Metro TOP 50 CHEAP EATS 2019
In the age of globalisation, you can read this city’s ethnic makeup in its affordable restaurants. If there’s one thing that has changed in Auckland beyond recognition over recent decades, it’s our food scene — it's shifted from staid and particular to diverse and dynamic within a generation.
Along previously somnambulant suburban shopping strips, and in newly developed neighbourhoods in the city’s north and east, there’s new life from a thousand small restaurants. And, by and large, they’re very cheap places to eat.
Price aside, the most delightful thing about them? They’re not for white people. White people are very welcome, of course — these restaurants are probably the most frequent way with which the many and varied cultures of Auckland interact with each other — but, increasingly, new immigrant groups are bringing their food with them, to feed each other rather than seeking to assimilate or cater to traditionally Western tastes.
This is a really good thing. The immediate and obvious benefits include the opportunity to eat something delicious for less than $20 a person. Not much more than it would cost you to make it at home, assuming you could actually turn out a Shanghainese-style xiaolongbao, or hand-pulled noodles, or a bowl of Hokkaido miso ramen.
Not that all good cheap-eat restaurants are run by recent immigrants — they're not — or that ‘cheap’ food should be conflated with ‘ethnic’ food — it shouldn't.
So, what ties these 50 of our favourite places to eat together? What makes a good
Metro Cheap Eats restaurant? It's a commitment to feeding people delicious food for not very much money — which is an honourable service, we think.
In a city where a dinner in a simple bistro can easily cost a couple of hundred dollars, and where dinner in a fine diner might cost you three times that, one of the best things Auckland has to offer is the diversity of restaurants where many people can afford to eat well and often.
KEY
NEW LISTING
LICENSED
BYO
OPEN LATE
ESPECIALLY GOOD FOR VEGETARIANS
VEGAN FRIENDLY
BURSWOOD
HUNGRY HEAD
8C Torrens Rd
If you don’t know where to start from the massive list of Hong Kong mainstays, we’d go for the beef brisket noodle soup, complete with melt-in-the-mouth meat and a deeply flavoured broth. For non-beefy options, a classic house-made fish-ball noodle soup will do you nicely. You’ll also find an excellent congee — a perfect cure for the hungover or sick — and during dinner time the menu expands to include, among others, whole chickens and weirdly delicious prawns with Maggi sauce.
Cantonese/Hong Kong
CENTRAL CITY
BANNSANG
1C/147 High St
This Korean go-to on High St is like an old and reliable friend. Open from 11am-9pm most days, you’ll find dependable dishes from all corners of their varied menu, from bibimbap to galbitang (short beef-ribs stew) to a traditional bulgogi. We recommend gathering a group to feast upon their large communal pots, including a warming gamjatang (pork backbone stew) or dak galbi (spicy grilled chicken), but be warned — the frequent queues may discourage you from lingering.
Korean
KING MADE NOODLES
48 Fort St
It’s easy to see why this new noodle spot
