restaurant 88

wonderful family meal tonight. extremely busy for a sunday evening, not one spare table available. everyone enjoyed their meal, service was as expected, nothing to write about though!! well worth a visit!! the pho was delicious as was the salt and pepper chicken. i'd recommend them to extend their children's menu, not all kids want chicken nuggets and chips a chicken noodle soup would go down well. recommend

the food at this restaurant is truly inspired. from mini prawn pancakes to succulent chicken, to quirky cocktails and lashings of fresh coriander and mint, this place is doing (almost) everything right. i came here with a friend the other night and was totally blown away by the food. we had some above mentioned prawn pancakes which were absolutely delicious and left as salivating for the main course. for mains we shared two dishes – the beef and the chicken. the beef was done two ways. one was seared and came with a fresh salad packed full of fresh herbs. the other beef was sweet and sticky. bouncing from savoury to sweet was an absolute delight for my taste buds and the sweet and sour tastes from the salad made for a fantastic flavour explosion. the chicken dish was divine. the chicken had been cooked perfectly and was accompanied by a noodle salad, which again, was packed with fresh herbs, namely coriander and mint – the top two herbs on my top 5 list. i had a cocktail which paired really well with the food. the service here isn’t overly friendly but our waitress was pleasant and very attentive. i much prefer attentive, pleasant service to overly chatty and conversational. so for me, the service was very good. as mentioned, this place is doing almost everything right. there is a lot of pork on the menu, none of which is free range. as a big supporter and activist for the free range pork movement, this is a deal-breaker for me. i do commend them on their honesty when i questioned them about it. so it’s a 4.5 from me, but i would have no qualms in giving this place a five otherwise.

a great restaurant. having a booking we were seated immediately upon arrival and the service was a+. we dined as a large group for a staff christmas do. six of us opted for the banquet of which was delicious! great having the opportunity to sample 'a little of a lot' on the menu. every one in our group were feeling very full and satisfied by the end of the meal. the rest of the group also thoroughly enjoyed the amazing taste sensations of their chosen meals also commenting very positively. only concern was with how hot it became with a 'full house' - possibly could have done with some more windows open? however, we're already planning our next trip back - maybe next time i'll have the mixed grill.

nicely decorated with friendly greetings from staff. beautiful food presentation and good selections. quite and cosy environment is good for romantic dinning or friends gathering. 👍🏻

a great restaurant with great service and great food. we shared our meals and ate everything. mongolian beef drunken chicken and the beef salad were delicious. i would definitely go back and try more.

yummy authentic vietnamese food! 

the first impression is positive, we were shown our booked table straight away, in intimate dark corner, good for couples or small groups. 

not too bad drinks list, and the well portioned food was great! highly recommend most dishes we got, including duck wraps and stuffed chicken for entrees, lemongrass chicken for main and creme brulee and black sesame ice cream for dessert. yum! the prices are on the higher end, but worth it. 

the only things that were a bit off were mains taking awhile to come out, but as someone with experience in hospitality, it was a busy night and not everything goes according to plan. one of the staff was wearing short shorts which did not suit the classy restaurant itself, but it wasn't a bother. what mattered was that they were friendly, polite and attentive.

overall it was a great dining experience and would definitely go back. 

thank you for having us!

enjoyed every aspect of our experience here. the food is fantastic - probably the best vietnamese cuisine i've had outside of vietnam. the service was attentive but not smothering, and i love the decor.

hmmm not sure about this one. was quite busy inside but after standing at the main counter and being ignored for about 10 mins i was finally spoken to about my booking. ordered entree and mains however they took an hour to come out!!

my main was the crepe and was bland and under seasoned. the crepe itself was soggy which i suspect was sitting around for a while which is a tad ironic because the owner (luke) once taught me how to make these properly in a cooking class. i could have made a better one!

so overall a pretty poor experience hence the low score

it's been many years since i came here - not long after it started i think. back then it was ok, but not startling, and for that reason it lapsed out of memory. the street frontage is pretty underwhelming - it could be any old office building except for the lime green 88 on the door.

