Auckland restaurant review: Eyeing the yum cha menu at Grand Harbour Chinese restaurant

A selection of dishes from Grand Harbour's yum cha menu. Photos / NZME

In their own words: “Established in 2000, we strive to serve the most authentic Hong Kong-style dishes in Auckland.”

First impressions: Once, when he was visiting from the South Island, I took my dad to lunch at Grand Harbour. He didn’t speak to me for the first 20 minutes. “I feel like I’m at the movies,” he said. “There’s so much to look at!” And it’s true. On a busy day, the cavernous interior of this Auckland Viaduct-adjacent Chinese restaurant hums like a small city where absolutely anything could happen. Is that a watercress dumpling? Yes! Is that Don Brash, former leader of the National Party, en route to the bathroom? Also yes.

In the kitchen: Head to the restaurant’s website for behind-the-scenes videos of the teams turning out a mountain of food. Through the flames and the steam, I counted at least 10 chefs chopping, tossing, kneading and platting for the daily yum cha and evening a la carte and set menu services.

On the floor: Yum cha is not for the vague of heart. The waitstaff have an entire restaurant to feed and the quicker you can say “yes please” to the mayonnaise-slicked grilled oysters, the sooner the next trolley will be along. (Also, pull your chair in - unimpeded access is crucial.)

The menu: If you ask nicely, the waitstaff will bring your favourites. For me, the joy of yum cha is the unexpected. Take your seat, say yes to the tea (“yum cha” is, after all, Cantonese for “drinking tea”) and wait for the waves of trolleys and trays, loosely divided by content and cooking style - steamed, deep-fried, baked, dessert, kitchen specials, etc.

Best bite #1: Daikon radish is a long, tubular and mildly peppery white root vegetable. If you’ve only tried it raw, its incarnation as lo bak go or “turnip cake” will be a revelation. This unassuming dish (which turns out to be neither turnip nor cake) belies its multi-step preparation. Grated daikon, rice flour and tasty morsels are combined, steamed, cooled and pan-fried until they’re crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. Served in rectangular wedges, lo bak go ticks every rib-sticking box in the comfort food book. Grand Harbour studs its version with little chunks of lap cheung (salty-smoky-sweet sausage) and, while it’s not pretty to look at, it is deeply satisfying to eat.

Best bite #2: Obviously you’re here for the steamed dumplings in the bamboo baskets - those gummy, translucent skins; that scalding nugget of minced pork, prawn, pea shoots, spinach, etc. But don’t stop there. My dining companion assured me that, despite the name, there would be no actual shark fins - but plenty of dried mushroom and water chestnut - in a trio of prettily crimped egg-enriched wrappers (delicious and not as sticky as the har gow, et al). Then the waitperson insisted we try the soup dumplings. “Very popular,” she said. And very delicious, I can confirm. Mercifully cool enough to eat in a single bite, the flood of slightly fatty pork broth against soft wheat dough was like a small, meaty hug in my mouth.

Dessert: The first time I ate an egg tart it felt ... wrong. Ignorantly expecting the screamingly-yellow custard to be cold, when my tongue hit that warm, jiggly centre, my stomach lurched and I decided these were not for me. At Grand Harbour, I learned the error of my ways. A crisp, multi-leaved pastry shell shattered like frozen butter and melted into that wobbly sweet filling and I was, officially, an egg tart aficionado.

Perfect for: Repeat visits (at any given moment, there are 50+ dishes circulating the dining room) and speedy lunches with an element of surprise.

How much: We spent $350 for three (including beers). Medium dim sum, $10 each; large dim sum, $11; soup dumplings, $18.

Address: Cnr Customs St West and Pakenham St East, Auckland. Ph (09) 357 6889.

Sip the list

by Yvonne Lorkin

You don’t get thighs like mine without ingesting a shed tonne of yum cha, I can tell you. Yet most of the yum cha spots I’ve dined in around Aotearoa are not known for their drinks lists. A couple of types of tea, cans of fizzy, a beer or some sort of generic supermarket wine in a tiny goblet if you’re lucky, or boring old spirits and mixers of dubious age from behind the bar. Grand Harbour’s list, however, is from a galaxy far far away from that. Normally I’d err on the side of simplicity when it came to matching drinks to my dim sum, wine to my water chestnut cakes or beers to my beef siu mai. However, if I had a spare $12,000 for a bottle of 2001 Petrus Pomerol, then I’d absolutely sling that back with my pork ribs in black bean sauce. How about $2000 for a bottle of 2002 Penfolds Grange? Go nuts. Or why not pair those rich, umami-driven delicacies with one of Grand Harbour’s 12 cocktails? One Sichuan Screwdriver with my salt & pepper prawns please! You could choose Krug or vintage Dom Perignon to celebrate your situation, but I’d skip the sparkles in favour of 80mls of Pure Black Yamamoto Jyunmai Ginjyo any day. Want a 330ml bottle of beer? There are loads to choose from and, while they’re $11 a pop, they’re superb with steamed dumplings of any description. The spirits list is standard, but there are more VS’s, VSOP’s, XO’s and XIII cognacs than you can biff a balloon glass at. Hennessey Richard or Penfolds Grandfather? Got your black Mastercard handy – no problem. Their wines list has too many impressive juicy whites, reds and rosés to mention, with a hefty number available by the glass. Grand Harbour, here’s to you.