Review Flourishing Cafe - Avondale

We had lunch and dinner at this restaurant serveral times. We came back for dinner recently. On arrival, we found that the restraurant was pretty crowded and of course noicy. However we were not disappointed. The service was still good and friendly. The waiters and waitresses were friendly and helpful. As for the food they still maintain the same quality of taste. If you are keen to try some Chinese dishes, this will be a good place to start with. No language and parking problem.

Came here for a birthday celebration. Excellent 👌👍 Service. Very friendly and cheerful staff. Great quality food.

My favourites were the fried wontons and the lunch special Roast Duck noodle soup. Such good value for the noodles and very hearty servings. The fried wontons were a bit different to what I was expecting, in fact much better. I only wish there was more filling to get better value. The other dishes we had were cooked so perfectly, even the prawns. The only thing I disliked was that there was a lot of fried onions and not many other vegetables to fill up the prawn and pork dishes. Other than that, 5 stars for quality and value of food, service was decent and fast on a Monday for lunch. Just wish I ordered more fried wontons to take home lol

A good place to have a quality Chinese food. Compared to other Chinese restaurants I tried around new Lynn , this place is great in terms of food and service. Loved the sizzling beef and chicken. Better to order steam rice which is 1.50$ and go ahead with different dishes. Better to book in advance as it tend to get busy in the evening. As it doesn't have much space , restaurant tend to be noisy when crowded.

AWESOME FOOD. Staff don't know too much English. Super affordable!

Just had an awesome big family dinner here. Everything we ordered was delicious from the Sizzling Beef with Sichuan sauce to the Spicy Spare Ribs, Roast Duck, Sweet & Sour Chicken, Seafood & Tofu Hotpot, Mixed Veges and Young Chow fried rice! While we ordered far too much we ate the lot, no need for a doggy bag. Nice, friendly staff. Will definitely be back again next month.

Awesome food. Ordered one entree hot & spicy tiger prawns & a main dish chicken black bean sauce which was more than enough to be shared between three of us. Oh my god check out how they serve tasty steamed rice. Excellent place to eat Chinese food. If you haven't been here, guys you for sure missing something!

The food was great yum. They were able to serve food quick enough on a big order of 8 dishes. Although we ordered peking duck, it came a bit later than we expected but the wait was worth it. It was soo good! Overall big servings and a hearty meal. Great for sharing. I think they need more fans in there though for summer.

Our favourite place to have Dinner with coworker & friends. Nice food & affordable. Easy to get reservations. I also had my Baby Baptismal lunch here in 2016. we've been going here since year 2011.

What a hidden Gem. This restaurant is A1 premium Chinese restaurant. The best Chinese food we had ever tasted in NZ. The service was told the food delicious, and there were 8 of us dining. My wife is Chinese, and she managed a top Chinese restaurant for more than 6 years and even she agreed it was super good and forgot one thing the size and quantity is way over the top.

Just had an awesome big family dinner here. Everything we ordered was delicious from the Sizzling Beef with Sichuan sauce to the Spicy Spare Ribs, Roast Duck, Sweet & Sour Chicken, Seafood & Tofu Hotpot, Mixed Veges and Young Chow fried rice! While we ordered far too much we ate the lot, no need for a doggy bag. Nice, friendly staff. BYO which is great. Will definitely be back again next month.

Absolutely shocking ❌<br/>Went here around a month ago & it's nothing like it used to be. The service was terrible!!<br/>Food didn't taste anything like it used to.<br/>The only thing that tasted good was the fried rice.<br/><br/>*Quantity is still good though, but the prices have increased*<br/><br/>Plus the lady who was serving us seemed like she was in a hurry & there was 0 customer service.<br/>Won't be going back here.<br/><br/>Ambience : ⭐<br/>Staff : ❌<br/>Food : ⭐<br/>Price : ⭐⭐<br/>Food : 1/5

Came here with a group of 6 and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The food came out quite quickly, and we were mostly extremely impressed with the value and taste. The sweet and sour pork, beans and roasted pork were delish! The sizzling black pepper beef was not quite as tasty as I had hoped for, but there was plenty food on the table to full up on. Can’t wait to come back and try other dishes.

food is great and very big plate… good price and friendly stuff would definitely.recomend to all especially prawn meat balls . . . so yummy.

