My husband and I went to Mekong-Neua this evening. This was the worst dining experience we have ever had. After one and a half hours we were still without food. It took 45 minutes to get a glass of wine. There were four other groups in the part of the restaurant that we were in and each table was complaining to the waiting staff asking when there food was coming. One of the tables had three small children and they were very angry and rightly so. They started screaming at the staff that they had been there two hours and still had not had their main course. We could see we would have been waiting at least another hour so paid for our drinks and left. The staff were arguing among themselves. Our waitress told us it was her first night and there were no systems in place. It was a disaster and I would recommend not visiting the restaurant. They have serious issues to sort out.

I’ve been here a few times with friends and have always enjoyed the meal. The staff are friendly and the food is really tasty!
I love how they do BYO and it’s nice and warm inside.
I’m a girl and whenever I order a curry to be ‘hot’ most asian restaurants make it quite mild (Maybe they think I can’t handle it haha) so I was very impressed when I said for my curry to be hot they actually made it hot!

Following my feedback of a previous experience at this restaurant, I need to update my post.

The owner of Mekong Neua made contact with me regarding the somewhat negative comments and made a significant effort to understand what went wrong.

I was impressed with his passion and desire to improve his restaurant and decided I would try the restaurant again at some stage in the future. I did so for dinner on Sunday and left absolutely impressed. The service was faultless with every staff member attentive, courteous and very welcoming. The meals were timely and delicious. Furthermore, when I arrived home with a “Doggy Bag”, there was a note inside with a courteous advice on re-heating the food to ensure quality and safety.

It is a pleasure to update my rating. I am a local resident and if this great service and food continues, I will be back regularly.

Congratulations to Mekong Neua staff and Management.


Feedback in August:
I’m a local resident and a vegetarian so Thai caters well to my culinary wants. The food tends to be okay so I have ordered takeaway meals from here for an easy dinner on several occasions. I have also dined in a few times. The food has ranged from disappointing to great. The service however has been consistently disappointing. The waiting staff are rude and arrogantly couldn’t care even when you point out their behavior is unacceptable. I have decided, there are far too many great Thai options in Auckland to have to suffer through this one. I’d say that I have made my last visit.

My wife and I went to the Kingsland restaurant on a deal voucher on Sunday night and the food and service was excellent – especially the whole fried fish and also the chicken satay and pad Thai was some of the best we’ve had from anywhere! The staff were also very welcoming and friendly and the restaurant was very busy, we will go back for sure!

We bought a deal voucher, rung Kingsland Monday lunch time and they allowed us to make a reservation that same night. Service was good. My soup special didn’t look that great but it was yummy & spicy. My partner and I ordered the same main which was stir fried whole prawns for me and scallops for him with vegies, garlic sauce and i added cashews. We both got a lot of seafood and it was very tasty. Only disappointment was that the veggies were were pretty much a plate full of green beans!!

I bought a voucher for this restaurant. After I bought it all extra terms you can’t use Friday, Saturday or Monday, when you call to book and tell them you have a voucher thay are booked out. What a waste of my time and money the voucher was. I will never go to this restaurant.

Order takeaway for dinner, food was really lacking flavour. We had a curry which was watery and potatoes under cooked (massaman). Chicken cashew nut stir fry also lacking flavour and not many cashews. We live in walking distance so thought we would try our local, wasn’t a great first impression we probably won’t go back.

Best SE ASIA restaurant in New zealand that i have been to. Have been here 5-6 times and find the service here to be lovely. The have Beer Lao which is always good in one way or another.
The menu is good and included LARB which can be serviced with snapper . The Lao sausage dish is also good! Also the Papaya salad is nice.
For Desert the Mango rice is amazing. YUM!
Be sure to book as they do get busy ass!

This place is GREAT! food is amazing and service is good!
I really enjoyed my time here, and will def be coming back! (:

good food and service

We have been to Mekong Neua heaps of times over the past three years. In our view it is the best Thai in Auckland – and definitely the best Lao food we have had outside of Laos.

The service is warm, and they treat all customers like regulars. The staff really are superb.

We would recommend to anyone!

My first time there with friends and it was an awesome experience! Service was 100% and the food was absolutely wonderful. Generous servings and the rice just kept coming. One thing though, the flies hanging around our table were annoying!! Other than that, very good!!

I love this place. Great food and waiters that will flirt with anything that moves. It can get a bit noisy when it’s full.

We are now regulars at Mekong Neua, and very much enjoy the food and atmosphere.
Service there is unobtrusive, and there is always a friendly face at the desk asking how we enjoyed our meals.

Our favourites are the Red Duck Curry and the Vegetable Sam Ros. We tried the Thai Fried Rice for the first time last weekend too, yum!

Whenever we have been seated somewhere we aren’t happy with, it has never been a problem for us to move to another available table of our choice.

Food was great, atmosphere was great, and the service was great. Sometimes the customer is just impossible. I will definetly be back, I have found my favorite Thai restaurant. Even with bad service I think I would still come back for the great food.

Been here several times and my experiences varied from very good or bad. Cosy and a romantic place to dine out. The food is no doubt one of the best cuisines in Auckland at times but the staff sometimes can ruin the evening with their utter rudeness.

Had dinner there last week and my main was not as I expected; it just seem to lack flavour and blonked on the plate. I have had better there and the waitress in training was extremely polite.

Excellent food that comes in generous portions.

Great atmosphere, with overtly camp waiters that add to the authentic Thai/Lao experience.

Definitely recommended for a good night… if you’re after a quiet meal for two, stay at home…

This was our 5th and last time at Mekong Neua, the food was good but a waitress was very rude to the degree that we almost walked out. There are plenty of other Thai Restaurants to choose from so we won’t be back.

Excellent food, but extremely rude and poor service. We were asked to sit next to the toilets and had a waitress barge in between us having a conversation to check out table number. We ordered pina colada and the listing was not in the menu, when we asked how much they were- the waiter brought the entire sign post from the road to show us the price. Since it was Valentines Day, there were limited seating, unfortunately the sitting crew literally asked us if we were not happy with where we were seated then they were happy for us to leave. They refused to cater the entire menu for Vegetarian option- instead they only had Green Curry as a “curry” option.

Good vegetarian menu which is great! great atmosphere. i loved sitting by the window enjoying a meal and people watching!

Good, sturdy Thai cuisine in a pleasant atmosphere. Two of our group of four were vegetarian and found out the hard way that the Combo Platter is all meat, but the menu has an adequate vegetarian section so the mistake was entirely their fault. The service was also good, and the overall price was reasonable, no doubt partly because it’s a BYO restaurant.

I’ve been here a few times and it’s always been great food and great service. I reckon the best time to would be late in the week perhaps on a Thursday night, when it’s busy but not crazy busy. Saturday’s would have to be the busiest time so reservations are necessary if you want a table. The food here is delicious! Generous portions! Great Prices!

Always a fantastic restaurant and BYO. Try the fresh spring rolls from the specials board, always a hit!

Mekong Neua has been around a while and the cozy atmosphere still remains. The service was quick and friendly and the food did not disappoint – the seafood curry was heavenly! Even though the table we were sitting at was parallel to an entranceway, it didn’t detract from the relaxed vibe in which all the patrons seemed to be having a good time.