Review The Emerald - Papakura

In town for a few days. Tried several places for dinner. But this was really good. Came back the following night. Very good food, very nice hostesses.

Our first time visiting and we will regularly be back. Wonderful ladies so friendly and welcoming and every dish was a mouthful of bliss. You could tell the produce was the freshest and everything made by hand, fresh on sight. My partner said his green lamb curry was the best curry he has tasted and he has had a few lol. The spring rolls were so tasty and my chicken vegetable dish was bursting with the flavor of fresh ginger. And omg the jaffa ice cream was to die for with the decadent rich chocolate cake. A rememberable delightful anniversary dinner.

Authentic thai food. Owners are friendly and checks in on customers, asks for feedback and overall good people serving the community with Thai cuisine.

It was a very nice warm welcoming by them when we enter the place. The best thing was the taste of the food was amazing with a short time of waiting. Just the smell of the room was probably effected by air circulation that was not very well.

The food was delicious, loved all the flavors in my dish. Environment is also nice. The staff are very friendly.. Loved the service

Found this gem searching keywords on google. The Emerald Thai Restaurant was really good to be fair. We came here for takeaway and we were highly impressed by the manner of the lady’s working their night away, Our order consisted of a Main stir fry - Chicken Pad Med Mamuang (26) @ $19.50 and a Main currie - Chicken Gang Keaw Wan (36) @ $19.50 and 1x Rice. Blend those all together and yum ! Highly recommend for your next Thai fix. Able parking and quick turnaround on the order. Thanks,

You should definitely give the Prawn Fried Rice a taste; it's among the top Thai dishes in Auckland. The exceptional customer service makes this spot a strong recommendation for anyone seeking genuine Thai cuisine.

Beautiful food and very friendly hosts.

Great team. Very humble. Food is fantastic. They always make us feel home. We usually go there when feel like eating Thai. Must go place.

me and my wife dined in today. met the chef who happens to be the owner also. she's friendly & very accomodating. we ordered mixed appetizer, pla neong buay (steamed whole snapper) and pad thai. food were delicious. great service. highly recommended. authentic thai food.

Friendly waitress who made helpful recommendations and the chef who makes fantastic food and makes an effort to get to know her customers. While the venue is humble, the food is fantastic. It's the sort of place you go when you just want to sit down after a trying day and have a good meal.

Great authentic food with very friendly owners. Everything we ordered was delicious - the appetisers, curries, and stir fry. Recommend this to everyone! 10/10

Enjoyed our meal very much, veges were fresh, fried rice and beef hotplate particularly delicious. Service was friendly and very prompt, recommended dishes for kids without us needing to ask (nailed it). Was quiet as it was a Sunday night but we had fun.

We dined in at The Emerald Thai Restaurant as we had a post Christmas hankering for Thai food and our preferred place in Conifer Grove wasn’t open so this ended up being a wonderful alternative. Upon arrival as well as on the phone making a reservation, staff was very attentive and friendly and we were served promptly with BYO glasses. For entrees we enjoyed mixed entrees of chicken garee puff, vegetarian spring roll, money bag, prawn toast and chicken satay with sweet chilli sauce and these were delicious, to expectation and delivered efficiently. Following on, our mains consisted of a shared pineapple Thai fried rice (Khao Pad Saporad) with chicken larb, Yum Talay Thai hot seafood salad and pepper chicken sizzling plate. Our mains were absolutely delicious and most satisfying. To finish off we enjoyed banana fritters with scoped trio of ice cream of chocolate brownie, strawberry and goody gum drops and the dessert was a beautiful end to the meal. Highly recommended!

Just had a great dinner here! good food and everything was clean. Thank you so much to the owner and staff

Very authentic Thai food. The owner is chef and she's very passionate about her cook and makes every sauce from scratch. I really enjoy their green curry and snapper dish.

Came to Auckland and stayed near here, so glad we found this restaurant early in our trip as we went twice in 3 days. Loved the food, would highly recommend the Gang Penang and the Rama Loong Soong. Can't wait to visit again, will make a special stop even if we aren't staying nearby.

Lots of vegetarian options. The Pad Thai was delicious.

I feel ambivalent about this place.<br/><br/>The positives:<br/>1. Their tom yum soup was out of the ordinary. It was creamier than other tom yum soups I had tasted elsewhere because it had more coconut milk in it.<br/>2. Very personal and friendly service - the owner was the waitress, kitchen hand and cashier in one (the place was quiet at the time, so I guess this was for cost efficiency). She was nice to our son.<br/><br/>The negatives:<br/>1. Place is shabby. May need a makeover to attract more people.<br/>2. Pad thai and beef with oyster sauce were both too salty.<br/>3. Service was a bit slow.<br/>4. The price is sitting on the expensive side for the quality of food they serve.<br/><br/>

Just had the takeaway, very bad experience, the baby corn things were sour and off. Specifically asked for non spicy dishes and they were really hot. Not worth the money, won’t go back!

