Extremely poor service and the food did not make up for it.

30 minutes until a menu came (after asking)
Over 30 minutes later one starter turned up (after asking)
Another 30+ minutes later the other starter turned up along with the main (after asking)

The staff do not speak English well which was a big problem and probably the reason I was the only white person in there. There were Chinese people who were waiting a long time too however.

The starters were fine, in fact the pork dumplings with gravy sauce without MSG was very nice.

The main of fish with tangy Thai sauce was poor. The fish was dry and the tangy Thai sauce was nothing other than supermarket sweet Thai chilli sauce. The very opposite of what you expect from freshly killed fish, and the sauce was a cheap & lazy touch.

The other main of Beef with Chilli was nice but I’m sure it’s hard to get this very common Chinese dish wrong.

This restaurant is in an area where people from all over the world visit and yet they do not enter, presumably after reading or hearing reviews. The diners were 99% Chinese/Asian. What a waste of a business.

Just been there for Mother’s Day lunch. After 1/2 hours we got a menu.
After waiting for over an hour, we asked the waitress how long the meal would be, were told soon, asked again after another 20 min, finally after a two hour wait the food came out, the local fish and chip shop would do better.
After my child bit into the fish they complained that it smelt, I smelt it myself and it wasn’t pleasant (must have been days old), after other child found bones in fish I had finally had enough and left, worst restaurant I had ever been to in the world! It’s that bad.
People at table beside us also were not happy.

The dead fish in the tanks should have been a clear sign (not to mention a health hazard) that this place is rubbish. The menu is way too hard to read, the food is poor and very expensive for what you get. Made the rookie error of ordering the crayfish, when it came out it looked like a slightly enlarged king prawn. Three forks of flesh and it was all gone and it tasted terrible! Told the cashier about our experience and he nodded like he knew that the meals were bad. Then he told us that the crayfish comes frozen and the massive crayfish in the tanks were for set menu only (which we don’t remember seeing on the menu?). When we queried about a discount he straight out refused. We will definitely not be back to Live Fish!

Great views, I believe the only Chinese restaurant in NZ with a great view. Went during Valentine’s night with my partner, restaurant was full, there was delay on the food but manager did advise us 45mins wait prior to us sitting down which is fine as we enjoyed their fusion cocktails.

We had diamond shells to start with which was so delicious, and for mains I had salmon fillet and my partner had venison with ginger and spring onion. It was so fresh and so delicious, and what I liked most was it had no MSG.

When passing the kitchen I realize it was small hence the food delay, they could do with a larger kitchen to cope the size of the restaurant.

The bathrooms are clean but don’t quite match the high standards of the restaurant ambiance.

Overall very pleased with my night out with my partner, would highly recommend anyone who loves seafood or simply Chinese cuisine. It’s rare to find service staff so friendly and efficient especially in a Chinese restaurant.

My husband and I made a reservation for this restaurant for Valentine’s Day. We had walked by it before, and have been curious about it. After they sat us, we got our drinks quickly, but had to wait over 1/2 hour before they took our food order, and this was after we complained several times. We flagged down people who we thought were waitresses because they were looking over tables and seemed to be helping people, but they told us that they weren’t allowed to take orders. (???) After a manager came, my husband ordered chicken and I ordered a live fish, which I picked out and watched them take it out of the water. My order came to our table at a fairly decent time, and it was good, but my husband’s order never came. He complained to the staff several times, and they always said they were going to check on it, but no one ever got back to him. After we had been at this restaurant for over 2 hours, the manager came to our table and told my husband that they had not started cooking his order yet. We just paid for what I had eaten, which was expensive, and left. We didn’t get a discount or anything, just apologies from the wait staff. We weren’t the only ones who walked out, either. There was a large table near us that was complaining loudly about how long their food was taking, and they eventually walked out. I’m sure there were more, too. I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone.

You are definitely paying for the location, food is average, tartare sauce is not known of by the staff to go with fish and chips. Service was fine though and happy hour drinks were good value but can’t say the same about the food.