I too would like to add to this. On saturday night, my surprise birthday, from my kids. Food was tastless, creasy and absolutely shocking. The money my kids spent was NOT worth it.  Am going to tell all my friends NOT to ever go to this place.  My rating is - 00000000.

Flourishing Café is not as good as it use to be. I had a bad experience this evening with this restaurant. I ordered 3 dishes: one is vegetable, that was recommended without giving me the price, second is stewed beef and mutton. I tried the beef that tasted a bit sour and hard to chew, and it was mixed with pork that was very rigid and stiff. The vegetable was salty and not fresh but we were charged $28. So I would never ever go back to this restaurant again......

The food was tasty but the portions are smaller than other similar restaurants. Service is average. I think you get better value for your money elsewhere.

Came for lunch at 12pm<br/><br/>Ordered wonton noodle soup lunch special.<br/><br/>$15<br/><br/>Noodle was a little soggy and tasteless and wonton was slightly off did not taste that great.<br/><br/>Soup stock was good and so was the service and wait time<br/><br/>The picture below was after I had some food already

slow service. only 2 waitresses during bz hours.....ridiculous. bad attitude, they dont give a s...abt customer. will not recommend this place

Had dinner the other night here place was empty , food was tasty!!! Lil bit pricey tho my 3 meat combination was $20 which i think is lil bit over priced I would of liked a bit more meat!!, I wasn’t happy with the 8 pieces of roast pork lol , everything else was good

I used to come here all the time but before they changed owners. <br/><br/>We made a booking for 5 people and we had 6 big plates of food, two small ones as well as our own eating plates and bowls. <br/><br/>We asked if we could move to a bigger table as we still had a long big plate of fish coming. The waitress said in Chinese nah it's fine because we can move things out of the way to make room. Except at this point our eating plates were hanging off the edge of the table. <br/><br/>I had to ask again because it was extremely uncomfortable and awkward for us to enjoy the food. The restaurant was pretty empty. When I asked her if we can move again because we really had no space and all the bigger tables were free she cut me off mid sentence and sighed saying fine you can move. <br/><br/>The food is good but I do not recommend them because the service was ridiculously rude. <br/><br/>The photo is the old table and the new table.

Service was fast and efficient. Food was very tasty and reasonably priced. We came here with a big family group and had one of the large round tables to ourselves. I highly recommended this restaurant with a big rowdy group.

Very good services and delicious food, I loved the hot&spicy king prawns and the beef with hot Sichuan sauce, soooo yummy! Nice place ,definitely will come back:-).

This is the second time we are here. Our first time was a wonderful experience and the food and services are great so decided to came back again on Saturday night for my mum birthday. As expected the food are exceptional and the services are emasculate! The problem is all of us got an extreme food poisoning after the dinner which lasted us for 2 days. I hardly gave bad review but after this experience I am not sure if I will come back again in the future. <br/><br/>Atmosphere: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️<br/>Foods: ⭐️<br/>Services: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Taste, price and size, everything is perfect, the taste definitely makes me want to come back. I will try more food when I come back in the near future.

We had dinner recently at this restaurant.  Earlier was told that the service was real bad.  The waitresses were rude and just threw the plates on the table.  This was really disastrous. But we <br/>went to judge for ourselves.  On arrival, we found that the restraurant was pretty crowded and <br/>of course noicy.  However we were not disappointed.  The service was quite good, I mean as <br/>expected but the waitresses were friendly and no throwing of plates onto the table.  As for the food<br/>they were tasty and of good serving with acceptable prices.  If you are keen to try some Chinese<br/>dishes, this will be a good place to start with.

Food is always amazing. I recommend the Maggie sauce with squid or the prawn balls, so delicious. Customer service is average but the food makes up for it.

Waited 50minutes for the steamed blue cord. Unwelcoming staff， dishes are overly salty and almost all dishes taste the same with excessive salt oil and onions. The taste just like a cheap takeaway with a priced of a decent Cantonese .There male staff checkout on you behind the counter make me feel very uncomfortable, it’s rude and disrespectful. You need to tell your chefs stop Staring at girls.

Took Honey BBQ pork on rice as takeaway and was really disappointed. I always take this dish but not sure because I was late today they just chucked full box of rice and jut few pieces of pork on top and they were too rubbery. Normally the slices are good quantity and not rubbery. If they didn't have enough pork left should have said so I could have ordered another dish!!

