Review 3 Kings - Birkenhead

Tucked away in the heart of Birkenhead shops is little Filipino restaurant. Have to look for it not very well signposted but once you descend the stairs it is a nice setting downstairs with City & Harbour views. , we ordered about 4 dishes all of them were authentic flavours. Was good size portions. Will definitely go back here to try more on the menu.

The best restaurant for authentic Filipino food. The view of the harbour and the city is amazing. Price is affordable especially because the portions are big enough to share. I always recommend the fried chicken and the kare kare among their dishes, but everything is really good. Plus the owners are super nice.

Great Food, lovely owners, nice view.

Authentic Filipino food

Filipino fine dining restaurant... The food was really good... I also love their desserts especially leche plan... The owner are so friendly and accomodating...

Overpriced overrated food that seemed like I was drinking strong datu puti vinegar out of the bottle. Friendly staff, clean enough resto and bathrooms with paper towels hence the rating.

I like the fact that they accomodated us when we arrived way earlier than their opening time. We went home with our cravings satisfied! Compared to other Filipino restaurants here in Auckland, their pancit canton is also my favourite.

Food is good but portion sizes really small, staff is friendly. Exhaust needs work as when we visited (2013), we came put smelling pretty much like the restaurant too.

Food ordered:<br/>Kare Kare<br/>Beef Bulalo<br/>Rice<br/>1x Coke<br/><br/>Bill: $43<br/><br/>Big tummy: I don't know what it is, but I'm seriously starting to believe that Filipino cuisine simply doesn't translate well to the Auckland restaurant setting. I mean, the food itself is to die for and the Pinoy community is seemingly large enough to sustain a successful restaurant, but it seems like each place we go to is increasingly disappointing, with our visit to 3 Kings setting a new low. I really wanted to like 3K, I really did - it's close to our house and would be a welcome addition to our choice of dining dates - but I was always put off by the low reviews and, amazingly, in hindsight I think the reviews here are pretty generous.<br/>I'll start with the positives because, in all fairness, there really aren't many. The kare kare tasted amazing (when doesn't kare kare taste amazing) and was full of flavour. I guess, the portion sizes were also impressive at first glance (though we'll touch upon that more later). Sadly, that's about it.<br/>Now for the negatives - we'll start with the food. As mentioned above, the servings looked generous at first glance, but that's incredibly misleading. Both dishes were full of soup and vegetables, with not much else. The majority of the meat contingent in the kare kare would have consisted of tripe, with very little actual beef in the dish (just the little pieces attached to a huge bone). The beef bulalo was of a similar standard, though that wasn't so much of an issue, as it was just too salty to finish anyway.<br/>In saying that, I wouldn't rate a restaurant 1.5/5 simply due to disappointing food. The biggest problem with 3K was the service. When we first arrived and went down the stairs we weren't greeted at all, not even with a basic hello. The one guy who was down there, merely walked over to a table and starting preparing it, leaving us to awkwardly walk over assuming that the guy actually worked there and was clearing it for us. The coup de grace though came once we went to pay. We had carefully ordered our dishes with a budget in mind, not wanting to go over $40. The menu listed both of our selected dishes at $16 each (I found it fishy that they don't list their prices on any of their menus online and I guess this is why) and the soft drinks were $4 a can. So basic math will tell you that our bill should have been sitting @ $36 by that stage. We then decided to order one lot of rice, with the presumption that it would cost $1-2, making our bill $37-38. However, when I went to pay, the guy charged us $43 in total. Either they charge $7 for a plate of rice or he simply ripped us off and, sadly, I know which is more likely. I'll never understand why some places choose to blatantly overcharge their customers. It's just poor business practice and has cost them repeat customers. <br/><br/>Little tummy: As a Filipina myself, I can't express how disappointed I was in 3 Kings. Yeah, the food didn't live up to our expectations, but the worst part of the experience was the service. Filipino culture is usually associated with warm and friendly hospitality - neither of which you'll find here. It's not hard to see why 3K has the lowest rating for Filipino restaurants in Auckland. Cold service and ripping your customers off - an embarrassment to Filipino cuisine and hospitality.

Food is good. Not much with the customer service. Long waits and sarcasm from staff is not really the last thing you need when you are starving.

My friends and I came here on Friday night for dinner. We ordered Shanghai rolls (which has minced pork, carrots, and celery in wrapper, served with tomato sauce), chicken ala max (fried chicken), a hot plate of pork sisig (shredded pork head and chicken liver), fried pork belly, pancit (fried noodle), and beef caldereta (sauteed beef with potato, carrot, and pepper). They were all yummy, especially the pork belly and Shanghai rolls. The pork sisig was unexpectedly nice, although I was previously hesitated to eat that when I heard of the ingredients - well, do not judge the book by its cover.<br/><br/>We had coke and water for our drinks. For the dessert, we had Leche Flan (caramel puding) which is a custard dessert with caramel layer on the top. It was quite sweet but delicious. <br/><br/>The manager on duty who served us was nice and friendly. The order did not take a long time to be ready and the manager was quite attentive to us since he removed any dirty empty plates and replaced the empty water bottles constantly. The price was not too bad, considering the quality of the food served here.<br/><br/>Overall conclusion, I was satisfied with my dinner here. Look forward to come here again.

