Review The Sands Restaurant - Auckland Central

I think this is an authentic claypot rice in Auckland so far. Food taste good. However, the menu is slightly expensive.

Excellent home cooked style dishes. Many choices, great flavours.

A simple hot pot restaurant offering either an individual hot pot (as per picture) or pick & match from a variety soup & toppings by ticking from a prepared order form. A clean & bright atmosphere setup. Food is individually prepared by chef & served by his partner. I had spicy noodle pork trotter soup (picture in menu). It had a thin layer of chili oil & dried chili cuttings with a surprising 2 servings of small deep fried pork trotter legs. Soup wasn't spicy nor salty biy kind of home made soup. Toppings was a bit little but was generous with noodles. Another choice soup broth is beef soup. Free water refill & self service condiments. Clean & neat toilet.

Very delicious and recommended

Much better than those across the road. Good value for the price! Highly recommend!

Good, wish I would get to try it, will update once wife allows me to go

Very delicious and affordable I highly recommend

Service great and food great,I like claypot food

So yummy!kids all love it

Very fantastic rice noodle soup

Very delicious and lots of.

very good

DELICIOUS buns

出品非常好，煲仔饭吃过真的非常正宗，推荐

特别棒！米线很好吃！！！！

Great dumplings and spring rolls. Also had stir fry rice with chicken, beef stir fry rice noodles, tofu on rice. All the food was great. We had takeaway and got a nice green tea while waiting.

I love Chinese food, but quit often I go to some restaurants that cook it too greasy.<br/><br/>That was possibly the only mistake from The Sands when I had lunch there.<br/><br/>My pasta was delicious and well served, but by the end it was so heavy because of the amount of oil. Despite that it was yummy, and the service is very kind.

Sorry wont be going here again..hygene is a problem here...food is ok..but not sure how the kitchen standards will be...there is a fish tank on the entrance...which is in a bad condition and u can see its not maintained properly..with black dirt and broom lying around. .

The food was tasty but this place really need to improve on the cleanliness of the restaurant, good food will be nothing without a good environment.

We came here one night on a coupon deal for three courses of peking duck! The photos on the deal website made the restaurant look quite nice as well as the food, so we were pretty excited to come here!<br/><br/>We got kind of lost on the way to this restaurant and kept driving past its location on New North Road. When we managed to find parking along the busy road, we walked over to the restaurant and to be perfectly honest, the restaurant was a lot smaller and did not look as clean as the photos made it look! It was quite the typical Chinese restaurant, much like a lot of the ones on Dominion Road. We were greeted as we entered though and directed towards a table. We noticed that many of the other diners were also eating peking duck (perhaps they had all taken advantage of the coupon deal as well?). <br/><br/>As we weren't told what the three courses actually were, we were in for a surprise! The first course was soup, with greens and tofu. This was quite surprising, but it didn't taste as bad as we thought! I had about two small bowls of this soup. The second course was the actual peking duck wraps. This was quite different because it wasn't just skin like traditional peking duck wraps, but more like a roast duck dish. Each piece had quite a bit of meat on it! Not that we were complaining - both of us loved it! Though not as high quality as a few other restaurants I've tried, it was worth the price we paid.<br/><br/>The third course was a sweet sago soup, with fruit on the side. I liked this. My friend wasn't too keen on the soup, because that was a little weird for him, but he ate most of the fruit! Definitely were surprised by the three courses as we were expecting something else, but we do think this dining experience was worth the price we paid! <br/><br/>Customer service wasn't bad as well! We had no problems with our meal. :)<br/><br/>Sarah Reynolds #challenge

What a mistake, we thought we would try this place, hadn't been here since the original owmers sold...we were the only three in the restaurant the waiter never said a word to us while we ordered.. the duck came out then the soya chicken, had to ask for  some rice...the first two dishes were very average for what we were paying, and then we waited and waited, asked the silent waiter where the tofu and veges were. and then we waited again. We had a huge agument with the waiter and cook who tried to tell us they were busy!<br/>The waitress finally opened her mouth mouth and told us we should of asked if we wanted the food to all come out at once! Perhaps she should have told us it was a lucky dip on when the food arrives, it would be a joke if we didn't have to pay for it.<br/>I might add the veges and tufo looked like slops...<br/>could of cooked it better myself!<br/>This place is a joke what a waist of $54.00 ...I would suggest if you are looking for quality Chinese, 5mins up the road to avondale the Wing Wah, you won't go wrong.

This place is just awful. We went here for lunch and my son found bugs in his soup. We returned it to the kitchen and were not offered a new one or our money back. When we left, we were told they must have gotten into the soup because he had added vinegar and the bugs get into the vinegar bottles when they leave them outside for cleaning?!?! So clearly it was my son's fault for adding vinegar. The rest of our meals were bland and we won't be going back.

