Review Laughing Buddha - New Plymouth

It was my very first visit to New Plymouth during labour long weekend. After an exhausting whole day Mt Taranaki hiking trip, it was a must to feed myself a nice meal. Everyone recommended me the laughing Buddha including the shuttle bus driver so I went. It's almost packed when I arrived, you can easily tell this must be something good . Eating with two friends living locally, ordered some signature dishes, I was not disappointed at all! In a town with only a few Asian population they still manage to provide those Kiwi inspired Chinese cuisine, it's beyond my expectations. No wonder locals were confident enough to recommend and gave a big thumbs up 👍. If you want a feast with Asian flavour in the town centre, Laughing Buddha is definitely somewhere you don't want to miss.

Great atmosphere with lovely staff. Food was great quality and was a 10/10. Restaurant lovely and peaceful and food and drinks were fast to come out. Only thing is service on ordering was a little slow. Will definitely be back😃.

We've had a very lovely mea at lunch. Lovely and helpful service, recommended nice food. We really enjoyed pork belly fried rice but other food yum as well. Very highly recommended.

Service was amazing, a young man Ari served us he was very polite, not a long wait for our food at all and Stella was an excellent host she made me and my partner feel very comfortable and was very easy to talk to, she deserves a raise! No overall food was amazing the atmosphere was beautiful

Highly recommend this place, such great food and service, always great to dine where you feel welcomed. Stella was an amazing server and so helpful with the menu. A must try is the new Chinese beer and its limited time only! Highly recommend 'Grandma's pork belly' ;)

The manager Stella, she's really nice and professional. She introduces me lots of foods and those are very delicious and the flavour is authentic. Affordable prices and excellent value.

Squid and prawns for starters, with mongolian beef, mixed seafood and pork belly for mains. Really tasty, beautiful flavors. We ate early, so it was speedy service and quiet enough for easy conversation.

Great food with portions nicely sized, and very well presented. Service was a little slow to start with, but improved. loved the environment and family friendly atmosphere .

My dad and I travelled to New Plymouth from Australia, and he just wanted to eat some Chinese food. Laughing Buddha' food is soooo good, especially the Laughing Buddha dumplings. We really the excellent food and service😊

I have been dining at Laughing Buddha for the past 2 years and their dumplings never fail! I usually eat during the lunch opening and the saucy dumplings are my favourite. The atmosphere is always nice and friendly, with exceptional hospitality and the food is cooked relatively fast. Best dumplings in Taranaki with a great variety to choose from, it’s always worth the 1 hour travel.

I've been to Laughing Buddha numerous times over many years. The ownership has changed so many times that I cannot comment on consistency of the quality. However it has always been at standard.<br/><br/>Today we dined here for lunch. They have an extremely limited selection of yum cha dishes, none of which we ordered - they were all extremely overpriced and only had 3 dumplings instead of 4 in almost every other yum cha places I've been in New Zealand (e.g. 3 siu mai, e prawn dumplings for $6 etc; I'm used to 4 for ~$5).The waiter assured us that 100% of the menu is made on site, which was reassuring.<br/><br/>Their pan-fried dumplings were surprisingly delicious and seasoned well. The beef flat noodle was quite good, and what I'd expect from most chinese takeaway places. The roast duck was juicy and had nice skin, but the sauce was too salty and lacked flavour that I'd had in many other chinese restaurants - closer to soy sauce than your usual duck gravy sauce. The Yang Chow fried rice was less than impressive - no real flavour, their were heaps of broccoli (broccoli is always a no no at an asian restaurant in my humble opinion), absolutely no 'fire' taste in the rice. The pork was rather dry. All the individual ingredients seemed separate and did not harmonise for a harmonious flavour. <br/><br/>Ambience is quite nice, very red and what your average caucasian would consider very 'chinese' - everything is red with the walls to seats to red lanterns hanging above. Can get a bit dark at night for dinner however, but that is good if you want that kind of atmosphere.<br/>Service has always been quite good during my visits here. Waiters had been attentive and glasses are filled promptly. The restaurant is very clean and my OCD is never triggered with their cutlery or tables.<br/><br/>Overall a slightly over-priced chinese restaurant (probably one of the only ones in New Plymouth however) that serves at-standard food. Good service and ambience if you're into the stereotypical 'Asian' feel.Probably would NEVER have yum cha here unless I'm dying for one in New Plymouth and ready to pay exorbitant prices for extremely limited selection.<br/><br/>Food: 6/10<br/>Service: 8/10<br/>Ambience: 7/10<br/>Value for money: 4/10

Top notch Chinese restaurant. The Mongolian beef, grandma's pork, special chicken etc. Simply delicious and great prices. Good service and definitely a find in New Plymouth.

Loved everything we tried had lunch on Saturday the staff were friendly and really accommodating the food was very prompt and tasty and the mango dessert was amazing.

