Review Mandarin Palace Seafood Restaurant - Manukau

Stopped by for dinner on a Sunday and aside from the party, it wasn't too busy. Nice selection of food on offer and picked quite a few to try. Favourite of the bunch is the egg tofu with minced pork. The tofu was silky and crispy while the sauce was great on its own. The cod two ways was interesting, the meat stir fried with veggies and the bones fried with tofu. It was quite a nice dinner and the portions were decent.

Good place for very affordable yumcha. Only paid $21 per person which was a surprise. Flavours are good. However they did forget one or two of the dishes I have ordered.

Came here first time for my birthday. Wonderful!! Service was friendly Sandra the host was welcoming and friendly. They had everything on the menu we like, and all the food was served hot! As they don't have trolleys that go around it was nice to have everything come to the table at once and not have to wait.

Place was clean, got a table instantly during peak times. Food came out within 15 minutes and was delectable.

Awesome food for both yum cha and dinner. We eat there most weeks.

Good food. Lovely staff. A fave for our family.

Amazing shu mai and other delicious dim sum. Went with mum a few weeks ago and had a wonderful time. The manager is also very lovely. We shared a great chat about the amazing food and produce we have in New Zealand. I would go there again.

Not a bad place for dim sum at all. The taste is just all right. Would recommend this place for others.

Love it here, food is always yummy, good service and friendly staff 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Good selection of yum char. Tasty and fresh.

Me and my family visit this restaurant several times a week. The dishes we love most are "special made tofu", sweet and sour pork (hard to make nice sweet and sour pork, but they make it great), beef in pepper source, prawn ball. There are still different yummy dishes that worthwhile for a try. I recommend this place.

Authentic and high quality Cantonese cuisine. Good surprise in Auckland.

Amazing Service. I'm very impressed with how Mandarin Palace has handled this COVID situation. They have a very user friendly website where I ordered my food online, it had a secure payment system and I got both an email and text confirmation. When I arrived to pick up my order bang on 6pm, the food was ready and waiting for me on the table. The waitress knew it was for me and happily pointed me to my food. Excellent service and the food was just as good always (Highly recommend their special XO Tofu. YUM. Don't have photos because it was devoured!!). Mandarin Palace never disappoints me and I will definitely be back. Thank you guys.

I come here occasionally for yum cha with my family. It isn't great for our standards but because we live relatively close by, it is a pretty decent option. <br/><br/>For a start, the variety of dim sum they have available is great, very authentic and traditional. In terms of flavour it is quite bland and sometimes dry. <br/><br/>Shaomai pork meat is large and big sized, but the meat is very chunky. I don't like the chewy texture when most of the time when you have the shaomai you'd expect a firm, soft and relaxing bite. <br/><br/>Their steamed dimsum (pork ribs, beef stomach) was quite dry. There wasn't enough meat or pieces of ribs on there which was depressing after I figured it was steamed with taro underneath the ribs to make it look full. <br/><br/>Rice rolls have the perfect portion and the soy sauce that comes with it has the right amount of sweetness in it. But the flour in the rolls is too thick which I do not prefer and it ends up with the whole bite without tasting the filling. <br/><br/>Baked buns are a rarity here and come in 1-2 batches from earliest 12:00pm to 2:00pm. They are the real winners and signature here. Their baked buns are gone quite quickly as their batches are small and popular. Be aware that the buns are big and have a lot of yeast flavour but the fresh hot texture and filling of the buns are an excellent choice to have here. <br/><br/>Overall, a very mediocre restaurant for yum cha. The food isn't the best but the service is friendly and attentive. You don't have to wait years for food to come and you can enjoy a nice aerial view of Highland Park and possibly Lloyd Elsmore Park if you're sitting in the left window area. <br/>6/10<br/>

Easy to use website for ordering takeaways! After placing an order, you receive a text to let you know what time your order will be ready, mine was about 15mins after ordering! Pretty awesome service under covid level 2. When i arrived to get my order, it was all ready for me to collect. Takeaway yum cha will be the new norm for us :)

Amazing Service. I'm very impressed with how Mandarin Palace has handled this COVID situation. I was a bit unsure as most Chinese takeaways don't have an online website where you can order food and wasn't sure how the social distancing would go... but Mandarin Palace has done very well. They have a very user friendly website where I easily ordered food online and it had a secure payment system. I was even more impressed when I got an email confirmation about my order, as well as a text notification. When I arrived to pick up my order bang on 6pm, the food was ready and waiting for me on the table. The waitress knew it was for me and happily pointed me to my food. Excellent service and the food was just as good always. Mandarin Palace never disappoints me and I will definitely be back! Thank you Mandarin Palace!

