Metro Top 50 Eats Under $25
2023 Winners

It’s hard to fully convey the joys of fried chicken in words, but for thoe who partake, it’s an uncomplicated pleasure: crispy, juicy, delicious. And, luckily for you, by the time you read this, Peach’s will have moved to its much bigger venue just down the road from its original space, five years after it opened its first brick-and-mortar. For years before that, Peach’s was on the road as a beloved food truck, slinging Nashville hot chicken at a time when no one else in Auckland was really doing it. The need for expansion was apparent right from the start with the queues, and the fact everything is made to order, producing long wait times. First-timers should stick to the OG burger, but we’re also partial to a chicken and biscuit, smothered in honey.

The North Shore is the home to a few good things: sandy beaches, the Devonport Library, Westfi eld Albany mall and the best xiaolongbao in Auckland. Chu Long Ji is a Chinese eatery all decked out in wood, with golden bulbous lamps dropping down from the high ceiling. You order at the counter here, calling for a range of dumplings in steamers and noodles in hot soup. (There are also larger dishes to share, like their famous crispy duck.) We recommend having a quick look at the sliding-door cabinet to the right of the counter, too, which has ready-to-snack small plates for those who can’t wait — saucy pork ribs, cold kou shui ji (slobbery chicken) and bite-sized okra.

A classic ramen joint in the middle of downtown Auckland, Tanpopo serves as an ideal spot to slurp down a quick, delicious dinner if you have somewhere else to be shortly after. It helps that you pretty much know exactly what you’re going to get here — bowls of hot and creamy broth, spiked by garlic and best when topped with silky slices of chashu pork. Big call — huge — but we say it’s the best place in Auckland for ramen.

The hold that Eden Noodles has over the dan-dan-eating world of Tāmaki Makaurau is hugely impressive — a feat which sees hungry diners huddling in the rain outside its original Dominion Rd spot, waiting for an elusive spot to open up inside or a takeaway box to hurry back home with. Everyone has their own idea of what to order here, a conclusion we reached after multiple trips. The sad cold noodles mixed with cucumber and spicy sauce, something we initially tried mainly for the name, is a winner for us, as are the thick noodles with crispy pork mince and pickles, served dry. Dumplings are great, wontons are great, Eden Noodles is great.

Meat chargrilled on an open fi re is possibly one of life’s best culinary pleasures: a rudimentary style of cooking that actually takes extraordinary skill. At Paasha, the meats are fi rst marinated in a delicious blend of spices then served with tabouli, hummus and salad. If we’re on the go (which, just a heads-up, you probably want to be, as this small takeaway spot has very limited dinein seats), we tend to order the wrap or pita pockets instead. While there are lots of places in Tāmaki that do kebab, it’s hard to stand out in the crowd, which Paasha defi nitely does, thanks to its attention to ingredients. (All the sauces, like the hot chilli and tahini, are handmade.) Note also that this Paasha branch is owned and operated by the original Paasha owners.

The best thing about winter? Knowing it’s about to become Udon Works weather. And the best thing about summer? Ditto. Udon Works, a tiny Japanese restaurant on the Balmoral end of the Dominion Rd strip, specialises in udon, of both the warming soup and refreshing cold variety, where the hero is always the in-housemade udon. Popular varieties include the hot kake, which comes with tempura on the side, or the cold bukkake, drenched in soy or sesame sauce and with a little platter of raw seafood. You can also get donburi here, but we fi nd it pretty telling that these are squeezed in at the bottom of the menu in a smaller font — take the hint and order the udon instead. It gets very busy, so prepare to put your name down and wait for the call. 

If you and a friend are feeling a bit snacky, there’s no better way to spend $29.50 than on Kiin’s sharing som tum platter, which includes a papaya salad (sour, in-your-face and studded with Thai anchovies and raw crab), some chicken nibbles, sliced ham, vermicelli and a hard-boiled egg. For a fully rounded meal, we’d get a pad kra pao on the side (spicy Thai hot, please) and maybe a duck curry if we were very hungry. For dessert, the mango sticky rice here is particularly good, though pre-ordering is recommended as it sells out fast. And if you’re looking for something for the road, Kiin also sells bags of pork crackling by the counter.

“How spicy?” the server asked us once, when we ordered our meal. “Medium,” we replied. She appeared sceptical. “Medium is really spicy,” she said. “Even for me.” Cowed, we agreed to switch to mild — and, thankfully, that was the right decision. We think Tianfu’s dumplings in spicy sauce might be even better than the ones at Eden Noodles: a miraculous alchemy of bright-red chilli, vinegar, soy, pepper and whatever else is blended in there to produce the glossy sheen of deliciousness. It’s the dish we get every time here, though the bowls of noodles are also good, especially if you get the shaved variety, cooked al dente. On weekday lunchtimes it serves off ice worker regulars and gets very busy, so be warned.

When it seems like there's nothing in life worth living for, we like to think about the roti at Uncle Man’s, which reminds us that, actually, life is full of meaning, when good food is involved. Made in-house (if you’ve never seen it, you might be able to catch them if you peek through the window — there’s a lot of skilful spinning and folding), hot roti served with dhal is our idea of heaven. If you’re in a noodle state of mind, order the mee goreng — in contention for best in Tāmaki — salty and addictive. It’s the kind of dish that seems deceptively simple but is very hard to make extremely delicious, as Uncle Man’s does. We recommend fi nishing with a sweet roti tissue or a roti kaya (with green coconut jam), if there’s any room left in the tank.

day on the weekend, because things sell out fast — a testament to this tiny takeaway joint’s popularity, which is itself due to just how good the food is. You’ll fi nd that Sim’s Kitchen sells a lot of Malaysian favourites, with familiar dishes and fl avours. But these are executed to be the best of their kind — like the char kway teow, a plate of smoky, charred rice noodles amped up with spice (note: ‘hot’ really does mean hot) and fl avoured through with egg and blood cockles. The nasi lemak served with a side of fried chicken is our food editor’s death-row meal — she’d like to go out eating that bright-red, life-aff irming sambal — and the Hainanese chicken, now only served on weekends, comes in at a close second. Wash it all down with a glass of teh ice (cold pulled milk tea).