I was craving for asian food one night. I ordered sweet and sour pork and I have to say, that dish is very reminiscent of home. I forgot to take a picture of the dish though coz I was so hungry. Lol. Definitely worth a try. They also serve yum cha for lunch.

We had a fantastic family dinner out at Laughing Buddha.<br/>The food was amazing and we had a great night.<br/>HOWEVER we were charged a 15% public holiday surcharge. 15% of our already very large bill was exorbitant. <br/>We were not told about this surcharge and there was no signage in the restaurant advising of this charge. <br/>This is illegal and extremly poor business practice in my opinion.

Thx , most worst restaurant I had in 2016! 6 dollar for tea! But tea tasted like hot tap water !!!!! Tat lamb doesn't taste like wat we ordered ! Disappointed ! Price s so so but the size s tiny! If you are Chinese and want to eat traditional Chinese food , then plz don't go in , this restaurant will make u feel bad after eaten !

Me and 2 friends were here last October. It cost approx 130 for 3 which is reasonable for New Plymouth. Food delicious. Perhaps I should come back next time.

Amazing service and food. Great atmosphere. I'm vegetarian and it was still amazing! Will definitely recommend to anyone and will definitely be visiting again next time I'm in town!

My friend and I had lunch here. Their Yang Chow fried rice and Peking roast duck are really nice. Good price, atmosphere and customer service.

Awesome is good good is awesome.<br/>Ok great that is enough for this.<br/>Next time I will be saying for this app in the future.oh my god id necessary

My husband and I have eaten at this restaurant quite a few times over the past 6 mths and it has changed management and chefs just recently. I can honestly say that it has just got better and better. We have always found the service to be just as we like it, not to rushed, but never neglected. The decor is very Chinese, and very welcoming. The only thing we find a bit of a pain is, there are quite a few stairs to climb to reach the main entrance.

We arrived at 7pm and were left standing for around 10 minutes before being seated and even though we had booked there seemed to be a lengthy discussion between the staff as to where we were to be seated. After being seated we were given one menu between 6 of us, when we asked for another we were told just to wait, it never arrived. We were given a jug of water after about 15 minutes which wasn't very clean I might add. After 30 minutes it was obvious we were not being offered any drinks so I went to the bar area and ordered a couple of beers which I had to pay for at the time and take back to my table myself. We decided to order entrees and mains and after another 15 minutes finally got someone to take our order. Two of our entrees came which were very basic and a bit disappointing no dip or dressings just fried prawns and fried calamari. The other 4 entrees came out randomly over the space of the next 30-40 minutes. During our long wait it was obvious things were not going well with wait staff dropping glasses more than once, spilling drinks over customers at another table. One of main courses appeared even though we hadn't finished entrees then over. I spoke to the manager and said I really didn't mean to complain but was everything ok or should we just leave as our night was being ruined and we were hungry etc. she said some staff had called in sick but she would concentrate on our table from now on. That didn't happen we had to keep going up and getting our own drinks and our mains were not coming out. Over the space an hour each main came out separately so some of our party had already finished while we sat and watched them eat. When I got my chicken and prawn dish there was no prawns!! so again I asked the manager what happened to the prawns she said she would talk to the kitchen, she never came back so I just ate as I was so hungry. There was a table of 5 who came in half way through our experience which got served straight away, all there mains, sides etc and it seemed like they had ordered the full menu as food just kept coming. One of the wait staff told us that this was the Chinese way of eating that each dish came individually which I agree there is some truth as I have eaten and cooked all over the world but to wait as long as we did is not acceptable. The food itself wan't that great, you could tell the dumplings had been frozen and the steamed fish was extremely salty. We decided to leave as it was now 9:30! and on leaving I expressed my disappointment, I asked what happened with the prawns and was told that we ordered just chicken but the dish clearly said chicken and prawn! No discount or or any real apology. Definitely the first and last time we go there.

Soooooo gud spicy, great service cant wait to go back. Shared mixed entree followed by Roast duck and gumbo BYO wine

Four of us dined at the Laughing Buddha last Friday night. It was my husband's and my first time dining there.We were impressed with the friendly service and the food.The food price's were very reasonable.I had the sizzling beef with black bean sauce(it was yummy) my husband had the sweet and sour pork(cooked to perfection-not dry). We will be back in the near future.

WOW!!! Three of us went here for dinner and it was amazing. The staff were lovely and attentive and the food was divine. We shared a trio platter (BBQ pork, hot/spicy beef and pork belly) and a soup for the entrees - everything was soo moreish and yummy! There was a prawn dish, lemon chicken and beef and broccoli for the mains. The lemon chicken was the best any of us had ever had and the other dishes were just as awesome. We were soo stuffed by the end that we didn't eat it all but it was soo yummy. Already planning the next visit!!! This will be one of our regulars I'm sure. Keep up the fabulous efforts and scrumptious food :)

I went for my birthday dinner this week to the Laughing Buddha, food was AMAZING!! Very impressed by all the dishes, esp the garlic prawns :) Yum! Have booked in for next weekend to go again!! Recommend!! Great service also.

