New Flavour Restaurant

Wow wow wow! Their pork and chives dumplings are insane! Love their food. It’s always so fresh and delicious. Anyone I have ever taken here has become a dumpling convert and can’t wait till their next visit. BYO is also handy and the late night hours are perfect if you need a snack before you head home after a nigh out :)

No kidding when I say probably grew their client base by upwards of 75 people personally in the last few years. But last night i noticed a new menu with slightly increased prices (which is fine, eventually it needs to happen). But I also feel their portion size is starting to shrink. The cumin squid was literally a half size portion. Not cool. I love getting these things so I can share them amongst the table but there was little to share.
Still I give it 4 stars rather than the usual 5. It was super delicious. May have been a one off, but I feel that this has been the trend as of late.

Delicious dumpling in a strange little place. Cheap as chips and the food is lovely but you pay for what you get with decorations and ambience. Definitely not a 5star restaurant but always a hoot!

Pretty good food as far as Chinese goes around this area (which has heaps of every type of Asian cuisine), but it’s not amazing. The dumplings are good — you can get better ones for a cheaper price. The fried green beans were OK but needed soy, vinegar and chilli added to give them much flavour. Also tried a beef in hot chilli soup. It was mild at best and had more oil than soup. Plenty of places to go which have better food and better prices.

Love this place crispy pork with sweet and sour is a must try!!! Red bean pancakes and the spicy cucumber and peanut salad are great… dumplings are good too will be back soon…

We’re not in Kansas anymore people! Gone are the yellowed walls and ‘Handmade Dumplings’ printed on A4 paper in the window front (I liked it myself, I figured it would put the hipsters off) The dumplings are still the can’t-go-wrong choice here, however you may like them, steamed, boiled or fried. Pork and coriander was my choice, so fresh and filling, they must get their coriander from a secret shop cause I have not tasted so fresh in a long time! My Combination fried rice was average, good amount/​mix of meats/​prawns but not rave worthy. More seating upstairs, not that I ventured up myself. I am undecided on the new look, maybe if they got some basic customer service too? I can dream, I can dream.

I just tried this place for the first time today. The cucumber salad, dumplings, and fried noodles were very good. However, the squid did not taste fresh and was overcooked. We had to send it back because it was so bad. They remade the dish for us but it actually tasted worse. I think they actually added water and microwaved the same dish. Anyway, if you stick to the dumplings and noodles it’s an ok spot. I’ve been told by the other locals in our group that this place is slowly losing quality and increasing prices over time.

Like Amanda, NF has been our go-​to Chinese restaurant for just the two of us. IMO the optimum group number is 4, just enough to make it cheap $ 15pp on average we find, and not too many that it’s hard to find a seat. Last time we tried to go on a Sunday and there was a huge wait due to it being so busy, not their fault. Balmoral was popping off and it was hard to find a park anywhere at all. Always the best option late night too. Dumplings are great, hold less water than other places I’ve been which is a big bonus. But where NF shines for me is the menu as a whole. The sweet and sour pork is amazing, flat pork in a crispy coating with a syrupy sauce, nothing like the sweet & sour pork you’re used to at other Chinese joints. The cucumber and chilli tofu salad is one of my favorite dishes I’ve found anywhere in recent times. Cumin squid also a big winner. Got to pry myself away from the faves and try something new!

So tasty yet not greasy like other Chinese restaurant. Friendly staff too. I love to eat their spicy pork and family noodle soup in cold winter.

I hate hipsters because I’m a very cutting edge and a mature woman with mature tastes. No time for that young people/​youths business. Take it from me.
Hence the low score. Why do I go to restaurants? To hate other people.

