinese restaurant that I have been in. Chicken feet and the roast pork are the best.

Very middle of the road Chinese restaurant. Most things are reasonably priced compared to other Chinese restaurants in Auckland. Most things are very well cooked as well. The chefs do a pretty good job.<br/>I usually get fish fillets, peeking duck and one of the sizzling steak dishes. Nice tasty dishes with good portions. Outside peak hours (after 8pm), the dishes come out reasonably quickly. Around 10-15min wait.<br/><br/>But a number of things let this place down. The service is quite sloppy. The waiters don't give you spoons or other utensils for the dishes unless you ask. They don't come come to clear the tables of empty dishes as often as they should. They seem to lack initiative for alot of basic things. This happens even during their off-peak hours (after 8pm) when there's hardly any customers around. It's alot worse during peak hours (around 6-7pm). One time I waited nearly an hour before someone came to take my order. By the time I put my order in, I changed my mind and left, because it looked like it was going to take another hour for the food to come out. <br/>The floor is sticky and grubby. It looks really dated and could do with a makeover. The dishes and chopsticks are sticky and aren't cleaned very well either, but that's pretty common across these sort of restaurants anyway. Hygiene isn't at the top of their priorities.<br/>Gosh, the toilets desperately need cleaning as well.

Pretty nice Chinese place for pekking duck (wrap and minced) and does a kick ass spicy sour soup. Big portions, okay price $100-120 for four people shared dishes and filling.<br/><br/>Decor and service is pretty average; takes ages to get anyones attention despite not being busy.<br/><br/>3.0 Yums

Food ordered:<br/>Prawn Dumplings<br/>Coriander Dumplings<br/>Prawn and Spring Onion Dumplings<br/>Steam Pork Buns<br/>BBQ Pork Buns<br/>Savoury Fried Dumplings<br/>Siu Mai<br/>BBQ Duck<br/><br/>Bill: $50.30<br/><br/>Big tummy: I haven't been to this yum cha in years (like 2011??), but I remembered it as being one of the better yum cha experiences in Auckland. Golden Phoenix offers an extensive collection of yum cha dishes, most of which we tried I'd consider a success. The standouts for me would be any of the dumplings, while the steamed and sticky pork buns were also delicious. I found the duck to be a bit of a disappointment. It tasted okay, but it was a bit too fatty and oily for my liking. <br/>Returning after a few years, I was pleasantly surprised by the improvement in service too. In my experience, I typically find that there tends to be a bit of a language barrier at yum cha restaurants, but the service at GP was easily the best I've had yet at any yum cha outlet. The waitresses were very friendly and attentive - they quickly brought us cutlery when asked and even brought us out extra soy/chili sauce without us asking (at other places I've had to ask repeatedly for anything to be brought out). Overall, I'd happily make GP my local yum cha again.<br/><br/>Little tummy: I was craving rice, so we decided to stop off at Golden Phoenix (not sure why, since yum cha doesn't usually come with rice... but anyway). The food here was what you'd usually expect from a yum cha restaurant. Heaps of dumplings and tasty fried food. My personal favourite was the prawn dumplings, though I found the taste of the coriander and spring onion dumplings to be slightly overpowering. For me the duck was a bit of a letdown. It was way too oily for me, so I couldn't eat much... my poor boyfriend has to finish the dish himself hahaha. All in all though, I'd come back here again.

Recommended by a friend who told me the food is good.  So had dinner here tonight.  Also my first time. Ordered just 3 simple dishes.  Well I must say my friend is correct.  The dishes were tasty and good size too for the price.  Have a look at the pictures and see they are your type of food.  But no harm giving it a try.  The service is<br/>normal.  Cleanliness is acceptable.  Understand that the yum cha is good too.  Will go for yum cha one day.

Nice domain. I love eating here, a bit pricey but still okay. Try their steam pork ribs, xiao Mai and shrimp dumplings. And for the dessert, durian buns are really nice.

We tried this place twice and was disappointed both times by the service. Yum cha however was quite good but the chilli sauce disappointing as it was more salty than chilli and we are big chilli lovers.

