Review Kaya - Auckland Central

First time visited today, definitely will come back again, super lovely 8 free tasty side dishes. The restaurant was busy, tables filled up very quickly!

A small restaurant with only few seats but the food was pretty good especially the generous portion of side dishes. Spicy pork was very delicious but the pork katsu was a bit small tho compared to other Korean restaurants.

Awesome Quality, Cheap and Very Yummy! Can get side dish for free as much as you want. Side dish is freshly made on the day, everytimes have different types of side dish. I get refill two times. haha It is wondeful service. Always busy and fast to be no vacancy tables. so better to book table before come. All mains except noddle come with rice.

A small restaurant serving a variety of korean dishes. They also provide many refillable side dishes. It gets really busy during peak hours, do expect a long waiting line.

Excellent value for money and friendly service! Delicious mains and you get free side dishes. We arrived just before 11:30am on a Saturday and there was already a queue outside. They were very generous with the side dishes which were delicious!

We had dinner here not too long ago. That night was crowded. The restaurant was not too big but comfortable. The food was tasty, prices very reasonable and the serving was average size. The service was friendly and efficient. The side dishes were free and could be replenished. Booking is necessary. Strongly recommended.

One of many long standing Korean restaurants in the shore and they have been very nice to us. The food remains very good and amazing side dishes. My only regret is not having a big enough stomach for all the options.

Awesome awesome Authentic Korean food. You want to keep on coming back. Hard working staff that produce very friendly services and very tasty food. Excellent value for money, sides dishes are delicious. Have plenty seating, upstairs and downstairs but at busy time there will be a queue waiting which means this is a very popular eat out. Limited parking spaces but free street parking on surrounding streets.. Guarantee parking spaces dinner hours or weekends on the streets. Good serving size. Credit cards can be used for bills over $50. Highly recommended.

Cosy little Korean restaurant that provides good food at a reasonable price. The servings are rather generous in comparison to other places, especially the side dishes where they offer more variety - in this case there were 8 sides with a couple we've never had anywhere else before (savoury pancakes and possibly mackerel fish?). We ordered the Tofu Salad, stirfried Beef Bulgogi and the Beef Short Rib soup. Very busy at lunch even if you come early so would recommend making a reservation, otherwise will need to wait in a queue. Only critique is that staff should be a bit more attentive but all in all would still come back to try more dishes.

Always happy with Totoya's food. Seriously, most of their menu satisfied me. However, they have the best 갈비찜 (steamed beef ribs with soy sauce) in Auckland. Whatever you order, they serve you great amounts of side dishes without any charge. Amazing!

RAMEN!!!! It's so popular you'll feel guilty sitting some more after eating because the people outside are waiting and looking from behind the glass wall outside. :) The side dishes are, on its own, amazing!

This is becoming my favorite Korean restaurant. I just love their dishes and side dishes. Pretty cheap for the amount of food you get.

Good food. The line outside for opening time was a good indication we had chosen well, and a full restaurant within minutes of opening, showed the place is quality people enjoy...

Phenomenally good Korean spot. Try the Mackerel and the stir fried kimchi with bean curd. Thank you for a fantastic meal!!

Totoya has amazing tasting Korean food. Cons: 1/ They're always busy, and they do not accept reservations, so you will have to wait in line to get a table. It can also get crowded at times. 2/ The parking is pretty bad. The same one exit/entry that can only fit one car at a time. Pros: 1/ Extremely generous, they have the most side dishes out of any Korean restaurant in New Zealand, and you can ask for a refill, 2/ Their takeaway packaging is very good, 3/ Their menu is very cheap considering the portion sizes, 4/ The staff are very kind, always have a smile on their face despite how busy they are they never stop working. On the basis of food and staff alone, I would say it's my favorite Korean restaurant in New Zealand, but just be prepared to wait in line.

Left my hat with you guys when having lunch today to celebrate my friends birthday with a cake. Would you please have a look if it’s still there? Called but no one picked up.

Great little Korean place. Food is full of flavour and you get plenty of sides. Yum!

The variety of side dishes is just a WOW. Everyone of them is delicious. I can say that the side dishes are better than the main food which is the reason why I’m giving it a 4 star and not a 5. Everything else is spot on.