Delicious food. Pleasant staff. Good service. I loved the experience at Flourishing Cafe. The portions were huge which make it worth the money. The food was a bit on the oily side with a lot of the sauce in the chicken in sichuan sauce being oil. Nevertheless, the food tasted great. The staff was friendly, with the ambience perfect for a family outing. However, keep an eye out for the extra dollar (per person) you get charged as service fees. If you are in the mood for Chinese and want to take the fam bam out for a reasonable meal Flourishing Cafe is a good visit.

Big portions, Tasty food but  all dishes loaded with onions, dishes are oily. Staff are helpful and provide reasonable advice on dish choice. Restaurant is clean, tidy well lit and service is fast. Steamed rice quantities are large. The restaurant has a service charge of $1/person which appears un-usual.<br/>Overall good experience and would love to visit again on an occassions<br/> <br/>Good number of parking on rooftop

Heaps of parking in the area. And near the main road. It gets busy though especially at night so make a booking. <br/><br/>My favorite dish here will be the squid and their home made tofu! Squid is fried mixed with onions and capsicum if I'm right. The tofu is massive but you can just easily cut this and should cater a group of 3-4 people. <br/><br/>Service is not too bad here especially the time we went for it was only us in the restaurant.

A great environment with cosy feel. The customer service is great with a range of options . I went here for a group of friends dinner . I throughly enjoyed. If you want to have duck, you should try the roast duck here. They also have sweet and sour fish.

My dad loves the roast duck here and forced me to come with him for lunch! He goes a lot with one of his foodie friends who also says it's the best roast duck he's had in Auckland. <br/><br/>We of course ordered the roast duck, fried rice noodles and the tofu, mushroom<br/>And vegetable soup to share. I don't normally eat duck but wow it was delicious! Crunchy skin and tender meat full of flavour, I liked the sweet sauce with it too. The noodles were pretty average, I had to add lots of chilli oil and soya sauce for flavour. The mushroom, tofu and vegetable soup was REALLY GOOD, super fresh and flavourful, and only $5, highly recommend the soup as a starter. <br/><br/>My only negative is the poor crayfish sitting in the tank I feel so sorry for them 😞

First time I've had Peking duck two course. The duck was succulent and nice and melt in your mouth the meat was. However the bowl of chopped up duck meat and vegetables was bland in taste. The ambience in the restaurant was dull with dated decor. Needs an uplift of customer service and layout. Waitress was okay, lacked good people skills but overrall not too bad.

Standard Chinese Restaurant.We have  been going to this restaurant many times over a couple of years.<br/><br/>We had some overseas visitors and went last week on Friday 07 July – <br/>10 people and got a corner table. <br/><br/>We have noticed on our last couple of visits that the standard of their food is getting lower<br/>in comparison to what they charge .<br/>We ordered 8 dishes including the one listed below. <br/><br/>• Chicken Sha Cha Sauce – TOO MUCH ONION - More than the chicken<br/>• Beef in Oyster sauce – TOO MUCH ONION<br/> - More than the beef <br/>• Salt & Pepper King Prawn – TOO MUCH ONION<br/> - More than the prawn<br/>• They need to put less onion and more chicken ,beef. & Prawn<br/><br/>They have only a couple of  staff who can speak & understand English.<br/><br/> We had a  birthday cake and asked the staff for saucers and spoons – no<br/><br/>one gave us anything and after 10 minutes we decided to take the cake and have it at home.  <br/><br/>• We spent over $200 in your restaurant and this might have been our last time there<br/>because i don't see any chance of improvement .

Come here with the family quite often. The portions are quite big. Great place to go with the family. A little on the pricier side, however the food is really good and the staff are nice. The restaurant is clean. Defs recommend

This place was average. So much onion in all of the dishes and freaking expensive. Overly oily, rushed and a 5 cent piece of meat in a very large oily wonton wrapper. We had heard really great things about this place but we're very disappointed. Service was okay though just the food let them down.

