Review Tiger Chinese Restaurant Takeaways & Deliveries - Wellington

Best hot-pot restaurant I ever try here in New Zealand so far. The peanut sauce is the next level hotpot experience. Sichuan sauce was sharp but when it combined with peanut sauce. It transformed to a creamy milder chinese flavours. Exquisite!

Great place to go during winter season! You choose what you want to put on your pot; varieties of veggies, seafood, meats, and noodles. Weigh your pot in the counter (your paying for the weight), choose spicy & numbness level. Get your peanut sauce (mix little bit of black vinegar, salt, pepper, chili sauce). While waiting for your bowl (10mins average, can be longer if busy time) order milk tea. Your order will come in a big bowl with their signature broth (Malatang). Mix your peanut sauce into the broth to make it richer & creamy. Notes/tips for you: * 7pm-8pm is busy/peak time. You won’t be able to get a table even if you call for reservation; so come in before or after peak period * be mindful on what you put on your pot, as you pay what is weighed on the counter. * spicy/numb level: take medium spicy-medium numbness (this is average); or very spicy-medium numbness (for a real spice 🔥) * servers seems to have attitude as per other reviews, but i think it’s because of language barrier (and this is not a fine dining restaurant, so better put your expectations down) * if you think you ordered too much and can’t finish your meal, you can ask for takeaway container (50 cents); don’t bring your bowl to them as you will transfer it on your own.

As a first timer, it was fairly easy to work out what to do. The amount you pay depends on how much you pile into your bowl.

Absolutely delicious. If you're white you might wanna get the mild or no spice. Otherwise get medium or higher. I've only tried the medium and it's just right, can't imagine what mad man would go higher. All of the food is Absolutely delicious and you can pick whatever you want. The tea is also very nice too. Very out of the way so quiet and peaceful while you eat

Great place to have malatang soup and a great variety of items to pick from! Super delicious and always super fast 🥰

The broth was delicious!!! I got very spicy and very numb totalled around $20 for my bowel but I definitely took a little bit too much. I loved the selection of seafood, mushrooms, noodles, meats and veges and tofu. Also I had heard that bubble tea here was good and I think it is now my ultimate favourite bubble tea shop. I would say their spice levels are on the milder side, the very spicy was more of what I would expect medium spice to be and the very spicy which my partner got was more what I expect very spicy to be.

For all around amazing food and bubble tea- this is the place. Highly recommend the dirty bubble tea series. They have the best balls in town. Freshly made to order, the matcha is my all time favourite. The malatang is extremely yummy. Medium spicy is the best of both worlds, flavoursome with a good kick for that bit of “oomph” that won’t leave you crying (a part from crying for more).

The food is pretty nice. Concept is you pick your ingredients and then weigh it and charged. The restaurant will cook the food that comes in a large soupy bowl

A unique experience in Wellington. As you enter, grab one of the golden pot and tongs. They have a wide selection of noodles, protein, and vegetables. Pick what you want and take this to the cashier. They will weigh and ask the spice level that you prefer. They used sichuan pepper but you can say no if you do not want to. You pay the price and they will cook this to their signature broth. It taste creamy and yummy. You can add peanut sauce, vinegar, and chili oil if you like which are available as self service. They also have variety of milk tea. The place itself is tidy and the facilities are clean. If you come by car, you need to park on street and pay.

Really enjoyed the experience of selecting exactly what I wanted to have in my Ma La Tang. But, it was a bit shocking not knowing the price until you’ve picked everything and can’t put it back… but I was happy to pay! Our dishes were $24 and $28 — vegetarian produce only. The Dry Vegan option was so delicious! I thought I’d miss the broth but I didn’t. It was so much food. As a lover of spice I thoroughly enjoyed picking the level of heat and level of numbing myself. If you love the numb of Sichuan Pepper I highly recommend Very Numbing. But I don’t recommend pairing it with Very Hot… Hot or Medium would be just as good because the numbing gives so much to the eating experience by itself.

