bunga raya

i was disappointed by the meals we had this week. poorly presented re-heated old food. not fresh. rough excuses were notgoodenough. very poor

yummy food and very accomodating staff..owner is very kind..food here are so delicious (masarap in our lingo) and the serving is hugegoodfor 3-4 person. price is acceptable, $25-30 each person in a full course. we definitely come back😋😁👍

a must try in auckland. fantastic service - john and rita are lovely people. we eat at bunga raya for all kinds of occasions (mostly because we miss the food!) and they do their best to accommodate to our needs. they also remember your special requests. such service andgoodfood is rare around auckland and bunga raya is definitely a gem. try their assam fish, home-made tofu with special sauce and rendang(s) for the best taste of malaysia. hokkien mee and mee goreng are also very good.

our group of eight friends dined here recently for dinner, having dined here a few times before.

whilst all our pre-ordered six courses were of ample size-wise and were nicely presented, we felt that most of the dishes were lacking in flavour and quite bland in taste.

another disappointing niggle was that we felt the owners john and rita on the night weren't that welcoming and friendly to their guests. we were there for nearly 2 full hours and not once did they come over to our table to say hello or asked us how we were enjoying our food. instead they seemed to have spent most of their time laughing and talking to one particular group of diners and others as well.

nevertheless, we all did have agoodtime there and may return some other time.

waitress talked over us when we were ordering and was very forceful with telling us what to order. wouldn't listen to us when we were trying to change our order. as soon as we were done eating, another waitress very rudely told us we had to leave because there was another reservation (i understand we had to leave but they didn't have to be so rude). literally the only nice staff member was the man at the counter who i assume is the manager. the food wasgood(which is why i gave 2 stars not 1) but not enough to justify how rude the staff were. we were made to feel like we were a nuisance in their restaurant, which is not how you're supposed to feel after dining out. also be aware they charge you for the tea they give you when you're first seated.

hands down the best malaysian in auckland!!!!
everytime i go i ask the owners to pick what i should have and they are always so helpful and friendly :)
on top of that the food is 10/10 every single time!!!
my must try items are the tofu and the wan tan hor.

the tofu is hand made and i’ve never had anything like it - it is amazing, and i normally do not like tofu!

all reasonably priced and well worth it for howgoodthe food is. i would recommend booking as they are super popular!

the last time i visited bunga raya was agood5+ years ago and i had fond memories of the food. decided to give them another go as i was craving malaysian food and they are conveniently located out west and do takeaways. i have to say the food wasn't asgoodas i remembered, we ordered the hainanese chicken rice, the chicken was really dry and rice was soggy. i did like the chilli sauce that came with it thought. the ipoh fried bee hoon wasn't too bad either but i felt could have had more of a 'wok' flavour to it which would have lifted the taste. i definitely needed to eat it with a chilli sauce or sambal to enjoy it. lastly the lor mee, unfortunately the taste wasn't there at all, the whole dish was bland and lack of seasoning, i could tell old vegetables were used in the dish and just couldn't taste much. overall, the food is acceptable but pretty average and not what i remembered it to be, i would have loved to have written a more positive review. however, i would still like to go back and try some of their other dishes and give a second opinion. thumbs up for service though.

third visit to bunga raya in 4 years and the food still tastes good. portion sizes have dropped a little but the food still comes out quick and the owner is still talkative as ever.

the xo prawn/chicken are a must have from here. plenty of flavour & tastes delicious.
the fried malaysian style fried rice is decent too and so is the sweet & sour pork.

my advice would be to go before 8.30 as if you go after there's a sense of urgency to shut shop & everything is rushed as the kitchen closes at around 8.45pm and you feel like you need to eat quickly.

other than that i would definitely recommend this place forgoodmalaysian food 😊.

food : ⭐⭐⭐⭐
price : ⭐⭐⭐
ambience : ⭐⭐⭐
staff : ⭐⭐⭐
overall : ⭐⭐⭐

i've never befriended a malaysian family. i think i must, because if the hospitality you feel walking into auckland's malay restaurants is anything to go by, it's a warm and loving experience.

recently i've eaten at sri pinang on k. rd, my favourite experience on the night was the maitre d's presence. she walked the floor like we were eating in her house, big smiles, lots of chat and even a hug to end the night (yes i'd had a bit of wine that night).

last night i visited bunga raya which i hear is a bit of an institution in new lynn. they've been serving malay food for decades, it shows. the entire restaurant was full of ex-pat malaysians, this was agoodsign. the interior is simple, with barely any thought gone into decor, with my anticipation building i felt this was agoodsign, does this mean all efforts then go into the delicious food?

like my recent experience in sri pinang, the service again like a big welcoming hug. instantly i felt at home.

the combination entree - 6 deep fried forgettable morsels with a sweet chili dipping sauce, not a great start.

