Al & Petes – Parnell

No longer an Al & Petes Take Away!
The next closest are now located in Ponsonby or Royal Oak.

Perched just on the edge of one Auckland’s nicer restaurant quarters, Al & Petes stands defiantly budget against the rest of what Parnell has to offer. I’m not to to sure if the sub heading of their restaurant ‘Gourmet Burgers’ is actually very suitable. If these burgers are gourmet, I don’t know what a non-​gourmet burger even is. Not to say that their burgers are bottom of the line budget, they are not, they come with nice fresh ingredients, just what you would expect from a burger really, but gourmet is certainly a stretch by my definition of the word. It is a fish and chip shop, it may not blow your mind, but if you are in the mood for fish and chips than it certainly will not disappoint you either.

We used to housesit in Parnell and if we wanted fish and chips or fast food, we went to the Catch a Fish Takeaway on the Gladstone Road. However, we passed this place many times and decided to give it a go one night. I don’t know why but I expecting an excellent fish and chips — it’s probably because the décor was quite old and I expected it to be the real deal What we got we were fairly disappointed with. I got fish and chips which was ok but there are places not a million miles away who do it far better. I think my wife got a veggie burger and she was unimpressed with that. I recall having to wait quite a while for our order which put me in a bad mood as I was very hungry at the time. Unfortunately, we don’t get the opportunity to housesit that big house in Parnell anymore but if we did, I would not return to Al & Petes for takeaway.

I had driven past this place about a million times over the years before finally trying it. I was thoroughly impressed as well as bemused as to why I had been making myself miss out on this for half my life.
I ended up returning after a couple of weeks, ironically visiting a previously ignored place twice in a small space of time. This time was with a group and the majority of us were disappointed. I had previously had a fish burger which was delicious but on the second visit my bacon burger was the opposite of delicious. Something tasted quite funky, which I could not quite put my finger on. The meat did not seem to be of a good quality at all, similar to a crappy beef patty from the supermarket that you would defrost yourself, and this was applicable for the whole group.
The other items such as crab sticks and hot dogs were just your average deep fried fare, not justifiable of the attached price and reputation of Al and Pete’s.

In the same way as the White Lady Burger van is the fast-​food institution of the city centre, you could argue that this unassuming little restaurant is Parnell’s. It has truly been here at the top of Parnell Road (just opposite the entrance to the park) for ages.
The gourmet burgers are fantastic, I had fish burger, which was cooked to perfection, not sloppy in the slightest and the bread was fresh with just the right amount of salad in there. My partner had the battered fish and it was amazing. It reminded me of the type you’d get in proper «Chippies» at the seaside back home in the UK. However, I just wish the chips they served were fatter and fluffier on the inside rather than those thin ones that have more than a passing resemblance to frozen oven chips from the supermarket.
I was really impressed by the service in the place too. As it was Friday night when we visited, it was fairly busy but the food was still with us in very quick time and given to us with a smile.