- Pecking duck was still raw.<br/>- Prawn ball taste like a ball of salt<br/>-Went to pay and rude lady in the counter charged us 34% higher than the price of the menu that was given to us. She told off the poor waitress (who originally served us the menu) in front of all the customers and said she will have to pay the difference if we didn't pay the inflated price. Felt sorry for her so paid up.

Came here for yumcha, wasn’t many food options but it was a Monday. seemed to be quite busy .Nothing special but decent local joint.

Awesome place, ate here last time and the staff were nothing but amazing. Love the food and honestly one of the best places for pecking duck 😍

Horrible experience! The worst Chinese food that you can ever get. Food is extremely tasteless and the dim sums are soaked in water (ALL OF THEM!) There’s something wrong in their procedures of cooking the dim sums. Terrible service as well. Just don’t come! Such a waste of money and time!

Haven't had yum cha since Christmas last year. Came to this place the only one that was open on easter Sunday 🐰 Sadly the service was terrible, felt like I was at the counterfeit black market in China where they were trying to force us to buy their items. The tea was so cheap my whole mouth was chalky after 🍵 The pineapple bun was so hot it burnt the roof of my mouth. They must have microwaved them. The base was soggy and the bun was so bland 🍍

This is the worst restaurant I've ever been. There wasn't a food trolley pass our table for the whole 30 minutes and our table got no food at all. I had to walk to the lady to get some food for the kids. Then I ordered a dish, it never came untile we finished and went to pay. The worst part, they still charged me for that dish and said they already cooked it. They told me the police won't come even if I call the policy. I can either take away the dish or make full payment and leave.

This place used to be good for yum cha but now the yum and service has gone from rating 10 to 1. The yum cha wasnt freshly made! And had diarrhoe twice now from eating the restaurant! Service is rude as always! Just not worth it!! There are plenty of others around!!

I come here for my Yumcha every time! It’s local to my house, very cheap for good quality and authentic Yumcha! My favourites are definitely the Siu Mai, BBQ pork buns and the chicken feet. I love the atmosphere because it is always busy!

This place isn't to bad been here a few times before just to get the combination meats on rice it's cheaper to takeaway then to eat in they don't talk English very well but can still understand if you speak clearly n slowly tastey food thou

Came here for Dimsum with family. Upon eating we found a piece of plastic and body hair on some of the food. We tried to tell the staff and no one actually acknowledge our complaint. Not going to recommend this place.

No problem with the food. But that is a problem with the management and the services. When four of us arrived we found there are plenty of places. They asked us to wait instead of allocating the seat for us. I knew the place mainly for 2 pax but they have to smart to adjust based on situation. Apparently they have no idea how to do business.

Stopped by for dinner on a Sunday and aside from the party, it wasn't too busy. <br/><br/>Nice selection of food on offer and picked quite a few to try.<br/><br/>Favourite of the bunch is the egg tofu with minced pork. The tofu was silky and crispy while the sauce was great on its own. The cod two ways was interesting, the meat stir fried with veggies and the bones fried with tofu.<br/><br/>It was quite a nice dinner and the portions were decent.

We went there to have Yum Char with friends noon time today. The service was really appalling. The waitress who was pushing her trolley passing our table ignoring us when we asked her to take order. She was only keen to sell the food on her trolley. <br/>The food was probably one of the worst for Yum Char in Auckland. <br/><br/>

I have been wanting some yumcha loving for a long time. I find that my family and I enjoy some yumcha session every time I come home to Auckland. So I asked a girlfriend if she knows somewhere new to try with my family as we always go to the same places. We always order the usual as per photos and she is right. It is pretty good but there are some dishes that I don't think is better than the old places that we go to.

Food was lousy, waitor and the owner are not friendly. Suggest not to go with kids, not a good place for family lunch and dinner. And the tea is light, they have reused the tea.

Tried the yum cha here today. The food was good especially the steamed prawn balls, prawn dumplings and shiu mai. We also had chicken feet, pork ribs and those deep fried balls with mince inside.<br/>Unfortunately there are not many trolleys going around and if you don't wave them down then they will just go past. I don't understand why that is, I would have thought that they want to make money but it almost seems like they want to push the trolley through and hope you don't stop them. <br/>If it was not for this fact then I would have given them a higher score.

