My husband and I love eating out and were suggested to try Big Thumb by a group of friends. Wow! We started with the big thumb platter which was very tasty. The service was very good with the waitress polite and friendly. following the entree the mains came out accompanied with the rice. ( the kitchen is super quick) the mains were wonderfully hot and full of flavour. the orange beef was beautiful, the best I have had in a long time. My husbands pork cutlets were divine! a little tangy and a little spicy. At the end of the meal the lady (guessing it was the owner) was super friendly, she came by to check that everything was ok and even though it was busy, made the time to talk to all the tables around us. Absolutely wonderful hospitality. Will definately be back! Thanks for a wonderful evening!

Went to Big Thumb for Yum Char on the weekend, we got there quite late and we actually got a seat straight away which surprised me given how busy they normally are. Because of the time we got a couple of dishes offered to us which were really tasty after the food seemed to have stopped being bought around automatically the host came and gave us a menu and we got to pick whatever we wanted from that. Was great. I hear that this is how they work during the weekdays – will be returning for sure although you do miss the fan fare of seeing all of the different types of food being bought around etc. Reasonable price – good for a lazy weekend meal.

Went here last night for my birthday with a group of 17. The service was good and the meals came out in good time and were really nice….. HOWEVER….. the guy came and said there were 2 mains a starter and 1 corkage left to pay so my brother gave him $50 and the waiter went away then 10 Min’s later he came up to me and said there was the same stuff left to pay so me being drunk went and paid $67 for 2 mains a starter and 1 corkage which shouldve been no more than $55 and had actually already been paid for. so I assume the guy pocketed the $50 and new I was abit drunk so made me pay again. Needless to say I wont be going back there as they obviously cant keep track of the meals as they are paid off or they just blatantly RIPPED ME OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Came here last night for a BYO.

Ordered beef with flat noodles, sprouts and a soya bean sauce. It was really horrible, oily and had no flavour. The beef was so chewy and difficult to eat. Had spring rolls as an entree which were much better, wish I had just ordered those! ended up paying $28 for a meal I hardly touched.

Everyone else who I was with had the same impression – mostly bland food with cheap meat.

Staff were nice and friendly and it’s fun for BYO but I won’t be going back for food!

Big Thumb was a restaurant i finally tried after 4 other yum cha places in the city. I’vwe since been back a handful of times and while somewhat of a mixed bag here, it’s generally been good, at least on par with some of the other restaurants, and with it’s own bonuses. On the plus side, Big Thumb offers this cool special where all the ym cha dishes are $3.80 or something during weekday lunch – cheaper than most, meaning you can feed two people for like $20 which is insanely cheap,or you can sample more dishes and just pig out for like $30 – great. Another plus is that the staff are super-friendly, along with Regal, theyre the friendlest Chinese Restaurant staff in the city – which goes a long way for me – always good to have helpful, personable staff that are polite and smiling – you’d be surprised at how uncommon it is with Asian cuisine places. Another plus is that the place isn’t as busy, crowded or noisy as places like Grand Century – making for a relaxed atmosphere and shorter waits for your meal.


On the negative side of things, a few of the diim sum dishes really don’t have the amazing burst of flavouring that other places do – for example, the shark fin dumplings – elsewhere theyre a taste explosion, here they were pretty bland. Most of the dishes are similar to what you find elsewhere, but the food just isn’t quite on par with Grand Century (though remember it has better service and cheaper prices). Apart from that, it’s all positive at Big Thumb, and the place has really nice Chinese decor, and a nice atmosphere – check it out today.

I came here with a group for a BYO night.
Great choice on the menu – servings are very generous so we shared five dishes between six people, and we still didn’t get through it all. I chose the Black Bean Beef which was great – evidently everyone else thought so too as that was the first plate we finished off.
It was quite loud in the restaurant, as it’s quite large and there were quite a few people there. Didn’t mind the noise so much, but perhaps not the best place for a quiet dinner. Corkage was $5 for BYO.

We”re a regular at this restuarant on weekdays for yum char because all dishes are $3.50 each. This is a good deal. However, you got to watch the boss lady and tally up how much your meal cost before you give her your account, because she always overcharge us. Since we tally up before we go to the counter to pay, we know exactly how much it cost. We always dispute the final account, because she always overcharge. When she is caught out, her excuse is that her calculator is faulty. Well, if that is the case, get a new one. A number of my friends who goes there also says she overcharge. Is this her way of trying to pull a fast buck without the customers knowing. I know many kiwis just pay whatever the bill is. I guest kiwis are not so bright that they get ripped off without knowing.

Anywhere, we”re sick and tired of disputing the account with her everytime we dine there. So we’re not going there anymore.

Thats 1 group of regulars this restuarant has lost. SHAME ON YOU, lady boss for ripping off your regulars.

There are many other good quality yum char restuarant in wellington.

We tend to go to The Regal chinese Restuarant now. Their yum char is good and reasonably priced.

Had lunch here Christmas day, food is average.
Had to ask for beef and chicken wontons, seemed strange that a chinese restaurant only had prawn wontons. Also had to ask for chillies in the orange beef, I found the Orange too sweet, but the beef was nice and crispy, still didnt get to taste that kick of chillies. I score a 5 for service,staff friendly, and at the end of the day we had a good feed, went home satisfied.

Big thumb looks amazing the staff are usually very friendly and the food is yummy!

i would go to big thumb for dinner in a heart beat BUT yum char on the weekend is a little bit of a let down. Theres less choich and sometimes it gets a bit cold in saying this the yum char through out the week is scrummy as they make the dishes you want.

Very good food and very good service.

We had a large group Xmas function here with 60 people and it was amazing. The people were so friendly and helpful, and the food was devine! Am just in the process of booking a large birthday grouping now

BIG THUMB Restaurant is Surprisingly GOOD!!! I went there today for a Sunday Yum Char lunch with my wife. The food was all so surprisingly YUMMY!! The new decor with its nice new comfortable chairs and BIG pretty red and white lantern styled lights is GREAT!! The service is terrific!! And the prices are most reasonable!! I will have no hesitation in returning again!!

POV – This is the best Asian in the region it has the authentic taste. Great atomosphere and located in the heart of it all.

Cost/Quality/Size is Excellent.

A great meal gauranteed.