The crayfish or New Zealand rock lobster has always been considered a luxury food, with a matching price tag, and is often served with noodles.
Paired together you have an auspicious dish that symbolizes wealth, and longevity. Hence, it is popular for birthdays, [Lunar] New Years, weddings and other significant life events.
In the crayfish with yi mien or e fu noodles dish, the noodles are just as important to have as the crayfish. These noodles are fried before they are dried, making them harder to break further symbolising longevity.
There is a sweet spot infusing the noodles with enough flavour, without resulting in a soft and overly-spongy noodle texture. The chef requires a special skill to ensure the noodles remain springy and chewy, and not soggy and too wet.
In my quest to find a comfortable trifecta (taste-ambience-price), I have worked my way through a few Auckland restaurants that are worth a try.
These are my crayfish celebration diaries:
Sun World: Celebrating Chinese New Year
This lunar year, we celebrate The Year of the Dragon, which makes crayfish meals even more auspicious. In Chinese, “lobster” literally translates into “dragon shrimp”.
Sun World has been our family go-to for years. The ambience is typical of a Chinese restaurant, not overly grand, but comfortable enough. The taste and textures of their crayfish noodle dish have always been on point.
But from my experience, the price of crayfish at Sun World can fluctuate quite significantly, hence the reason for my straying to try other restaurants.
I have in the past, been quoted an eye-watering $300/kg for this mouth-watering dish… However, at the time this article, crayfish at Sun World was $228kg - which by today’s market rate is quite reasonable.
One World Café Bar: Celebrating Family from Overseas
One World Café Bar was a fluke find for me.
It is somewhat obscure, and does not look like a place that will serve up a dish this luxurious. I also do not know why it is called a café and bar.
Despite the ambiance lacking in wow-factor, the dishes did not. We were delighted with our crayfish dish, as well as the price!
This is by far the cheapest crayfish noodles I have had in Auckland - under $200/kg and they did not charge the customary extra $20 for the noodles.
Zen-E Private Kitchen: Celebrating a PhD
Zen-E Private Kitchen’s very Insta-worthy plating attracted me to visit.
I really liked the ambiance at Zen-E; there is a whiff of a past prohibition era… the narrow entrance, the dark stairs leading up to this “private” hideout. The décor and booths give it a bit more flair than your regular Chinese restaurant.
Despite the crayfish being tender and juicy, the noodles were a slight comedown. The noodles were too thick, and texture too soft. In their defense, because I do not speak Chinese, I may have requested a different type of noodles and did not have the vocabulary to specify the particular noodles that I preferred.
Nevertheless, presentation of all dishes at this restaurant is always excellent, and it prompts even those that do not usually photograph their food to whip out their phones!
At the time of writing, their crayfish was priced on a slightly higher scale at $258/kg.
Mr Lobster Private Kitchen: Celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival and an Engagement
When the restaurant is called “Mr Lobster”, one must order lobster yes?
And Mr Lobster did not disappoint. Tick for taste and tick for textures.
Ambiance wise, it is typical of a respectable Chinese restaurant. The way they sell crayfish is slightly different – instead of by weight of an individual crayfish, they have several tanks with assorted sizes of crayfish, and corresponding prices on the tanks.
You just pick the crayfish you want from the tank with the displayed price. This ranges from below $200 to $500++.
Sum Made: Celebrating a New Business
Sum Made is purpose built for the Chinese dining experience. The building is bright and modern and has private rooms for groups of 10 and more.
We opted for the smaller crayfish as we were a smaller group that day. Smaller crayfish tend to be less succulent but taste wise it was still delicious and the noodles were done just right. At the time of this article, they had two pricing tiers for their crayfish.
Option 1: $198 for two small crayfish (approximately 600g each) and Option 2: $268/kg for crayfish larger than 1kg. I felt that the $198 option was great value for what we received.
These are only a handful of restaurants in Auckland that serve crayfish noodles and I still aspire to try a lot more! On the “crayfish aspiration list” is Huami, Chow Foo, Grand Harbour etc… Therefore, looking forward to many more life celebrations with crayfish noodles, and open to further food bite recommendations from fellow foodies!
*Note that the price of the dish is usually based on the weight of the crayfish (usually between $200-$300/kg depending on size and season) and an additional $20-30 for the noodles. The price of crayfish can vary dramatically depending on season (and restaurants) so it pays to call around to check beforehand.
Sophia grew up in Malaysia, surrounded by late-night market suppers, sneaky treats from relatives, and celebratory feasts. From a young age, food meant love, joy, and excitement to her. Now living here, she finds comfort in Southeast Asian cuisine and plans her trips around discovering new dishes, embracing her philosophy of "living to eat."