I love the atmosphere here. Staff are very helpful and friendly. Lots of fresh options that you can pick for your hot pot bowl. From veggies to noodle, seafood to meat, and even duck’s blood. The system is to pay by weight, so better choose what you can finish in a bowl. Delicious broth. You can also choose the spiciness level for the broth, and choose whether you want it fried or in a soup for hot pot. Very delicious Chinese food 👍 Recommended!

Okay, if you only care about the food, this place is great place for dinner. Even though they take an hour and half to make your Malatang, still food is great. But just if you have movie after dinner or don’t have enough time, this place is not for you.. And like every authentic restaurant, they are not the most kind staffs if you have compare with fine dining, skip this place. But if you like or want to try really good Malatang, this is perfect place for you.

🍽 Chicken with Thick Noodles - amazing! The portion is absolute HUGE for 2 people. But it tastes delicious and we can’t stop keeping eating. The noodles are chewy and the source on top is the best one I have ever tasted for this type of dish. 🍽 Fried Bok Choy - it’s just average. We just need something green. 🍽 Service - it’s kinda slow but worth waiting.

Variety of veges noodles and meat/seafood to choose from! Quite cheap if split with others. Might be a bit spicy (even the least spicy one was spicy for my friends.) altho the white soup can be misleading. Their bubble teas are also great as a dessert after hotpot.

malatang is rlly good! gong pao chicken was ok, not mind blowing, but the singaporean fried noodles are rlly tasty (and not spicy so a good combo w the spicy malatang)! Food is quite filling. One of the most interesting tea places! the strawberry cheese foam was delicious, had strawberry bits inside too so texture was fun (not like your usual clear or slushy!) and the kumquat plum jasmine tea is quite an unusual flavour - they use salted plums so its a savoury sweet drink! the longer you leave it the more salt seeps out so few hours later we could add more water in and it was still so good. clears away the mala taste in your mouth! but has to be said that if you care a lot about service you won't rlly be happy here so come in for the food only

Went for dinner with friends and ordered several dishes to share. Portions are huge, the meal worked out to be $20/person and there was more food than we could finish. The food was hot, fresh and tasty. My favourites were the dry bean curd dish and the fish stew. The service was prompt and friendly and our food was ready quickly. We didn't try the karaoke but it sounded like people were having fun 😊<br/>Will definitely come again for a cheap and cheerful group meal. I'm surprised by the negative reviews, our experience was completely different.

A repost over from yelp: I had never heard of the place before despite being a Wellingtonian, was recommended by my two asian mentees so I had to try it out!<br/>Tiger can be a bit of a confusing restaurant because there's actually 2 restaurants! There hasn't been anywhere that clarifies well what the difference between the two restaurants are, so thought I'd give my two cents for each - especially since I'm guessing a lot of people who hear about Tiger want to go for the hotpot!<br/><br/>I went to both restaurants in February 2020 with a fortnight in between the two visits:<br/><br/>* The Tiger restaurant on the left has warm meals you can order from a menu and also offers karaoke (however my party of people and I didn't do that so I can't say what the quality of it is in comparison to other karaoke bars in Wellington). If you need to book beforehand, you can just give them a ring. <br/>* The Tiger restaurant on the right does bubble tea and the current replacement for the hotpot. Unfortunately as of late 2019/2020 they no longer do hotpots, however they now do a 'make your own' noodle soup with toppings you choose from the 'ingredient buffet' - a lot like genghis khan on Majoribanks Street. They don't offer anything else besides the 'make your own' noodle soup and bubble tea. You don't need to order, you just walk in, take a table and start grabbing your ingredients.<br/><br/>Food (4.5/5)<br/>I really enjoyed the meals on both restaurants!<br/>I went with two friends to the left restaurant after work and we ordered a few plates to share instead of individual meals. We ordered dumplings, a sizzling beef plate, sweet and sour pork and some congee / egg porridge which all tasted really great. Portions were huge (especially the congee!). Splitting the bill in three got the total up to about $23 which was really worth it! If you go to the first restaurant, I'd definitely by a couple of meals to share and split the bill rather than each buying individual meals!<br/><br/>The second restaurant on the right I had a late lunch with a different friend. Making your own soup was quite simple and straightforward, but could be better directed (refer to service below). I crafted myself a simple seafood noodle soup with ramen, crab sticks, prawn, shrimp, bok choy and spinach, weighed it on the scale and passed it to the cook on the other side of the window (he asks you how spicy you want it!) . The cook spent about 10-15 minutes cooking it up before it was brought over to our table. It's important to note that for every 100, the price of your soup is $3.80. Mine came up to $18 (and I was worried I'd placed to much), but the end result was much bigger than I had expected - very worth it! The friend I was with didn't like his as much but it was due to the combo of ingredients he chose.<br/><br/>Atmosphere (3.5/5)<br/>Unfortunately can't judge this the restaurants' atmospheres well as both times I visited were not busy. The first restaurant, while we came starting 5:30-6, it was Tuesday and rather quiet. Only other party came to have dinner and a few took food away, but overall it was quite cozy and a few cute decorations.<br/><br/>I preferred the second restaurant much more. Wide open windows and space with cute furniture. Much more casual and a good place to meetup with friends!<br/><br/>Service (2.5/5)<br/>I feel this is where for previous reviewers on other sites that Tiger was let a bit down. The service for both restaurant sides felt a little slow and ... awkward so to say.<br/><br/>It could also get a little hard to talk to the staff as well. Sometimes we couldn't catch their attention to order because they were in the kitchen most of the time, or watching the Chinese drama on the tv.<br/><br/>The second restaurant also felt a little awkward. It wasn't quite clear if you were supposed to sit down first, go to the counter, talk to the staff? It's a place that really needs instructions for newcomers as the server wasn't clear enough when explaining and would wait a little bit too long before he decides to help us. That being said, he did help us when he believed that we were putting too much of an ingredient on the plate e.g noodles.<br/><br/>It was quite obvious seeing other people who had obviously been here before that they new to just grab a table and go straight to the ingredient buffet. Think they just need to improve the experience fore new customers who don't know what they're doing.<br/><br/>Overall, I enjoyed the food and experience dining at Tiger and would definitely go for a round two!!

