Best Bites Uncovered

16/07/2025

07/07/2025

Korean Fried Chicken: crisp, juicy, and impossible to stop eating once you start. We hit the streets of Auckland back in April with a team of nine to find the best boneless Korean Fried Chicken, and we found a clear standout you're going to want to know about!

Our Rankings (photos in order)

9/10 - Munch
8.3/10 - KS Chicken
8.1/10 - BB.Q Chicken
8/10 - Ziggle
7/10 - Nene
6.7/10 - Chimac
6/10 - KooKoo
5/10 - My Fried Chicken
5/10 - Kokodak
4.7/10 - Koreana
4.5/10 - Pocha
3/10 - No 1 Chicken
1/10 - Mad For Chicken

Munch was the best by far during this crawl, from the crisp coating, which held up to the sauce, to the flavours of the chicken by themselves, this chicken was the best of the best. The good news? They're expanding and just opened a second store!

Everything was boneless.
We ordered plain and the standard Korean gochujang seasoned chicken.
All chicken was eaten within 5 minutes of being handed the order.
Scores are an average of all in attendance.
All food was paid for out of pocket.
We are not affiliated with any reviewed locations.

04/07/2025

Auckland's food foundation has been shaken with the arrival of .pizza This was left off the pizza crawl because we're a bit close with Tom and Harry, the owners, however, the fact that we've been here over 15 times since they opened less than a year ago, speaks leagues to what we think of their pizza, so trust us on this one.

Tom's passion for bringing amazing food, with the best ingredients, shines through his za. Tom spent almost a decade in Korea honing his pizza making craft and has come back home to Aotearoa to change the game.

His pizzas have the perfect crust, crisp with the perfect chew that holds up to toppings effortlessly, with that great sourdough flavour. The sauces, cheese, and toppings are all meticulously picked out by Tom to ensure every creation is the best it can be. This isn't pizza you can get anywhere else, trust us, we know, we've had almost every pizza in Auckland.

Tom's love for food has inspired us in ways we didn't know possible, from his awesome weekly creations, to just nailing the hell out of a basic pepperoni pizza in ways we've not had since NYC. Tom could easily go toe to toe with NYC's best and take home a win, without a doubt.

This one-off post goes to Brave Pizza, to Tom and Harry, to food that makes us smile, food that makes us happy, food that inspires us, food that drives our own creativity. Thank you Tom and Harry, thanks for bringing Auckland such awesome za. Not all heroes wear capes, some wear aprons, awesome caps, and crocs.

This is one spot you're not gonna wanna miss, open Wednesday through Saturday, 5pm until 9pm or sell out over in Grey Lynn right near Bunnings.

16/06/2025

It's another one-off!
You know we only do this when a place blows our mind and let us tell you, this next place blows our freaking mind in ways no one else has.

Let us introduce you to: Hue's Kitchen
Home of Auckland's best Bánh Mì

Now if this looks familiar it's because you probably saw the Auckland Night Market drama where even they stated that the line for this place is always the longest of anywhere at the night market and it's for a darn good reason!

The food here is next level, specifically, the bánh mì nem nuong, or the grilled pork bánh mì.

This thing is flavour town's flavourtown, stuffed with juicy, tender pork that's bursting with umami Vietnamese flavours paired with Hue's in-house made Vietnamese creamy mayo, savoury pâte, her secret sauce, house pickled daikon, cucumber, and cilantro. Everything combined is a wild ride you are seriously missing out on if you've not tried it and at $10.00, yes you heard us right, $10.00, this thing is a steal as we'd GLADLY pay $20.00 for this! They have a few different types but the nem nuong is the one to get.

Facts: we're usually ALWAYS here on Wednesdays for this, it's our Wednesday night meal, and truth be told, we've kinda been gatekeeping this, but no longer, time to spread the word!

Additionally, their Bánh Bao for $5 hits the spot with a thin wrapper and then a ton of savoury seasoned pork, wood ear mushrooms, egg, and spices that just makes for the best bao we've had in Auckland. You can get these cold, bring them home, and have them the next day, a perfect treat to do so!

You can only find Hue's Kitchen at the Wednesday night Botany Night Market, so this Wednesday is your chance, you don't want to miss this!

As someone who's been to Vietnam, and has a Vietnamese partner, we can gladly say, this is officially the best bánh mì we've had in Auckland.