Standard Chinese restaurant, I was pretty confused about their "Café" in the name but anyhow. <br/>Convenient because it has free parking on the top and in front of the restaurant. Always pretty packed as well.<br/>As a family this used to be our go-to place, and we would order between 6-8 dishes, which we end up taking away the leftovers (portions are decent). <br/>However over the times we've been, some of their dishes have been slacking off in quality and portions; their fried prawn/shrimp golden balls have definitely reduced in size noticeably, which is disappointing for a price of $32-35. <br/>The flavours are also average, can find the same stuff elsewhere for a better price. <br/>The interior decorations are slightly better than the usual Chinese restaurant, got a big mirror along one wall, with the kitchen on the other that you can partially see over, quite nice. <br/>Good for big groups, would recommend if you live around the area.

Flourishing cafe appears as a standard Chinese restaurant catering to large groups but I must say it has the best roast pork I've ever tasted! I always look forward to this treat. Moist meat with a thin layer of fat and beautifully airy and crunchy topping. Another great dish is the salt n pepper prawns. The big juicy prawns have a crunchy coating and are lightly seasoned with salt and sautéed onions. Would recommend it if you happen to be in the area. Bring a group as the meals are big!

Service was fast and efficient but the food was so bland I will never go there again. The chicken fried rice was stodgy, had no flavour, and the only vegetables were the very occasional bit of pea and carrot that looked suspiciously like frozen veg. The sweet and sour pork also had very little flavour. As for the wontons - where was the filling? They looked like flat sheets of fried wonton wrappers. When we held them up to the light we could just see a small blob of something about the size of a fingernail clipping. The mains were twice as expensive as your average Chinese takeaway and we will stick to making the trip over to The Golden Horse in Greenlane.

Duck on rice is amaazing. Salt and pepper tofu is not so much but the duck made up for it by far. Just got takeaway so don't really know much else

What a rip off, I got a couple of dishes as take away last week. Veal dish, and vegtable dish. Both where just about ok, but their value was about $10.00 each for sure. Actual price at Flourishing $53.00.<br/><br/>Both like ok asian food hall food, but over twice the price!!!

Flourishing cafe is lovely. The ambience is loud but lively. They are very generous with their portion size and provide good service. Loved the hot and spicy prawns.

I love Canton but can hardly ever stomach the amount of people and parking in Kingsland, so when I found out Flourishing was the sister cafe I was keen to try right away! We had the crispy pork on rice and the BBQ chicken on noodles to takeaway. Both lovely and didn't disappoint, service was also fast and accurate! Will definitely return to dine in.

Sorry to say this but this used to be one of our favourite places and we've frequented this restaurant probably 40+ times as it was much easier to get parking and closer to home than Canton in Kingsland UNTIL we found out from a friend/neighbour who used to work there that she had witnessed on more than (2 occasions) the chef picking up food that had fallen on the ground & putting it back in the dishes. Well! Need I say more? Except NEVER went back there again!

A sister of the very popular Canton Cafe. Very tidy well kept restaurant which was quiet at 6pm on Thursday night. We didn't book so thankfully they were! I've been here times before and it can get packed pretty fast and very loud so if you're thinking of quiet dining plan on coming earlier rather than later. Although the language barrier is there, which is probably their only slight let down, they still get the job done and in good time too. We ordered the beef ginger and spring onion, crispy roast pork (small) and sweet and sour pork which were all very yum and came out within 10 mins of placing our order! We usually get hot and spicy squid when we have a bigger group too which is also very good!

Our family visited this restaurant after having decent dining experiences here. The experience started with a bland soup into decent vegetables and ribs. However, we were served abhorrent raw fish that is lukewarm on the outside and cold on the inside. The waitress heard the complaint but the manager on duty refused to appear when we asked for her, and pushed responsibilities to her juniors. She also remarked that it is not the restaurant's responsibility to ensure the food is cooked before arriving to the table. The manager on duty were also hard headed and showed disrespect and poor patience for customer complaints. <br/><br/>Henceforth I would not return to this restaurant. There is nothing redeemable about this restaurant barring the junior waitress Koon, from whom her supervisor should be adopting service attitude.

Definitely NOT A SISTER RESTAURANT OF CANTON CAFE. The food is inferior and not a patch on Canton. Menu is different to Canton and food is full of onions that were nearly raw. It should not say on Menu mania that these restaurants are related. We asked and they are not. In a word yuk.