This is my second time visiting Tiger hotpot restaurant. It is the best one I have ever had. Would definitely come back again in the near future

Disgusting food and horrible service

Service OK. Place to also kareoke. Toilets need to looked at, there is a detectable sme of urine.

My favorite Chinese restaurant in Wellington. Service can be slow at dinner times but the taste is perfect. Try spicy shrimps ! Totally recommended

🍽 Chicken with Thick Noodles - amazing! The portion is absolute HUGE for 2 people. But it tastes delicious and we can’t stop keeping eating. The noodles are chewy and the source on top is the best one I have ever tasted for this type of dish. <br/>🍽 Fried Bok Choy - it’s just average. We just need something green. <br/>🍽 Service - it’s kinda slow but worth waiting.

Ordered from UberEATS which sadly doesn’t have a great interface for complaints. The food was awful - the orange beef was dry and utterly flavourless and the steamed buns that accompanied the pork were rock hard. I’m not normally one to complain about food deliveries, but this one was inexcusably terrible. So.. a $50 dinner that ended up in the bin, with no recourse.

Worst dining experience. Dirty cutlery, dirty water fridge, VERY poor quality of food, and messy looking restaurant. We paid 20$ extra for wasted food because we can't stomach their inedible food. BTW I'm asian and used to eating head to toe of an animal and still feeling I am going to vomit from eating at this place

Thought I'd try here cause I love spicy asian skewers and nibbles and it was really disapointing. Everything was okay nothing tasted terrible but with two chefs and barely any people working it took an hour for all our food to come out. Wouldn't go again

