[Pictures: Ginny Braun]
New Flavour is a fair way down Dominion Road, plonked just down from KFC and in a glut of very good, very cheap restaurants, where, ironically, a meal costs about the same as it would with the Colonel. This is northern Chinese food in big portions: fresh, at pocket change prices with minimal service and almost non-existent atmosphere. It’s also open extremely late – if you’re hungry at 1am on a weeknight, come here. A weekend too, for that matter.
The cucumber and tofu salad is dressed with chili, coriander, soy and vinegar; the tofu shredded in a fine julienne, the cucumber in matchsticks. A laden plate is $8, and that’s the small size – big enough for two. A serving of dumplings (steamed or fried) is too much for two people – there are a dozen variations, each served with twenty freshly made ones in a pile. The pork and cabbage ones ($8) were packed with filling – flavoursome meat and fresh herbs and vegetables, as were the egg and chive ($8). Oh! And the noodles – New Flavour’s tagline is the charming “manual noodle”. They’re handmade each day, rustically uneven and the star turn on the menu.
Chinese tea is refilled continuously, on the house. An unctuous, searingly hot chili oil as well as soy sauce and black vinegar are plentiful for dumpling dipping.
New Flavour is best in a group of four or more, with plates like the garlicky eggplant ($12) or deep-fried pork belly ($12) shared between.
That way, you’ll leave rotund, and you will have spent $10 to $15 each, at the most. NS
HOURS 5pm til 3am, every day except Tuesday.
ADDRESS 541 Dominion Road, Mt Eden, ph 638-6880.
IMPORTANT DETAILS Rice is ordered separately.
19 Comments
This is my favourite SECRET dumpling house!! I LOVE this place – so delicious, so well priced. Please don’t tell too many people ;)
We’re heading to Canton in Kingsland tonight and now I wish I was going here! (it’s probably about 1/3rd of the cost too)
Thanks Sarah! Such a great find.
Al – probably about a third less but not too much cheaper – I love Canton for the bustle and BYO option – and the Lazy Susan!
I love their deep-fried milk. They better still make it. I keep meaning to go back and have more, lots more…yum.
They do let you BYO!
Thanks Amber – we couldn’t really get a reliable answer out of them either way, so suspect it’s an informal BYO! Good to hear though.
I went last night. Delicious. And fast.
Loving the blog btw.
Closed on Tuesdays! went tonight and it’s the only night it’s NOT open. Went nextdoor and had a rather average dinner at Love a Duck instead. Oh well – next time for sure.
Oh no! Closed on Tuesdays. Our most sincere apologies and thanks for bringing to our attention. And yes, that Love a Duck is very average. We do like the one in town though.
Does anybody know if New Flavour takes bookings? Just had an unusual phone call with one of the staff there who didn’t seem to understand English. Would it be too risky to turn up in a group of 8 with no booking?
Hannah you should be fine, there’s a pretty quick turnover and lots of tables.
Doesn’t look like this place is a secret anymore… when we went we were lucky to get a table for two straight away, and every five minutes another four prospective customers would walk in and have to be turned away for 15 mins. Service was a bit chaotic as a result, but that just added to the fun of it I thought…
Dumplings are at least as good as the late lamented Ti Xiang on Upper Queen Street, and they have a better variety of other dishes to go with them. We got a bowl (more like a vat, the serving was that big) of pork and seaweed soup which was fantastic. Must go again.
Yes, the secret’s out on New Flavour. Thankfully that doesn’t seem to have affected the quality. Sorry to hear of Ti Xiang closing – is it gone for good? We’ll need to take the review down from the site if so. We’re on a hunt for good dumplings at the moment, keep an eye on the site for a few of our favourites in coming weeks.
They do take bookings but it can be quite a process to communicate how many and what time. Also when we turned up with our group of 8 they had given our table away but quickly rounded up enough chairs to put us around a smaller table. It’s also free BYO. The food is amazing – cheap, fresh, flavoursome, fast and the servings are very generous. You have to try the chilli and cumin squid. Totally worth the effort it takes to get a seat!
Thanks for that info Becky, we’re pretty sure they don’t have a BYO licence but we’ve never had trouble slipping in a bottle of wine or some beers. Their service is idiosyncratic, as you note, but that’s what we love about the place. And as for that chilli-cumin squid: my lord it’s good. We got distracted by Barilla recently but went back to NF the other day for it.
New Flavour has recieved an E food safety grading and is currently closed.
As of 4 May 2012, New Flavour has regained an A grade:
http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/council/services/foodsearch/detail.asp?pFoodGradeID=2251
Fantastic, thanks Harry!
Back and busy as ever – we haven’t been in for a bit but from walking past (to Spicy Joint in particular) I think this is now officially Large Annoying Group: The Restaurant… everyone’s obviously having a whale of a time though so long may it last :)
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