Tok Tok Hobsonville — Restaurant in Upper Harbour

Wife and I were driving into Hobsonville to visit some friends, we drove past this place and my wife mentioned there was a Tok Tok in Takapuna, so I suggested we go to this Tok Tok for dinner with our friends we were visiting.

We try to call to book a reservation for around 6-7pm. No answer, so we book online @ 6.45PM.

Get to Tok Tok, a male Maitre d' greets us at the door, he's kind of friendly (but in that obvious, I have to be friendly kind of way) finds our booking eventually and takes us to a small 4 person table (we're two couples) This is an Asian Fusion restaurant so I know we'll just order a ton of stuff off the menu and we can pick and place onto our bowls, it's apparent really quickly there's not enough space, so before ordering we ask to seat in a larger table. The maitre D' declines, saying all other tables are reserved. At the time the restaurant was probably at 30% capacity. I know they're trying to fill spots near the windows of the restaurant to give off the appearance it's full, but it's annoying for patrons. When we sat down it was no more than 30% capacity, and during our entire time, those "reserved" tables were never occupied. Capacity no more than 50%.

We ordered a number of items off the menu, various foods and cocktails. The poor female wait staff were very apologetic about the space available on the table, but they handled it the best they could. The food was fine, it came out in a timely fashion and the aforementioned female wait staff were very professional and friendly, so good for them.

We decided not to order more food though due to the space limitations on the table, it's not a relaxing atmosphere when you've got so much clutter. Maybe a lazy-susan on the table would work? So patrons aren't reaching over each other and risk knocking drinks over.

So we call it a night, I get up to go settle the bill, the maitre D' is having a crisis at this point at the head desk due to some question posed to him by two female patrons and he leaves the desk to sort something out. This now left myself standing there, and new customers piling into the restaurant with no one to serve. Some small chatter from the new customers sparked some laughs about the lack of service, they were friendly but obviously didn't appreciate waiting around now that front of house was no longer occupied. (this also blocks entry and exit to the restaurant by the way)

So finally a female staff member (maybe manager) notices the crowd of people and comes up to the front of house and asks if she can help, I say I need to clear the bill, it's 300 and something dollars. The eftpos machine asks for a tip, which for the first time I put in no. It's not worth a tip.

For starters, the service was average, the young girls were great, but the maitre d' was dismissive of our request for a larger table which 1. is annoying for patrons 2. it's bad for business, we could have easily ordered more food, 3. Your pricing is too high.

If you want to charge Ghost Street/Gochu and Cafe Hanoi level pricing then you need to get these things right. Hobsonville looks like a very middle class/working class suburb. This restaurant needs to be perfect for the people of Hobsonville if you're charging top dollar. Because restaurant goers like myself not going to travel all the way to Hobsonville on an average day for "good food and average service" You need to have amazing food and amazing service for people outside of Hobsonville to visit. So I'm really just confused about the restaurants purpose here. It has great street appeal, we only drove past it and decided to eat there due to that alone. Unfortunate TokTok couldn't capitalize on that.

In saying all that, maybe it was an off night, maybe it is normally absolutely amazing, not sure. 3 Stars for...

Second visit to the restaurant for lunch 11/09/22. Honestly was a bit of a let down today. Was very excited to show my partner the restaurant. While the sticky ribs and Bao buns were still great I was let was let down by the dumplings which were my favourite last time. They just weren't as balanced, very lemony which I like but no chilli or corriander which are essential imo. They seemed smaller too and different garnish. I understand produce is seasonal but it just let me down. Also my popcorn prawn was weird this time. The chilli salt seasoning which I loved last time was too sweet and there was no salt flavour. Wasn't pleasant. Wok tossed greens were delish and the Shaking Beef tasted pretty good too.

Just seemed weird today was a bit of a let down and the restaurant was quite empty where as in July it was bursting with customers and the food was crazy good... Perhaps a new chef? Where does the one that was in the kitchen in July work now? I want to eat there...

If today was my only experience I would give 3 stars but because first time was epic 4 stars.