This place has a very mixed reviews and some of the low ratings ones have obvious misunderstanding of different types of Chinese food or with Chinese food in general so we went to try it anyway.<br/><br/>We went to the hotpot part of the restaurant which is further in the street.<br/><br/>It was Wednesday and when we went there was no one else but a few dirty tables. There were two other tables after. There was only one guy working and he greeted us and we found a table to sit down.<br/><br/>The hotpot is buffet style and everything is pretty much help yourself.<br/><br/>Pros: <br/>- The place is very well equipped for hotpot and plenty of tables for varies size of parties.<br/>- The soup base is good. We had the half spicy and half non spicy pot.<br/><br/>Cons:<br/>- All the cooked food are cold and looked like they've been there for at least a whole day. Deep fried stuff were very hard and dried.<br/>- Only one type of meat was available when I went. And it was lamb that I don't eat but my friends could so I just ate vegetables and fish balls.<br/>- very few selection, about 3/4 different green veggies to choose from, 4 frozen fish balls or crap sticks, squid, mushrooms, potatoes etc.<br/>- many dishes were dirty so we had to pick carefully and wipe it ourselves <br/>- dirty tables were not cleaned for an hour<br/>- it's super weird when the restaurant is quiet and no background music or sound at all<br/>- ingredients were very average frozen meat from the supermarket <br/>- costs 25 person which is pricey for what it is.<br/><br/>Summary:<br/>This restaurant seems very well equipped and should have a lot of potential but poorly managed, saddest buffet I've ever been to and the cleanliness is worrying.<br/><br/>My two cents:<br/>- There's a steamer could keep your hot food warm, at least turn it on so steam would come out and it would look and taste much better. <br/>- Clean your dishes properly.<br/>- Have at least 3 types of meat to provide, it doesn't need to be much.<br/>- Hire one more staff on a quiet day, when there's no customer then clean the place.<br/>- Put some background music on!<br/>- you don't have to lay out so much food when there's no customer. You can cook them when they arrive.<br/>- Put a billboard or something outside of the restaurant to make it more welcoming and invite walkin customers.

Tiger seems to have a rather low score overall but I must say I had quite a pleasant time here. It worked really well having a table of 4 and just sharing the plates. If you like spicy food one dish you must try is the Chongqing spicy chicken! I also really loved the tofu with spicy salt (and usually I'm not a tofu eater). I wasn't as much of a fan of the pork and rice dishes that we ordered but that was more because they seemed to have needed to have been cooked a little more.<br/><br/>I will also add that the young woman who served us was a fantastic waitress; knowledgable and very welcoming. So all in all Tiger gave us a pleasant and bubbly dining experience and we intend to return.

Have hotpot with frnds, not as good as before. Not 2 many options for vege, service is poor, just one guy. After dinner, we had karaoke, songs r quite old, haven't been updated for some time. Won't be there again.

I'm surprised that this place doesn't have more reviews. Anyway, I got introduced to this place because a friend showed me it after a Chinese girl showed him it (her and her Chinese friends go here often for Karaoke etc), so it's safe to say that it's pretty authentic. I digress and we'll leave the baseless assumptions where they belong, the opening paragraph.<br/><br/>Firstly, I'll say that this place was busy, even during the week - so much so that we were seated in the larger open plan place next door that shares a kitchen (and is more set-up for yum-cha etc). This initially felt strange - it's hard to describe but I'll try. It felt like we (2) were sitting alone in a larger open plan place. This may of been awkward if I weren't such a smooth talker.<br/><br/>After umming and erring over the menu we soon settled on two dishes. One was sea-food based and the other was a bit of everything really. Both were reasonably spicy and tasty - as outlined in their descriptions - but mine more so than hers because I'd ordered a spicier dish. Not because I was trying to impress her or something, but because I like spicy food. It took us a while to eat the food because the serving sizes are generous (on these dishes anyway). I don't know what it was called but it had crystal noodles in it, so that was pretty cool. Price was reasonable as well!<br/><br/>Anyway, long story short it was a pleasant overall experience. I'm definitely going to go back. Billion/10 would go back again, going on a date here undoubtedly sewed the seeds to a wonderful relationship. Go here with your friends, show your mates you aren't uncultured. <br/><br/>P.s. I don't know if they take bookings, but it's worth a shot so that you can get a seat in the bustling part.