Great food great atmousphere staff are nice and polite. Orders were placed and out within 10-12 mins. I got chicken with spring onions and ginger. Didnt find much spring onions or ginger what i did find were alot of onions.

Came here for my birthday dinner last night with my family. We ordered eight dishes, sweet and sour hapuka, prawn balls, salt n pepper prawns, Comb. Fried rice, spicy squid, peking duck, vegetables, beans with pork mince. All the dishes were delicious!! But the most outstanding dish is the Peking duck it was so yum I wanted more!! The prawns were yum too.<br/><br/>I would visit again they're outstanding compared to other places I've been too. The sizes are big so it makes your money worth they aren't small plates like other places you go to and spend over $20. If you're thinking of authentic this is the place to go.

When I have a soup I expect at least a good and balanced stock, bit I didn't find that at Flourishing Café.<br/><br/>The taste of it was actually burned, which almost ruined my lunch, but the prawns itself were well cooked and delicious.<br/><br/>If they had gotten everything right, the meal would have been remarkable.

I rarely eat Chinese but when I do<br/>it is often at Flourishing Café. Food is delicious and fresh and the menu is<br/>vast. The portions are big so if there are only two of you dining I would<br/>recommend ordering one main only. My favourite is the hot and spicy prawns<br/>(with the shell off). This dish is not overly spicy and comes with onions and<br/>capsicum. There is a good serving of prawns which has been delectably coated.<br/>Another favourite is the beans with pork in soya beans – extremely tasty. I<br/>only mention two of my favourite dishes. There are so many other wonderful<br/>delights to choose from. <br/><br/>It is also BYO. Point to note is<br/>that Flourishing Café can be rather noisy with the many large tables of<br/>families dining. I love it though as it is what dining is all about – good food<br/>and chatter with family and friends.

The best BBQ pork i have tasted compared to other chinese place i have been. <br/><br/>Price  = 3/5<br/>Food  = 4/5<br/>Service  = 3/5<br/>Ambience=  33.5/5<br/>Quantity = 3.5/5<br/><br/>Ordering Tips:<br/>-BBQ Honey pork<br/>-Steam Blue Cod<br/>-Sizzling beef<br/> <br/><br/>Don't forget to Hit LIKE or Comment if this review was of any help. Thanks!

Big potion and great taste, A good place to go to when dining with a few friends for a hungry night out. Their spring onion with Lobster is absolutely my favorite. Sweet and sour pork Is the one I always order. Service was just average.

Have been here many times now and can honestly say i dont have anything bad to say. Nice variety and food is delicious and comes out very fast. Service is average but prices are pretty good too. Must haves are the hot n spicy prawns shell off/ green beans with pork/ lemon hapuka and the crispy pork!! Yummy!! Great local 😀

The food are nice but the services is not really impress , the waitress are so moody if you don't want to serve then don't thank you but really enjoy the food though

I made a booking for Father's Day dinner but was let down to find that our table wasn't reserved. Furthermore, we weren't the only ones there that this had happened to. After waiting for 15 minutes, the other group of 5 decided to leave and we got to have the table after a total of 25 minutes' waiting. Lucky for us the waitress took our order before we were seated to save time; after all we had been standing looking at the menu for a while. She was nice enough to throw in a dish for free to apologise for our wait and explained that they had no tables free because everyone else before us came late, causing a big delay in seating for the end half of the evening. Food came fairly quickly even though the place was busy but I think we tailed the end of the dinner rush (lots of tables became free after we were seated). The waitress may have also pushed our food ahead of the queue, considering the mix up. Portions were huge - consistent with what I remember from dining here years ago. Dishes that we ordered: pork chop with red wine sauce (not bad; difficult to eat with chopsticks), lemon chicken (loved the chicken's flavour and texture; disliked the sauce), green beans fried with black olives (delicious; recommended), salt and pepper squid (was expecting more spice/pepperyness but not bad), and fried dry noodles with gravy and BBQ pork (loved the crunchy noodles). Waitress forgot to bring rice when our first dishes arrived which seemed pretty basic and it was hard to get their attention after they had turned their backs. Overall the food quality was amazing, our dining experience was handled well despite the mistakes with the booking but realistically not many people would have the patience to wait close to half an hour for a table they already booked.