Worst dining experience ever, even on a voucher.<br/><br/>1. Called to make a booking, they answer the phone with "what website did you buy it from?" not even a simple "Hello"<br/><br/>2. Could not get booking details correct over phone. <br/><br/>3. No greeting upon arrival, just "give me your voucher" <br/><br/>4. Would not honour deal conditions of $1pp upgrade for duck stir fry, but agreed on $3pp only to get one measly plate of bean sprouts. <br/><br/>5. Turns up with 6 spring rolls instead of 12 as per voucher terms. When asked where the other 6 were, got a response of "are you here to eat duck or spring rolls" and owners insisted there was a misprint in deal ad. <br/><br/>6. Did not offer last course of dessert (apparently worth $20),even though we finished our meal and waited 10 minutes. The restaurant had 2 other tables so they were not busy. <br/><br/>The restaurant owners obviously don't realise a happy customer is worth more than a few miniature spring roles and a scoop of ice cream.

I brought the $29 voucher off grab one which entitled me to the pecking duck, pancakes etc, soup, spring rolls & dessert.<br/><br/>As the voucher recommends, ring up and book as it can get rather busy.<br/><br/>Food service is quite fast. Staff are also polite. The main - duck with pancakes and vegetables, was delicious! 10/10 my friend as I devoured this meal. The spring rolls were average, like the ones you can prep at home.<br/><br/>The soup was not one bit to my liking.. I wasn't too sure what it was (my guess - the bones and such from the duck) as well as bok choy but the soup taste like dish water. We didn't touch our soup, the soup was a big let down.<br/><br/>Dessert was diced fruit and sago soup with almond milk and pearl jellies. Was okay, I enjoyed the fruit.<br/><br/>Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the duck and pancakes, spring rolls were good, dessert was mediocre but the soup was a big let down.

It wasn't great nor was it bad. The service is typically what you'd receive at a Chinese restaurant, not overly friendly but efficient, so if you go with this in mind you won't be disappointed. There were 4 courses to the Peking duck meal we had. First course was a very large bowl of broth like soup with duck bones, bok choy, spring onions and tofu. It wasn't bad, but it was a bit bland. The second course were deep fried mini spring rolls served with sweet chilli sauce. 3rd course was duck and pancakes, again it was just ok... Not terrible but not great either. Desert was small platter of cut up apple and orange and a bowl of sago soup in almond milk, this was quite tasty. Overall, my meal didn't excite me and I won't be returning for another visit.

My boyfriend and I went there with a voucher. And what a deal it was! We were given so much food, and it was beautifully presented. The waitresses were very friendly and willing to be of assistance. Even when some people came in about 15 minutes before closing time, they didn't show any signs of anger but went on serving them.<br/>Lovely atmosphere, clean, and while it doesn't look like much from the outside, or even when you first go in, they have put some effort into decorating the walls!<br/>Overall, very impressed considering the prices. Good quality service and food.

Went to this place a couple of weeks ago with a deal voucher. Overall we had a really nice experience here. The soup and the dessert were both dishes that we had never tried before and it tasted pretty good, the soup was really nice on such a cold evening! The Peking duck that we had exceeded our expectations as my partner and I love duck and we order it whenever we go for Chinese and we liked that The Sands restaurant was able to make it perfectly. Their serving size was bigger than most other places we have had duck from which we were happy about! <br/>Buzzing restaurant with nice food, decent serving sizes and good staff. We will go back again.

We were on a voucher for Beijing duck 2 course. It was delicious and excellent value. The service was good they did need a reminder about our drink order but nothing major (and it was pretty busy). All up a very pleasant experience and will go again.

We have just had the Peking Duck special and it was the best Peking Duck I have had for a long time.<br/>The restaurant was very well presented with friendly staff.<br/>I would recommend it to anyone.

The worst dining experience of my life so far, happened here. I didn't want to be mean but I'm not sorry to say that because it's true! <br/>I went to this place because of a group on voucher, actually I'm going to call the website I purchased the voucher from after this review too. The place was awful, smells dirty as soon as you come in and then the waitresses are more preoccupied with their own dinner than entertaining their guests. Then they approached our table once called while still chewing their own meal. How rude! And one male staff approached our table with food all over his mouth and spoke to us. Really yucky experience!<br/>Also, the deal voucher for the peking duck 3-course meal that they were selling online is a disappointment. The soup looks horrible and they gave us very dirty soup ladle (I can show a photo if I have to) hehe.<br/>I don't want to elaborate more. But this restaurant needs some serious cleaning of their place and all their cutleries. Plus a major change of how they treat their guests.