Came in with a deal voucher, with my fiancee for a date night Friday around 7pm. Wish we'd never come in. Upon entering Tiger Restaurant, we waited by the till / entrance for a table. The waiter, a young man, looked at us from across the room and took his time to walk over and tell us we can sit anywhere. After sitting down, and letting him know we had a voucher, he had to ask a few people what the voucher actually entailed, keeping us waiting. After taking our order, (a pork rib dish and a Mongolian beef dish for mains, spring rolls and pork buns for starters), 3 tables were left dirty with plates on them for over half an hour, there was another 4 people eating at this time. There were 3 unisex bathrooms, which weren't the cleanest, paper all over the floor, with no handee towels left in any of them. The spring rolls were average, and the pork buns had no flavour what so ever, with hardly any pork, hungry and hoping for better mains , we were greatly disappointed. The Pork rib dish was so hot I burnt my tongue on the sauce, and there were 13 tiny pieces of pork which was tough and overcooked. The Mongolian Beef dish was uneatable, the whole dish was drenched in pepper.. We hardly ate anything, as I went to let the know the waiter we weren't impressed at all with anything in this restaurant, he pretty much tried to avoid us. He told us the mains were always cooked like that and everybody liked them. As we tried to explain that our meals were uneatable, not cooked properly, and ridiculously overpriced (the pork rib meal was around $16.50 for 13 pieces of tiny overcooked tough pork). We didn't eat them, and we weren't happy. We explained we didn't want to pay at all! , (but as he already had our vouchers for the mains, we guessed we'd have to pay for the starters). The waiter answered us rudely and ignored us some more by walking off into the kitchen leaving us standing at the till. As he came back, he walked right into me, without turning around or apologizing. We then explained we weren't paying for anything at all for such appalling service, to which he replied "$18.50 thanks. Pay, if you don't want to pay you can wait here for my manager, but I don't know where they are or how long they'll be." We paid and left angrily, as we couldn't be bothered looking at his cheeky face any more, feeling like we had done something wrong. We will never go back and have cautioned everyone not to either.

So I'd heard about Tiger Restaurant and their Northern Cuisine restaurant and last week we decided to give it a go. I think it's super important to say that the yum cha restaurant is next door to the northern cuisine restaurant. The décor is clean and fresh and most tables have a view into the kitchen with delish smells wafting out. I have to say that this is the best northern Chinese food I've had in Wellington. Far better than my experience at Red Hill. We were served quickly, the portions are generous and the food was simply delish. Best thing of all is that the prices are really reasonable too.

I visited Tiger Restaurant for yum cha with a deal voucher. We had no complaints about the food - what we ordered tasted good, was hot and most of it came promptly. <br/><br/>The service was friendly, but seemed a little disorganised. One dish that we ordered didn't arrive with the other dishes and when we asked after it we were told it would be another five minutes. When it hadn't arrived after 15 minutes we gave up. (We had coconut buns for "dessert" sitting on the table getting cold) <br/><br/>The decor and atmosphere in the restaurant are pleasant and I would give it another chance.

Well that was the worst yum cha I have ever experienced. The squid was stinky and chewy, and the service was just bad. The worst thing about it was, I had purchased a treat me voucher for Tiger. Me and my partner could order 3 dishes each. We could no finish the food so I asked if I could have a take away container which the young man went and grabbed for me. I was about to put our left overs into a container when the other guy comes to tell me I can't do that as the voucher didn't allow takeaway. Totally blown away he proceeded to argue with me in front of everyone, saying it will be thrown out and I can't take it as his boss said no takeaway. I think what he meant was, you can't order takeaway with the voucher but you should still be allowed to take your left overs away. I ended up grabbing my own container and packing my food away. Everyone in the restaurant was agreeing with me but he was sticking to his guns. I would never go back there. Not even if it was free!

Tiger Restaurant has the most authentic northern Chinese food in Wellington. <br/><br/>We've visited half a dozen times and it's been excellent every time. It's clean, the staff is good, the service is quick, and the price is right. Only drawback is no beer.<br/><br/>Be sure to try a few of the salads and vegetable dishes.

Fantastic tasting Sichuan food at a good price and in good sized portions. If you like food with heat, this is definitely the place for you! We found the service to be very good - our meals were served in really good time and the staff were incredibly friendly. Will definitely visit again.

Hidden gem tucked away just around the corner from Osterio del Toro.<br/><br/>Have been here a couple of times. Prices have gone up since they have first open. This restaurant specializes in karaoke and northern Chinese food (spicy food) - finally competition to Red Hill.<br/><br/>Recommend you try some of the meat kebabs on a stick, they are delightful.