I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed this place earlier. New Flavour has been my «go-​to» dumpling house on Dominion Rd for years, before Barilla & its’ celebrity fans made dumpling houses the next Big Thing for cool kids & hipsters. New Flavour hand-​make their own dumplings, hand-​pull their own noodles, and their big point of difference among the other Asian restaurants studding Dominion Road is that they are BYO. The menu is about 10 pages long, the tablecloths are laminated and the wait staff struggle to force a smile, but the food is damn good! And we are all about the food.
Dumplings absolutely, without a doubt, simply MUST form a component of your order. There is no compromise on this, in case you were wondering. The Scotsman loves the Mutton & onion ones; the Pork & fennel are pretty good, and I have also heard great things about the Egg, prawn & chives. Basically there is something to suit everyone; vegetarians, pescetarians & carnivores alike. Knock yourself out & try something new, or stick to an old favourite; either way, you’re probably going to love it. You can choose between steamed, fried or in a soup, and its around $ 12 for a hefty plate of 20 or so. The table condiments of chilli, vinegar & soy can be mixed to make a dipping sauce that suits your palate.
Next up are noodles. These are delicious. At $ 10 for a plate of combination meat noodles, you can’t go wrong. We’ve also tried the Black Bean & Chilli Lamb on noodles which was so good; sometimes black bean sauce can be overly salty, but New Flavour treat their black beans with reverence. Beware when chilli is mentioned on the menu though; they don’t scrimp on this spice! The chilli doesn’t overpower the dishes, but they definitely have a real kick to them, and less adventurous diners might find themselves gasping for the complimentary tea!
Other highlights on the menu, without writing a novel, include the amazing Cucumber & Tofu salad that is included in the starter section. Normally my eyes would dart past that kind of offering, but so many people recommend this that I had to give it a try. And now I struggle NOT to order it! Slender slivers of cucumber & tofu like you’ve never tasted before in a tangy, refreshing chilli dressing; it helps balance out the carbiliciousness of the dumplings & noodles.
The Sizzling platters always go down well. You can have your choice of beef, lamb, pork or seafood with vegetables in a sticky savoury sauce, and the drama of the sizzling dish can captivate/​impress/​spatter with sauce your dining companions, depending on the look you’re going for. And the Chilli & Cumin Squid is yum.
Have fun trying a «new flavour», slurping on noodles & splurting out the saucy dumpling goodness. New Flavour is definitely not a first date venue!

It doesn’t look like much, but New Flavour’s food and service helps it stand out in the crowd of generic-​looking eateries on Dominion Road. Always a favourite for takeaways and dinners of the quick and cheap variety. Apparently there’s a rivalry between them and Barilla, but I don’t see it. I’m team NF.
If you’re a dumpling fiend like myself, New Flavour is easily the best option. How do I know? It’s gross, I know, but dumplings from just about everywhere else gives me the ‘dumpling burps’. Not a pleasant condition. Anywho, New Flavour is the exception! I think it’s because their dumplings are fresh fresh fresh. Go for the pork and coriander if you want something a little different.
NF’s other dishes are reasonably tasty but nothing astronomical. The glass noodle salad with bean curd is alright, as is the deep fried eggplant with pork mince. These don’t hold a flame to Barilla’s refried green beans, unfortunately. But I forgo the beans because I’ve found New Flavour’s service to be oh so much better/​nicer.
I’ll be back, many many times.

You know, there was the time New Flavour was shut for a while, and people said it was because they failed their health inspection and then they wouldn’t go there anymore. I say a failed health inspection just adds to the flavour. The new flavour.
What’s more important is that New Flavour is bloody delicious and just about always open. Except for Mondays (or is it Tuesdays?). But when it is open, it’s open until 3am or so, which is just as well since it’ll probably take you that long to get a table. You can watch the staff hand make your dumplings right there on the crappy table at the back, so you know they’re fresh. I highly recommend anything with fennel or coriander. Oh and the steamed veggies with garlic are basically the best vegtables I’ve ever eaten.
The ambience is crap. Don’t go there if you want mood lighting and chill beats. Do go there if you want nom, no-​nonsense dumplings on the cheap. The hipsters have migrated to Barilla, so New Flavour is still pretty pretension free. Let’s keep it that way.

I feel a little bad for New Flavor, it used to be on equal footing with the infamous Barilla and now Barilla’s doing so much business that they’ve got flatscreens playing tacky K-​Pop and proper menus that aren’t laminated bits of moldy paper! New Flavor is not a bad option for when Barilla is too full to take you but now it’s definitely seen more as an alternative to Barilla than a place in its own right. We came here for a late dinner at around 10.30pm and ordered a plate of vegetarian dumplings (sorry but I don’t trust the meat on this road) and some garlic bok choy. The vegetarian dumplings were actually really good, my usual dumpling order over at Barilla is the vegetarian dumplings too and I actually prefer New Flavor’s.
However it turns out my friend and I are a little sensitive to MSG (it’s official called Chinese Restaurant Syndrome. seriously, google it) and we started getting a bit dizzy. kinda like being drunk minus feeling like you wanna party and annoy hot strangers. We asked the waitress if they used MSG in these dishes and she reluctantly admitted that they did. A couple minutes later the chefs walked out of the kitchen to have their dinner and no doubt the waitress told them what we had asked coz one of the chefs was seriously glaring at us like he was Regina George or something. Dude we’re not going to call frickin immigration or anything because you used MSG, we just wanted to make sure that that’s what was buzzing us out.
At around 11 – 11.30pm the place was completely full so needless to say it’s still popular. And I kinda like the ambience. it feels almost cartoonish, like you’re in a Tarantino film. Or is that the MSG talking? Anyway apparently New Flavor also do fried beans like my fave at Barilla so I might see how those are. But I don’t buzz out as much at Barilla so for now. I’m sticking with those guys.

