gao

was recommended by a friend and was very impressed with the decor and atmosphere when we walked in.
ordered the pork and prawn dumplings to start which were nice. for our mains we had a selection of the prawns, calamari and mussaman curry...unfortunately these arrived in dribs an drabs so rather than eating dinner together it was abitof a relay! the calamari was abitdry and the prawns were very overcooked, abitdisappointing! the curry is very tasty but perhaps abittoo rich.
the restaurant was very busy so will excuse the food being overcooked and will give them one more go as the atmosphere is great. hoping they invest in some more heaters as winter sets in!

wow i went to gao with my family on sunday night and we were all very impressed with their delicious dishes and generous portion. we all agreed gao is the best restaurant we have ever been through zomato. only thing we'd like to comment is their lack of staff as it took us littlebitof time to find the staff to order some more. other than that, our experience at gao was superb and will definitely be back!!:)

pork ribs and shell crab are absolutely must go menu! large portion and very delicious. prawn is a littlebitovercooked. sashimi and eggplant is good too. if there is some kids plate will be better…

their soft shell crab is to die for! it was so full of flavour, sweet/salty/sour/abitof spice too - a very well balanced dish that was far above expectations! it had a lot of lemongrass and fresh herby tones with sweetness that was infused into the dish with mangoes - plenty of this beautiful sauce to coat the delicate and crunchy crab... truly delicious and almost genius 🤤 i will definitely be back to have this dish again. although the soft shell crab was a very generous serving, i feel like the papaya salad and duck dish were let downs.

although the papaya salad was pungent (the pleasant type of fish-saucey pungency) and full of flavour, i feel like it could’ve been better? gao’s flavour profiles are similar to other places like toktok, but i feel that i’ve had better papaya salad in these other places. definitely not bad though, and great value at $12 in comparison to $16+ at other places.

i’ve left the worst ‘til last...
the duck was quite unpleasant- it was super chewy, the fat wasn’t rendered down enough, and the amount of duck was quite small and i would’ve been upset had i paid $32 for this dish. however, with zomato gold, we were not offended, but the duck was not palatable at all. i love love loved the carrots - they had a smokey flavour and were soft with a littlebitof bite left, and the broccolini and piece of fig were a nice touch, but nothing spectacular in comparison to the crab dish. i hope they can change this duck dish because duck is one of my favourite proteins and it could be a really popular addition to their menu, if done better.

great service - all the ladies who served us were super pleasant, bubbly, attentive and smiley. also, very comfortable yet unique and beautiful decor with fairy lights among vines on the ceiling and gorgeously painted walls.

very pleasant experience overall! i’m so happy there is a place in auckland that does soft shell crab as well as this, as it’s my partner’s absolute favourite type of protein 👌

service 5/5
atmosphere 5/5
cleanliness 4/5
food 4/5
value 5/5 with zomato gold, 3.5/5 without

such a dining place with a nice taste of art. i fell in love with this place the moment i stepped in. all the drawings on the wall and ceiling really bring a whole new atmosphere to this restaurant. about the food, to be honest, there wasn't something which really stands out among all the food that we order tonight. my 2 favorite might be the pork ribs & soft shell crabs. the smoked duck seems to be a littlebitchewy for me and my friends. even though the food lacks abitof the wow factor, this place is somewhere you should consider for a saturday night out with friends or your romance date :)

had dinner with family of 5 adults, spent about $170. price abit on higher side, about $30s/main. we ordered fried chicken, soft shell crabs, beef curry, fish curry and red chicken curry. side of three rice and two rotis. rice not that special or fragrant as i would like for $3/small bowl. roti it's again quite small and does not seem to be made in-house. fried chicken and crabs were our highlight, generous size and taste really crunchy. beef curry taste quite nice but beef cheek should be softer, quite tough. fish under-whelming, taste abitfishy for my liking and watery curry. chicken curry on the other hand is very mild, it's on the sweet side, stir fry with beans, eggplants and odd choice of dried whole apricots. my in law came here before and ordered the duck and pork ribs, those mains however were quite small in size. overall great place to hang out with big groups. service is attentive. fusion good with good taste. keep in mind it can get quite loud when it's packed so arrive early if you want more peaceful dining experience.