First of all the food is very good but the price is NOT way over priced.Anyways i was abit upset that my partner and i had to pay for the 2 bottle of sparkling waters on the table we sat at i assume they were complimentary drinks but obviously NOT the waiter shld of mention it to us such a rip $10 dollars a bottle so people BEWARE.And was also upset when we ask for crayfish and crab but the waiter said they were out of stock which was a lie the tank had afew good ones and the group table next to us had crayfish so why did’t we get serve it?we think because we are young dark and had a baby we prob look like we wldnt have enough money for crayfish and crab but still good food but not somewhere i wld dine for a night out cos i cldnt bother to cook dinner.

We were looking for an affordable place to host a birthday party, 13 adults and 5 children, somewhere where we would feel comfortable with children aged between 2 to 11 years. We were initially nervous about Live Fish as some reviews said food and service was not always good.

We spoke with the Duty Manager, Bobby, who assured us they had changed many things and would look after us. He kept his word, food, service and atmosphere were all excellent.

We met at the restaurant and talked for a while, the children surveyed the fish in the tanks, and the entrees were served when we requested them. The seafood platter for adults and children was well presented and tasted good. The adults also enjoyed the mussels with garlic sauce.

The children demolished chips with a dipping sauce, and chicken fried rice with no egg (one of the children has a reaction to egg, no problem, they accommodated this request). The children played outside and the adults requested a delay before the mains arrived, again, this was no problem.

The squid with black bean sauce was cooked to perfection. Scallops (served with seasonable vegetables) were large, juicy and plentiful. Prawns stir fried with ginger were tasty. Lamb cutlets with pepper sauce were an unexpected success. The chicken sweet and sour with capsicum was OK. Live Fish supplied one vegetarian meal and one gluten free meal as requested, both OK. Presentation of all dishes was good as was the speed of delivery.

We brought with us our own birthday cake which was served with excellent coffee and hot chocolate for the children.

We arrived at 1pm and left close to 5pm, the children moved between the play area outside and the restaurant, we enjoyed the food, good service and relaxed atmosphere. We will return!!

Marie Webster, Bayswater, Auckland.

Went with my family yesterday (Wednesday night). This was my second visit to the place.

The service, food and pricing was excellent…end of story!!!

Food was authentic, tasty and large quantities.
Service was efficient and pleasant…could smile a bit more though!!
For the ambinece, food and service the pricing was good…not too expensive.
Even the first visit a few months back was a pleasant experience.

I had a very poor meal here on Monday.

The prawn ‘congee’ wasn’t congee-like at all. It consisted of a loose pile luke warm rice mixed with half cooked mushrooms and raw onions. On top was a crisp poppadom type thing and 5 very salty chilli flavoured prawns. When questioned we were told it was ‘fusion style congee’.

The deep fried snapper was dry and overcooked. And suspiciously close to undersized. I didn’t have a means to measure it but it was definitely shorter than my chopstick. It was basically deep-fried with a gross light brown gravy dumped all over it. Poorly prepared, poorly presented and of average taste.

The dim sum were ok, though its not the normal trolley type yumcha service so the range of the menu is very limited and speed of delivery is slow.

The best dish was probably the choy sum with oyster sauce!

I would not recommend this place. It is overpriced, and the food is bad!!

I had high hopes for this place, having walked past it a few times and seen it very busy, and with plenty of Asian people eating there.

Unfortunately, it failed to meet my expectations. Service was poor, the food was bland and flavourless, and the price was ridiculous.

I think this is one for the tourists only. Avoid.

We went for lunch to this place on 22/06/2012 – possibly the worst decision in human history. Ordered a 2xlaksa noodle soup, chicken with black bean sauce and steamed rice and 2 entrees. After an hour of waiting the waitress shows up with 2 entrees out of which she gives us one and takes the other one back with her. She then returns back with the same entree 10 minutes later! The laksa noodle soups showed up 20 minutes after that and the black bean chicken never showed up. All the waitresses were extremely clueless as to what was going on. The management of the restaurant is pathetic. When we tried to ask for a discount for the extremely poor service all the waiter arrogantly says “sorry about that” as if we were at fault. Would not recommend this horrible restaurant to even my worst enemies. Stay away!

I have just come back from lunch from here. Worst restaurant service i have ever experienced. i went with 2 colleagues of mine.