Today, we ordered chicken fried noodles and we were given SPICY chicken fried noodles. When we told them, they just lied saying that when they prepare it, they use spicy ingredients. The food is ok, the service is not! To be mentioned: both options chicken fried noodles and Spicy chicken fried noodles are in the menu and we specifically mentioned which one.

맛있습니다~생각보다 양도 많아요~ 막걸이랑 비오는날 먹었는데 잘 어울림요 많이많이 먹으러 오세요

음식 넘 맛나고. 일하시는분들 너무 친절하고~~ 오늘 너무 친절하고 이뿐 언니 고마워여!!

불 족발 맵고 너무 맛있어요 오클랜드에서 이런 족발을 먹을수 잇다니 ㅎㅎㅎ ☺

제니누나 덕분에 잘 먹고 가요ㅎㅎ 고마워요ㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎ

Always Great Food and Service! Strongly recommended.

Served very well thank you jenny The food always nice

족발진짜대박인듯...ㅠㅡㅠ 배고프다...

불족발 칼뽕은 사랑입니다!ㅋㅋ

맛있었어요 ㅎㅎ

ㅎㅎㅎ맛있다

불족 최고

불족 에 한잔 어때

사랑해요 ^^

맛 좋아요. ^^

예약하세요

It was so different from what we had before.. There seems less than half pack of tofu in the soft tofu soup. In fried pork belly with red bean paste, there was little meat and some of those were even burnt. The bowl of rice (if you add extra, 3 dollars) was even small so it doesn't even fill my tummy (In the other restaurants I cannot finish one bowl normally). I ate them all as I was hungry, but I was a bit disappointed. The people were kind though..

With a D rating from Auckland Council for hygiene, I think I'll take my chances elsewhere. The council visits are notified in advance so if they can't get their act together for the inspection, one wonders what goes on there on a daily basis.

We got the Fire Spicy Chicken and the sizzling beef and both are soooo good! perfect food for me and my boyfriend! super kind and fast service! Imma say its under rated. this needs to be recognised! truly recommend!

My favourite dish at this restaurant is Spicy Kal Bbong noodles and Bul Jok Bal (Spicy Grilled Pork Hock) and it is even nicer with cheese added!

I had been here a few times when they first opened a few years back, but not recently so I was interested to see if there had been any changes.<br/><br/>We ordered the Kimchi Kal Guk Su (김치 칼국수) and Kimchi Tuna Fried Rice (고추참치 볶음밥).<br/><br/>The noodles are now served in a stone pot bowl which was great as it kept the noodles hot throughout the entire meal. The portion size was very generous, the texture of the noodles were chewy, flavours were delicious and slightly sour from the kimchi. <br/><br/>The fried rice is now served in a pan, with some corn butter cheese taking up half of it. An equally delicious, flavourful dish. <br/><br/>Some downsides; prices have increased over the years so they are different from the ones listed on Zomato, service was a bit slow as they only had one FOH and two chefs when the restaurant was almost full and they still had Uber Eats orders, and there were only two side dishes served compared to the standard four at other Korean restaurants.<br/><br/>Still a great dinner overall - a hearty, filling meal for a cold winter night.<br/><br/>n.b. We tried to come here last Sunday as it said it was open on Zomato, but unfortunately it was not.

Was craving some korean food after i got back from my korean trip so visited the most well known jokbal house in north shore. I guess you get beat the og in korea, then again I shouldnt make that comparison since it's not korea. Definitely get the kalppong (spicy noodles) if the pigs feet intimidate you tho 😊

Nice and authentic Korean place for the pork hock meat in Albany. The restaurant is small but quite busy during dinner time. Their hotpot soup is also tasty too. Would love to visit again.

Been here once, the restaurant is way smaller than the one in CBD, busy but not too crowded. Great service, clean environment and food is delicious and big portion.

Came here for the first time during dinner service. Good service. Friendly and attentive staff. Great food. Generous serving. Will definitely come back.

The usual Korean food. Pretty decent and portion for mains is reasonable however the banchan (side dishes) could be improved. They do steam egg which is our favourite. Come here once in a while as the do jeokbal and pretty spicy bbq dishes.