21/05/2025

This has been a long time coming. We've been back here four seperate times now with multiple groups of people and the consensus is is Auckland's best BBQ coming in at a 10/10 all around for their ribs, burnt ends, and brisket. Did we mention their in-house bbq sauces slap? Because they SLAP!

This team serves up freshly smoked meats most nights at the Auckland night markets. This isn't sous vide meat, this is fresh smoked, cut on the spot, perfect American low and slow cooked BBQ with some of the best flavours, textures, and technique we've seen, and we've been to almost every BBQ joint in Auckland at this point.

The ribs fall off the bone, but still have that bite you love to get with meat, combining the best of both worlds. The glaze on these isn't heavy but is just enough that the flavours pop and zing in your mouth with every bite, we didn't even bother with the BBQ sauce! The smoke is balanced perfectly with that salty, unctuous meat that is just beyond satisfying.

The brisket has the perfect crust and is so tender. This could easily compete back in Texas without a doubt. They pull this fresh at 5pm and slice it up so you know you're getting the best of the best right then and there. You can see from the smoke ring exactly how good the technique is here.

Lastly, the burnt ends, our personal favourite bite. Now, too many of these can be too much, as pork belly is, but these are bursting with perfect bbq smoky flavour.

We won't lie, the sides don't quite match how incredible the meat is, however, we're not here for the sides, we're here for that low slow Texas perfection.

If you've had a craving for amazing BBQ get over to their page and check out where they are next, trust us, this is one spot you will not regret!

This is not an ad, Smokin' Joe's doesn't even know this post was coming! As always we paid for everything, every time. Congrats to the team at Smokin' Joe's, you're number one on our best bbq in Auckland list!

15/04/2025

Whenever we go to Rotorua, our first stop is always even when we were on the burger crawl, we still came here for dinner, and if you've been before, you know why, El Mexicano Zapata does some of the best Mexican food in New Zealand.

When we found out they were opening in Auckland we had to make a reservation for opening night. The owner Tony is incredible, he may be from the Philippines but he's obsessed with Mexican food and has a true talent for bringing out those amazing flavours that are so unique.

We got the beef and pork fajitas, the muchos nachos, the chorizo and cheese empanadas, the papas fritas, margaritas, and more!

The flavours here are truly stand out, the beef and pork are cooked perfectly and are so tender, yet bursting with Mexican flavours such as cumin, garlic, chili, and more. The nachos are stacked to the sky with savoury taco meat, cheese, lettuce, pico, guac, and sour cream. The papas fritas are Mexican fries stacked like nachos. The empanadas are not greasy whatsoever and the filling is that chorizo flavour you are looking for that no one else seems to get right.

Honestly, you can't go wrong with anything on the menu here, though the fajitas and enchiladas are always a go-to option for us.

Let's not forget the service, this was opening night so we weren't expecting perfection yet we were blown away, truly blown away. The service was friendly, attentive, fast, and we never ran out of water. Furthermore, everything zipped out of the kitchen even though they were really busy. For opening night, that is impressive

Don't wait to get here as once word gets out you will struggle to get a reservation, and if you don't believe us, take a look at their other locations Google reviews, they speak for themselves.

We came on our own tonight, we were not asked to come on opening night, we paid for everything out of pocket as we normally do, and this is not an ad. We truly love El Mexicano Zapata and we are so glad they're here in Auckland.

They're next to Settebello in New Lynn, open now, reservations can be made via their website which is what we did.

11/04/2025

Another one off and you know it's gotta be good because we don't do this often! Fat Pukus has quickly become one of our go-to spots and it's not just because they're smashing out some great burgers, but because of the passion they put both into their entire menu, and ensuring everyone has an awesome experience. We love them so much we had to bring them some true Best Bites love!

Owner/Operators Gary and V are the masterminds behind Fat Pukus and have been not only revamping their menu with new options like hash bites and a revolving new monthly burger, but also with some of the best onion rings we've ever had. They soak the onions overnight and hand bread them. The flavour and the crunch are out of this world.

Since visiting in October they've worked their a** off to ensure even better quality, bringing us the Bernie 2.0 now which is just a mastery of what was already a darn good burger: juicy patties with perfect Maillard, buttery soft toasted buns, and tangy zesty house made Bernie Mac sauce.

