187-189 Queen Street, Auckland City
ph: (09) 368 5218
I have been to this restaurant 2 times with friends who said that this place was a cheap and delicious. What they really meant was that you get a lot for your buck, accompanied with complimentary chicken soup along with hot tea while you wait for your food to arrive; it just sounds like the perfect place to eat out... but is it? The first time I dined at the BBQ King Restaurant was with Chinese friends whom have both recommended the BBQ King Restaurant and a second time with an Indian friend. The last time I went there which was about 3 months ago, the food hygiene grade was a B; which was somewhat relieving knowing that roaches and rodents weren't running freely about in the kitchen. The BBQ King Restaurant's diners are mainly Chinese students looking for a cheap feed that reminds them of home.
The menu was absolutely huge, I mean there was just a ridiculous amount of dishes to choose from; ranging from BBQ dishes with rice, soups, noodle soups, fried noodles, fried rice, stir fry and many more. The price range is about $11 - 25. With the advice of my pals, I ended up ordering the crispy pork on rice which cost me $11.00. The entire house was packed and the kitchen was somewhat open for the diners to view. This meant that the BBQ King Restaurant was deafening with the roar of chefs and/or cooks, pots and pans clunking, diners chewing with their mouths wide open, waiters and waitresses yelling at chefs and vice versa, diners shouting across at one another and then more diners shouting across at one another; we could barely hear each other let alone ourselves. Being an open kitchen; the heat from the kitchen moved into the dining area and made the place smelly, hot and damp. As I looked around, the walls were covered with Chinese art and calligraphy, but no one could really notice them in the busy and excessively noisy environment. The waiters and waitresses didn't come to take our order so we had to wave them down.
The complimentary soup that we were given was warm and appetizing with shreds of chicken in them. The soup itself had basic vegetables with chicken which was enigmatically thick and rich almost like a broth. The amount of shredded chicken in the soup was generous especially given that the soup was complimentary. However, I could tell that this was a low quality soup as the ingredients were just chucked in without much preparation or thought. Vegetables such as bok choi came out whole, while pieces of chicken bones were a regular find. The vegetables should have at least been diced up into bite sized bits and the chicken should have been deboned. In terms of flavour, the soup was bland, simple seasoning could have easily solved this problem; I would have personally added salt, pepper and spring onion to take that soup to another level.
The tea which was also on the house was dilute and weak, we were barely able to taste any tea and the colour was pale yellow; we might as well have had hot water. My guess is that they reused the tea leaves instead of throwing it out and bringing in a fresh supply of tea. This tells me that the staff are either lazy, or the owner/manager is just being stingy.
Our food finally arrived about 15 minutes after ordering. My friends had ordered the satay beef fried rice which costed $10.50. When I looked at the crispy pork on rice, I had only two words to describe it: "Rip off!", but this wasn't something that I wanted to say to my friends (not that they would have been able to hear me anyway). The crispy pork on rice had about 12 small pieces of crispy, crunchy pork on a plate of rice with a piece of boiled Shanghai bok choi. It's not that they didn't give generously, but the dish itself was just way too plain and simple to sell for $11.00. There is nothing to it but to deep fry the pork, cut it up, plate it up on some rice and put a piece of boiled Shanghai bok choi on the side and... Voila! We have the famous crispy pork on rice. The dish was absolutely flavourless, the only component that had flavour was the salt lightly sprinkled over the pork, nothing else. The Shanghai bok choi was left unflavoured, it should have at least been drizzled with some sesame oil or some soy sauce. The rice was unpleasant to eat as it was way too overcooked, making the rice soggy and too soft to eat as it basically broke down in my mouth without really chewing.
Fortunately, the pork was crispy and it had a definitive 'crunch' to it, yet the pork wasn't dry and chewy, it was succulent and moist on the inside, but it came at the cost of containing a heck of a lot of grease making me feel sick after the meal. My friends were kind enough to share some of their satay beef fried rice with me; it was better in terms of generosity and sincerity, but it was disappointing in terms of flavour. It was bland and under-seasoned. I quickly made the judgement that the BBQ King Restaurant's dishes are either bland, too simple, or too overpowering.
The second time I have been to the BBQ King Restaurant was with an Indian friend, but this time we did not receive the complimentary soups. When I asked for them, they were quick to say that they had ran out. This was a complete lie as incoming Chinese diners were given bowl after bowl, maybe because they thought that they could take advantage of non-Chinese customers... I wasn't in the mood to fight about it so I let it slip. As expected, my dish was overpowered with ginger and my friend's dish was bland and flavourless.
However, this time the tea was much stronger than before and we could even get refills.
This restaurant's business model is a classic example of quantity over quality; keep it simple, sell a lot at a low price by giving the diners a lot for their buck yet keeping the dishes at a satisfactory level and give the customers an incentive to come back. I have to admit, BBQ King Restaurant did give you a fair amount of food for your buck in terms of quantity, but their dishes were a down right failed screw up in terms of the quality of the dishes; especially the seasoning. I would still argue that there are many places in the city that have cheaper food and the dishes taste much better, but I know that Chinese students come here because it's cheap, you get a lot for your money and it reminds them of home; and I respect that. However, as a critic I would prefer quality over quantity, and the BBQ King Restaurant only just passes by a thread to get my reluctant thumbs up.
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