Golden Tulip Restaurant - 537 Dominion Rd, 09 442 5018, Open 7 Dats 11am - 3pm, 5.30pm to late, BYO and Takeaway

After a very long hiatus I'm back, I haven't stopped eating the delights of Dominion Rd during this time (my waist line is testament to that) but a combination of work, two small children and house renovations put my blogging aspirations on hold.  But fear not, I am fully committed to my ongoing quest to find the most delicious delights for two people for under $30 on Dominion Rd and will be trying my best to make regularly updates from now on.

I was inspired tonight to write about a restaurant which has been on the strip for about a year or so now but I had never tried.  Golden Tulip is a bit different to the norm on Dom Rd as it is Malaysian cuisine.  It took me a while to go there because whenever I feel like Malaysian I go to Cinta which is across the Balmoral light divide but tonight I felt lazy and just wanted a short stroll.

My first choice of dish was the Beef Rendang, one of my favourite Malay dishes and a good benchmark to judge any Malaysian restaurant on.  It was $17 so a bit pricer than other dishes on Dom Rd but it was a big portion. It was delicious, with a thick curry sauce and lovely shredded cucumber topping and not at all oily, whilst it was perfectly lovely I think I prefer a Rendang which is a bit more fragrant and a bit drier probably a bit more like Cinta's - maybe I should have walked a bit further down the road!

I also ordered the Sambal Vegetables for $16, it was very tasty packed full of lovely greens but oddly it also had lots of bacon in it, which if I was vegetarian I would be a bit disappointed with. It was though delicious, so much so, I think I could eat it on its own.

No Malaysian meal is complete without Roti bread to mop up all the beautiful sauce and hands down this is the best I've tried to date, it was soft chewy and not at all greasy.  I also tried a coconut drink too from Taiwain not Malaysia, I thought why not isn't it very trendy now and good for you too?  It was really sweet and creamy and a bit average, I think I'll stick to water next time.

I will back to Golden Tulip probably for the vegetarian dish which wasn't vegetarian and I also want to try their Laksa which if this Cyclone hits this weekend will be a most warming distraction.

NEW FLAVOUR RESTAURANT, 541 Dominion Rd

New Flavour is not to be confused with Flavour House, which is across the road, and is actually newer than New Flavour, but as you will find out has much more flavour than Flavour House, confused?  So am I.  Nevertheless, New Flavour is the tired looking restaurant which will no doubt be busier and packed with hip young things.  The night we went to New Flavour I was feeling brave, I was dining with three toddlers and a newborn and I had also invited my Australian friends, one of which grew up in a Chinese restaurant. If anyone knew their dim sum from their dumpling, he did and I was keen for it not to disappoint.    

We arrived an hour after opening and were lucky to get the last free table, behind us were groups of people who ended up queuing over an hour outside in the rain, some diners (these were the hip youngsters) opted to sit on each others knees in order to get a table.  I had been given a list of must eats from a friend who visits regularly, we ordered all of these and some more.  Highlights included the signature dish of tofu and cucumber salad. The tofu came in the form of long noodles entwined in grated cucumber in a delicious chili sauce.  We also ordered the cumin squid which was crispy, tender and very fragrant, and the sweet and sour pork which had the perfect balance of both sweet and sour.  Dishes are super cheap ranging from $8 to $14, and they do BYO. The service was a little slow but well worth the wait, the punters queuing on the street certainly thought so, they were after the pancakes, so we will definitely be back to sample them.

5 STARS

Cinta Malaysian Restaurant, 452-454 Dominon Rd

It was a busy day at the office and the cupboards were bare so rather than brave the supermarket on a wet windy night I sent the husband out for takeaways.  Of late I have been a bit obsessed with Malaysian food, which has probably been spurred on by all the Malaysian food promotion out at the moment.  So the destination was Cinta, the local Malaysian Restaurant, KK Malaysian on

Manukau Rd

is also one of my favourite cheap eats, so I was keen to try a place on the strip.  The menu at Cinta is vast and very reasonable with mains from a very low $11.50, you can also order plates for 2 or 3 people which work out more economical per head than the single serves.  We ordered the beef rendang ($14) and the eggplant sambal ($13.50) as well as some roti ($3) as the mains don’t come with rice and it is always good to have something to mop up the juices with.  The beef rendang was AMAZING and I instantly fell in love, the sambal was a delicious mix of chilli and caramelised onions, it even got a “pretty good” comment from my eggplant hating husband.  The roti was more than edible but was a little oily.  Overall I was very impressed with our meal and will definitely be back to dine in, but next time with a few friends so I can taste more Cinta made delights!