Alright! So we try and book a table at canton cafe with no luck. Whats the next best thing?? Flourishing Cafe in Avondale. <br/><br/>The menu is similar but ambience is better. They don't quite meet the canton flavour though. We went there on a busy Saturday night. Eventually got a table and over-ordered as you do in a Chinese outlet.<br/><br/>Deep fried prawns shell off - not as good as the ones at canton but you cant do wrong with deep fried prawns can you? BBQ roast pork was good when we got to the table but got chewy has it started to loose it temperature and finally the chicken fried rice which wasn't a world beater. We contemplated on ordering some deep fried chicken since it looked good at the table next to us but when enquired the guy who ordered it didn't recommend it!<br/><br/>Overall - not so bad that I wouldn't go again but defo give Canton a try first :)

The food here is very tasty and quite reasonably priced. I was able to feed 8 people for 106 dollars. That, in my opinion is super reasonable. The service was very quick as well. The fried noodles, young chow fried rice and sizzling chicken im hot schezuan sauce are highly recommended.

Absolutely love this place. This is our go to restaurant for family occasions. My favourite dish on the menu is be special tofu which is fried with an absolutely delicious coating. The special tofu isn't on the English menu but is on the Chinese menu. Love their black beans with olives! Must try restaurant.

Popular Chinese restaurant in Avondale <br/>Price 3/5<br/>Food 4.5/5<br/>Service 3/5<br/>Atmosphere 3/5<br/>Big plates all menu good<br/>Very busy<br/>Best chines restaurant.

Great sister cafe of Canton Cafe... Service is excellent .... Food is pretty good... If you don't want to travel into town definitely give this a go...

Great place for all Chinese food lovers. It's nothing over the top with seating and the look of the restaurant but the food makes up for it. Good value for money due to the large portions! Perfect for groups wanting to share some dishes between them. It's location is out of the way for me but it would be a regular if it wasn't! Worth stopping by if your out that way.

love love love this place.. a bit pricey but the food is awesome .. favourites that you must try are the prawn balls with Mayo sauce, half duck, green beans and whole fish.. it's in a random place but always busy so best to book a table.. the wait staff are great and huge round tables make for a good night out with a big crowd of ten or so .. highly recommended!!

Cannot go wrong with this place ..typical Asian food place ..not too flashy an average seating but food is good ..my fav here is hot and spicy king prawns ..a must for someone who loves seafood .

I always love to go to Flourishing Cafe for a nice authentic Chinese meal filled with delicious flavor. Food is always wonderful and I do enjoy everything I have. If you don't mind the crowd that is

Loved the food!! Way larger portions than we were anticipating, will definitely reduce the order next time. Oh yes, there will be a next time! Only minus was the noise and parking. Couldn't hear the person next to me at all! food was so good that it was worth it though. I had the salt and pepper squid, my husband had the seafood fried rice. ordered the beef soup but it was a bit too peppery to eat. Fried dumplings were nom :) well worth a try.

Great food. Good value for money as their portions are huge! Pork belly was delicious. Their service was great despite the fact that they were extremely busy last night. I highly recommend this place - make reservations in advance to avoid disappointment!!

This is one of our family favourites for chinese dine out. The food is always good and never the problem. Service is consistent but they do get quite busy and may sometimes forget little things about your order. This is forgiven though as they will always make up for it somehow. It can get really cramped and noisy but this is expected of any chinese restaurant, in fact us asians are quite used to this and would think it's weird if the resto was quiet! I have noticed recent change in ownership though but fingers cross that things do stay the same or even better - not worse!

Besides the noisiness of the restaurant, not only was the service fast and amazing but so was the food. Upon arrival we became worried that service would take forever because of how busy it is, but this was not the case. We ordered and within 15min, most of our dishes had been brought to the table. The food was delicious and would recommend to everyone.

It's very hard to find a place in West Auckland that can cook decent Chinese food. Flourishing Cafe has a really good variety of different dishes, and if you have ever been to Canton Cafe, you'll definitely enjoy this spot - owners are brothers according to the lady serving us.<br/><br/>Been there many times. Although english is very limited, the service is quite fast. I highly recommend the seafood dishes, especially the Hapuka or Shrimps.<br/><br/>The location isn't very convenient, but plenty of parking out front, upstairs or on the side street.