Walked into the shop and first thing i see is the menu is taped already indicating a bad sign. Checking the prices, compared to the menu on zomato, prices have increased by $2 - $3 which is quite crazy. Service is slow. Ordered spicy beef soup and beef bone soup and my god. The worst Korean Restaurant ever. Spicy beef soup tastes like shin ramen but watered down and very strong taste of bean sprouts. No variety of vege inside the soup either. Beef bone soup only has 4 peices of meat and tastes like salt water. The rice is definitely old as it feels like rubber. Dont waste your time coming here as you will regret it. Very very disappointing and disgusting.

A nice little Korean cusine in Rosedale, great customer service, good vibes, the steamed eggs and Bull Jok Bal (spicy pork hock) are a must try.<br/>

They used to be good but not sure what had happened? Maybe changing of cooks? Recipes? Now I like the one in the city way way better than this one for some reason.. the staff there could be very very slow sometimes I don't think they ever had a legit cashier/waitress! Huge portion tho

The food was great!<br/>It was great customer service but only one waiter had to cover all the tables by himself.<br/>But I definitely visit this place again :)<br/>

I’m a great fun of Korean cuisine and really love the place! Food and service are outstanding! Kimchi stew was so delicious, can’t wait to come again! <br/>

Today, we ordered chicken fried noodles and we were given SPICY chicken fried noodles. When we told them, they just lied saying that when they prepare it, they use spicy ingredients. The food is ok, the service is not!

I would not recommend this place. Meat was overcooked and tough, service was non-existent. I would much prefer to go to food court for a semi decent Korean.

We arrived at 14:15 and been told that they close at 14:30. My understanding is that the waitress just asked us to leave politely. We wondered if we got the wrong information from both goole and zomato （which told us they open the whole day on Sunday）. We went to the cafe next door to grab something to eat，just at the time that we went out from the cafe，we saw a group of people walking in，sitting down and made their orders. Not sure if we are the only people being treated specially here.🙃🙃

We came here after reading the nice review on Zomato. Personally I am not a fan of Korean food and not a great Pork eater. However, I must say the food were very tasty. I loved the chicken mayonnaise with seaweed rice. We ordered the pork too as we were attracted to the dish from the very nice big menu. Again, I am not a fan of kimchi but their kimchi dish as well as other side dishes were very appetising.<br/>The only let down was the service. We stood at the door way and no one came to us or showed us to a table. I was beginning to think it was a fast food concept where you walk to the counter and order your own but it wasn’t.<br/>We ordered 4 dishes and 3 beers and the bill came to $93. The restaurant only accepts cash/eftpos and no credit card. I would have thought it would be acceptable if they accept credit card for bill over $30 (for example) like some Asian supermarket or restaurants.<br/>There was not a single smile on any of their faces (perhaps an owner and two staffs) which made us felt pretty unwelcoming even though the food was good. Not a very pleasant visit.<br/>PS I still give Kaya Rosedale a pretty high rating due to the food but service was indeed appalling.

Most dreadful Korean Restaurant we've ever been. No customer service at all. The 2 young staff were absolutely had no idea how to serve customers. Forgetting the orders for one and can't order an additional side dishes even though we have 5 dishes. The same owner with the one up the road which is called Totoya same shit service from both. Definitely not coming back.

I like the Korean restaurant so much, I often come here for the beef rib soup. Sometimes we arrived so early, we were disappointed because they didn't prepare the soup yet. The side dishes are delicious too. <br/><br/>Also I had the spicy pork (I can't remember clearly) with my friend, it was very nice. Better for two people's meal. <br/><br/>Remember to check the opening hours then go to the restaurant.

▪️Great menu <br/>▪️Fast service <br/>▪️Open and spacey<br/><br/>I personally prefer the Lorne Street branch but honestly the food here is so delicious that tastewise, they've both been a hit. When I crave something hearty and spicy, I can def count on Kaya to provide the goods. Their hotpots are jam-packed full of flavour, although can leave you feeling quite bloated and groggy...so definitely not healthy by any means. <br/><br/>Their main dishes are perfectly portioned and always served hot. Reasonable and the free side dishes are always a bonus!! Overall, not a bad spot to grab a Korean fix 😄

We dined here on sunday afternoon and ordered their beef bulgogi and spicy beef soup (yukgaejang). The restaurant was lovely and the food were delicious! My husband especially loved his beef soup, I enjoyed my bulgogi too but there's a bit too much vegetables (cabbages and onions) on the plate. Not that I complained, it's just the side dishes were all vegetables as well, I felt like I'm missing out on something. Overall it is a very good korean restaurant for casual dining.