food tasted good (except for the market fish and lamb which lacked flavour but there were dipping sauces for other dishes that we could use so it was ok) and the staff for my table was very nice. the portions are not suitable for sharing therefore you would need to spend quite abitif you go as a group and want to share the dishes. the bill came to $235. we had 2 vouchers that would allow us to save 50 dollars so we spent $185 in total for 5 people- with the vouchers, the prices are not too bad. 

the manager was abitsnarky when i went up to pay because i had grabone vouchers. she said you should have told us in advance that you have vouchers. we may have been too busy to accommodate customers with vouchers. stating that you have a voucher was not a requirement on grabone. the condition on the voucher was "online booking essential" and with their online booking system there is no space to write comments- it just asks for number of guests, time, contact details etc....  i mean sure we saved $50 but if you weren't happy about people using vouchers then don't do the deal. or make it specific in the conditions that we must phone up etc. unfortunately i have another voucher ( the 6th person didn't show up so the manager wouldn't allow us to use the other voucher) so i have to return again. hopefully it will be a different manager this time.

we used "grab one" for a 50% off voucher at gao so our $50 meal only cost $25. i believe this was the best way to get the food here as do i believe it is abitoverpriced. we had the chili dumplings, beef dumplings, and beef skewers. overall, abitdisappointed with the service as when they brought out our food they first brought out the dumplings and did not address that they would be bringing out our beef skewers later on. i assumed they would be but we had completely finished our dumplings and waited another ten minutes or so before receiving our beef skewers. however, as we were leaving the man at the counter was very friendly and since it was our first time there invited us back with a dessert coupon. the dumplings were very delicious and if i go back i think i will mainly focus on the dumplings and not so much on the larger meal. would recommend going on a thursday as it is ladies night.

went here with high hopes, sadly it failed to impress. soup dumplings were awesome, but had to ask for chopsticks to actually eat them. fried chicken was abittasteless, quite overcooked, came out luke warm and came with a lack lustre dipping sauce. the pork belly had neither asian style stewed fat, nor kiwi style crackling, and was also overcooked.bitof a let down in general.

grilled prawns marinated with red curry paste & coconut @gao.akl
the ambience was great. staff & service was also nice. they had a live dj as well.
the prawns were very well cooked but i found it abitoverpriced other wise it’s a nice place to try. asian fusion hidden in albany village. nice concept only the portions are less compared to the price.

another good thing was that they do mocktails and for non alcoholics like me can chose from cocktail menu certain ones they do mocktails.

i had the lemon lychee soda mocktail which was awesome & so refreshing.


#gao #gaoakl #auckland #aucklandfoodie #albanyvillage #albany #northshore #friday #tgif #foodie #food #fashion #travel #nz #nzfoodie #twinklingtaurus

have been wanting to try out this place since it opened last year.
so we booked a table for four for last nights dinner.
the place was packed on a saturday.
nice lively decor and background music. just need abitmore lighting in the place though i think.
we ordered two small dishes and large dishes and made use of my zomato gold 2+2 drinks.

my overall score for the place based on my first experience:
ambience 4/5 need abitmore lighting
service 3.5/5 long wait between entree and main
food 4/5 everything was perfectly cooked and full of flavour aside from the prawns abittoo burnt.
value for money 3/5 we left still feeling abithungry as the food here is so nice but would have loved to get more on our plate.

changing to the 1+1 food would be better.

design of restaurant is very artistic 4/5
service 4/5
wine list 5/5
food menu 4/5
taste of food
peking duck wrap, nice twist with the roti bread 4/5
lamb isbittoo sweet for me but still nice 4/5
pah thai is too too sweet for my taste. cant eat anymore after one scope 2/5
prawn is average 3/5

overall drink menu is nicer than food.

we went to there for dinner last month. everything we ate was delicious. service was pleasant too. the only downside is a littlebitpricey.

saw advertising on instagram and decided to give it a try, nice ambience and location with easy parking had a dish with just a big piece of eggplant that was still abitraw and the red curry just taste like sambal chilli sauce to me.. not a big fan of that. the pork ribs were nice !

such an awesome place! love the vibes with the artwork & lights on the roof. food was amazing. service was abitaverage as it took a while to get our order taken & we ended up leaving before dessert as we didn’t want to wait so long to get served again. would come back!