Order Food in wainuiomata

My second visit. Last time was Turkish coffee, apple tea and an excellent not-to-sweet baklava. This time lunch was meze platter and lamb shish. Great flavoursome lamb, loved the stuffed vine leaves, and found my new favourite beetroot dip. The only issue is that there is a lot of salt in some foods, e.g. the zucchini fritters we bought for a 1 year old. We appreciated the atmosphere, decor and our alcove in the window. Staff are very good, again.

This restaurant has giving me a great curiosity and challenged me to have a lunch here: 1. Why someone named a restaurant a FORBIDDEN CITY? It's very COOL like a movie title, but it's not. 2. It have a neon sign when open, even in the afternoon. It's weird but interesting for me! 3. the interior was not very inviting but at the same time very authentic?? 4. And then.. Serving an authentic chinese peking duck as a recommended menu?? 5. Some of the so-called Halal food wasn't leave a good impressions but okay I give it a try. I came with my wife on her birthday because she's craving peking duck from a long time, and we growing curiosity in this restaurant together. We ordered Roasted duck and Corn soup. The soup arrived first. My impressions is positive. The flavour was balanced. When you put some soy sauce and chilli oil, it hits different!! It was very perfect because we eating when outside is rainy so it warm our mouth, head and body. The roasted pecking duck became our "main course", along with the rice. We are very overwhelmed with the flavour. It's juicy, delicious, crispy skin... We could never want anything more than this!! The last bite still feel it's was first bite.. What an experience. When we finished and wanna pay, I never expected this: they selling the chilli oil!! Chilli oil here is very mandatory and never skip this on every meals here. Forbidden City is a proof that your restaurant doesn't have to be a gimmicky interior and striking sign to be a good restaurant. The name itself, the food, is enough reason to you why you should stop here and go home with the stuffed stomach. Very recommended.

Dropped in for the first time on Mother’s Day at lunchtime and they were pretty busy. Fortunately, we managed to get a table. There were probably only 3 to 4 staff so service was a little slow but not overly bad. They do have the usual Kiwi style breakfast and also the traditional style Vietnamese food and drinks. The Vietnamese coffee was great however it would be nice to serve with an extra side of hot water as the condensed milk might seem overly sweet for some. Food was tasty and generous portions which we ended up taking some home. There are 2 toilets available and I have to say that they are pretty clean. The only letdown were the flies. We are nearing winter and there were easily around 10 flies buzzing around, so I would expect summer to be much worse. This would be something that’s easily taken care of so would definitely be back for more meals.

IG: 2Fish1Chip Order: Fish, 1/2 Scoop of chips, Corn fritter and a sausage. Cost: $21 The fish was of a good size and coated nicely with a crunchy batter for most of it. Some spots the batter was soft. The flesh was a little rubbery to the bite, so didn’t give off those ‘fresh feels’. The chips were okay and better off in a chip butty, soft and pillowy right through. Corn fritter was ‘gluggy’ due to a batter mix and not the mash potato that’s the way forward! Disappointing really. The sausage was well, exactly as it looked lol. In terms of value, I gotta say it’s not there. Yes for portion size, but a hard No on quality and taste.

Lovely food, best fish and chips shop in Wellington. Ok customer service but great selection, over all amazing place to eat