We used to come to this restaurant at least two times per month and the food was always great. However after being away for almost a year, we decided to come here again last night and unfortunately the food is no longer up to scratch. There must be new owners and/or chef as the prices had all been increased (same menu) and the food is now tastes very strange and not really Thai at all.<br/><br/>My Larb Gai was extremely greasy and tasted salty, like they had used soy sauce to flavour it.<br/><br/>Won't be going here ever again.

Thai food is such a sensitive cuisine, where the balance of flavors will only be offset but the quality of the ingredients, which sadly on this visit were substandard. I had the Tom yum prawn soup, the chicken satay and the pad Thai, and while everything tasted good, the meat was a little chewy and the veges were not very well cooked. I walked away full but not completely satisfied. I’d give them another try but might just keep this place for takeaways.

Had a very delicious Valentine's days dinner here tonight! Started with the chef's selection appetizers, not bad - a little too much sweet corn filler for my liking but wow the mains were on point! Had the most delicious seafood salad that even smelt like Thailand, full of fish sauce, garlic, chilli, Thai basil and coriander with the most suculently cooked seafood, huge fresh prawns and scallops that melted in the mouth squid and a fish that literally broke down on the bite. Also shared the northern Thai style curry with crispy pork - divine! My exact words before going were "I hope I taste coriander, lemongrass, kaffir lime and chilli" - this dish delivered on all fronts! Service was super Thai-manaakitanga

Very yummy Thai. 4 of us dined. They had lots of vegetarian options which was awesome. Loved the corn fritters. I had the sweet and sour tofu with vege which was delish. Everyone at the table enjoyed their meals. Good portions and very friendly staff. Definitely visit again, a papakura gem.

My wife and I ordered here for valentines day. Upon placing the order with some difficulty with the kind woman through broken English I drove to the restaurant to pick up the order. It was reasonably busy being valentines day but not too bad and I ended up waiting for forty minutes for my order. After arriving home and finishing our meal, my wife and I both agreed that it was decidedly average. While the staff were friendly and helpful the food and language barrier were not the greatest.

Came here Thursday evening for our ladies night out. Service from start to finish was excellent. Lovely and friendly staff. We all had the $34 banquet, entrees were devine, mains very nice (pad thai we had lacked flavour). The bunch of grapes for dessert was a bit disappointing. But would go back again defin8ly at some stage.

Would give this place a 0 is I could! Use to love coming here but the new owner is horrible!!! They messed up our orders multiple times then tried to blame us asking if we're sure we ordered that????. And the owner then had the nerve to say she hopes we get sick from our food cause we got up set at her asking us that question. Disgusting!!!!!! Birthday ruined!

I went to Emrald with my family for dinner on mothers day  14 may 2017 . We reached there at 6.30pm as I had made abooking  we were greeted and than sitted , we waited for half an hour than the waiteress came and took our order and went away after that we waited again for 1 hour  for  our order to arrive . We ordered 5 diffrent plates ,by the time our 5th plate of food arrived our first nd secound food of plate was cold. To feel sorry for me and my family they gave me 10% discount. I was very disapointed that was the first and last time I will be going there. And the food was below average.

My husband and I just went for dinner there after reading a review. I had the exact same thing as was in the review, satay chicken, pad thai and banana fritter. The chicken was over cooked and tough, the pad thai was tasteless even after adding chill and lemon. Did not finish it. We paid for the fritter but did not even eat it, My husband enjoyed his meal which is why I am giving it a 2. Will not go back. Very disappointed. And it was HOT in there. NO air movement at all!

Was very happy with this place. After visiting another Thai place minutes before and being told they couldn't make anything vegan, it was fantastic to see that the lady knew what vegan was. She told me what I could have, and when I ordered the vegetarian spring rolls she let me know they put fish sauce in them. Great service.

I'd call this place the local 'Thai' of the Papakura area. The service is questionable but I think this is due to only having one waitress and she is very busy! The decor is so-so but the food is what it is all about here. The dishes are extremely well flavored and come out quickly - sometimes. The dishes don't always come out together as one, and I had to wait 15 minutes extra for mine while the rest of my table had all their meals before mine. My rice was never handed to me but when we left they gave it to me in a takeaway box. Other than this the restaurant is pretty good!

Enjoyed a lovely prawn pad thai meal with chicken satay starter, then banana fritter for dessert, lovely waitress, the batter for the banana fritter was nice and light and wasnt over coated in cinnamon which is how it gets served most of the time, just manuka honey, ice cream and a small amount of cream HIT THE SPOT, my flatmate@zetadavies had the duck and veg and said it was lovely too !!!!

Awesome staff & so inviting, awesome food especially the duck menu. I've always been going there over the years due to the atmosphere. Family orientated. Staff always willing pleasant & polite

TAKEAWAY SERVICE REVIEW<br/><br/>We've frequented The Emerald many times over the years and have always enjoyed our visits. However, with a small child, heading out at night isn't always possible and the other night we decided to make use of the takeaway service. The woman who took the order on the phone was friendly, if a little rushed, and advised that there would be a twenty minute wait. This turned out to be more like thirty minutes, the only disappointment of the evening. <br/>I ordered the Rama Loung Song (a satay style dish) and my husband the Mussaman curry. Both were well-made, with loads of vegetables and of the standard we expect when restaurant dining. We also got the Gari Puffs, which to date have yet to be surpassed by any other Thai restaurant we have visited.<br/>While the decor of the restaurant may be a little dated and faded, the food is well worth a try and being able to get a vege-filled takeout meal is a delicious option.<br/><br/>Sarah Reynolds #challenge

Beautiful China used to serve absolutely Devine food! Lovely staff, beautiful environment and catered to my gluten free needs!!! Love this place best Thai food I've ever had!!!

