Woodpecker Hill

You need to try the fourteen hour beef brisket! Very good food, drinks and nice place.

Yum — this place is classy on the inside and the food is even better. For something out of the ordinary and that packs a punch try the 14 hour slow cooked beef brisket. It comes with a small green papaya salad, but you’ll want a bigger one to share! Just the right amount of tangy flavors and chilli. Expensive, but worth it. Note: they don’t serve chai here — odd for an Asian fusion restaurant I thought!

This place has amazing Asian Fusion food. The soft shell crab, salmon salad, and beef short ribs are standouts. The soft shell crab… what can i say but amazing. Crispy and flavorful. The salmon salad had some wonderful flavors playing with eachother. I wanted to eat the whole thing by myself. And the beef short ribs melted in my mouth… The garlic bok choy is yummy. The duck was cooked perfectly. It wasn’t gamey at all. Very tender. The green papaya salad was the only thing that was traditional. It was good but compared to everything else it was just okay. Oh I forgot about the fresh oyster… I couldn’t taste the oyster too much because of all the other flavors.
The ambiance of this place is… interesting. Just the name alone… Woodpecker Hill… I would never think Asian fusion. The décor looks like Harry Potter meets Ariel meets a cabin in the woods. But somehow it all works. The lighting was done very well. The music was very eclectic… Rock and Roll to R&B and back and forth… it kept you guessing what would be next.
We came in with a party of 6 on a Monday night so there wasn’t a long wait… maybe 15 min. The place was still full.
I looked at the drink menu. But only had half a glass of whatever beer that we ordered. What was cool was the glasses were frosted. The next time I think I’ll try one of their signature drinks and stay for dessert. The coconut ice cream sounded yummy. But we were all too full from the wonderful dinner that we didn’t have room for dessert.
The service was fine. The food definitely out shined the service.
This place also has great value. We ordered maybe 10 dishes had 2 pitchers of beer, a soda… and it was about $ 40 per person
I come to Auckland maybe every other month. This restaurant is worth the $ 17 cab ride from the hotel. I wish they had a restaurant in Hawaii. They would do well.

«Woodpecker Hill» exceeded all my expectations. It was a birthday lunch and everyone was looking forward to dining here — after exceptional reviews. Front of House called me earlier that day to confirm my booking, which was great — does anyone do this anymore? The décor has definite ‘wow’ factor with over-​sized clam shells as light shades over the dining table/​s or huge copper bells populated over other tables. There is a beautiful water feature as you enter, all the booth-​seating has dyed (chocolate) sheepskin which compliments all the other Vietnamese-​influenced interior design. The recycled menu reminded me of a ‘tapas’-style plates where you all order and share dishes. The wine list is limited — however the wait staff know their ‘grapes’ if you need some pointers. Collectively we ordered ‘salt & pepper school prawns’ as a starter; you can eat the whole ensemble including the shell. Then came the chargrilled salmon & soy duck, red curry of smokey pork, salt & pepper squid & clams, rice & stir-​fried bok choy with ginger, oyster sauce & garlic! The flavours were all intensely dreamy explosive: charred, smoked and packed with eastern flavours — chilli, lemongrass, wild ginger, lime, coriander, tamarind, Vietnamese mint, pickled garlic… pure gastronomy. No room for dessert, however I will order the ‘sticky black rice with coconut icecream’ on my return! Unilocaling high five!!!

Best Asian fusion ever-​rrr. We had the cauliflower and the eggplant dishes to start. We needed to get those veggies in before the, oh my, duck curry and the beef brisket. Yum, yum, yum. Amazing food, matched with wine. Afterwards, my wife had tea and the sticky rice pudding. I was too full by then. In fact, I was still full for the next two days.
I heeded the advice to book, so we were given very good seats. We were there on a busy Friday night: service was pleasant and fast. Quite impressive.
So many things to try, so small my stomach. I shall return.
(Too dark to take any good photos, sorry.)

Had a wonderful time at Woodpecker Hill a few evenings ago, sitting at the Chef’s table with a few friends on a particularly crowded weeknight. Ordinarily this would be my absolute last choice of seat, only because it makes it difficult to talk to your dinner companions, however, I had such a great experience here that I may have to change my whole philosophy. It was like having a front row seat to a real life episode of master chef, with the additional ability of being able to talk to the actual chefs! As always the food was wonderfully flavourful, well balanced and texturally exciting. Pictured above are the soft shell salt and pepper school prawns which were in a word; perfection. So crunchy, yet so flavourful. We also had the Fourteen Hour Smoked Beef Brisket which was so tender and delicious and the Soft Shell Crab which was as awesome as last time. If you’re looking for fusion Asian done right Auckland, look no further!