Had my Niece's Christening here and we recieved the worst experience. We showed up the day before to set up but we were being ignored by the owner and he wasn't that helpful. He opposed to almost all our request. The food wasnt that nice and customer service was just not good. Not keen on going back to this restaurant.

WORST COSTUMER SERVICE EVER!!! My husband booked a reservation in this restaurant for our wedding anniversary dinner. The're were only three groups of people who dine in at that night. We waited patiently for someone to take our orders but there was only one man who was doing all the work who I believe is the owner. When he finally took our orders he said you have to expect delay ok? because you see those three tables? they came first, so my husband said, " Can you at least just bring us our drinks?" So when he gave us our drinks my husband asked again an estimate time of waiting and he said "I don't know" my husband asked 4x just an estimate on how long we have to wait because if its an hour then we just have to go, so he said in a non apologetic voice " 1.5 hours but if you can't wait, I'm happy for you to go" what??? not even an apology? we drove from Browns Bay to Birkenhead and we even booked ahead of time and we just came here to have a drink? So I told him, so it's only you and your wife who's in this restaurant? and he said we're very busy since in the morning because its mother's day and one of our chef went to a holiday. Well, you should have planned ahead of time and get an additional help because yes you saved money by not hiring another cook but its your costumer who suffer! We paid for our drink and he didn't even said a thing not a single apology. And you should have told us on the phone while we did our booking that there will be a delay in your service because of your lousy reasons then we would have find another restaurant to dine. Don't trust the reviews in their website! This people has to close their restaurant seriously!

Food was good, went here for a dinner, ordered grilled stuffed squid,sizzling sisig and chicken ala max..overall experience was good..:-)would recommend to my fellow filipinos here in new zealand..?<br/>

Worst filipino restaurant ever!! Okay, maybe that's a bit exaggerated but it's not worth a try. The owner's [particularly the wife, Virgie(?)] lack of finesse and inability to display excellent breeding is what makes the bad image.<br/><br/>Bottom line, the lady owner is I'll-bred who can't buy good manners from her profit. I have experienced this first-hand.<br/><br/>Do not believe the customer testimonials on their own website.

Excellent food and very clean place. I have dined in this restaurant several times with family and friends and we have enjoyed the food every single time.<br/><br/>I have also been invited in functions that they have catered and as expected the food was great and the venue arrangement/decoration was fantastic.

Drove all the way from South Auckland to receive a great reception from the owner of this restaurant. Mates have suggested this food place and said one day we'll go for a drive to try their Filipino food.<br/>We didn't regret the drive!<br/>Great food and view of Auckland was a bonus.<br/>We were there for almost an hour and a half.<br/>Great crispy pata and pinakbet for mains.<br/>Halo-halo for dessert. What a great day for me &amp; my wife.<br/>Also had relyenong bangus for takeaway.<br/>Will be definitely coming back for more !!!!<br/>The drive was worth it.<br/>Till next time...

we ordered the following and everything was delicious:<br/><br/>crispy pata<br/>patatim<br/>sizzling fried chicken<br/>fresh lumpia<br/>sizzling bangus with garlic<br/><br/>Suggestion :  please include serving spoon when serving the dishes.

Wow, what fantastic value for money. We had a great asian meal, including pork belly, calamari, garlic chicken and beef. Everything was delicious, the service was friendly and helpful with choices.<br/>The meals were so tasty and filling that we couldn't fit any desserts. Would recommend this pleasant restaurant for a meal any time and will definitely be returning.

Worst restaurant! Very long waiting time for food to be served. They should put in their menu the time for preparation of each food so that customers will not be expecting too much and probably end up ordering drinks only. <br/><br/>You should work out on your food preparation to make it faster if possible get another chef to cover your demand.<br/><br/>Don't be fooled by comments in their site as the owner (guy) said he is the administrator of the site so no one can put negative comments..what a shame...co'z I've put mine and then it's gone the next day... it's unfair and very unprofessional.<br/><br/>Instead of doing something to fix the problem and make your restaurant more appealing from comments whether good or bad.... you are deleting them... you are not only fooling customers but most of all you are fooling yourself.

Possibly the worst restaurant we have been to, when the woman owner says "we should be more patient" because the 1st meal turned up 25 minutes before the other 3 meals, then when I refused to pay for the vegetables that turned up after the mains eventually arrived (if you don't pre-order, then you have no privileges it seems) then the guy advised he would phone the police if I didn't pay the full bill hahahaha probably all bloody illegal immigrants anyway, I refused to pay for the veges, delivered after we had finished the bad mains, we thought we would try a local restaurant (have lived in Birkenhead for 30 years) and give something different a try, don't entertain this place, empty on a Saturday night was the giveaway.