Mulan Cafe & Restaurant — Restaurant in Kaipātiki

My wife and I made a booking to dine in at Mulan restaurant on August 18, 2024. We hadn't been before and were really looking forward to it. We ordered a variety of meals; some vegetarian and some with chicken plus entrees and drinks. We were really enjoying our time and the food UNTIL we finished, paid the bill and as soon as we walked outside my wife began to vomit and I had felt sick in the back of my throat. I wrote an email to Carol at the restaurant who replied to me asking to know what we ate and so we provided all of the information we had. I hadn't heard back from Carol for 3 days so wrote again asking for an update from what they had requested. Carol then replied and simply stated that the vegetarian dishes were made to order with fresh produce but then stated that my wife must have become sick from something she had eaten before coming to Mulan. There was no mention of what I had eaten and what happened to me. We know that this is very unlikely as being the case for my wife, as the food she had during the day was little and plain and the fact that BOTH she and I felt sick at the same time was too coincidental for it to be anything else other than something at Mulan whether in the food, drink or meal preparation. Carol's explanation in her email to me seemed to shut down any suggestion otherwise by saying that they had no other customer complaints from diners that night (this doesn't rule out the fact the other diners could have been sick later but chose not to report it, or that what they had to eat/drink was different to what we had). It certainly doesn't rule out the fact that what my wife and I had both experienced came from our dining at Mulan. Carol ended her email saying that their investigation had concluded. This left us cold and didn't alleviate any of our concerns and the almost certain probability that the vomiting and sickness came directly as a consequence from the food/drink we had at Mulan. As Carol had shut down the investigation and didn't seem interested in welcoming us back to Mulan in her email (we had explained to her at the outset that we were first time diners there that night) or even offering us an incentive for us to return (this is a basic marketing principle for generating and keeping business, whether or not it was the fault of the restaurant) especially after our harrowing experience. We were intending to keep this dialogue to emails between Carol, the restaurant and ourselves, but it seems to us that we haven't really been heard or responded to with any grace or compassion, hence the review here to make...

Went for dinner with friends all looked promising. Warm Resturant on cold night nice small cubicle to sit in. Nice for privacy as extremely busy and noisy. Menu - fair choice mains good starter choice. Starters delicious only problem rushed by staff. Mains arrived before we had finished stayers and small table full of dishes still. Waiter with our food on tray asked if we could delay whilst we enjoyed our staters. He literally stood by our table with tray in hand watching and waiting for us to finish, whilst the mains were getting cold on his tray. We rushed to finish then he proceeded to place the meals in any spaces he could find with the dirty starter plates still on table. There was not enough room so we ended up collecting some of our plates in our hands and holding them to make room until he had finished. He the proceeded to lean across the food and table to collect the empty plates of the starters!!!! We settled and ate what a nice meal only then to be interrupted whilst the waiter then whipped our glasses away leaning over the table !! We had ended our meal and was relaxing. Our friends had not been able to finish their meal so asked for a take away box and to our surprise when we looked at the bill at home found we had been CHARGED FOR THEM !!!! Before we left we wanted to relax a little after our meal with our drinks. it was made obvious this was not wanted as the waiter was clearing the table in front of us and kept approaching the table constantly stating he just remove the glasses we had just finished.

We left having had a nice meal but felt rushed as they tried to get through as many customers as possible. We spent a good deal of money between us that night with bottles of wine etc yet we did not feel valued customer. And to be charged for the takeaway containers NEVER has this happened before and we were not even told about it ! I will look elsewhere to eat Malaysian...

If you ever have cravings for Malaysian food then Mulan is a must try. They serve delicious authentic Malaysian food with amazing presentation and the customer service is excellent. The owner actually goes around the restaurant to greet and check in with all their customers which we loved and do not see often at all from other restaurant. The food price is very reasonable for their good quality and portion size. Also, they have a wide range of selection from their menu (including a Vegan menu) catering for all dietary requirements. We have tried a variety of dishes and we loved how each dishes had their own unique flavour and fragrance. We would recommend all of them as they are all super delicious. But we did had a few favourites: • Pork belly (Tau Yu Bak) - MUST TRY!!! The pork belly melts in your mouth with full of flavour. • Cauliflower poppers - Crunchy and fried to perfection, delicious. • Golden Shield - which is the sweet and spicy squid. This dish wasn't spicy but the flavours were so tasty. This is definitely the best Malaysian restaurant that we had tried in Auckland so far. We would definitely be back to try more of their dishes. Tip: The restaurant is always very busy so it is best to make a...