A fabulous addition to Parnell’s otherwise anaemic dining scene. If you like Moo Chow Chow, Blue Breeze Inn and other fusion style restaurants then this will impress. The fit out is incredible (although don’t lean against the waterfall at the entrance like me) and the food adventurous and very tasty. It’s a big, loud, fun restaurant and not the sort of place for a quiet romantic dinner but that’s part of its charm. The only downside when we went was the painfully slow drinks service — drinks took forever to arrive and the waitress didn’t come round often to take orders. It was a friend’s birthday and we wanted the drinks to keep coming! It was the first week it was open so hopefully just opening week jitters though!

This was our first time at Woodpecker Hill. Very disappointed
We had the Papaya salad, salad was drenched with too much dressing. We then had the soft shell crab which was very nice flavours were very well balanced .The 14 hr brisket was very disappointing. I cook brisket, I marinate in a lime mustard dressing and then with a combination of 10 spices as a dry rub at 55 ‘C in a Sous Vide for 24 hrs which keeps the moisture in and transforms the fat and sinews in a gelatinous texture and then finish this off on a charcoal barbeque that produces that characteristic crust. Sadly the brisket here was dry and the crust was lacking very much to the texture of corn beef. The pork curry was dry and was very much like a pull pork curry. I have been to Narm in Bangkok which serves this Asian Fusion and is ranked in the top 10 in the world for Asian Cuisine. I suggest you revisit your cooking techniques in order to improve the quality of the meals you serve

My 2^nd visit at Woodpecker Hill was being treated by my friend. I love revisiting places and getting to have a totally different experience the next time to that of the first. The first time I dined with 9 other friends at a regular table but this time with just the 2 of us we got to sit at the Chefs bar on comfy fur covered bar stools. I love to watch the action, smell the aromas and experience it first-​hand. The only problem is then you want to try everything you see getting made that you didn’t order. One of those things is the Papaya salad, it looked so extremely tasty and pretty in a bowl.
So being that I am a real foodie and love to try everything for fair of missing out. We ordered the Salt & Pepper school of prawns (which you eat whole in their shell), the chilli red curry pork, bok choy and the crispy eggplant with tamarind sauce. Oh wow what great flavours!
For dessert we shared the Sticky black rice pudding with coconut ice cream, honey comb and dark chocolate.
Next time I want to sit at one of the fur covered booth tables and have that Papaya salad and check those damn toilets out that I forgot to visit yet again (see my previous review). Clearly I am not drinking enough. I highly recommend Woodpecker Hill, I love the warm log cabin feel and would be back again soon.

Finally managed to get to Woodpecker Hill and was blown away. The décor and atmosphere are fantastic, the service is excellent — professional, knowledgeable and easygoing.
But the food was what blew me away. My absolute favourite dish was cauliflower. So well done and just amazing. We had beef brisket, pork red curry and bok choi and couldn’t fault any of them. The beef was tender as you could imagine and melt in your mouth. The curry was perfect and packed a whopping chilli punch (be warned). And the bok choi was better than I’ve had in any Chinese restaurant.
Not a single thing to fault here. It’s going to be my new local for dinner I think!

I think this place is pretty average, the service was okay the seating arrangements are just absolutely rubbish if with a decent sized crowd, they need some sort of sound deadening system very hollow sounding so sounds 10x noisier than it actually is. Food was okay some dishes are delicious some are just rubbish, there are much better places. Good thing is that it is hopefully the start of the revitalisation of Parnell…

Such a good vibe, the décor is fantastic! We came in on a Monday around 7 and it was PACKED but they managed to squeeze us in. I suggest booking!
Our waiter (Nathaniel) was really knowledgable, friendly and laughed at all my Dads terrible jokes — so 5 stars for effort there.
The food was so good and have been dreaming about that 14 hour slow cooked brisket and the Caramelised coconut-​braised beef (highly recommend this one).
I didn’t have dessert, but the olds did and it was consumed within 3 minutes flat so I assume it was good.
Also, great wine selections!
For a place that I admittedly thought was going to be a bit pretentious, they have done an incredible job of hiring great staff that make you feel comfortable. I really hope they don’t lose this!