One of the yumcha places me and the family hit up when we're craving for yumcha for years now!<br/> <br/> Over the years quality and service does fluctuate.<br/><br/> But overall, today's lunch was good! Satisfying and food was readily available. There's a good variety of yumcha goods here. <br/><br/> Will continue to hit this place up for yumcha cravings!

Whenever my partner and I are in the mood for yum Cha, this is one of our go-to places. For two reasons- one is that it's close by and two- they have that durian Mochi dessert I love :)<br/><br/>We came here again a couple of days ago since we haven't been in a while. We ordered our usual siu mai, pork ribs, turnip cake, and we also decided to get the fried taro with pork inside. The food was average. Highlight would probably be the siu mai and the ribs. <br/><br/>I was a bit gutted they didn't have the durian dessert but at least they had chilli oil. I do feel like the food weren't as good as I remembered them but it's still an alright place for yum Cha. Beware of loud Asians though! <br/>

Our usual Chinese restaurant is Golden Fortune. They were closed so we decided to try Mandarin Palace down the road. It was the worst Chinese we have ever experienced. When I called to express how disappointed we were with the meal, the lady was hostile and said she didn't care about our taste. The food was that bad that we couldn't eat it. Asked if we were to return it, could we have our money back. She refused and ended up hanging up on me.<br/><br/>If we could rate the restaurant ZERO we would.

I think that the place is not bad for yum cha. Haven't tried the a la carte yet. One thing that I miss is having chilli sauce like sriracha instead of chilli oil. So far, I think that their food tastes good and is reasonably priced even though selection is not as good as other places. We usually go on Saturdays instead of Sundays to avoid the crowd.

This time that we came here, we had to place an order for 2x plates of rice noodles. Literally waited over an hour, asked several staff that came by with their trolleys about our order. They all said they'd ask/see what's the hapz but nope. Never got our rice noodles. So in the end we just gave up and left. Such poor service which is expected in a lot of Chinese restaurants. <br/><br/>Their food isn't that great here for yumcha. The meatballs are so mushy. I know generally the pineapple buns don't come with a filling. There are places that do do it with the filling though, which I like. But the ones here are quite big and soft esp when they're fresh. <br/><br/>Also don't think this place has very good hygiene. Stomach wasn't feeling too good after eating at this place. <br/><br/>

Yum cha is often not consistent. Many restaurants change ownership or management frequently and you can no longer guarantee the same taste or quality of food even two or three months after any given visit. This is one of those situations. However, I&#039;ve never had yum cha here so awful that it warrants anything less than a 3 out of 5.<br/><br/>If you&#039;ve had food here that&#039;s below average, I would really give it a few months and come back if this is the closest or most convenient location. In the case of average, mindless food, yum cha is fun and easy to enjoy. Besides, the company makes for half the meal.

Mandarin Palace is a chinese restaurant based in Highland park that does both Yumcha during the afternoon and a la carte in the evening. Though I've eaten at both sittings, I much prefer the yumcha. <br/><br/>They have a good range of the essentials - all of which are really good when they're fresh. I usually grab a few dishes for lunch as takeaway and they have always been good. <br/><br/>I recommend the pork spare ribs, prawn dumpling, siu mai and the mochi w the durian cream filling. Yum!

Mandarin Palace is a seafood restaurant (that's what it is called) & has been one of the landmarks for Chinese food in the Highland Park area. Over the years, it has its ups and downs. For my recent visit, it only deserved 1.5 in terms of food and service. <br/><br/>I was invited to a friend's wedding banquet on a Monday evening. It was a shared set dinner, starting with soup. Steamed fish was not fresh; deep-fried pork-chops looked unappetizing; some pieces of the chicken still showed colour of blood - absolutely unacceptable in the food industry!  (Being respectful to the hosts, it's not sent back but remained untouched.) Service was slack and unprofessional. <br/><br/>I feel sorry to have written this review and rated it at 1.5, but I'll feel more sorry to the customers if I have kept silent.<br/>(Food - 1/5; Service - 2.5/5; Ambience - 2.5/5)