Went here for dinner based on the reviews I found on Zomato.<br/>Pros: Portion size is huge for the price. Food is tasty.<br/>Cons: Service is hit and miss (we had to ask for menus, and the server forgot to get me the chilli sauce I asked for), the food is not great; no vegetables at all with my chicken fried egg noodles, and I have had better fried rice (which was supposed to be chicken and prawn- had plenty of prawns : yay!!!: but no chicken). <br/><br/>All in all, I will go back there, but only because it's convenient and reasonable, not because I love it.

I come here for yumcha in the weekends and it is always packed! The set up is quite widespread with many tables. The staff are nice, the food is good, but it often runs out before it can get to you. My partner and I have eyed up plates many times only to have it snatched up a few tables ahead of us. I feel like trolleys of a la carte food would be well justified at this busy restaurant; as opposed to their hand-held trays, which carry up to 6 at a time - and usually only have one or two options left once they arrive to your table. Good as a regular hang out if you live close by. Free but limited parking available.

Went here for dinner and the food was all delicious, such massive servings and very reasonably priced. Between me and my partner we got the spring roles, the sweet and sour chicken and the beef with rice noodles in black bean sauce. The dished were all very nice and would order them again. Would defiantly recommend this place and would like to come back and try the yum cha Lunch

The food during lunch is really good. However the dinner was disappointing. We ordered a beef dish and it was overcooked therefore making it difficult to bite into it. We also ordered a steam cod and it didn't taste fresh as the meat was rough and it didn't look nice to eat. Overall i think this place is more suitable for lunch times than the dinner times.

The best yum cha I've had in Auckland. I come here a lot for brunch/lunch, but haven't for dinner yet. Friendly, quick service, delicious food and so cheap! I can leave this place after spending less than $15 per person feeling absolutely full-to-bursting. <br/><br/>I've just had one bad experience. We arrived just after they opened and they weren't ready for service. We had to order the food from the menu, it took much longer to arrive and some of it was cold in the middle. They should be ready to provide good food and service at all opening hours. So a tip for the wise - wait until after 11am. Still giving this place a 4 though because they're great the rest of the time.

Golden Phoenix is my parent’s favourite Chinese restaurant and I can see why. The last 2 times I’ve visited a week apart, once for yum cha and once for dinner. Both times were very good.<br/><br/>Yum cha favourites were egg custard tarts, BBQ pork pastry, deep fried prawn dumplings, pork siu mai, sticky rice and pork mince in lotus leaf though everything we had was good. Best to get a table near the kitchen as food comes out piping hot and you get the best selections.<br/><br/>For dinner, we had Peking duck with second course of duck which is off menu: deep fried duck pieces with salt, chili, spring onion and garlic. This dish was really good.<br/><br/>We also ordered Prawn balls deep fried with salted egg, Steamed free-range chicken with ginger, Sweet and sour pork, Green beans stir fried with pork mince, Noodles and vegetables, and rice.<br/><br/>We shared 7 dishes between 6 people (including the second duck course), this was way too much food and we packed up a box each of leftovers. I would recommend ordering 5 dishes for 6 people.<br/><br/>Please note, it is their custom to serve their food lukewarm (ready to eat) . If you like your food to be piping hot, you have to say so. Once this was established, it’s been good. The service is efficient but can be a little hit or miss. The food more than makes up for this.

We've been going to this place for the last 7 yrs and went through 4 owners and this one is by far the best so far! Good food, good service and friendly staff. The fried noodles is super, dumplings and bbq pork are also great.

Been here a few times, for yumchar and dinner. Yumchar is really good hence why there is always a lot of people. <br/><br/>Their dinner service was a bit of a let down. Most of the 8 or so dishes we ordered were alright. But the steamed cod which was very pricy was very disappointing. The fish was probably kept in the freezer for at least a few days. It was very apparent when we tastes the meat, it lacked tenderness and moisture. I would avoid coming back for dinner.

My favourite Yum Cha spot!! I go there at least once every 2 weeks. My faves are the steamed pork buns, BBQ pork and their many different prawn dumplings. I also love their sweet coconut and custard buns.