The only Korean restaurant cannot refill side dishes I have ever met. Food was average, service was terrible. Please learn how to serve customers from other Korean restaurants.

It's very bad service,just ruin me and my family dinner. Definitely never ever go there again. She told me that I should to keep my kids quiet and they r not even crying. The place it self its noisy from cooking music and people talking.

$10 jugs of melon soju and affordable and massive bowls of tasty noodles. Enough said. <br/><br/>Edit: this review needs at least 140 characters so maybe I'll go on to say that the customer service and ambience is average but the food and value makes up for that.

Food was great. But theres just too much vegetables and less meat which is annoying. But nevertheless food still amazing. Friendly staff and very cute place.

Decided to lunch here one afternoon as we were in the area.<br/> We ordered the grilled squid, kimchi pancake along with a fish roe soup. <br/><br/> I found that the flavours were bland in the fish roe soup and kimchi pancake. Pancake was doughy and wasn't crispy to my liking. The squid was rather chewy and overly drenched in sauce. In terms of food unfortunately I won't be back.<br/><br/> It seems rather short staffed, with only one waitress that ducked in and it of the kitchen quite often. The tables were sticky for some weird reason. For the price of each dish, I know of other places that really hit the spot for cheaper. <br/>

Yummy and refreshing Mango snow ice flakes. Must try!<br/>!!! Grill squid and sizzling chicken are amazing too. The place is cozy, and the staff are friendly.

We took my daughter out for a birthday meal and were a total of eight people.<br/>The restaurant staff were good to reserve us a table over the phone and friendly on arrival.<br/>The place is quite small and the menu is limited. We had a vegetarian with us who struggled to find a suitable dish.<br/>When her dish arrived it was full of bacon although she was promised it had no meat. <br/>The staff quickly attended to this mistake and prepared a new dish for her which then only contained two pieces of bacon instead.<br/>I had the sizzling spicy pork which I found quite thick in kimchi/tomato paste flavour and felt it lacked imagination.<br/>Others who ordered sweet chicken dishes seemed to enjoy theirs.<br/>Also heard good things about the beef bone soup. <br/>Overall not too impressed and probably will not rush to return.

Kaya ticks all the boxes in all categories. Service, taste and food. <br/>When we arrived the restaurant was packed. Only one table left. <br/>Several people ended up ordering take away due to lack of space.<br/>I have no doubt kaya would flourish In a larger venue.<br/>Pmenus quickly presented. <br/>Ordered a warm saki for myself. Partner chose Korean beer.<br/>Given a starter of Kimchi and other tasters whole we waited to eat.<br/>So many great things to chose from. I ordered the fried rice with bacon and cheese which was amazing. Partner ordered the incredibly tasty sizzling spicy beef.<br/>Sadly I was too full to try the desert but next time....

The food was great, the service was great and the waiter suggested we try a drink called Soju.  It was just delicious!  It is great when staff suggest things like that and we are so glad we tried the Soju.  We will now look for it in an Asian restaurant we go to.

I came here for a family lunch a while ago. It was late Saturday afternoon, and there was only us in the restaurant. We sat down and and attempted to order shortly afterwards, but the server ignored us and walked right past our table. He seemed almost bored and stuttered whilst getting our order. <br/>The side dishes were either lacking taste completely, or salty beyond my imagination. The cabbage tasted like wet tissue, and kimchi was just a mass of salt. Not impressed. However, the steamed egg was lovely. It was done nicely, and we all enjoyed it thoroughly. <br/>Now, my brother had ordered Spicy Chicken Sizzling. The menu clearly stated it comes with rice and miso, but it only arrived with rice. The server did not mention anything, so we were left befuddled. I wanted to inquire about this, but the sever disappeared from the counter. We could hear him chattering away with the kitchen staff. Needless to say we were somewhat annoyed and frustrated. When the server FINALLY bothered to get out of the kitchen only to great another customer, I called him and asked what has happened with the soup. He simply said; "oh, we don't do them anymore." If you don't do them anymore, cross it off the menu. Its false advertising. If you haven't managed to do that yet, then the server should have mentioned that when we first ordered. It's not that hard. The least he could have done was to apologise for the confusion, but he just shrugged and left. What kind of service is that? <br/>My brother liked his food. It wasn't extraordinarily delicious but it was okay. The same could be said for Kalbbong. The serving portion was almost ridiculous - It was MASSIVE for a $14 meal. Our parents loved it, I thought it was nice too. I personally thought it was too salty, but everyone is different. Dad's Kalbbong had almost zero seafood in it, but mum had more than enough to share. <br/>Overall it was a mediocre experience, made worse by the rather lazy service provided by the server. I don't think it is worth traveling all the way from west to try their food, but if you live out north - give it a go.

