After our day-long tour of Hobbiton/Matamata and all the places on the way back to Auckland, we stopped by here…
…for dinner. I am quite familiar with this part of Auckland as I was here before when I was in the city in 2005 but of course, I did not get to dine here then, not at all.
If I’m not mistaken, there are a whole lot of Cock & Bull pubs all over in the UK as well…
…and over here in NZ, it certainly looks like it has had its fair share of awards…
We went to the one in Botany, pronounced Bot-ny for some reason or other…
…and while waiting for the food to be served, I walked around the vicinity and I saw these young Filipino girls busking in one corner…
They certainly had a lot of choices on their menu so it took us quite a while to make up our minds. My friend ordered the seafood medley for everyone to share…
…but it certainly looked good and tasted good too!
She and Melissa had the Scottish mutton pie…
…which was very nice as well.
I loved my Yorkshire beef…
…very much and my friend’s son had that too…but my missus had a bit of a problem with the C.L.T. – their grilled chicken served with lettuce & tomato drizzled with plum sauce…
Somehow it came out served in a bun looking like a burger and the bread was very very hard so she eventually had no choice but to leave it by the side.
I think this was not on their regular menu but was their special for the day…and my friend’s hubby had that…
It was pretty good too.
After that sumptuous and scrumptious dinner, we headed back to the house and thus ended our 3rd day, or 3½ to be exact, in Auckland. Gee!!! 3½ days only? It certainly seemed that we had done a lot more than what people would normally do on a 14-day conducted tour, don’t you think?
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
the yorkshire beef certainly looks good.. the grilled chicken looks good too.. okay, i actually don’t know what to comment, so that’s it.. the food looks good, haha!! 😀
Of course it’s good! Shereen would not take me to eat anything that is below her standard one… 😉
if can, SK would want a taste too i think LOL
Sure he can…now masters…bet he’s having a much higher-paying job now – orang kaya lah!!!
I did order something for myself.. thank you very much!!! I ordered the same as Melissa and Justyn had the same order as you. The seafood medley I ordered for everybody to share. C.L.T is normally served using either ciabatta or any sourdough bread and in this case, it was served with ciabatta but unfortunately, the ciabatta may be over toasted or its not freshly baked, thus the hard crust. Simon’s pork belly was oven roasted as the whole purpose of that dish is to attain a very crispy skin and that is the main star. To have a very tender meat is just a bonus. This method of cooking requires more skill from the chef than just steaming/ cooking it like those you eat with mantao.
My pork belly…oops, I mean, the pork belly that I cooked…also oven roasted…but not so successful…sobssss!!!! So tough and the crackle as hard as stone. Failed, big time. 😦 Oooooo…drooling at the thought of what we had at the dim sum place…so very nice. Slurpssss!!!!! Ya…steaming and stewing would be a lot easier to get the meat tender and the skin would be soft, no problem at all.
Oops!!! I couldn’t remember…Justyn having the same as mine. So many places we went, so many things we ate – at times, cannot even remember who ate what… Old man mah, jangan marah ya!!! Kesian sikit, memory going, going….nasib belum gone yet! A thousand apologies…. Now, let me go and edit that… 😉
Eh, I tak marah lah. Just helping u to remember things, mah since I’m much much younger than you and can remember better.. Muahahaha ( Dushhhhh… kena sebijik). You need to edit what? Nothing’s wrong with what you wrote what!
Who ordered what mah…must get the details, right. You have to help to point it out again in the later posts if I get them all mixed up again…and also if what I said it is isn’t that – I found the menus in the websites very useful…but not all would have them.
Live music too!
Not around dinnertime when we were there – later, perhaps. The buskers were outside…not in the pub itself.
All the dishes looked very good. Too bad the bun your missus had was too hard. I like the green salads they put on every dish. Hmmmm….wonder what other foods you had, looks like you had lots. Looking forward to more 🙂
You wouldn’t believe how much I ate when I was there! On the verge of exploding…and had to ask for extension belts on our flights home! 😦
When it comes to taking western food, I need to find a partner to share the food with me.. hahaha.. their portions are normally gigantic sizes! I would love to try a bit of everything above though and my stomach will be “satisfied.” :p
They’re ok these days – not as huge as they used to be…
But the ones highlighted in Claire’s blog were really large portion leh. Can share makan with Claire already
Ya, American servings…even in KL at places like Hard Rock – all huge last time, dunno now! NZ used to be like that…but these days, I find the servings pretty reasonable…but more expensive that when I last went.
Ohhh… the seafood medley certainly looks lovely. Would love to try that!
It was good. Everything was good! 😉
omg, such pretty pictures.. you could actually take these photos, put it into a magazine, and folks will drool all over the pages, not that I’m not drooling in front of this monitor screen now 😛
have a great day Arthur!
Flattery will get you nowhere, Isaac Tan! Liar! Liar! LOL!!! 😀 You, have a great day too!
Wow after all those tons of yummy food nom nom nom over your stay in NZ, could visualize the plane could be flying slightly tilted on one side while on your journey home.
Hahahaha!!!! No lah…they no longer make planes like those from
yourour time lah… Not using the Twin Otter, thankfully.The mutton and beef looked exquisite! (though I don’t eat both :p)
You don’t? My missus did not like them either before, especially lamb but she’s pretty ok with both these days.
The seafood medley definitely look super yummy………
It was.
For a moment I thought you went to the library. Is there a library at the top floor. Just only 3 1/2 days, already nom nom so much scrumptious food. Though I am not into western food but the seafood medley and Yorkshire beef looks pretty appetizing to me.
Hahhh!!! Old people not really into western. My dad would lose weight terribly whenever he went to NZ, hated the food…and would rush to any Chinese takeaways and have fried rice whenever he spotted one. I love western sometimes for a change but young people these days, it seems, would prefer western to our local delights. My daughter’s not a fan of kampua – would love pasta anytime.
holy smoking! that yorkshire pudding is Huge! hehehe…and that last pic… is that pork belly??? gimme gimme gimme…. lol
this post had me drooling all over my keyboard!!!
LOL!!! All so very nice, eh? I really enjoyed everything I had there… 😉
LOL, sumptuous and scrumptious meal indeed! The food look yummy, I especially like the Scottish mutton pie 🙂
You’re right, I have the impression you were in NZ for far more than 3 days. You guys have been to so many places, done so many things and eaten so much FOOD! Sure 3 days only? 😛 But I’ve enjoyed reading all your posts on this trip. Such a lovely place, must save money and visit!
So, now, rancangan cuti-cuti ke NZ tamat? hehehe..
Have to, really worth going. I think I would rather go there anytime compared to places like Hongkong, Taiwan, Thailand or Indonesia. So very nice!
awesome name for a restaurant, and the last dish looks great!
They have it all over the UK. I’m surprised they haven’t opened one in KL…or plagiarized the name like what some do sometimes.
it nice to see some filipinos were there too,
i bet they were good at what they’re doing
most filipinos love to sing
Yes, probably students trying to earn a bit of extra pocket money. I gave them a bit, of course, for their effort.
anyways foods looks perfect,
im sure the taste were as well great
Goes without saying! Loved it all!
I’ve seen you comment over at Opal’s blog and thought I would swing by! Interesting place you have here! I enjoy the pictures of places I probably will not get the chance to visit! Makes me feel like I saw them! 🙂
Ah!!! Any friend of Opal’s is a friend of mine! 😉 Welcome, welcome…and do come again. Thanks for dropping by and thanks for yourkind words. Will link you in my blogroll.