Canton Cafe

Very nice place for group booking. Good food if you are drunk. Loooool
They offer BYO which is so nice if again you want to drink more.
Staff not to bad.

Always a group favourite. When our friends and I plan a «Canton dinner» that means a whole day preparing our stomach for the inevitable feast that will ensue. It means several large heavily seasoned Chinese dishes groaning all over the Lazy Susan. The end product is always always the same — all of us satiated in an pleasantly uncomfortable way.
The service is perfunctory but unpredictable. One time, our order came in less than 5 minutes from when we ordered and another day, it took at least 15 – 20 mins for our first dish to arrive.
The food is great — Black Chilli Prawns are a group favourite (if you have non-​seafood eaters in your group, there is also Black Chilli Chicken which has the same seasoning). I’d also recommend the Green Beans with Beef /​Chicken. But then the menu is so extensive, so who’s stopping you. In my experience, we usually order [number-​of-​people-​in-​the-​group] minus 1 dishes. This usually works out to be around $ 25-​$ 30 pp.
This isn’t fine dining, no candlelit small hush-​hush dinners. Depending on what day in the week it is, prepare to shout over other similarly raucous parties in the restaurant. No, this is loud, communal dining — bring booze, lots of mates, a big appetite and enjoy the unparalleled experience that is Canton Café.

My hairdresser’s been telling me to come here for ages, and you should always trust your hairdresser, right? She’s not wrong, Canton’s a welcome retreat on a rainy night, lively with chatter. I think we over ordered not realising that the meals here are supersized. I really liked the sizzling beef, love food that makes a dramatic entrance. I also tried the infamous salt and pepper prawns, the ones I’d been told I ‘had’ to try. I can report they’re everything they were promised to be, crispy and spicy.

Nice little Chinese restaurant in Kinsgland that serves up a tasty selection of meat, seafood and vegetarian dishes. Servings are generous, but the prices are higher than some other places ($ 20 – 30). Try the sizzling beef — it’s great! They allow BYO drinks and as a result, they are usually packed to the brim with a raucous crowd. A fun venue for a sociable meal.

Canton is a great choice for some authentic Chinese food, with the icing on the cake being that they are a BYO restaurant. It’s often marketed as a cheap eats place but I’d say it’s moderately priced. Standard size (large) portions are between $ 24 – 30 each. Some dishes you can get as a small size for $ 13 – 15 each.
On to the food. My absolute favourite is salt and pepper prawns with shells off. They are just delicious. They are cooked in garlic, chilli, salt and pepper and are just devine. Other good dishes are mixed vegetables in oyster sauce, BBQ pork, spicy beef. The list goes on. I’ve never had a bad meal there.

If you craving for Canton style food, Canton Café will be recommended one and pretty authentic canton style. I ordered hot and spicy hapuka fish and this is my highlight today. Peking duck here also recommended. Service is great but you must make sure you have reservations if you plan to eat here after 6 pm.

A really great local, the service is terrible but the food is delicious and you always seem to pay no more than $ 20 per person!
BYO anything (beer and spirits as well) and make a late booking before heading out!

The thing I like firstly, about this place (and maybe I’m a bit of a racist) but despite Canton Café having such popularity with the Kiwi’s, they still attract a healthy number of Asian’s to their restaurant. I don’t know why this is important for me… I guess because it reassures me that the food still remains true to its culture. Asian’s wouldn’t be supporting it if they didn’t feel it matched the stuff back home. It’s fast a furious here and don’t be expecting polite service. Sit. Order fast. Eat your damn food (less talking!). Pay. Get out. If you want to have a good ol’ yammer best to go for dessert in one of the other cafes near by (don’t try and out stay your welcome because they will ask you to leave if there are people waiting). It’s not exactly rude; it’s just different cultural expectations and social rules. Haha. (oh yeah. The food! It’s oily and very tasty. The prawns are yum).

I dunno what all these crazy ass people are thinking with their 4 and 5 star reviews. This joint is friggen 2 stars all day, every day.
So, I used to live down the road from this place and so I’d kind of jimmy in every now and then. When I went there last time I got the most aggressive and pissy service I’ve ever gotten anywhere. Like this old Chinese lady was serving us, and yeah, the food came quick and it was pretty delicious and had really big portions, but it was just incredibly awkward. It was like the lady hated me and my brother for some reason and was just desperate for us to leave. I hated that. It made me feel bad, like I was imposing on them by patronising their business.