The main dishes here are amazing, and their side dishes are just marvellous! I recommend kalguksoo, as their soup is really rich with flavour. Definitely a great place for family dining, or long overdue catch up. Lastly! the owner of the restaurant is very friendly and genuine. Cannot ask for more :) !

Great little place with lovely friendly ambience. We ordered the plain pork and spicy pork platters and sides to share. We got very spicy and it was a big hit with everyone. The sides were delicious especially the radish sides and soup was super spicy just the way we like it. We also ordered the Oreo and mango snow flakes sundaes and they were yummy too. Definitely recommend this place to anybody who loves spicy hot food!!

译文<br/>It was generally. Too salty!<br/>Dishes taste bad。<br/>The sauce is too much, so the smell is too heavy！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！

译文<br/>This is the worst I had ever eaten Korean food！！<br/>the BBQ squid too much sauce.

The food was awesome however, the service we received from one of the staff members was horrible. i understand that it was one of those busy friday evenings but it does not give him a reason to treat us the way he did. it seemed like he didnt want to work or serve us as he should. Service was slightly disappointing but the food was good and quick to serve.

Lovely Korean restaurant situated on the shore.<br/>Service was friendly and the food came out quick. Spicy fire chicken was an absolute delight, and the side dishes were fresh and full of variety. The food is a very authentic korean which means some dishes are VERY spicy, you have been warned. <br/><br/>Only complaint is that the majority of the dishes meant for groups are pork based, would have liked more meat variety.<br/><br/>As a side note, their desserts are heavenly, especially in the hot NZ summer. Don't be fooled by photos, the dessert servings are massive and well worth the price.<br/>Definitely recommend a visit here.

After craving some authentic Korean food, for two people to share, I came across this gem in Rosedale. It was full of Koreans at a first glance, which is good as you go where locals know food is good. The service was friendly and very helpful to take our orders. We ordered the sides to share (which I recommend so that you can do lettuce wraps), and we also ordered the spicy chicken with a side of rice for 2. The food was very well flavoured and had just the right amount of heat. I thoroughly enjoyed this meal, and I would recommend this place to anyone near albany who is craving a decent priced Korean meal with big portions to share.

Very bad dining experience! We went there for lunch yesterday(21/11/2015), there was two staff in the restaurant: a chef and a waiter. When we walked in the chef was playing his phone in the kitchen and the waiter just ignored us. He is the worst waiter I have ever seen, no smile on his face and  he doesn't know what is customer service. I don't know why the owner would hire a staff like this, we would never come back again.

Worst customer service I ever had. Only one employee taking orders and serving customers. He is not friendly at all and very unhappy if you ask for water, extra rice, etc. I think he needs a bit of customer service training and a bit of smile on his face. :).

Ate here for lunch with work colleagues as we were looking for something a little different that particular day. <br/><br/>The place is small and cosy but well appointed and service cannot be faulted. We were greeted almost instantly and once we ordered our food it took about 15-20min to get it. <br/><br/>The food itself was very good. Personally I ordered the medium hot spicy beef & was happy with the heat factor but definitely felt there needed to be a bit more flavour. This however didn't mean the meal wasn't good... It was. <br/><br/>Definitely will pop over again to try out something else on the menu. Price wise, it is a bit expensive but you get a good portion size. They also have 'combo' on their menu board but said they no longer do them... There needs to be a sign or something for customers or remove this. <br/><br/>Overall pretty good spot for some Korean food.