We have just had a fantastic meal at Laughing Buddha. There was 9 people at our table. The food was great, amazing flavours. Great service. Overall very happy customers. Can't wait to go back again.

Terrible food. If you want weird tasting food then this is for you. Entree was overpriced by about $10. Mains were very average, half the time I didn't know what I was eating. My partners meal had mushrooms in it when itwasn't stated in the menu, he wouldn't of got this if he knew it had mushrooms. Smelt gross and tasted the same. 2 non alcoholic drinks later and $75, totally not worth it, totally unsatisfied

My second visit here. No deal voucher on me this time but the food and service were excellent! Shared the garlic chilli squid for appetiser, steamed whole grey mullet with garlic, ginger and soy sauce, veg and tofu in clay pot as main courses with my friend. Fish was of a good portion (we were famished when we arrived and stuffed after dinner), very fresh, juicy and succulent. One can tell how fresh a fish is when it is steamed and this one definitely passed the test. Dessert was written as lychee ice-cream on the menu. I expected to get either lychee flavoured ice-cream or 1-2 scoops of vanilla ice-cream with a few spheres of lychee. I was pleasantly surprised when I got 6 scoops of ice-cream in lovely assorted flavours (not gigantic scoops, but you still get 6 scoops) with lots of lychee. Super good - I'll be back!<br/><br/><br/>----- 11 Jun, 2012 -----<br/><br/>I've never been to the Laughing Buddha and decided to give it a shot when there was a deal voucher. The food is authentic (I'm Chinese myself, so I know my stuff) and the appetiser of the garlic squid was excellent. A tad spicy for my dining companion but I loved it. The waiter was very helpful when I told him that I don't consume pork. I had ordered the prawn dumpling (har kow) but he was kind enough to double check with the chef and advised me to change my choice as there was pork present. I had the sweetcorn and chicken soup instead and it was extremely yummy, filling and perfect for this cold weather.<br/><br/>Waiter came up to check on the food and ask about the meal which was good service. Portion size was generous and worth for what you pay for.<br/><br/>Main course was garlic prawns and satay chicken. Both were excellent and for dessert, my dining companion had fruit while I had 3 scoops of ice-cream.<br/><br/>Will I be back? You bet. Great authentic Chinese food, good service and cool atmosphere. Thank you.

Wife and I had a very enjoyable meal. We dined on a voucher deal to try the place out and after reading earlier reviews , we were not expecting too much. We were pleasantly surprised. Good service, good food. The only disappointment was the desert which was ice cream but we had already eaten to much. Highly recommended.

Excellent food, style, decor and atmosphere. We had a group of 6 out last night and ordered the banquet menu for 6. Great value, great variety, all fresh, good quality and more than enough food!

This restaurant never fails to provide a great service, delicious meals and a friendly and attentive atmosphere. May (I think is the Manager's name) is really sweet. Excellent customer service, fantastic selection of beautiful dishes promptly brought to the table and quite good prices. If you are in a party of 4 or more, I would highly recommend this and you will keep going back.

one of the best restaurants in town. Great service. Our waiter was very friendly and helpful. Very nice inside, cool breeze on hot day. The food was amazing. Had garlic prawns for entree,best ever! Would come back again!

It was terrible.<br/>My wife and I had dinner there on a Sunday night.<br/>We ordered 2 entrees and 2 mains, plus hot rice and "Chinese" vegetables.<br/>All the dishes were delivered one by one in seemingly random order.<br/>All the dishes were on cold plates.<br/>My wife ordered spicy spring rolls (entree) and Spicy Chinese prawns (main). What she got was reheated frozen stuff that you can get in any supermarket chiller. The type of pre prepared, frozen stuff that you and I would re heat as an easy snack for dinner guest entrees. BUT, not what we would expect in a genuine Chinese restaurant. The side sauces were (supermarket) Thai Chilli and Hoisin.<br/>The rice was served cold, sticky and late.<br/>The Chinese vegetables were flat, and tasteless, served very late.<br/>I could go on and on, but honestly, this was the worst Chinese cuisine we have ever been served – we had a much better, more authentic Chinese meal at the local Foodcourt in the shopping mall across the road.

We went for a work dinner, 19 people, and although the food was good, what little there was of it. The banquet meal we ordered was very mega, not even a main meal per person, or even rice between two. It was disappointing that we had booked in advance, with no.s and our seating was at two separate tables, and even when we pushed the tables together, it was not really very organised. Very disappointing, we paid a good price and spent a reasonable amount and most people came away HUNGRY - not a good deal or a memorable experience for our party

Awesome place to go with a big group of your friends, love it, great place, great food and great service, what more can you ask for.

Every time I've been here, I've had an outstanding meal. The food is fantastic. A must to try if you haven't already

BLOODY BRILLIANT HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!We got Married in the Building :)