Paradise has reached a sort of institutional status in Auckland, and it still remains in our imaginations as the Indian restaurant — the go-to recommendation, the default thought when you’re feeling like an Indian curry. Though you hear whispers from people calling it overrated (inevitable when something becomes this popular), there’s no doubt in our minds that the food here is still banging. The buff et has closed, but there are still three Paradise enterprises to frequent — the dine-in, the takeaway and the Party House (an event venue for hire). We try to dine in when we can, as the food always tastes better made-to-order, especially the curries. The Hyderabadi biryanis are also pretty special.

Hot donuts, 10 per bag. A market plate, laden up with steak, chop suey, rice and minus. A pottle of raw fi sh. Tanz Ktchn has all of the above, served up fast and fresh from its takeaway spot in Ōtara, plus hits some night markets if you’re lucky enough to catch ’em. You’ll often see people emerging from this place with several grocery bags’ worth of food, usually full of the market plates. The hot donuts (only $5 a bag!) are the real treat, though, deep-fried and sorta sweet, sorta savoury. A gem.

Cielito Lindo is the sort of place you come to on your own to sit, think and contemplate as juices run down your fi ngers straight into your lap and sounds from the dump nearby play in the background. A nofrills takeaway spot out west, Cielito Lindo evokes all the fresh and bright fl avours of its Mexican cuisine, which you can make spicy for a small fee. The sopes here are handmade and executed to an exemplary standard: thick, with a satisfying bite, and loaded up with your meat of choice, cheese and sour cream. The fact you scoff it down as fast as you can on the picnic benches outside only adds to the experience.

If you’ve ever been to Japan, you will be familiar with the prevalence of tempura restaurants there — places that specialise in the crunchy and light batter, with its airy texture but with a loud, satisfying bite. It can be a difficult thing to get right, but we really enjoy the version here. The signature dish is tempura on rice, served donburi-style with prawns, chicken and vege. (You can also get prawn-specific, vege-specific etc. options.) If you’re more of a noodle person, then the tempura does come with udon as well, plus a refreshing summer variety of cold soba (the type where dipping is involved). Ten-Hana is located in Stamford Plaza, to the right of the entrance lobby where Genzui Ramen used to be.

This may be considered cheating, but it turns out that we make the rules and therefore cheating isn’t really possible. Queens Court is a food court semi-hidden through a series of hallways and turns in an unassuming building opposite the Auckland Town Hall. Though the signage may not be the best, during weekday lunchtimes it always seems to be fl ooded with people, drawn by an excellent range of food stalls, from Bombay Chinese (which someone wrote in to us as their favourite place to eat in Auckland, talking about the chole bhature in particular), to Palato Pasta (where else can you find freshly extruded pasta, at this size, for $20?), to Ha Noi Corner (terrific phở) to Gui Rice Noodle. The core draw of the food court, that you can cater to as many people in your party as possible, is especially relevant when the quality of the choices is as high as it is at Queens Court.

Hsiu Yuan is in a huge, almost liminal space that makes you feel like you’re back in Asia (there’s even an exposed sink at the corner of a restaurant for patrons to wash their hands at, a fairly rare sight in New Zealand). There are many things to eat at Hsiu Yuan. You can head up to the counter and pile a plate high with the options in the bain maries — marinated tea eggs, pickled vegetables, stewed meats — or you can order from the extensive menu. If you’re new to Taiwanese food, the beef noodles are an easy place to start (there’s tendon and tripe too). Hsiu Yuan also specialises in individual-sized hot pots (though you can share, of course) that come in silver cauldrons and feel especially valuable for keeping the soul and body warm during the cold months.

It’s Java first opened as an Indonesian-inspired cafe in the Grey Lynn area off Ponsonby Rd, serving Indonesian specials alongside Western classics and regular flat whites. It must have become clear to them that what the people really wanted — and came to them for — was the Indonesian food, a rarity in Tāmaki Makaurau. So they pivoted. And they pivoted again, recently moving to Karangahape Rd and leaning fully into a fun, street-foodexperience vibe, with colourful tables and vibrant wall art. It suits the food, which is full of fl avour and can be hot as hell (especially that sambal that always gets put on the table). It’s also generous: in the way a lot of the dishes that we like are designed for sharing (such as the Javanese rijsttafel), and also in the friendly service from the staff who work here. Lunchtimes are a particularly good time to drop in for an affordable eat, as a $15 menu is available on weekdays from 12–2pm. Bargain!

There is something about eating a big plate of roast meat and rice that feels very pure: no frills, no accoutrements, just two pieces of wilted bok choy or choy sum curled up on the side of the dish, mere window dressing to the main event. That meaty purity is enhanced by the fact you can usually see the array of char siu and roast duck hanging by the glass windows, where an ageing Chinese man gloved up to the elbows wields a butcher’s knife. You can watch your lunch get chopped up in front of you, unceremoniously passed along the counter and plopped on a mountain of rice. It’s a beautiful thing to behold, and this place is among the best in Auckland to see such a sight — and the actual food ain’t so bad, either.