WHY YOU NEED TO TRY HAWKER & ROLL

Known as The Grove, it offers shoppers an al fresco dining experience and is a stand alone destination for dining even if you don’t combine it with shopping or the cinema.

A central bandstand hosts different musical acts and is a lovely place to while away a few hours whilst enjoying a drink or a meal.

One of the restaurants holding fort in the new dining precinct is Hawker and Roll. We decided to sample it after loving the hawker rolls at Madam Woo in Takapuna.

Billing itself as a fast casual restaurant, the decor represents a traditional road side hawker stand. The food on offer is Malaysian inspired street eats and the signature dish is the hawker roll.

Copper pots and pans are filled with delicious offerings and flavours and seating is a mixture of communal and stand alone tables.

The menu is split into Steamed and Fried, Hawker Rolls, Nasi Lemak, Salads, Soup, Sides and Sauces and Sweet.

We began with 6 steamed pork dumplings.

Succulent, flavourful and packed full of filling we could have eaten a dozen more they were so good.

Next up were the sweetcorn and coconut springs rolls which were an inspired combination.

Not a combination we had thought of before but one that certainly worked.

The Malaysian spiced chicken wings were meaty and full of flavour and came with a sweet chilli sauce.

Our final starter was the Chinese five spice pork wontons which were gobbled up immediately.

Now, what we really came for was the Hawker Rolls and we decided to order 3 of them so we could try a few different flavours.

First was the pulled sticky pork.

Followed by the beef rendang.

Finally came the roast duck with hoisin.

All were very tasty but the standout was the beef rendang. There could have been more hoisin sauce on the duck but that is just a minor niggle.

The roti bread was flaky and fresh and the fillings were generous.

We already can’t wait to go back and tuck into more of those delicious Hawker rolls.

Alex & Tracey