TOP Kitchen — Restaurant in North Island

TK is a small, informal restaurant located right next to Hotel Bristol in central, Cuba Mall and is easy to find. Their braised, beef combo uses the kind of cuts which require special prepping and long, slow cooking with the right condiments to bring out the best in this dish, and to this end they have succeeded. Typically with such dishes, daikon, bean curd and shitaki are often added to give another dimension to the rich flavour of the beef cuts and TK did deliver. This dish was in fact very nicely cooked.

On the negative side, TK gets very cramped and crowded at peak times when tables become very scarce. It pays to go early to avoid the crowds. It's definitely more relaxing and service is better when you beat the traffic rush.

UPDATE 2023: If not, the staff won't hesitate to shuffle you around to make way for bigger groups (& their bigger till taking) which arrive late or later than you (without making any prior reservations), even when you are in the midst of your dinner!! This is a very unpleasant experience and a deal breaker for us especially when it has happened too often. Consequently we have downgraded our rating as well as switch over to other restaurants which are more appreciative of their regular customers. When you pay so much to eat out, you certainly expect not just delicious food but the whole package ie. welcoming, courteous service, etc. to achieve a pleasant dinner...

This is not anything am mention about food or restaurant this what service guys do to me it's weird and shameful to them and for myself . On 10/2/2025 evening time I visit these restaurant two adult age more than 30 working inside kitchen and two people on service first boy assuming he is in age group 8-14 and another person 15-20 age group . But issue I paid money to the young boy age around 8-14 before I got my food. I finish my food and going out and when I just outside restuarant other guy come and say you need to pay .I said already paid to young boy and he look at him and young boy is laughing at us and these person "Oh my brother trick me " What d flip you just claiming I just go out without pay like a thief. Moral of story - customer is...

A very pleasant experience on the 1st day of Christmas. One of the few opened restaurants on the 25th of December. Despite adding 15% surcharge, which is fair for working during Christmas, the food was top notch.

The stuffed eggplant made my wife almost tear up due to pure joy during eating. The Kung Pao chicken wasn't exactly what I was used to, but this one was probably.prw authentic than I've eaten back at home. Also the dumplings were close to perfect.

Sitting at the window and watching people added some entertainment while eating. Almost like watching TV. Would definitely come again when visiting Wellington next...