chinoiserie

my mother lives up the road and my sister is always getting the pork gua bao and ribs, i tried it a few weeks ago and was not disappointed.
flavour was so good and the ribs were melt in your mouth.
can't wait to try more of their dishes and dine in would be nice as well.

excellent! my husband and i took his parents there tonight to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary.

highly recommend this place for dinner, the food was amazing, really tasty and the service was excellent. great atmosphere and really friendly staff who ensured our evening was great. in terms of cost, it was $65 for 2 people which is very good as we left full and probably ordered one too many dishes. a++++

the chinoiserie has done really well to serve their style of food consistently. the menu doesn't change which is okay, and it won't disappoint.
the menu is based on steamed buns with their fillings including my favourite, pulled pork. i thought the tofu filling was a little odd but might just be me. added to this are some excellent sides including coleslaw, string fries and some beautifully cooked chicken wings.
if you go make sure you know that it will be messy finger food.
a great selection of beers available and desserts to die for. i won't ruin the surprise!

literally one of my fav places to go! always busy, good service and they never disappoint. highly recommend to anyone looking for good food for a good price, bao bun, fries and a mountain of calamari ❤️

have been there twice so far.
the first time we went was a weekday night and the place was packed out nevertheless. had tofu and squid gua bao, glass noodles and slaw. they were excellent in terms of taste.
we loved the glass noodles so much that we ordered it again the second time we went in a weekend early evening to avoid crowd. however it was disappointingly insipid this time. why is the inconsistency flavor? 
anyway, very friendly service and will return to try others in the menu.

true to its name, chinoiserie is a classic kiwi interpretation of the famous and well loved bao (steamed bun). this eatery tucked in the suburban heart of mount albert packs some major vibes and great music. walking into the open kitchen sets the mood and smells divine.

the restaurant itself is small in size and filled like a sardine can with customers, in saying this the staff do an amazing job at keeping on top of things and ensuring patrons are constantly tended to. if anything a slight increase in communication between staff could save them the trouble of repeatedly checking on different customers for the same thing. we were asked by almost every member of staff if we needed a drink whilst we were waiting for a table. 

i love the fact that they have such a compact menu, i am a big believer of doing a few things really well as opposed to a choice of many average dishes. in saying that, there is definitely a small amount of room for improvement food wise. the flavours are there, they work well together but there was a lack of seasoning on the majority of dishes we tried. i really enjoyed the pickled ginger in the chicken bao, the chicken was slightly overcooked, a little chewy and lacked flavour. the portion sizes were incredibly generous.

what was lacking in taste was made up in service and atmosphere. with a bit of tweaking this place is undoubtably set to steal the hearts of aucklanders and those from further afar.

firstly, the prices here are amazing!! i came here one thursday night originally as i'd heard about the steamed buns they make here and wanted to try it out. the place was absolutely packed with lines out the door waiting though so went somewhere else.
came back on a monday night at a later date around 6oclock, so an earlish time for dinner and there were only a couple seats left. managed to get a seat and then order some food which came nice and fast especially considering how busy they were. the house made iced tea is only $5 and really good, cutely presented and incredibly tasty. i was really interested in how the steamed, milk buns would be as i was wondering about the taste and texture etc. when i got my bun was a bit weirded out by the play dough like textured bread but mixed with the flavours of the filling is actually really quite delicious. the bread is quite tasteless but is really interesting to try out, i really liked it. the buns are only $8 each, although in all honestly i could easily eat two of them for lunch/dinner. had a couple sides also, a cos slaw and some fries with wasiabi mayo sauce. both where really good, really big sized portions too which was great! definitely will come back, just a bit annoying how full the place gets.

have been here twice and really love it! my husband is taiwanese and he also loved the food - not exactly authentic but definitely close enough. we especially liked the chicken and pork bao, they were the best. the calamari/squid rings are yummy too. great selection of alcoholic drinks. a fun, relaxing environment with friendly staff. will definitely be going back :)

oh my goodness, the bao here is amazing. we ordered two of them to share, and if they weren't so deceivingly filling (considering they look small), we easily could have had a dozen more. i didn't take any photos of them because we probably just ate them a little too quickly. the glass noodle was a refreshing dish, and the calamari was on point. we also left very satisfied with the price of our dinner, only being around $40 for two.

great artwork on the walls inside the shop, we had a table up against the wall, close enough for admiration.
when i rang and got told they don't do bookings, they said if you get there at around 6pm you should be alright as a walk-in. when we arrived, they were almost filled up - so make sure you arrive reasonably early or quite late so that you avoid any disappointment!

having walked in at 8pm on a tuesday night with some friends, and to be honest i was expecting this place to be somewhat empty, due to its unexpected location away from the main mt albert shops and from what i saw was that corner of mt albert road and owairaka ave is being brought back to life with hip new eateries. so we walked in and the place was packed which is only a good sign since the place is quite new and so many people have embraced it and rave about it. 

i will admit i heard about this place a while ago but never went and i am so glad i did finally get there!
the menu at chinoiserie looks simple with little on offer, but those few items are delivered so well with some pretty amazing flavours, i think its much better to do few items amazingly well then offer several half way there dishes. 

i think its fair to say i could tell before i even ordered what the most popular things would be and given they were the things that looked the best to me in my ravenous mood. we all ordered chicken gua bao and a pork gua bao each with a side of coconut squid rings to share and a bowl of fries (everyone loves fries!) 

the buns were perfect, warm and soft and hint of sweetness fill with a generous amount of sticky flavourful meat and fresh crunch veggies like cucumber, bok choi and you can't forget the fresh coriander and the peanuts on the pork one finishes the whole thing nicely. i can't fault the squid at all, well cooked, not chewy at all, hot and very crisp, i could have downed a bucket of it though...

surprisingly i was fairly full by the end of it, so for some it might be good to just order as you eat rather than order all at once, you will be stunned by how quick they get food on your table, i had barely said a few words to my friends before we had all this beautiful fresh hot food on the table.  

the place is kind of a bar style atmosphere, not too noisy though and you order at the front which kind of is awesome if you're in a large group and were planning to split the bill you just go up and order the things you want and pay. the place is a little small which the only reason that is because the place is so damn popular — and all the staff  greeted my friends and myself with warm smiles and were friendly and chatty and very accommodating. i totally recommend this place and i know i'll certainly be returning soon. a great restaurant tucked away in an unexpected location, you defiantly feel like you're in on a secret with this one, try it out!

the guo bao were delicious. we've tried different filling and they're all so flavorsome and on point. wasabi fries were crispy. the black sticky rice was fragrant and not to sweet. definitely will come back again. highly recommended!!

we love this place coz it's not pretentious. the staff make you feel you've arrived home for an evening of chilling. it's one of the funkiest down to earth environments one could eat at. the black sticky rice is really delicate and delicious. reasonable prices too.

the best local bar hands down. the bonus is the awesome food. awesome staff and wouldn't go any where else. thanks again guys for the awesome nights time and time again.

ordered pork bao and chips with wasabi sauce.
the bao was soo tasty and full of flavour

quality/quantity - 5/5
service - 5/5
taste - 5/5
will i visit again - yes, i am keen to try out all the other bao's