If you love pork, then this is the place to be! If you love spicy Korean food, then this is also the place to be!<br/><br/>Kaya offers platters of pork to share, or as single serve meals as well. We also tried their spicy noodle soup - super spicy, but man...the noodles is fresh and perfect to our liking!<br/><br/>We'll definitely be back.<br/><br/>Selection: 3.5/5<br/>Flavour + Taste: 4/5<br/>Price: 4/5<br/>Ambiance: 3.5/5<br/>Service: 3.5/5<br/>Value: 4/5

We decided to eat here because of its close location to Jump. Both craving Korean food, we looked up Korean cuisine on Zomato and found Kaya! <br/><br/>This is a very small restaurant and when we walked in we were acknowledged straight away by the waitress behind the counter. There was a big group of about ten people dining there when we got here. <br/><br/>We were given one menu to share; the food looked amazing on the menu! Water was given straight away, and our side dishes were already given to us before we ordered our mains. The complimentary side dishes included a salad, bean sprouts, kimchi and what seemed to be fish cakes. These were pretty good! When we were ordering we were told that we couldn't order a few dishes. My partner wanted the kimchi fried rice and it just happened to be one of the few that they couldn't make for some reason! He opted for the sizzling spicy chicken instead. I chose one of the recommended dishes: the spicy tofu, kimchi, seaweed noodle soup. <br/><br/>Our meals came out relatively quickly! My soup was quite nice, though it was "too fishy" for my partners liking. The chicken was quite nice as well, though we have had better! <br/><br/>Though tasty and the location of this restaurant was convenient, I don't think I would drive across town another day for this restaurant. We may visit if we are in the area again. Friendly service though! <br/><br/>

<br/><br/>This isn't my first time to dine in this place and the way I feel about it remains the same.<br/><br/>Popped in here for lunch and we ordered Jok Bal Jung Sik ($14), Spicy Pork Sizzling ($14) and Kal Guk Su ($13). To be honest, I don't understand what the hype is coming from other reviewers about this place because everything seems pretty average with a boarderline average servicemanship.<br/><br/>An OK side-dish were served to our table after the customers that have arrived and ordered after us were served first. The Jok Bal Jung Sik was bland and definitely could have been better for its price (I've had better flavoured microwavable ones), Spicy Pork Sizzling was not spicy at all and the Kal Guk Su I find is by far the best dish we've ordered here.<br/><br/>To be honest, it seems like people come to this place only because there aren't many places around that offer some of the foods on their menu.<br/><br/>

Friendly staffs, delicious food and clean serving and dishes!! Went there few days ago with friends after work. Recommed you "banban jokbal". It is combination of spicy and mild. Kaya is worth to visit. Strongly recommend if you guys have not been there.<br/>

Tastes awesome .<br/>Chicken sizlling, Beaf soup .Yum ...<br/>A very girl named Jenny is always very nice.<br/>Everyone should come here to try the delicious food.<br/>目前吃过点最好吃点一家韩国店。很不错！<br/>

We went there last night to order banban jokbal with side dishes/drinks. Praises for this wonderful girl called Jenny (omg she's such a cute and happy girl!) who never failed to lose her smile on the most frustrating meal requests from us. Superb meal and excellent service. Definitely worth another visit!

I love to go here at lunvh time everyday.<br/>I usually have kimchi bacon fried rice with miso soup. I asked staff to make it not spicy and tried kal bbong nudle, spicy porkhork. It was fantastic asian food I ever had before.

Friendly staffs (specially cute girl Jenny..many thanks) and great taste of fusion korean foods..Good to go with firends and family..strongly recommend to try...

I came here this thursday. And i was very satisfied with the food and service. Whoever customer comes in, they always says "hello" "어서오세요". Especially, i had nangchae trotter, kalbbong. Nangchae is the best food for summer. And kalbbong noodle is so spicy and yummy. I highly recommend this place :))

Loved the taste of korean food <br/>Soju and mak gol li + bul jok ! Damnnnnn this is gooodie ! The service was gentle and smiling all the time ! If you love spicy spicy = this place is daaaaa place :) <br/>Charm izzle for shizzle . Pour one for my bul jok :3