This dumpling house really just caters for the useless drunks that come bowling in at 3am in the morning in a feeble attempt to sober up for the night (or deal with their munchies) and end up trashing the place. Their dumplings are actually pretty good, I enjoy them, perhaps not as good as Barilla but maybe it’s psychological? This place gets pretty damn busy though (you can take away which is potentially easier). I wouldn’t recommend ordering the fried pancakes, they incredibly oily and don’t have a lot of flavour. As you would expect of any dumpling place round this area, the prices are very low so it’s great to come here as a group and order up. Wee

New Flavour is the place people go to when they can’t go down the road to Barilla. It’s cheap and cheerful (ish) Chinese. It’s pretty fricken dirty in there. One person I know got food poisoning from that place but I’ve never had a problem. I’m hardy. It gets packed out at New Flavour. People love the dumplings and the prices — it’s super cheap. It’s also open pretty late, so a great option for one of those ‘drunk feeds’ people like to partake in.
Your not really ever sure if you booked when you call to book, but the tables turn over pretty quickly so you never have to wait that long. It’s also BYO and there’s no corkage, which seems completely crazy to me but I mean, I get the feeling the owners even really know they could charge corkage, if that makes sense? That’s the vibe I get in there.

Sometimes I wonder just what made New Flavor the spot that everyone flocks to, out of all the other choices on Dominion Road. It isnt the friendly service, and the menu is pretty similar to other choices right next door.
However, New Flavor holds its place as a fine example of what to expect from this area, and it’s super easy to get a great feed for less then 15 dollars, and if you bring your own drinks you are guaranteed a great dinner. As every other reviewer has said, it’s super busy. So if you come on a certain night and the place is packed, I suggest you go check out any of the other options on the strip.

It’s the place to be seen, as the queue of vintage dresses and Japanese-​tattooed arms winding its way out the door attests. You live even remotely close to Dominion Road? You like second-​hand leather shoes and bFM? Then you must love New Flavour’s tofu and cucumber salad!
It’s a really nice salad. It really is. All their food is really nice, and really good value for money. A tasty meal for a low price is justifiably popular.
But the nice things you can say about New Flavour can also be said about any number of restaurants on Dominion Road. They’re all cheap. They’re all open late. They’re all delicious. About the only places in that block of shops you can’t get a good cheap feed is the post office.
And all those other restaurants have seats. You can just walk in and start eating, without the awkward jostle of the queue, without fighting for elbow space with a thousand other hipsters. New Flavour is cooler than anywhere else, but I’m starting to think that this is New Flavour’s curse, not its blessing.

New Flavour has become an Auckland legend over the past few years and rightly so. After years of thinking Chinese food was just fried rice and noodles, Sichuan regional cuisine is finally becoming readily available and no one does it better (and cheaper) than New Flavour.
The «ambience» is basic at best, although the more you go the more its simplicity grows on you. Same for the service — friendly, efficient and the food comes fast. Bookings are hit and miss but even if you just turn up the wait is worth it. Sometimes the queue is right out the door but usually moves pretty fast. Open every day except Tuesday until REALLY late, your meal here will provide enough for leftovers too — even if you only order two dishes. At around $ 12 a dish, it’s easy to order much more than two and the Dumplings (of your choice — I always go for the vegetarian but everyone says the Pork and Fennel are the shiz) are essential, as is the Cucumber, Tofu & Coriander Salad. We also can’t go past the Green Beans with Chilli and/​or the Brocolli with Smashed Garlic and usually throw in a Spring Onion Pancake or two.
You can take your own wine if you want to (and there’s no corkage fee!) but the bottomless pots of green tea will make you feel virtuous and in terms of food-​beverage matching it’s a total winner. Even if you’re not usually a green tea fan, New Flavour will make you one. This place absolutely deserves its reputation and while it’s sad that the secret is out, hopefully its popularity is just the start of a future empire…
Our only gripe is with the «Handmade Noodles» advertised on the window. They are good, however we have struggled to relive our very first Vegetarian Fried Noodle experience. Each time since we have had different widths of noodles, different seasonings, different things added. True, we are fussy and don’t like any seaweed or fungus but sadly that first lot has never been repeated which is a shame. Same for the fried rice — just a bit on the ordinary side. Still, it’s not like there isn’t around another 16 pages of menu items to order from!

There’s nothing new about New Flavour; it’s another Chinese restaurant amongst a throng of many others lining both sides of Dominion Road in Balmoral. Yet this place is almost always packed, be it six o’clock in the evening or three o’clock in the morning, usually with more waiting out on the street. On a recent visit with a friend we had to perform «the swoop» — the only effective table-​acquiring manœuvre — because you can wait politely all you want but no one’s going to be showing you to your seats. It’s that busy. And apparently for good reason. There are the usual favourites; a delicious array of dumplings, a tantalising tofu cucumber salad, an assortment of tasty savoury pancakes… you’ll never be dissatisfied with what New Flavour has on the menu.
That is, if you can get a seat.