City Cafe Asian Cuisine — Restaurant in Christchurch

🏠 Hidden Gem: Unassuming Shop, Legendary Hainanese Chicken Rice 🍗🍚

Sometimes the best food comes from the most unexpected places — and this low-key little shop just proved that to me in the most delicious way.

🍗 Chicken That’s Unbelievably Tender The poached chicken was silky, juicy, and full of flavor. You can tell it’s been cooked with care — no dryness, no toughness, just pure, melt-in-your-mouth perfection with a light chicken aroma.

🍚 Fragrant Chicken Oil Rice The rice is hands-down one of the stars of the dish. Cooked in chicken broth and oil, each grain is separate and glistening with flavor. Honestly, I could eat a whole bowl of just the rice!

🧄 The Holy Trinity of Sauces The classic trio — ginger paste, chili sauce, and sweet soy sauce — were all spot on. Balanced, homemade-tasting, and they elevate the chicken to another level when mixed and matched.

🥬 Bok Choy on the Side Instead of the usual cucumber, this place served lightly blanched bok choy. Crisp, vibrant, and soaking in just a hint of that savory chicken flavor — it was the perfect complement and added a homey touch.

🍲 Comforting Soup Included A bowl of hot, clean-tasting chicken broth comes with the set — light but flavorful, and a lovely warm finish to the meal.

📍 From the outside, this shop might not catch your eye. But take one bite of their Hainanese chicken rice and you’ll instantly know — this is the real deal. No hype, no frills, just honest, heartwarming food done really well. Definitely a hidden gem worth...

I came here a couple times years ago and really enjoyed the food and experience. Recently I had 2 friends travel 3 hours to chch n I suggested we would try here for dinner. It was 8:30pm we ordered, there was a table of six n a table of 1. We ordered a meal each n I ordered a meal for my child. It had slipped my mind that it was a one man band so we were initially patient. Within the first hour the owner was continously bringing out rounds of food for the table of six, a couple came in 25 minutes after us n were served food before us along with the table of 1. It became painful to watch, I felt sorry for others that ordered after us. I went to the counter a couple of times asking if our food was cooking and the owner kept brushing me off saying "it's coming" "I'll be faster" my friends and child were tired and underwhelmed, I had asked to change for takeaway instead as we had already waited 1 hour and 30 minutes n it would have been more disappointing walking away after waiting that long. It was 10:30pm by the time we got our food n unfortunately my friend recieved the wrong dish. Such a big difference it would make if there was atleast one other worker. If the owner had just said how long the wait would've been, we would've just moved on n possibly came back when it wasn't to busy. The food was good but not worth the 2 hour wait, we won't be...

What an evening... It's unlikely I'll return. Let me share the experience. A group of six friends and I made a reservation for dinner at 7:30pm. Based on reviews, we knew the service might be slow due to it being managed by one person. Upon arrival, we found the counter filled with a lot of dirty dishes and three other tables ahead of us.

In an attempt to ease her workload, we decided to order just one dish, butter prawns. However, she repeated informed us while she was preparing that she needed to defrost the prawns and even ran out to buy butter, causing a scene. Looking back, it would have been more considerate if she had informed us about the lack of necessary ingredients or the expected wait time when we were placing our order.

Anyway, the food didn't arrive until 9:15pm, tasting decent but not exceptional, after a staggering wait of 1 hour and 45 minutes. She also served vegetables, which I assumed were complimentary, but were actually charged for. Even when settling the bill, she complained about our choice of dish causing delays. She was not apologetic throughout the entire ordeal. I've never given a one-star rating before, but I won't be returning after...