Been having both yum char and dinner here for awhile and have had positive experiences everytime. My most recent dinner there yesterday consisting of steam blue cod, sweet and sour pork, Peking duck and roast chicken was stunning. Apart from good food, the place has a lift for those with mobility challenges as its situated on the second floor. Overall excellent Asian food and will definitely come back. <br/>

Such delicious food but oh my, the last time I was here my dad and I got served RAW PORK in one of the dimsums at yum char. I can see there are a lot of comments about service and race in previous reviews - we are Asian and we experienced good service from the beginning. When we pointed out the raw meat to the lady, she was extremely embarrassed and apologetic, offering us a free dish but to be honest I was pretty keen to just get out of there. Needless to say, will not be back. [Just had a look at previous reviews and can see that they had a D rating about a year ago. This has jumped up to a B (at the time of my last visit which was about 3 months ago) but looks like they still need to work on their food safety skills.]

The restaurant looked very dirty after we had sat down and looked around. This was yum char on Wednesday. On leaving we noticed that that do not display their Food Grade and also that they have lost their right to sell or have alcohol on the premises. I have just looked and saw the restaurant has a D rating. Go at your peril.

We arrived at 5.30 when the restaurant was empty. The service on the phone when I booked left a lot to be desired, but when we arrived we were very well looked after (as Europeans) by a lovely English speaking lady (others didn't seem to know much English). We ordered mussels (in shells) with ginger, sweet &amp; sour pork, Mongolian beef, chicken and cashew nuts and prawn fried rice. The food was delicious, FRESH and arrived fast. I couldn't get enough of it until I was full! My parents were visiting from Australia and we very impressed. My fussy, young son was also catered for with chips and a hotdog. For 5 adults and one child it came to $115 which was great value! The spacious surroundings, novel lazy suzy table mechnism and 36° view was also refreshing. I wouldn't hesitate to return and would recommend to all. : )

We visit regularly for yum char on Wednesday. As a regular customer the Wednesday service we receive is OK.<br/>However, we have experienced difficulty on all our last Saturday lunch visits all were booked a few days earlier. They don't treat our reservation with any seriousness or respect. <br/>When we booked on Wednesday again, this time specifying our request to sit at table no. 19 close to the entrance so that my elderly mother does not have to walk far, we were assured by the boss's mother she would write our request in the booking book.<br/>Despite our effort, we were disappointed again today to find our booking being neglected again. The boss's wife did not even apologised to us for not reserving table no. 19 for us and only put the blame to her staff. What poor management is this!

Went last night,it caters towards asians rather than new zealanders,the decor could badly do with a make over,however,unlike the other two reviews we thought the food was extremely good and we would go there to eat again and recommend it to others for very good quality Chinese,we eat out a lot and we know what is good,we ordered chicken wings and chicken and sweetcorn soup,and peking duck and a chicken/veg dish,all were very good indeed,we will return,please don't be put off by the other reviews and we are european,not asian

Our entrée of Wontons where chewy and did not taste fresh at all. We ate 2 of the six served. <br/>I have never tried Peking duck before, so decided to try. The manager said they were out but highly recommended the BBQ duck, I was sceptical and wanted to order something else but she insisted I would enjoy it.<br/>When it came out it was not even room tempeture which really put me off and we had to wait ten minutes for my partners lemon chicken to come, by then I was hotter than the food. <br/>The taste was just bland and rubbery and the hairs where still on the duck which REALLY put me off. <br/>My partner's chicken looked just like Tegel chicken you pop in the oven at home and we spend double the price. We then cancelled dessert as it was $9 for each because we both knew we were going straight to McDonalds to get some better food, ya! McDonalds… <br/>I asked the waitress if we could get a refund on my meal as I didn’t touch it, she said No, my manager wrote up the ticket and has gone for the night? <br/>I was dumb founded, your manager leaves you in charge along with another waitress who doesn’t speak English? I even thought it was fair to charge me half for my meal, but she again said No. <br/>I will never go back and I would highly recommend anyone to not waist there money, at the end of the night my partner ate some chicken with lemon sauce for $60. <br/>As for calling the next day to speak with the manager, I was told “He” was not working and to call another time, thanks Thomas Wong your restaurant was terrible!

Went to the restaurant for dinner. Decor is okay but have serious food and safety issues. Was eating a dish and bit into a hard piece of needle like steel. Told the manager and was not even offer a simple apology. Only when I complaned again very strongly verbally did he offer to refund the cost of that dish. Diners beware