Charminar Cusines of India in Auckland

Very bad service. Food served after a long wait and asked for a fill they said kitchen closed. So which make me to go and find another shop to fill my half empty stomach. Never recommended. This is not the way the restaurant is not operating in the professional attributes.

Chicken Biriyani was good not the best. Fish Biriyani is not a biriyani it is mix of tamarind fish curry mixed with Biriyani Rice. I will never recommend Fish Biriyani.

Had been to this place couple of times. Both of which was a not bad experience with the food. But can’t stop saying that the service was absolute waste. We visited the restaurant at 9.45 and the food was served at around 10.30 which is absolutely fine. Upon asking for extra bread they are telling that the kitchen is closed. We had to leave the restaurant with half filled stomach. Atleast they could take a final order or even let people know that the kitchen will be closed so that we could order accordingly. Dinner was spoiled!! Not recommended!!

Average food .Had beef biriyani .Very poor biriyani there was no egg and papadam as well

Really good and variety food. Kerala food is amazing. Good staff. Great ambience.

Usually visit this restaurant but taste always varying.

Really good food, so good that Ive been to this place more than 3 times in under a fortnight. Every dish out of the kitchen smells savoury and appetizing. Must go if you love Indian Cuisine. Manager was super friendly , and the staff was pleasant too.

Best Kerala food ( South Indianever in Auckland, Authentic Kerala home made food taste, great and friendly staff . Family like staff. Yummy food. Loved the chicken Biriyani Kerala style i am in love with it. as it reminds me of the taste how my parents cooks back in my home country. Dint even wait to click a picture as the smell of the Biriyani made me crave and once i started eating i ended up finishing it up all.

Decent food. Recommend for people who want to try South Indian (keralafood although they can improve on there service.

I had the thali and my friend ordered a chicken dosa. Took a lot of time to prepare these simple items when the Restraunt was empty. Thali was ok but the dosa was not good.We were late and left the food.

Been here a week ago and back again tonight for dinner. We are from Kerala the southern part of India. This is the only place where we felt the taste of authentic Kerala cuisine in Auckland.Definitely recommend...

For starters we had 1 dish Tandoori Mushroom, and Chicken Tikka both served on a hot plate brought to our table. This was absolutely delicious. For the Main Course we chose 2 which we never finished again scrumptious Prawn Masala (mediumthe prawns just "melt in your mouth" Kadai Lamb cooked very tender (mediuma beautiful dish, and a large bowl of steamed rice. We chose 2 naan bread 1 stuffed paneer naan, and 1 stuffed potato naan, which was really tasty Drinks 2x Mango Lassi in a tall glass, 1 Salti Lassi Total cost approx $40.00 which is very reasonable for 3 people. Will definitely come back again and thoroughly recommend this place to everyone

Honestly I will never recommend this place anymore. I have given them chances several times. But this time I have to do a review. Full chicken porichathu was dry as. Beef fry was ROCK AS. Porotta was I dont know how to explain that. Will never go back.

A good restaurant with friendly staff and mouth watering Indian dishes.If they could keep the toilet cleaner, I would appreciate it.

Kerala cuisine are good. Need to improve on ambience and other facilities (especially the restrooms). Went for Onasadhya recently. Was not up to the expectations and not worth for the price they charge.

Amazing food of Kerala. Onam sadhya was amazing. In fact not had that variety even in India. So yeah.. Definitely a must try..

Best place to eat kerala food. Friendly staff.

The food was very average here. We started with Fish Grilled which was amazing but after that all the food went downhill. Firstly the customer service was poor as the lady advised us we had not ordered enough food, and when the food arrived there was way too much food which was all average.Definitely don’t order the Chicken Jalfrezi or the vegetarian fried rice as they don’t know how to make them!

The food is authentic kearala style. Its cooked in a home style fashion with fresh ingredients. The spice level is also accurate. Very tasty and delightful experience.The price is economical making this a value for money resturant.The only part that would be require a little bit of improvement/attention would be for better service with a more tidier premises.Definitely will return more often in the future.