The next best thing to heading to a close friend’s place for dinner — except the food is probably much better! Canton Café is an award winning Chinese restaurant nestled right in the heart of Kingsland. The large windows that front the footpath give passers-​by a view of the action going on inside, and those inside are most likely so engrossed with what’s on their table that they forget they are on show. The atmosphere is always electric, the tables always full and the food is always satisfying. With one of the largest dish selections I have ever seen you are sure to find something to tickle your taste buds, but I can certainly recommend the black pepper squid, and the Maggie prawns!

Good ol’ Canton Café. You really can’t go past this Chinese restaurant for a loud, rowdy Saturday night BYO with 15 of your best friends.
Not, I repeat NOT date night material, or if you fancy a quiet feed.
The large round tables are fitted with lazy susans so it’s perfect for ordering a few dishes for the table and sharing. Their lemon chicken is delish, as is their salt & pepper squid.
When they say they’re BYO they really mean it. You can take anything from wine to beer to (dare I admit this)… Jagermeister. I may have been known to shot Jäger from Chinese soup bowls whilst dining at this restaurant… but that was my alter ego.
It’s cheap, its cheerful, its loud and its fun. If you live in Auckland you’re bound to end up here at some stage and you should just embrace it!

The Canton Café cannot be beaten on price. In fact it is so cheap, we were wondering how it could be that they provided the quantity of Lemon Chicken (surely at least two birds worth on one plate) for $ 24? This is a great casual place to go with a group of friends, buy a selection of dishes (one dish between two is plenty) and bring some of your own drinks, beer or wine along to round out the refreshments.
The reason I have only given it three stars is again I’m not a huge fan of Chinese food, and the décor/​ambience are not the best, however what do you expect for under $ 20 for food and drink per person. If you like Chinese food and formica, you’ll love this place.
My friend says ‘this is her favourite restaurant in Auckland for Chinese. Black chilli prawns and hot and spicy squid are amazing and you will never ever find better!’

This place had me at BYO spirits. The absolute perfect restaurant to go with a big group of friends, we usually go before going out to town on a friday or saturday night and have a delicious meal and do our drinking there. They have handy lazy susans so you can spin the dishes around, as it is best to order heaps of different dishes and just share amongst each other. Works out perfectly and you can split the bill however many ways. This place is hilarious, there is always an extremely drunk table of people late night weekends which are highly entertaining. Be sure to pre book as this place is ALWAYS packed out almost every night of the week. Very popular spot and amazing delicious Chinese food.

Canton Café is one of the few decent BYO joints in Auckland. The food is good and it gets made at the speed of light (nimble Chinese fingers*). It also gets taken away with equal rapidity. They don’t have any qualms about telling you that you’ve eaten and you need to leave. Now.
I feel like Canton is probably the most popular Chinese restaurant in Auckland, amongst the non-​Chinese. The salt and pepper prawns are crunchy and delicious. You can’t go wrong with them, the green beans with olive (trust me), or the sizzling beef. The place is good if you’ve got a group of friends and you’re rowdy. Not good for one on one romantic dates, unless you go late at night when it’s not packed out. The decibel level is very high in there. Worse than Prego during what I like to call ‘the after school special’ (4:30−6:30pm). Take note and plan your visits accordingly.
*I am Chinese so that is how I am able to justify this semi-​racist joke.

Great place for large groups to spin round that lazy susan as they pounce on the first dishes that come out and pour their drinks (BYO allowed). It’s loud and busy in there but the food is good and comes out quick. Heaps of options so can work for vegetarians/​vegans as well as your more carnivorous friends. It’s the sort of place you can get away with being shouty although they aren’t shy about putting out the «fuck off fruit» when they think you’ve finished eating/​socialising. I can only speak for the vege dishes but they are suitably flavoured/​spicy/​delicious and about what you would expect from a Chinese restaurant.
Parking can be tricky but as long as there isn’t a game on at Eden Park there’s usually plenty of street parking on the other side of the train station on Sandringham Road — just pop over the overbridge and you’re there!

The best, rowdiest Chinese restaurant and takeaway in Central Auckland. Hands down. Always packed with satisfied patrons, it is vital to pre-​book well ahead to ensure you get a table!
A great place to meet with large groups of friends, many of the meals are easily shared and a lazy Susan is even available for those bigger parties.
With an extensive menu, Canton is sure to cater for everyone. I personally don’t eat seafood, however this is not a problem in the least. The black bean beef and bok choy salads are to die for. In fact, a common problem my friends and I suffer from when at Canton is over ordering, over eating and, yes, over drinking. Be prepared — have a taxi on hand.
Bonus: The Canton Café is BYO alcohol. Not just wine. So get those glasses ready!