We placed our order. We waited for 50 minutes before we complained to the waitress. She then came back to us saying that 2 of our mains will be out in 2 minutes. those meals came out and i was still waiting for mine. i waited another 10 minutes and then i complained about my main and she said it would be out in 5 more minutes. all I ordered was chicken in black bean sauce with steamed rice. at this point i was very hungry and needed to get back to work as it already been over an hour that I had been away. My colleagues had just about finished their mains so I then cancelled my meal so we could get back to work. while paying for the meal the waiter was saying sorry and offered a $10 voucher. Which i thought was okay. but then i said dont worry about they voucher i just wont pay for my prawn dumplings(which were below average for an Asian restaurant) which were $5.50. he said no. i asked if I could not pay for them as i had waited for so long for my meal. he said no. i told him not to worry about the voucher as i would not be going back. i then reached in my wallet and only had $5. I asked if i could pay just $5 unless i had to use my card. he said i can play the 0.50c on my card.. really 0.50c?? it would cost them more to run the transaction. i was about to pay the 0.50c and then he said not to worry and looked in the tip jar to see how much money was in there. my guessing was just going to grab 0.50c from there.

Overall was the worst ever. do not go here unless you like waiting for 1 hour for average Deep Fried Asian Food

This restaurant is very bad.

Our mains came 50mins after we ordered (whilst other people were receiving theirs whom arrived after us) and when they did arrive they were very average. The chicken seemed undercooked and was unsatisfactory. I only finished eating the meal because I had a strict lunch break and was starving. My friend did not even receive his main because it took too long to cook and we had to return to work. How long does it take to cook some chicken and steam some rice? Pathetic. The attitude that the waiter gave us when we complained and paid (!!!) for the meal was bad also.

Worst restaurant experience ever. Try every other restaurant in Auckland before this one. If you have been to all the others… Then just stay at home.

Just returned from having lunch at Live Fish – excellent food with generous servings. We went with a deal voucher just to see what it was like and had a great experience and will definitely return. Service very good and they had no problem accommodating one of our party who cannot eat onion. Very good presentation of food – our only problem was having difficulty finding the restaurant, maybe they could improved their signage

Dined here last week with my boyfriend for the second time. We thought we would give them another try to see if they had improved on the food. Dissapointed to say they hadnt. Menu is very hard to understand and is not clear about what you are getting. The food was very average for the extravagant prices. The service however was excellent, all the waiters were helpful, courteous and jovial. hopefully they can up their standard of food, def not worth the price.

Dined here on a Wednesday night; and my partner and I had a great time. We ordered the fried chicken wings, pork belly on pepper sauce and seafood fried rice. Each dish was spectacular and without having to wait ages to be served. Portion sizes were great and beyond reasonable for the price. More importantly, the staff was amazing. We were greeted with warm smiles from the moment we stepped in until we left. Despite having many customers that night, we had just the right amount of attention from the staff which resulted to a great dining experience. All in all, we will definitely come back to try more from their amazing menu. Well done, Live Fish – that’s another pair of satisfied tummies

We were planning to have oysters for late lunch at the Fish Market, but the kitchen was already closed for the day so we just strolled along the waterfront to look for a place that served oysters. We saw LIVE FISH and thought we could give it a try. Well, all of us (2 children, 4 adults) enjoyed everything that we ordered! Seafood platter, fresh oysters, oysters with vermicelli and garlic sauce, sweet and sour pork, mussels in garlic sauce, fried rice… All delicious. The waitress was also very friendly. We are actually coming back for my birthday this coming weekend! I highly recommend this restaurant. I also admire the fact that they read the reviews, and take action. Those who’ve had negative experiences at Live Fish should give them another chance… You will be impressed

Great atmosphere and good food! =) I have to say Livefish is one of the best seafood restaurants I have tried so far..Fresh seafood and great variety of food in the menu.

Staff are friendly and great customer service! Would def come back for sure.

Deserves A++ for the great food and service.

Went to Live Fish for dinner with our Groupy vouchers last week and I was quite amazed with the food there after reading all the bad reviews! Every dish we ordered came in generous portions in contrary to what I read in other reviews.

The diamond shell was definitely the star dish of the night, and I would highly recommend others to try. Other dishes were also cooked to high standards as expected from a waterfront restaurant.