slow beef in rich coconut sauce - i have no idea why they call it this. this dish is beef rendang. i'd like to think the majority of diners these days are cultured enough to know what a beef rendang is without the need to "dumb" it down. anyways, this was everything you'd want it to be, soft, luscious, melt in the mouth slow cooked beef. some rendang's are cooked too sweet, packed with too much sugar, this wasn't.

honey garlic chicken - these were sweet and sticky adult lollipops.

the food here won't blow you away, but it is cooked with enough love and tasty enough to keep it on your radar for future visits.

oh and btw, they're byo for wine!

next door to macdonalds opp denny's in new lynn! there you go, no excuses about not finding the place. finding a car park maybe 50/50 around here. rang after work and attempted to book for dinner @ 7ish for 8 peeps,  malaysian auntie laughed and scolded me at the same time (as aunties do) "all book up at 7,  can take 5 or 8pm can take lah, you must book earlier, very busy at 7pm lah"  we took the 8pm slot with my o'seas relatives, fluked parking nearby and arrived only to see others waiting who hadn't booked. very popular place, agoodmix of ethnicities, young student friends and family groups dining here. vibrant atmosphere here ,maybe it's thegoodweather or just the way new lynn is? aunty here runs the floor and she has a big personality, she suggested some dishes for us and made my visitors feel welcomed while making them laugh. she certainly worked the floor. my guests are not very adventurous concerning ethnic food and do not like spicy, aunty was only too happy to tone it down. she provided cut chilly for me n wifey to spice up our plates. we ordered the netsam prawns, covered in coconut, well cooked very flavorsome, the sweet n sour pork and the house fried chicken were excellent. the tofu and the stuffed eggplant was nicely pan/stir fried and these disappeared before my eyes as our visitors had never tried these dishes before?  we will come again to try out the usual malaysian staple foods we typically order. service here is quick and friendly withgoodpersonal touches. bunga is agoodplace to dine in esp with big groups and with the n.l mall next doorgoodfor doing movie and meal deal. the othergoodthing with bunga is denny's and mcd's being so close it'sgoodto pop over for desserts or ice creams to finish the day or evening?

great customer service and amazing food! xo prawns are truly the best i’ve had! the portions are very large andgoodvalue for your money. would definitely go again!

this place is always busy and booked up which proves that their food is good.

i have only dined a couple of times, and both times has been a happy-belly-filled ending.

good food,goodservice. fast dining atmosphere but they do not make you feel rushed.

i used to dine at this restaurant quite often when i lived in new lynn. the malaysian foods there were fairly above average and authentic too.

i normally had their mee goreng, sambal fried rice and nasi lemak with chicken curry. all these dishes tasted quite nice. however, the sambal for their nasi lemak was not as good, it was a bit sourish and no charred taste. there were several occasions that the sambal was served cold with the nasi lemak, i thought that they might have just taken the chilled sambal out of the fridge and served immediately along with the nasi lemak without having to heat up the sambal at all.

agoodsambal needs to be fried thoroughly for at least an hour to get the fried and charred fragrance and essence, and scarlet red in colour. it is best served with at least room temperature or luke warm, but not cold.

the lady owner was very friendly and always greeted her customers warmly especially the regular ones.

the restaurant was always bright, neat, tidy and clean.

the biggest setback for this restaurant is that they adopt a price differentiation strategy. the prices of all the dishes for their dinner are nearly double of the prices for their lunch. i personally do not concur with this kind of price differentiation approach. thus, i normally just go for their lunch.

food & beverage : 6/10
service : 7/10
price : 3/10
ambience : 7/10

i've heard manygoodcomments about the authentic malaysian food in here and been here once many years ago. coming back here again doesn't disappointed me much except for the service. i've heard that they are a very busy place and you need to make a booking so i did. first impression over the phone wasn't so pleasant as the lady sounded impatient and wanna to hang up as soon as she can. when we were there we sort of can understand as they were really busy. we saw people who walked in without booking being turned away. there was a big group of people having birthday celebration and we could see the owner kept entertaining them. but when comes to us she sounded very cold tone. nevertheless, we really enjoyed the food. we ordered the famous xo chicken, their special kampung tofu, chilli squid and signature malaysian food fried fish in noodles and we liked them all. i wonder why there's no menu on zomato, hmmmmm......

this restaurant used to serve up a memorable dining experience and dishes that would excite the palate. sad to say standards have dropped. their signature dishes are still 'ok' - xo chicken, tamarind flavoured pork and the coconut prawns. however we were shocked at the appetiser we ordered  - $10 for 8 spring rolls. there's no question that these were simply fried supermarket bought spring rolls. we can name the brand too!!! ($6 for around 50 pieces)

complained about this and the manager did not even want to hear the complaint. just kept saying, "that's how we do our spring rolls" and was very rude to my wife who phoned in. this is agoodindicator of what's happened to the food here - no respect for customers = who cares about the food.

very sad that a once well liked new lynn hot spot is serving up cold service now. hope you take customer feedback on board and return to your old glory...... we miss you.