Gochu — Restaurant in Waitematā

There's been quite a bit of hype since they open, only had a chance to try out now.

Service: the waitress that served us was extremely polite and efficient. It's a 5 star service.

Food: a few items on the menu seem to be "famous", so I ordered the milk bun. The bun itself and the pork meat were quite pleasant, but the sauce you are supposed to pour on top of the bun is an MSG bomb. I didn't like that and it made it hard to finish the bun. The chicken sliders are good with its crispy and freshly made chicken and tasty sauce, the cheese ball is ok. The short rib was well cooked but the sauce was far too sweet, and the center of the meat didn't have much or any seasoning. The spring onion pancake was quite simple and not something I'll remember in a couple days. Overall food is good, not outstanding.

Ambience: Not ideal, that Commercial Bay setup doesn't help much, it's noisy and there's a lot of people passing by. I guess the restaurant itself can't do much about it, but it's not exactly a place to sit and relax and to eat quietly, it has quite a food court vibe, which is definitely not for me.

Overall menu and other things: I'm one to pay gladly for expensive mind-blowing food, I usually don't mention price in reviews, except when it's obvious the price doesn't match the food by far. It is a relatively expensive menu with items supposedly for sharing. Except the items are too small for sharing. The short rib, for instance, could not possibly be for sharing, as it's a small portion even for a single person. I've paid far more than $38 on beef/steak before, that's not a problem, but that's definitely not a $38 worth dish, either considering its size or discounting the size entirely and looking only at the craft applied to it.

I can understand why some people rave about the restaurant, but I don't think the food is at the level of its price point, which makes the whole experience quite pretentious. There are dozens of restaurants in Auckland at the same price point that deliver far superior dining experience and...

I think the food was fine, the venue average. But having travelled from queenstown with my children 9/12 to support a city battered - having been at mr Morris / cassia I was disgusted by the maître d’ (who happened to be French). He was rude , pushed us out at 1 hr 29 minutes. when confronted , and note to owner I questioned why he was so rude - not the other way as suggested - he apologised too late - it really took away-it was terrible service and attitude for our family. Sorry Jerome yr a disgrace for service . The owner has banned me when I emailed and put this comment in - asking me why I was writing or representing my business ? I am happy to represent my self and business, I’m not ashamed to say that I found your staff member bad mannered towards our group. I was taking my family out and joined by a friend celebrating. The staff member was rude - and was totally upsetting for our group - so he was called out as we went to pay. Unsure if I’m banned because I’m ‘xenophobic’ or because I called your staff out for poor service or is it just cancel culture? Happy to be banned as I wouldn’t like to be sneered at over menu questions or have our plates thrown on to the table again. So many great Korean restaurants in Auckland… with service … Ockhee,red pig, Kaya, Pocha,...

As someone who loves food, I feel missing out for never been to Gochu. I came across it so many times but never really come into realisation to give it a go. Finally the time has arrived, the weekend before Christmas I gave it a go. We had an early lunch so it is still relatively quit. I found the ambient is quite nice, staff very good on explaining the menu, and the restaurant is very accomodating to us (with a toddler who is not into spicy food). The food is smart, it offer something I never tried before. I love the Korean twist to it, we ordered the milk bun, crispy eggpant, fried chicken, black angus sirloin, and of course bingsoo for desert. Everything so yummy with all the texture being thought carefully (the crunch, the soft, the sticky, yumm!!!!). My favourite is the beef and dessert dish, beef cooked to the perfection. My wife thought the fried chicken and dessert are her favourite.

I wish I ate all the dishes with rice (being Indonesian I probably biased towards having rice with everything), by having the dishes on its own I found them in the salty side. I had the beef with rice and they were great together. Apart from that of course...