Great food! I recommend the salt & pepper squid. Busy place so reservations are necessary. I actually prefer this restaurant over its sister "canton cafe" - it's a bustling restaurant but it's a little easier to hold a conversation. Portions appear to be huge, but meals are bulked out with lots of fried onion

Heard some excellent reviews so I decided to try it. Not at all what I expected, the food was bland! Waitresses didn't seem to understand English & I was moved around 3 times from table to table #AnnoyedCustomer

We have been here twice, the second time was just as good as the first. The food is fresh and tasty. The service was also excellent considering the place was almost bursting at the seams it was so busy. A good evening out with a table of 10, all sharing dishes. Will not hesitate to go back.

I booked my daughters birthday to be celebrated here for 16 people. I clearly stated how and what time id like food to be on the table, the booking was for 12 and the restaurant opened at 11am. The staff all sat down and ate until 11.57am they served everyone else who just walked in that were pretty much Asian. I was very angry that we booked and asked that food be on the table by 12 as we had another venue booked. we weren't fully served until 1pm. I have been here before with jus my family and the only issue we had was the timing of the food coming out. This time I just felt it was kind of racist, they tried to tell me about how they do birthdays in their culture which is fine but who is paying who here? I was very disappointed with the service and food, the food came out with the meats first and half hour later when meats were cold the vegetables came out. This is not a place I recommend for birthdays or if you are not of Asian origion.

Booked a table for 2 for me and friend. We arrived to a typical busy place. I ordered the fried hapuka and green beans with pork mince. The food was delicious and portions are huge. We ended up cancelling a couple of dishes and just shared the above with a dish of rice. Food was great, service was great considering how super busy it was but my only complaint was having a table close and in line with the main door. We unfortunately we're sat there and we were cold with the door constantly opened as people arrived and left. I ended up swapping sides with my friend to share the 'cold' hitting us.<br/><br/>Apart from that...It's a great choice for a few friends with appetites and a hunger for some good Chinese. If you're based out West..than this is up there lol.

After seeing so many positive reviews we came here with my family on a busy Saturday evening. To my surprise there were few Chinese patrons to people from other cultures. <br/><br/>The food was generally very tasty, much like Canton cafe up the road. The food is lacks character and generic. Of the 8 dishes we ordered 4 were salt laden. The garlic prawns was a huge let down, despite the appealing presentation it turned out to be greasy, tasteless and slightly over cooked. Broccoli and mushrooms were fantastic as were most of the veges. Portion sizes were great too. <br/><br/>Service was a let down, the staff served the cold dishes (appetisers) after our mains. In addition, the staff made an error with our order and 2 of our dishes came rather late. <br/><br/>I will be back next time and try some of the other dishes before rating again.

Now our favourite Cheap to Eat Chinese Restaurant. Delicious food, very generous serving. The rice on the Rice Menu is good for two as its the biggest rice serving I have ever seen. Have to dine early or make a booking if dining with a big group as its always full. Almost all diners have a leftover to take home.  Lots of people coming for takeaway too.

This place is a hidden gem. It's pretty difficult to find decent Asian food out west so I was stoked when I found this place we no longer have to drive all the way to dom road. Staff are friendly, decor is lacking but the portions are huge and the meat is always perfectly cooked

Went here for dinner with a group of people. We were kind of squished in next to each other round the table, however once the food came out it did not stop. It was very nice, but nothing I would say that is outstanding. The food is very similar to normal Chinese takeaways. Would definitely go here again due to the lovely staff and large servings at a great price. Even learnt some Chinese words from a friend with us and a great experience overall.

It would pay to book as this place is super busy. Huge servings of great tasting Chinese food and you leave with enough food for a week.<br/><br/>The Peking Duck and ribs were standouts.<br/><br/>Worn carpet and non-English speaking service all add to the night out.

Drove around Auckland last Monday trying to find a nice Asian restaurant open because I was craving for some Duck and Crispy Pork. Spotted Flourishing Cafe at the intersection on Great North Road. My God, this place is hella amazing. The young waitress who served us was so attentive but not intrusive, she was professional and very efficient. She kept the table full with food and made sure all the empty plates were out of site. Not only was the service awesome but the food was great. One of the six dishes I ordered was the shrimp fried rice (spicy) for around $12 and it looked like they cooked an entire 1kg bag of rice for that. Trust when I say this, Quantity is not a problem here. You definitely get more than your moneys worth and the flavours are wonderful. Try this place out please, you will love it. Oh yeah, just a heads up - it's One Bill Per Table :) Have fun!