Don't forget to add some dessert skinnies onto your order, an off-menu secret item you've gotta try, remember dipping your fries in a frosty? Take that to the next menu! Not a fan of that combo? Grab a milk shake made with all natural ingredients, no crap ingredients here.

And before you say this sounds like an ad, take that thought and shove it, this is pure love for a place that's captured our hearts, and our stomachs. We've been here 8 times in the last 6 months and for good reason!

So whether you're checking out their new burger of the month, catching a night time outdoors movie at their Wynyard Quarter location with or just looking for a quick lunch feed, Fat Pukus serves up some of the best food in Auckland, and we stand by that.

Thanks to Gary, V, and the awesome staff at Fat Pukus for always making it 100!!!

28/03/2025

Pizza, everyone's favourite takeaway meal which turns good nights into great ones, especially when shared with your favourite people. With Auckland's ever growing pizza scene we set out to find the best of the best so you know where to go to get your za.

Full reviews can be found via our website www.bestbitesuncovered.com or hit the link in our bio

Our rankings (photos in order):

9.8/10 - Lilian
9.5/10 - Turtle: Pizza & Pints
9/10 - Frittaly
9/10 - Square Pizza
9/10 - The Master & Margherita
8.8/10 - Epolitos
8.5/10 - Needo
8.25/10 - Slabs
8/10 - Firewood Pizza Haven
8/10 - Rosalia's
7.8/10 - Pizza Landing
7.5/10 - Milford Beach Pizza Club
7.2/10 - Pizza Monkey
6.75/10 - Frat's
6/10 - Farina
6/10 - Napoli Contemporanea
6/10 - Umu
5/10 - Broadway Pizza
5/10 - Gloria's
5/10 - Sal's Authentic NY Pizza
4/10 - Dante's Pizzeria
4/10 - That's Amore
2.5/10 - Settebello

Special Mention: Brave Pizza is missing, we always promise unaffiliated reviews, and as we have a relationship with Brave we left them from this review. With that said, we have a special shout out post for them coming soon, they are our 10/10 if you trust our opinion.

23/03/2025

A couple of weeks back we tried .bakes.nz new cheesecake. We knew her strawberry matcha mochi cookies were already one of our favs, but her cheesecake was on a whole other level, and we would know, we're over 40 cheesecakes deep.

When we first wanted to check out cheesecakes the community said there were no good cheesecakes in Auckland, but we beg to differ, we've found so many good cheesecakes, but you know we had to spotlight our favs and this takes top spot right next to Liloh.

This is a different kind of cheesecake entirely, if you are looking for light and creamy, not too sweet but semi-rich, with that real good cheesecake flavour, look no further. We tried a slice at the market last week, and this week purchased a whole one, cookies too.

If you've not tried the strawberry matcha mochi cookies you need to, they're on the top of our list as one of the best cookies and the photos show why. These are filled with amazing strawberry and mochi filling and aren't too strong with matcha, just enough that it's balanced perfectly.

This is not an ad, we paid for everything, we weren't asked to post about this, we truly did this because we were just so blown away, as we always are by everything Bella Bakes makes. We put our money where our mouth is, and take our time to do great photos and posts because we believe this is one of the best and want to share it with you. Bella Bakes sells out at every market they go to for a reason, the passion, the care, the skill, the flavour, it's always top of the top.

If you've ever tried Bella Bakes, or if you're planning on trying them, drop a comment below and let us know what you thought! We love hearing what our community thinks of our top choices!

Thanks to Bella Bakes for always providing the best treats, we love what you do and can't wait to see you grow more!

14/03/2025

The Ultimate Auckland Burger List: the biggest Auckland has ever seen, 62 locations in total. We ventured to all the best places we could find as well as every location the community asked over the past few months and now it's time.

We wish we could post more about everywhere we went, but this list is too long so let's get into it! Full reviews and more at our website: www.bestbitesuncovered.com

Thanks to for joining us in creating this list! Follow them for amazing burger reviews!