however flicking through the zomato reviews i realised it scores very highly - higher than i would i have imagined - 4.4 suggesting either its very good or its patrons are stupid. it seems to be the former.

anyway last night on a friends recommendation, it came down to a toss up between a cheapy in petone or restaurant 88 - 88 won.

i confess to hating trying to find a park in the area but yesterday we found a dream park very close to the restaurant.

it is exactly as i remember it. high ceilings, slightly clattery and not particularly warm - it was a cold night. but the decor and general ambience was pleasant and had the actual temperature been a little higher it would have been cosy.

a bottle of rabbit ranch pinot noir arrived quickly and we decided from the menu to go for five entrees rather than entree / mains.

vietnamese caramelised sticky baby-back ribs: lovely, gooey long cooked - delicious.
roast duck wraps with plum sauce: my favourite, the wrap was excellent but in combination with the dipping sauce was inspired.
stuffed chicken wings with pork and prawns: good, pleasant, slightly predictable.
vietnames fresh spring rolls: fresh yes, but the wrapping rather rubbery - the thought "vegetarian condom" came to mind, but nice, and again with the dipping sauce quite moreish.
"glorious" vietnamese crispy mini pancakes: so interesting - a strange mix of flavours and textures.

by the end of those five, we were completely full. any possibility of going further with main or dessert had disappeared.

service was great, lovely wait staff - very very helpful and such good advice. nothing too much trouble, very efficient and accurate.

overall highly recommended for an informal dinner, i could imagine older kids loving it. a good alternative to and probably slightly better than chow down the road

date night: yes
kids: yes
big groups: yes
parking: hmmm but probably ok
foodies: yes

great ambience, lots of natural light and interesting decor that makes you feel rather relaxed. food was flavourful and well-worth what we paid. service was a little bit slow, but it was understandable because the restaurant was quite busy.

lunch with wife
service - outstanding
food - best i have had outside vietnam and better than a few when i was there last so highly recommended.
value for money - not cheap, but not expensive pretty much the same middle of the road price as most.  where is the value? when you eat the highest quality and freshest food like i had today you feel it was real value.
recommendation - yep, highly recommended and please just try it yourself i will probably be there when you go!  excellent place to have found and going back again soon.

i was recently in wellington for work and caught up with an old friend. my friend wanted to try restaurant 88 and i was open to something new so as you can do in wellington, we made our way there on foot. when we arrived we were seated straight away even though we didn't have a booking. the place was buzzing for a thursday night. orders were taken promptly and we were left to enjoy chatting. the appetizers didn't take long to arrive and although slightly pricey, it was a decent sized portion and extremely delicious. the presentation was pretty cool as well. mains arrived promptly after that and they were not disappointing either. i had the shaking beef and it was so good. the portion was too big, i couldn't finish it but that's better than paying big bucks and not getting enough food. my friend had the fish wrapped in banana leaf and that was amazing too. the food was so flavorful and well cooked. we decided to go elsewhere for dessert prior but they had some pretty tempting desserts on their menu as well. the menu is slightly limited but i found that there was still quite a nice variety to choose from. waitstaff were polite, friendly and efficient. i would definitely recommend this place. the only downside was that i found the interior just a little too dark but that in no way impacted how amazing the food was.

been here multiple times now. from groups varying from three people to about 15. all times, food and service is immaculate. highly recommended

tempted by the high rating, we went for a lunch at (vietnamese) restaurant 88. it was a sunday & we were not the earliest customers. we ordered beef noodle soup with bean sprouts, rice crepe with pork & prawns & crème brûlée with black sesame ice-cream for sharing. rice crepe was good but a bit bland; there must be too much msg in the beef noodle soup; the dessert was the best part of our lunch.

although there were already quite a lot of customers by 12:30, there was only a waiter running up & down, taking orders, filling waters, taking calls, greeting guests, and there was time and again that he seemed to “ignore” his customers. lack of staff is not an excuse for the slack service – in the hospitality industry. (food - 4/5; service - 1/5; ambience – 4/5)

i very nice place to eat.  good service and great food.  always reliable.!  had the lemongrass chicken with coconut noodles, so good and worked well together.  if you want a my full review visit my website.