I was here to have dinner with a friend of mine. I must say, the staff was very friendly and welcoming. The food was yummy! Their Kerala parotta is a must try. I will be back here to try their Kerala Sadhya. I was not very impressed with the ambience though. It’s a BYOW, so that was a plus point for us. Would recommend these guys if you want to try some good Kerala food :Cheers

Just back from this restaurant. This is run by a couple. The lady owner Saji hope i spelt it right was honest and upfront. She told us there is always a wait time which is fair.Ambience: is not great and if you walk in off the road, first impression is very average.Service: we were served by the lady. As we were one of the early customers she took the time to chat with us which is a positive.Could have been better, if we were asked if we needed cutlery and extra napkins.Food: This is a plus for sure. Had the mango lassi which was made well. Right level of sugar which brought out the mago flavour.The tamarind chicken was nice for the boney pieces but the fleshy one needed to be done a little more. The Sunday veg platter was nice very different with the rasam and sambar and curd curry also s few different veg which is just a taste portion.The star was the fish coconut curry. This is really well made the flavour and taste is really amazing. I have a many fish currys and this one is up in my chart.Happy eating.

If you are looking for an authentic Kerala food, I would recommend this place, very tasty food. South Indian (Keralameals available on weekends. We love the porotta and kerala beef and fish fry..we enjoyed the food.

A great option on Ponsonby road for a very tasty meal. This end of Ponsonby road is just not popular, despite over the years there being excellent food available, (Navas was the previous one at this site, great food but few people). Have not had lunch here but have had dinner many times. You dont want to be in a hurry but the food is worth it and very well priced. One of my favourites is the Bindy Fry, Okra dish.

My all-time favorite when it comes to South Indian cuisine. Situated in ponsonby, a restaurant where you find the "actual" south indian food. You wont be disappointed. I missed the traditional sadya and I found its mini version over here. The staff is friendly and they always have malayalam tracks on their playlist.

An average Indian/Kerala restaurant that serves mainly Kerala style cuisine.The food tastes average. The beef ularthiyathu wasnt cooked well (the Masala tasted rawand a big NO.The sadhya tasted below average, and all the side dishes (vegetables except sambar and rasamwere cold or just served without warming. There werent enough pieces (I dont remember getting any vegetablessambar. Most of the sides got over or they didnt serve enough (we went at about 2pm on a Sunday). They were reluctant to serve second time. And sadly, no മോര് and dessert/ payasam in sadhya. Its just like an ordinary ഊണ് that you get for 50 rupees in a local restaurant in Kerala. Definitely not worth for $15!!!

The food tasted good. The wait was explained before food was served. However the hygiene was horrible. The tables were sticking and very uncomfortable to eat. The customer service was very poor.

Very poor customer service and hygiene is absolutely zero. Would not recommend to anyone looking for south Indian food.

Ive been here twice, and there service is appreciable and the food quantity is good. First time I ordered butter chicken, which was Okay in taste. Second time, I ordered paneer kadhai which was not good at all! I could see it in the curry and taste that they were using old cottage cheese (paneerwhich is a big TURN OFF. The onions used in the curry were literally uncooked!Also, there were flies in the restaurant which was surprising, tbh.A lot of improvements need to be made, so if the owner is reading this please make sure you do make some changes to make your customers happy and so they want to comeback.Cheers!

My go to place if you want to taste a different type of Indian cuisine rather than the usual ones. The beef dry fry is my personal favorite.

The worst restaurant ever I had lunch today(Kerala Feast). Customer service is extremely poor. Food was not too bad. The hygiene around the place was too poor. The staff was hesitant to serve the extra food and were charging even for extra snack. Too greedy for money!! Not worth for money. I would strongly recommend anyone not to waste your money, time and energy visiting such a poor hygienic place. Was wondering how they managed to get through “A” Certificate from the Food Authority?