Used to be one if my fav place for Chinese food. Not anymore after they ruin my mood on the last day of 2013 with their unfair way of business, not mentioning the quality of food esp. The fried rice is going down. For the first time in my life (although after the argument they said they "waive" it but next time we have to pay the soup (and the rice) we never order - usually compliment on any other places. Don't worry, there won't be next time. I miss the friendly faces in there. Same name different people equals different results. I didn't put one star because some people there still try their best to serve.

We have eaten at Flourishing Cafe a few times now and the food is great. We definitely consider the prices very reasonable given the quality of the food and generous size of the dishes. The restaurant seems to always be busy, often with people waiting for tables. That has to be a testament to everything that Flourishing Cafe provides to their customers.

My extended family and I frequent this restaurant a lot and it is one of the best Chinese restaurants we've found in Auckland where the food is consistently tasty. Never fails to satisfy our tummies as the portions are very generous and extremely well priced. Works well with some of our large eaters in the family! And it's very hard to find excellent food and good portions in a restaurant! We love the special tofu (deep fried egg-based tofu which is not on the menu), the deep fried hapuka with maggi sauce, spicy squid, claypot eggplant amongst other dishes.<br/><br/>The ambience is a little lacking and the place is often too noisy to even share a conversation but as an Asian family I know that going to these restaurants you go with the mindset that you're going for the food and not the company :) Probably best to compare it with going to a bar where the music is loud, you have a good time anyway!!!<br/><br/>Service is also lacking in that there are long waits especially when it is busy but is part of the whole experience of going to a Chinese restaurant!

Disappointed with our two main dishes. The first was beef braised in soy sauce, three ingredients beef,beans and onion. Around half the meat was stringy and tough. They bulked up the $22 plate with well over 70% onion. the same applied to the second main squid and vegetables, the squid was rubbery and around 80% of the dish was bok choy and broccoli.Whist I except that they bulk up with vegetables to keep the price down for me it was poor value for money and poor quality meat and squid.

We used to go to Canton in Kingsland but since dining at Flourishing Cafe we will not be going back because this is so much closer to home and it is authentic, consistent, and the service is great... Food is delicious and its always easy to overeat here! Spicy Sqiud and the spicy Hapuka is a fav.

We have become regulars here because of the good consistent food served at a very fair price. The size of helpings make it a great place to go and take home the doggy bag for the kids! Average menu for 4 people with 6 different dishes works out at around $100. Keep it up.

Love this restaurant great food and value for money. They know how to prepare seafood,just right, I love the spicy squid and there ducks in any style. dish proportions generous

Have been a couple of times now and the food is amazing. Try the maggi prawns and the spicy squid. I found the prices really economical especially in a group and loads of food.

If you have ever been to Canton Cafe in Kingsland - then you will like this cafe -the chef was originally there - great atmosphere - fantastic food and easier to get in than the Canton Cafe. You must try the Maggi Prawns - they are to die for.

Very very good food. From the rice to noodles to steak to prawns, everything is absolutely brilliant.

This one of the delicious Chinese restaurants I ever been with my family. My family ordered Chicken and sweetcorn soup for starter. The soup is amazing at the moment I thought if the starter is so good imagine the main course.<br/><br/>For main course we ordered deep fried chicken, sweet and sour chicken, and sizzle chicken with ginger and spring onion must be wondering why we ordered so many dishes that’s because we were five people. When we the amount of food we were served I was shocked it was huge.<br/><br/>All the dishes had all the vegetables well cooked and really finger licking. When I was there the restaurant was almost packed which gave me an impression that the food is awesome. It is true fabulous food matches my Indian taste buds <br/>Whenever I'm around Avondale I would want to have it again so people checked it out.

A delicious Chinese restaurant in the heart of Avondale. Flourishing cafe is always busy which shows just how good it is, and we keep going back so they must be doing something right. The staff are very friendly, and although they are busy, they seem to be able to make some time to address every customer. The food is really good, and the portions are massive so you will definitely not leave with an empty stomach. I recommend this to anyone who asks for a delicious Chinese restaurant. Woof.