Haven't been here for years so thought we would give it a try.  First impressions are the decor is nice but the friendly welcome that we are so used to with Thai people was not forthcoming.  We greeted the waitress upon arrival, in Thai,  and barely got a response.  This was not a good start!  In fact, we noticed that both waitresses hardly engaged at all with the customers, very sad......It seemed like they were just going thru the motions....  Then the next thing that we noticed was the heat... it was stifling in there.....no air con and although they had the door open there was barely any breeze.  There were a few people already seated in the restaurant.  About 10 minutes after sitting down at our table the waitress brought an electric fan and set it up blowing onto the guests at the table next to us, lucky them!   Why on earth wasn't that fan going for the whole restaurant or better still why wasn't there an air con unit?   So, food, one word BLAND!  we ordered 4 dishes, all quite different but the sauce on 3 of them tasted so much the same, you just could not distinguish any difference at all.  The duck curry was very sweet.  The servings were generous........  The garlic and pepper pork was lacking in the essential garlic, in fact we couldn't taste any at all......  So disappointing.......  Where were the lovely thai tastes that we are so used too?  certainly not here, it was a very "westernised" thai meal...... we thought the prices were a little high for what we got.........  sorry, we won't be returning and won't be recommending either... we shall go back to our tried and true thai restaurants that we know we get good food, taste and value and much friendlier staff.

I have just had the most bland, tasteless pad Thai ever.  I asked for mild, but I think they forgot to put any flavour in at all.  It was so tasteless it was unpleasant.   I would have thought traditional Thai restaurant would have an actual Thai chef.  Very disappointed - but at least I now know, where not to go.  Staff were friendly and polite and the restaurant was clean and tidy.  But the food was just such a let down.

Went there for my birthday on a Friday night - yummy as Duck Curry , had grapes and pineapple in it... super good! Parents had Roast Duck and Whole Snapper - both were impressed , first time for all of us...<br/><br/>Service was efficient and prompt , entrees full of flavour....<br/><br/>Restaurant gradually filled up over the night...<br/><br/>Bill was $101 for 3 mains all with rice , 2 entrees , 3 drinks..<br/><br/>A little bowl of grapes was provided at the end of the meal and we weren't rushed to leave.<br/><br/>Nice green decor and all in all a great little suburban gem which I will return to..

The whole ambience is great and the decoration is amazing. The restaurant owned and staffed by friendly Thai people.<br/><br/>The food (Mixed entrees, Tom Yum Goong and Nuclea Beef) was very fresh and tasty. <br/><br/>This is one of the best Thai restaurants in Auckland - a very nice place to visit at least once and a good place to go maybe once a month just for special occasions.

The food is amazing, the staff are great! Always eat the whole dish and if not on the night we take a doggy bag and eat it for lunch the next day. The thai green curry is very nice. The duck dishes are amazingly good. Out whole family seriously enjoys the mixed entrees.

Very disappointing. Had the prawn, scallop and squid stir fry. So Imagine my suprise when maybe one scallop (not sure if it was a scallop, certainly not a fresh one), 3-4 prawns and maybe 3 pieces of calamari was on the plate. Then to my horror as I do not care for them and they were not listed on the menu, two mussels were included. But the ultimate worry was the three pieces of artificial crab. This does not belong on any restaurant dish that one is paying $22 for. <br/><br/>The mixed entree was average and just a little pet peeve of mine is having to have to pay for rice. <br/><br/>I will be calling the manager later today but to be honest, no amount of reassurances would get me to go back there. Very disappointing as some people raved about this place. Can only imagine that there has been a change of owners recently. The rave review from April 2012 was either before the change or written by the owners.<br/><br/>NOTE: have just spoken to them. The chef refered to in the previous review does not seem to be there anymore. That could explain the difference in things. <br/><br/>The manager did seem to be genuine, but not sure he understood my reluctance to complain on the spot as was with a group and most restaurants would not serve artifical crab (so if they tried to defend using it, would just lead to a bigger messier scene). He did offer to pay me back, but we do not live close, so nice to offer, but just really not worth the trip to an area we do not go to regularily.

They're simply the best! Better than all the rest! Chicken and cashew is my absolute fave, yum, yum, yum! Waitresses are so damn polite and on the ball it's unbelievable. You would never believe it but the chef isn't even Thai...he's a kiwi bloke but cooks the most awesome Thai food!

My favourite Thai restaurant in New Zealand! Great food at great prices. Very friendly staff who always make you feel welcome. Five stars from me.

Lovely food and staff however very slow service.

been to dozens of thai over the years. this is in the top five.