Samwoo Vietnamese Cafe — Restaurant in Māngere-Ōtāhuhu

A popular South Auckland dining spot with people coming from all over the district to dine, celebrate special occasions and catch up with friends and family. I have never dined at Sam Woos without running into at least one old school mate, family member or acquaintance.

The venue itself leaves a lot to be desired. Looking like a an intermediate school hall complete with brain numbing blue paint and the classically unflattering florescent tube lighting, first time customers could be forgiven for wanting to hop back in their car and drive away. Its not the prettiest place in town.

The staff here don't help your first impressions either as there will be no "friendly and helpful awards" handed out here., but try and put that all aside and take your 1990s office chair seat and order from the extensive menu. The folk in the know dont come here for friendly staff and luxury surrounds, they come for the food.

The flavours here are good, fresh and tasty. Though its called a Vietnamese cafe there is a mix of cuisines including Cantonese and Thai with choices that suit many palates.

They do take out here, with the kitchen working double time to keep up with the busy pace. Busy it is, as the floors are usually dirty and I would suggest some disposable wipes to give your table a clean before you eat.

Parking is near on impossible in their small car park during the evening, but there is lots of street...

Experience a different kind of eating, this place has you cooking your own food at your table, you will be supplied a oven with a hotpot with an amazing broth to cook your food in. Wether you're vegetarian or meat lover you will be spoilt with choices, high quality greens with a vast selection of meat from beef, pork,chicken, lamb, all sorts i can't name them all. If you're wanting to try something different try this place out you can't wrong. This is by far the BEST steamboat in NZ wide. Yes we've been around to many many places but we always come back to good ol mama's soups. This place has been running before i was born and still going strong. They have done yet another reno with brand new wooden flooring, brand new food warmers and food stands, including the metal chairs Re a greaat addition to this setting. The variety of food covers all meats and all kinds of seafood, variety of tofus and different types of dumplings. All sorts of drink from Coke and all fizzies to a nice warm tea or a cold licorice bubble drink. Lovely selection of cooked food as well from savoury to cheesy bread, fried rice, spring rolls, calamari, praws, steamed rice, chicken nuggets, yummy fried chicken wings and nibbles and all sorts. Love the new look. Homefeel, delicious soups and awesome owners. Just love this place. Weekly customers. They bave it all buffer all...

I haven't been here for years and was able to come by since I was in the area. They do have a parking area but I ended up just parking on the street. The entrance is where the takeaway area is, under the red cover. I ended up entering through the side door and had to walk to the counter to get seated. The menu is decently sized and has a range of Vietnamese and Chinese style food. I had the raw beef salad as well as the bon bu hue, the spicy beef noodle soup. The salad was really fresh even though it was packed with meat. The dressing was really nice and it had a nice balance of flavour and textures. The bun bo hue had a tasty broth but it wasn't very spicy. I quite liked the spaghetti like noodles and they had cabbage along with beansprouts to add into the soup. The dishes here were quite tasty and had a nice flavour. The portions were also decent and the meals were packed with meat. It is a really nice place for some tasty dishes and unsurprising that it...