Ratings:
9.8/10 - Pizza Landing
9.5/10 - Baby G Burger
9.25/10 - Mapari Meats (The Tradie BBQ)
9.1/10 - Smashed As
9/10 - The Smash
8.9/10 - MEAN BRGR
8.7/10 - Saltwater Burger Bar
8.5/10 - Kanes Burger Club
8.3/10 - Fat Puku's
8.25/10 - Parade
8.17/10 - Haddon House
8/10 - Hash n Smash
8/10 - Little & Kitchen
8/10 - Notorious Morepork
8/10 - Ralph's
7.75/10 - Celeste x Cantine
7.6/10 - Lucky Gs
7.6/10 - Back to the Kitchen
7.5/10 - Burgout
7.5/10 - Ziggle
7/10 - RE Burger
7/10 - Space Burger
6.75/10 - Real Burger
6.5/10 - Burger IT
6.5/10 - Good Dog Bad Dog
6.5/10 - Kanteen
6.25/10 - Burger Time
6.1/10 - Burgernaut
6/10 - Better Burger
6/10 - Bossburger
6/10 - Downlow
6/10 - Smashed Burgers AKL
5.7/10 - Mapari Meats (Carbon Addiction)
5.8/10 - Schapiro's
5.25/10 - Cousin Scott's
5/10 - Benny's American Burger
5/10 - Burger and Green
5/10 - Catch & Crisp
5/10 - Flaming Onion
5/10 - Jo Bros
5/10 - Lowbrow
5/10 - Shakeout
5/10 - Sneaky Snacky
5/10 - Stacked Burger Bar
4.67/10 - Bite. Burger
4.5/10 - Crack Chicken
4/10 - Jax Burger Shack
4/10 - Smashies
3.67/10 - The Broadway Diner
3.2/10 - Big J's Takeaways
3.17/10 - The White Lady
3/10 - BurgerFuel
3/10 - Good Town
3/10 - Hambagu
2.9/10 - Burger Geek
2.75/10 - Harry's Burger Punk
2.5/10 - The Chosen Bun
2.38/10 - Freaky Burgers and Tacos
2.38/10 - McDonalds
2/10 - Crust Pizza and More
2/10 - Giant Burger
1.2/10 - The Smoking Shack

03/03/2025

The Burger Nation Competition is over, so it's time for Best Bites Uncovered top picks from the 30 locations we tried throughout the competition.

We decided to showcase our top 3 picks in each category (except plant as we only had one).

Throughout the competition we wanted to showcase each location for our community to get excited about, and to maybe find some new locations they never knew about to go and try, and we hope we were able to provide that to the places we visited, and to you, our amazing community!

The biggest thank you ever to for this amazing opportunity to help showcase some amazing places throughout the competition. We loved working together with your team and love the shared passion for supporting local businesses across New Zealand.

Thank you to for coming along, we love sharing in our amazing food adventures with you and can't wait to continue even more!

We will only ever work with sponsors/partners that we personally believe in and that share in our passion for our amazing whānau. We are proud to have been able to assist with Burger Nation throughout the competition.

We accepted no money from this partnership, only the food showcased was provided from Burger Nation to our local eateries for us to be able to provide content for. We believe in always being transparent and will always be so. We visited each location with the team and shared all the food, as we usually do, most of the time getting a quarter of a burger each.

Thank you to everyone for following along, and for your support of what we do. We are grateful for every single one of you following us, we get to live our dream thanks to each of you.

Our normal crawls are coming back now, and we've got even more! So stay tuned, Best Bites has so much planned for everyone in 2025!

22/01/2025

Auckland's Best Cheesecake made even better. We've been craving brownies so when we saw Liloh Cakery did brownie base basque cheesecakes, we jumped on the opportunity to get a hazelnut one and we're so glad we did.

This cheesecake is so rich, so creamy, in all the best eays. The flavours are so balanced between being a cheesecake and the hazelnut addition. We're not sure what kind of sorcery Liloh is cooking up in their kitchen but we're so here for it.

We've had 41 cheesecakes now and this is easily and clearly the best. Yes it's a bit pricey, we paid $66 for this, but you can easily get six slices out of this, or four if you're hungry haha. That said, it's so worth it on every level. Sometimes you ignore the price and just splurge for perfection because that's what this is, perfection.

The photos tell the story you need to know, there's not much else to say that can't be seen. If you've not had Liloh, you need to, don't believe us? Sean from Broke Boy agrees, this is incredible!

We did a Saturday morning pickup from their Mt Albert location, they also have a location in Papatoetoe and do delivery too which we've used with zero issues.

Truly a stand out creation here in Auckland and totally deserving of a one off post here on our wall.

A huge thank you to the team at Liloh, this made our week!

Not an ad, never an ad!