(Initial first experience review from July 22) Highly recommend! One of the best meals out I've had in a while. Beautiful balance in flavours. Mouth watering. Came with a group of 4. Most entrees had 4 portions which was great for sharing. We really pigged out and got whatever we wanted and shared 7 entree's and 2 mains. We also took home 1 entree and 1 main for someone who couldn't make the dinner. Also had 3 fresh coconuts for drinks, 2 rice and 1 roti side. So all up 8 Entree, 3 Mains, 3 sides, 3 drinks. Total bill was 310 for 5 people. (We were full as and didn't need to order that much but "treat yo'self"). Splitting the bill was about $65pp.

(My personal Faves of the night) Entrees- *Pork prawn dumplings. Had a lovely sour sauce and plenty of coriander. (My top dish)

*Popcorn prawn. Light crispy fresh. Had a nice chilli seasoning and a nice dipping sauce that I can't quite remember because we had so much food lol.

(Everyone else loved the Wagyu Bao Buns. It was delicious but I just love a sour sauce. I kept the sauce from the dumplings and added it to the Bao which turned it from delicious to ever more delish).

Bigger/Mains- *Half Duck. This was so friggin good. Like I love a Peking but this has a crispy coating and had that slight 5 spice flavour but also came in a delish sour chilli sauce with coriander. If you love duck then you gotta try this. Portion size was fair and enough for 4.

*Pork Belly. I mean yum, it was so good, melt in your mouth and cripsy. Sauce was sour and full on flavour but different to the duck and dumpling suces. I love a sour sauce and all 3 of these were amazing.

We didn't get to dessert because we were proper stuffed. All other food now seems inferior and I'm not sure how to proceed with life.

I took home a Massuman curry for my partner and there was loads of beef in it, enough to share. Also the meat had been slow cooked to perfection, melt in the mouth but no dryness, impressed . The sauce was an amazing balance of zesty Thai basil lemongrass chilli and curry. It was elevated. Asked for medium heat and it was perfect, a slight kick but no overwhelming linger of heat. It was perfect heat. Blown away. Would like to see more Curry options.

Just go eat here and enjoy it. Thank goodness there's another good...

Overall vibe: Loud, busy yet quite ambient with the lovely interior lighting and vibrant colours. It is VERY crowded at this destination and the noise is so loud, hearing your own family members is a trouble. We initially booked and reserved a table for a 5 person family, but even when we arrived, our table was not ready, and had to be cleaned, the cleaning was sloppy and the chairs still had some rubbish and debris. Also NO FREE WIFI for all social media consumers. Now onto food. The first was Sashimi, honestly dissapointing, flavourless and had weird flavour combinations. Way too overpriced for the portion size, you feel the urge to lick the plate's sauce just to fell like you didnt waste ALL of your money. Pork and Prawn pad thai: Large portion, nice sauce, but dry pork and small and few prawns. Sweet and Sour Pork Belly: Lovely big juicy pieces of pork belly, the sauce was the sour component and was nice on the crispy slightly fried pork belly. Loved this one. Wagyu Beef Pad See Ew: Much smaller than we expected it to be, however, the beef was nice and tender, everything on the plate was a joy in the mouth and tasted very delicious, even the broccoli, i was honestly surprised. Fish Taco: Oh dear, WAYYYY TOO SMALL, we feel we had been ripped off for this one, like the size of an anorexic witch. It was bland, dissapointing and the biggest let down in the night. Pictures online brought big hopes for this dish, but was displeased by the miniature size we were given. Lychee Rose Fizz (Drink not in photos, also alcoholic): As usual with a drink, it is packed with ice but had very nice taste, although the lychee flavour was very much masked and absent. Our total was: $192 for 5 people. Pricey? Yes. Worth it? Questionable, it was worth a try, but nothing really made me want to crave it more and come back for more. This IS a good resturaunt for Hobsonville, but I would personally drive the extra 20 minutes to the city or the shore to have better food, and possibly a quieter place. This place though is "new" and maybe the staff aren't trained enough yet, and things are still rough and hard to work with, maybe in the future we may see...