We have been here two times in as many weeks, so it’s fair to say it was a hit.
First we had a lovely (boozy) dinner where we were complete newbies, and asked the amazingly friendly waiter (Tom) for suggestions.
We ended up with a balanced mix of saucy bok choy, butter soft meat, crunchy prawns — the works
The second time we visited was for a larger group lunch, which was again boozy — but the food still on form. This time we had tempura type vegetables that had a sour vinegar taste and were so moreish, I was sad they had to be shared with the table
The décor is beautiful. Taker it all in as there has been a lot of thought put in here — you can tell.
Be prepared to wait for a table, as it’s very busy at the moment — but if you manage to nab a roadside seat — it’s the perfect start /​end to your meal while waiting for the table or helping the digestion with a curbside cocktail.

Admittedly, it was my first dining experience after a long stint in hospital, but Woodpecker Hill was fantastic.
The service was friendly and attentive during a busy Tuesday lunch. Our waiting staff provided seasoned advice on whether or not we had ordered enough or too much (in our case just right).
The Husband was intrigued by the wine list and large number of American varietals on offer.
The food itself was as you would expect from the folk that bring you Chop Chop and Moochowchow — lots of fresh, crisp flavours like mint, chilli, betel. Recommend the Green Papaya salad and the King Fish. But the star was the BBQ. We had the burnt ends, the brisket and red curry of smoked pork. Melt in your mouth goodness.
Desserts topped things off nicely, trying one of each between and settling in the coconut ash as the favourite. The oriental tea was a nice way to finish it all off.
The décor is quirky and the toilets are novel.
Welcome addition to the neighbourhood, hope it’s the start of a long tenure and indication of great restaurants to come in Parnell.

Tripe with a capital T. Overly priced. Food average. Saving grace is they have Garage Project on tap.

Love the eclectic styling at this newly opened restaurant in Parnell. In contrast to Blue Breeze Inn in Ponsonby, this place is a cool mix of styles — fluffy sheepskin booths backed in tartan, logs, modern copper lighting, tiled walls and these giant clam shell lights. There’s a mix of seating, including a high bench facing the kitchen where you can see the meals being prepared. The food is a blend of smoky BBQ and Asian flavours. There’s a huge smoker filled with large cuts of spiced meat, wrapped in brown paper, then cooked for hours until tender. They are sliced and served on tasting boards or the end bits are added to curries. Fresh Asian salads are made to order in an oversized mortar and pestle. The curries are much hotter than you would anticipate and definitely designed to share. The eggplant dish is sweet, crispy and delicious. I ordered a housemade ‘white coke’, which didn’t really taste like coke, more like a mix of homemade lemonade and cloves. A little bit of Ponsonby in Parnell without the people watching. Oh, and don’t forget to use the toilet, they’re amazing… honestly, I’m going to have to start rating toilets!

Mark Wallbank has nailed his signature into the wooden façade of Parnell. A winter outpost to the summery Blue Breeze Inn in Ponsonby, Woodpecker Hill continues the tradition of Asian fusion with aplomb. The fit out is as interestingly cool as you would expect from this restauranter — a mixture of long tables, small tables and fur– lined benches at the bar and kitchen, copper and seashell light fittings, dark tiled bathrooms and lots of wooden logs to add the ambience of a modern ski lodge. The menu consists of a variety of small and large dishes which can be shared and arrive from the kitchen individually as soon as prepared. Flavours are predominantly Thai and Vietnamese. There is also an abundance of spices in the meat dishes, though they are not as convincingly Indian as at Cassia. Betel filled rolls are a novel starter, the rice flour coated deep fried eggplant is perfectly crisp, succulent and candied and so definitely recommended. The beef brisket red curry is spicily satisfying and the pork curry is an even better balanced mouthful of flavor. Experimental desserts such as coconut and mango puddings are the weak point to this restaurant. Although great on flavour, they need a bit of work to balance texture. Kiwi diners aren’t often fans of runny desserts (ice cream aside). The palm sugar treacle on the mango pudding is a nice touch and I would come back for more if the mango component was more of a panacotta. All round, this is the coolest place to dine this year and it’s bound to be packed for months to come. But don’t let that put you off. This is one great new bird!