The Sands - Auckland

I love Chinese food, but quit often I go to some restaurants that cook it too greasy. That was possibly the only mistake from The Sands when I had lunch there. My pasta was delicious and well served, but by the end it was so heavy because of the amount of oil. Despite that it was yummy, and the service is very kind.

Sorry wont be going here again..hygene is a problem here...food is ok..but not sure how the kitchen standards will be...there is a fish tank on the entrance...which is in a bad condition and u can see its not maintained properly..with black dirt and broom lying around. .

The food was tasty but this place really need to improve on the cleanliness of the restaurant, good food will be nothing without a good environment.

We came here one night on a coupon deal for three courses of peking duck! The photos on the deal website made the restaurant look quite nice as well as the food, so we were pretty excited to come here! We got kind of lost on the way to this restaurant and kept driving past its location on New North Road. When we managed to find parking along the busy road, we walked over to the restaurant and to be perfectly honest, the restaurant was a lot smaller and did not look as clean as the photos made it look! It was quite the typical Chinese restaurant, much like a lot of the ones on Dominion Road. We were greeted as we entered though and directed towards a table. We noticed that many of the other diners were also eating peking duck (perhaps they had all taken advantage of the coupon deal as well? . As we weren't told what the three courses actually were, we were in for a surprise! The first course was soup, with greens and tofu. This was quite surprising, but it didn't taste as bad as we thought! I had about two small bowls of this soup. The second course was the actual peking duck wraps. This was quite different because it wasn't just skin like traditional peking duck wraps, but more like a roast duck dish. Each piece had quite a bit of meat on it! Not that we were complaining both of us loved it! Though not as high quality as a few other restaurants I've tried, it was worth the price we paid. The third course was a sweet sago soup, with fruit on the side. I liked this. My friend wasn't too keen on the soup, because that was a little weird for him, but he ate most of the fruit! Definitely were surprised by the three courses as we were expecting something else, but we do think this dining experience was worth the price we paid! Customer service wasn't bad as well! We had no problems with our meal. : {uid:14215621} #challenge

What a mistake, we thought we would try this place, hadn't been here since the original owmers sold...we were the only three in the restaurant the waiter never said a word to us while we ordered.. the duck came out then the soya chicken, had to ask for some rice...the first two dishes were very average for what we were paying, and then we waited and waited, asked the silent waiter where the tofu and veges were. and then we waited again. We had a huge agument with the waiter and cook who tried to tell us they were busy! The waitress finally opened her mouth mouth and told us we should of asked if we wanted the food to all come out at once! Perhaps she should have told us it was a lucky dip on when the food arrives, it would be a joke if we didn't have to pay for it. I might add the veges and tufo looked like slops... could of cooked it better myself! This place is a joke what a waist of $54.00 ...I would suggest if you are looking for quality Chinese, 5mins up the road to avondale the Wing Wah, you won't go wrong.