5 STAR

Shai Lin Kung Fu Noodle, 636 Dominion Rd

Some friends had just moved into the neighbourhood so we thought it would be good to share with them some local delights for lunch.  We had never been to Kung Fu Noodle, but it is one of the only places open for lunch at this end of the

Dom Rd

and it is always busy.  I like the name Kung Fu Noodle, it is a tad more creative than other eateries on the strip, it makes me think of David Carradine in Kill Bill cutting up noodles with his hands and feet and strangely this is what these noodles look like, they are the thick rough looking delicious noodles which are made from dumpling dough and have been sliced into long strips, nice and slippery on your chopsticks.  We ordered a few dishes and the by far the best was the lamb dumplings and the beef noodles, the beef was super tender and tasty.  Kung Fu Noodle use to be a burger bar, one of the last European style eating places in this part of the road, so it was only fitting that they also offer a Chinese Burger, I think I'll go back to try it out only because I am intrigued by what it makes it Chinese, maybe this is something David Carradine would of eaten after he finished chopping up noodles with his hands?

3 STARS

Banzai Restaurant, 8/583 Dominion Rd, Balmoral

Banzai is an oldie but a goodie and it is here that my love affair for Dominion Rd dining began.  Open for both lunch and dinner, and across the road from the Capital Theatre this place books out quick, so make sure you make a reservation first.  The occasion was girls night out and a movie and dinner at a Japanese BYO restaurant was the perfect choice especially as I had been dreaming all day of their udon noodles and incredibly fresh sushi.  The initial evening was marred by another diner across the room wearing the exact same loud print dress as me, but my friends reassured me that I look much better and from then on the rest of the evening at Banzai went as per usual without a hitch. 

There was a vegetarian amongst us, which was not a problem as unusually for a Japanese restaurant the vege selection here is great.  We started off with crispy tempura veges to share ($11), I was then feeling frivolous and hungry so proceeded to order the most expensive main on the menu which is the Yakiniku Prawns ($16) an interesting combination of garlic, onion, apple, miso paste and soy sauce with cashew nuts sprinkled on top.  My prawns were succulent and the vegetables were plentiful.  Our vegetarian friend had the lemon chilli tofu soup with udon noodles ($10) and declared it the best soup she has ever had.  Once we had, had our fill we needed to scoot to make it to the movie in time.  In usual Japanese style when we left we got a warm good bye from all the wait and kitchen staff.

There really is nothing bad to say about Banzai, the food is consistently reasonable, fresh and good, the interior clean and the service excellent.  .  It is the sort of place you don’t want anyone knowing about as you want to keep it all for yourself, so now you know mums the word!

5 STARS

Barillo Dumpling, 571 Dominion Rd, Balmoral

Not many places on Dom Rd are open for lunch, so I thought I’d give Barillo Dumpling a whirl as there were a few people eating there which is always a good sign.  I am guessing that dumplings to the Chinese are a bit like what pies are to Kiwi’s.  Something comforting, easy and what fond food memories are built on.  So it was with high expectations that I had a business lunch meeting in the somewhat dull looking Barillo Dumpling Restaurant,  a Chinese establishment specialising in dumplings.  The menu consisted of over 40 different dumpling fillings and a selection of fried dishes.  For the dumplings we decided to go with Pork and Cashew ($10), pork because it is the benchmark for dumplings and cashew to try and be a bit more adventurous. Although they were reasonable they we were most disappointing as they were bland and chewy.  For our ‘fried’ dish we decided to bypass the jellyfish and fried chicken gristle with cumin and go for something a bit more standard, and decided upon Chicken with Green Peppers in Chilli Sauce ($14), this was oily, bland and not at all spicy.  Not much business was discussed and not much food was eaten, with so many other great places serving delicious dumplings along the

Dom Rd

, I don’t think we will be returning.

2 STARS



Flavour House, 614 Dominion Rd, Balmoral

A newbie on the block Flavour House is a tidy little establishment featuring a vast array of Chinese dishes.  If you want a delicious cheap filling meal, it would definitely be a great place to go especially after a night out on the tiles as it is open till 5am.  Lots of intestines (which I worked out later was tripe) and other offal feature on the menu, we decided to by pass these umm delicacies and went for the Gong Boa Chicken ($14), Fried Squid and Veges ($13) and Fried Dumplings ($10).  The Gong Boa was a stand out dish, made up of lovely golden chicken, whole chillies and peanuts with crisp cucumber and carrot added to cut the heat.  The ‘veges’ in the squid only consists of baby bok choy, although lacking in vege variety the dish still managed to please as it was so lightly steamed and fresh and the squid was very tender.  The dumplings were delicious and were  made from scratch by the chef.

Yet again my eyes were far too big for my stomach and we could have easily feed 4 with what we ordered, when we left we asked for a doggie bag.  Our waitress came out with two polystyrene containers which we had to fill ourselves, not sure if this is the exception or the rule, but something I haven’t encountered before.  Never the less, the food was stand out and we will definitely we back for a return visit.

4 STARS