Very tasty Kerala food. I love the food. But the service is not very gud. I would go for a take away next time.

Real South Indian authentic food. Loved very much, especially tandoori special whole chicken and paratta. My family liked it. Definitely we will visit again also recommend to our friends n family.

Best prawn biryani I ever had! The south indian cuisine at Charminar is just to die for! Service ok but since the food is made super fresh and the taste is divine, I give 5 points!

Amazing authentic Kerala style food. Good service from the host/ manager. Our new favorite place

With the new management in place, we went through the reviews heard from our friends. We tried the kerala/ malabari cuisine, I would say one of the best restaurants to try out the kerala cuisine, beef roast and parotha,and kerala biryani is a must try.

DO NOT EVEN THINK OF HAVING ANYTHING IN THIS RESTAURANT! THE WORST INDIAN FOOD I HAD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE! Theres no quality of service at all. Sad that you cant rate them with NO stars at all; they dont deserve any!

We had our Onam Sadhya here.. the food was average but the service was pathetic. They were not planned and we had to wait for so long to get each dish.

Good South Indian food especially the non veg. Had their sadya (kerala style unlimited vegetarian foodrecently and loved it as well.

I did not had much expectations about this place when i first went there. Food was ok ok, nothing to complaint about the food. It tastes the same as south indian food. The only issue I had during dine in was that it was a bit smokey in the restaurant. Otherwise all good. The location of the restaurant is also good, but not parking wise.

Celebrated a bday here with a mate, sat outside so we could have a scotch with a cigar :)Food was good. Naans were bot unexpected tho, was very sweet and crispy which was odd lol but it was tasty. Felt like a dessert naan haha if there is such a thing

Service was lacking. Food was okay but truthfully the service spoiled it. We went here with a voucher and were basically treated like we were cheap. Even though there was a group of us.The restaurant was empty. There was our group and another couple there.

Nice food specially the south indian dishes. Ambiance is good though not the most pleasing. warm hospitality. overall nice experience.

Excellent service. Excellent food. Should have higher ratings, the lower ratings are just anomalies, in my opinion.

Had a worst experience!!!Pathetic food service especially fish masala disgusting taste. Even after asking for modifications they brought exactly same thing in return. Highly not recommended for any friends or even foes. Zero stars and absolutely no ranking 👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻

Phenomenally disappointing, we have ordered home delivery many times from this restaurant and nearly always been very happy. We have also eaten there and been satisfied. Tonight our food was intensely disappointing, I phoned the restaurant and was told there is a new chef. Extremely disappointed that no concession was offered. Strongly advise people to stay away.

Awesome experience and exceptional staff service ..Had my sons 21st bday party as private function (40- 50 peoplelast night and I was totally blown away with Charminar restaurant .Yummy food, great selection of entrees .. butter chicken,palak paneer. .lamb dishes and indo Chinese dishes,great bar service . and staff and owner so accommodating..totally recommend Charminar in Ponsonby to all my friend and families ..

They do an amazing palak paneer(spinach and cottage cheese currywe had some chicken tikka as well which was really authentic tasting. Very cool decor with some antique artifActs sourced from far fetched corners of western India. Easy to find and plenty of parking around as its not at the busy end of ponsonby. Will visit again

Probably one of the only Indian restaurants in Auckland that arent scared to do their food truly Indian hot when asked! Nice food and great spicy-ness.They just need to work on the restaurants ambience. When its busy its so loud cause of the brick walls and uncarpeted floor, you really cant hear yourself think when theres a drunk table next to you!

Awesome service :-). We took an online voucher to try food for the first time. It was worth the visit. Food was good and it would have been experience if they would have let us try their special dishes apprantly they were not included in the voucher :( However we walked out with a big smile. :)

I cannot say anything bad about Charminar, but it was all so average that I cant give more than 3. I used Grabone voucher for full meal and drink. I couldnt swap beer even for less expensive non-alcoholic alternatives, but the service was nice. Although they have quite cheap regular package offers, there is no reason to return for me.