As for the service/ambience, the staff were friendly and attentive, and the tables were well spaced to provide a relaxed atmosphere.

The relatively high price is expected from a high-end restaurant and I will definitely return to try the huge range of seafood Live Fish has to offer.

Worst Chinese restaurant I have ever been. The atmosphere and view is great, but that is the only positive thing about this restaurant. It’s over priced for the food you get: $18 for a plate of tossed salad with oriental seasoning… The size was very small and that was more like a side I could have had in any cafe restaurant for $8 and the “oriental” seasoning was just a bit of sesame oil. The service was also very poor. we had to ask several time for a jug of water as well as for a glass as there was 1 missing on our table. Then the waitress just grabbed a glass around and as she put it on our table, realized it was a dirty one. Then we asked for a knife and were given a dirty knife. I would not recommend this place.

Me and my boyfriend bought the voucher for Live Fish and we honestly got quite a bit worried about dining there the day before we were gonna go because of the bad reviews about the place.

But you know what, IT’S NOT BAD AT ALL. Maybe the previous reviews were talking about the “old” restaurant. They’ve clearly improved on a lot of things. As we were having our dinner, I was a bit scrutinising the place, the service, food, etc. As everything was waaay waaay better than what was previously commented, I am giving it a 5-star!

The food was delicious! We got the seafood platter, salmon sashimi, mussels in creamy garlic sauce and scallops with vegetables. They were all tasty and me and my boyfriend left the place with our stomach filled and satisfied. The sashimi was so fresh! You can just tell. Actually, everything tasted fresh. In addition to that, I really liked their orange juice. It’s fresh too! It was full of pulp and flavour- not too sweet and not too sour- and it was cheap. We were gonna get paddle crab but unfortunately, they ran out that night.

Service was good too. Not the best but clearly not the worst either. The main waiter, I suppose, did an exceptional job. The others were okay, you can see one waiter per area of the restaurant just kind of standing by and waiting for orders, etc. So it’s good.

We’ll definitely go back there to try their other food.

This restaurant is worth giving a try.

Yum, went here tonight and had the clams in black bean sauce and the fried whole gernad with Thai chili sauce, wanted to try a restaurant on wynyard quarter and was glad I found this one, cheaply priced but good food

24 September – worst dining experience of my life. Food order took over an hour to arrive – when it did after constant nagging – poorly prepared plus my daughter’s mussels had been left off by mistake. Rice was like plastic and chicken portions small. My wife’s sauce had a human hair in it. When they replaced the sauce they did so with tartar sauce not chili sauce. Eventually decided to leave – daughter still no food. Described to manager – no apology or offer to reduce the bill – just ‘Well mussels take longer to cook’. To build a great restaurant takes a lot mor than this. Avoid this at all costs!!!!!!!!!!!

We had the most the most awkward experience dining here. We came here 10/9/11 Saturday around 5-5:30pm thinking we didn’t have a reservation so we better come while dinner rush hasn’t started. We came in and they had one table and we were sat on the most awful area which is next to the cashier where everybody is passing. The worst thing is they all standing right in front of our table. They were chatting and we felt like being stared at the whole time. The food was terrible! We ordered beef on pepper sauce which was ok but expensive for what it is. We also ordered chicken lightly fried with salt and pepper and all I could taste is the crumb, salt, pepper and chillies. Chicken was barely there. It was very unpleasant to eat. The most disappointing part is they were all standing right next to our table and didn’t even bother asking us how our food was. We barely touched the chicken (if there was any chicken in it). Everything was so unprofessional in this place. Place was empty and sat us on the worst area of the restaurant, staff were chatting, standing around us like we weren’t there. Manager didn’t bother asking how everything was when my partner came to pay. Such a shame to have a restaurant like this in one of the best area in city. I would never come back here and would never recommend this place to everyone I know.

AWFUL awful awful. Terrible service, too much deep fried food on the menu, unhelpful staff who could hardly speak English, deep fried calamari cold in the middle, drinks delivered to wrong people, took ages to be served. Like an Asian faulty towers but they weren’t rude. Shocking.

great service but misleading expensive menu. Avoid this place if you are hungry. The seafood platter for three at lunchtime would only suit hobbit sized appetites. Very sad example of a restaurant in such a cool part of Auckland.