New Flavour is one of those restaurants where everyone you know, knows someone who’s eaten there.
In its’ former life as a humble, local Chinese restaurant in Balmoral, nestled amongst the mobile phone repair stores, Clip N’ Climb and the Capitol Cinema, the staff & service were horrendous. This is before they featured prominently in Metro Magazine’s Top 50 Cheap Eats issue, of course – a public announcement that the restaurant was a definite go-to for groups dining on a budget and wanting authentic cuisine.
If you were going to go to New Flavour, it was recommended that you ensure that at least one of your party was Chinese or looked remotely of Eastern descent to get any kind of reasonable service. You would often see older women perched above one of the large industrial chest freezers they have pushed up against the wall in the walk space between the counter and the toilets, toiling away stuffing pastries with pork mince, ginger and chives – all lovingly handmade, with the skill of a learned craftsman.
The staff would eye you warily as you entered enquiring as to whether a table was free and then haphazardly throw the laminated menus in your general direction, but not before bringing a bunch of forks to the table. Regardless, New Flavour would without fail always do a roaring trade, especially after midnight on a Saturday where you would be sure to find half of Auckland’s metal scene crammed into a corner enjoying the restaurant’s BYO status, drinking merrily and consuming their own weight in fried dumplings smothered in chilli oil & soy sauce.
These days, I am happy to report the service is much better. The staff are actually friendly! Barilla Dumpling House is still my preferred place for these tasty morsels, a stones throw from New Flavour but Ethan and I decided that we were going to try some tofu here after realising disappointedly that Spicy House (my favourite restaurant along Dominion Road’s Chinatown) was closed.
It was pretty early on Thursday evening when we managed to snag a table by the entrance. Auckland’s weather of late has regularly been a balmy 28 degrees, so sitting by the open doorway was a blessing. Ethan was pretty confident that he wanted steamed dumplings with chicken and I decided on the fried tofu, an eggplant & capsicum dish & vegetarian dumplings after confirming with the waitress that there was no egg in the stuffing.
My octo-lacto vegetarian challenge buddy Fraser joined us for dinner after I’d ordered. As both sets of dumplings were to be steamed, I was pretty confused when the waitress asked me if it was cool that the chicken dumplings be piled on the same plate as the vegetarian ones as there would literally be no way to tell the difference between either. I had been explicit in my dietary requirements when I initially ordered, asking careful questions to ensure that there was no gelatine or any kind of beef/bovine based thickening agent in the gravy that accompanied the eggplant & capsicum and that the vegetarian dumplings didn’t contain egg or dairy. This is something I am having difficulty getting used to. As a people pleaser, I do feel like I’m being unnecessarily difficult, but realise that people who have allergies also go through this drama every single time they eat out. I’m not trying to be a dick, but animals aren’t mine to consume right now. I’m just…ugh.
Disappointingly as the fried tofu arrived at the table, I realised it was literally just that. It wasn’t seasoned, literally just pieces of the stuff crispily deep fried. With hardly another option, I smothered the golden pieces of goodness with soy, Chinese vinegar & soy sauce and apologised to Fraser for my poor menu choice.
The capsicum & eggplant was delicious, served with a thick brown gravy and lashings of smashed garlic cloves which only served to enhance the flavour of the dish. Again however the dumplings were disappointing, almost a mere afterthought by the restaurant to cater to their veggo audience. I tore one of the dumplings open to find the contents were largely grated carrot, tofu pieces (again unseasoned, flavourless), vermicelli noodles & chives.
Our dinner was reasonably priced at just over $59 (Ethan got a sugar pancake to take home), so it was definitely not a terrible expensive ‘error’ but in summary, I have to assume that based on the reviews available online by local vegans of New Flavours’ offerings, which are largely positive, that I just ordered really poorly or they had an off night.
I would recommend that you save yourself the trip out of the inner city and see our friends at Peach Pit instead.
Love,
Charli x
charliespinoza.com 