I have lived in Russell for 26 year and Tuk Tuk Bangkok Thai Restaurant is the most wonderful restaurant in Russell.

Under the guidance of Charlie and with Dang in the kitchen – every meal is not only full of flavour, but picture perfect too.

Their prices are most reasonable and many items on the menu have not changed in price in 3 years.

The Shrimp Phad Thai is wonderful and on a cold day in Winter – they have a great variety of home made soups.

We went for lunch and I ordered the King Prawn Pad Thai. The food was delicious and arrived very quickly. The meal size was generous too (and a decent amount of prawns!). The owners were very friendly – even going out of their way to help me find something gluten-free, which is something I havn’t got from other restaurants – and the prices were quite good for what we got. I really liked Tuk Tuk and would recommend it. 5 stars from me

The food and service at Tuk Tuk Thai was great.

The whitebait fritters were beaut, a lovely touch of Thai spice. I also recommend the King Prawn Pad Thai.

A great restaurant with a lovely surroundings and nice cold beer for out in the sun. I will definitely be coming here again!

Other reviewers are correct in that the owner does need to improve his people skills and remember not all diners are one time visitors. Like many Russell businesses they are not open late when many people want to dine and will stop taking takeaway orders without warning when they get busy. We love having a Thai in Russell and the food is very good. Having a childrens menu is also appreciated. PROBLEM is when charging Auckland prices the stingy portions should be larger and we should not be leaving hungry having had to pay $3 extra for another portion of rice. Charging less for take out orders than dine in would also make sense having once spent $70 for a takeaway and getting very little for it. A smile, attention to diners instead of the till, a Kiwihost course and some marketing 101 will sort this out but if you like Thai give it a try

Food great! Everything else not so good. Worth a try if you are after a cheaper meal in Russell…

I do not agree with those two good comments about this place!! Do not recommend to anyone!!! Horrible food I ever ate of Thai food!! and service and all attitude was so bad!! no smile and any sign of welcoming! I go to Russell regularly because I have a house there and 99% of locals and even tourists are complaint about them and huge noises always came out of kitchen!! like fighting or some sort!! Don’t Go There!

Very very very nice food … … But, service was terrible, I would say it was his customer service skills just the old boy who was serving wasn’t made for the roll, didn’t smile grunted instead if asking, generally terrible service, it’s Easter alot of people were complaining at his attitude, alot of walk ins who he couldn’t bother accommodating, me and my partner were contemplating on leaving but I could tell the service wasn’t personal it’s was just the guys personality, not my ideal setting “service wise” would not recommend. General Thai menu.

Tuk Tuk delivers on their promise every time. Great food made by people who know what they’re doing. i would recommend the “P7″ dish, subtle true flavours – perfect every time. Take away or eat in, we love this place and go there every time we visit Russell.

Funny to read the bad reviews. Notable that few actually discuss the quality of the food. Yep, the manager is a character. But the simple fact is that the food is GREAT. We go there whenever we go to Russell, and really look forward to it. In our mind (as Thai food afficionados), it’s the best we’ve found in Northland. And actually, whenever we’ve asked for something a bit out of the ordinary, they’ve always managed to provide. So don’t let the sometimes offhand/random nature of the people put you off. Ultimately, if your primary reasoning for going to a restaurant is to EAT – then you will not be disappointed. We’re going there again today in fact, that’s how I found this website, was just looking up the telephone number to make a reservation…

We went to this restaurant for takeaways on the 3rd of January this year. The manager was serving and was unbelievably rude. Food was average, and again the manager was rude when we picked our food up. A real disappointment in Russell, if you are in town, go somewhere else!!

Would not recommend this restaurant at all – wish I had read the previous reviews before dining there.
We dined one evening last week. We had arrived around 5.30 and asked for a table for 5 (2 adults, 3 kids) and were offered one in the very rear corner of the restaurant (no a/c) when it was completely empty. We asked for the outside table which was given to us very reluctantly.
When we asked if it was BYO we were told yes, but corkage was $5 so it wasn’t really worth it??? We decided to drink our own bottle since the overall cost was still cheaper than their wine list! Again, this seemed to be an inconvenience.
We noticed another table receiving a ice bucket for their wine and asked for one also since our bottle was on the ground under the table to keep it cool in the sun. “If you really want one” was the answer and again, grudgingly received.
The food was ok – arrived promptly (certainly got the feeling that they wanted to be rid of the noisy family outside as quickly as possible). It was average Thai food but as I would expect outside of the main centres.
Once we received the bill I went inside to pay and again received very cool response. I assume it was the manager who swiped the credit card and then just stood there waiting for me to lean over and get the key pad for myself. No smile, no “how was your meal?”.
As I said thank you to our waiter as I left (I am polite after all) there was no eye contact, just brushed past me and muttered something.
Terrible service for a town so reliant on tourism!
We dined at Kamakura another night and spent a similar amount of money (excl wine) and had fantastic food and service. How this place survives I don’t know! Perhaps they’re nicer to locals?

I popped in on Saturday 2nd of January to see if they would sell us some takeaway food as advertised on the menu they had given us earlier in the day. The young waiter/maitre de said that they were too busy and so takeaway was not a priority. As the question was posed we were standing behind a customer who was collecting his takeaway order. We asked why they had sold takeaway food to the departing customer, the rude youth refused to answer.

We tried a different tack and enquired how long we should wait before they would resume service for takeaway customers. The unhelpful and impertinent response was “13 hours”. This was at about 19.30. We left with an extremely unfavourable impression of the establishment. The 9 members of our family had intended to eat from this restaurant on at least 2 occasions over the course of the next week as we usually enjoy Thai food; instead we enjoyed the service and food in most of the other restaurants in Russell.

Thank you for a amazing night. The food was great and very well priced. We will be back again over the summer and will enjoy another great experiece, in your lovely restaraunt.Well done.

“No we are not doing dessert tonight…….we do not have plates!”

These were two of the three excuses that we got from a rather intoxicated and rude restaurant manager.

My wife and I along with some friends decided to spend our Easter break at the Bay of Islands.
After our drive up from Auckland we thought we’d enjoy a nice dinner out in Russell that Saturday (11th April) evening.

We made our way to Tuk Tuk and requested for a table for 4. There was a nice Tuk Tuk situated outside the restaurant that had been converted into a dining area and my wife politely asked the manager if we could sit outside and dine in the Tuk Tuk. The manager grimaced and sighed and snapped at my wife saying that he wanted the table at 8.30pm. (We had arrived at 8pm). My wife was a little surprised and clarified the drunks’ response and indicated that we wanted to sit outside on the Tuk Tuk.

The manager got (presumably his son) a young lad by the name of Tom to clear the table. The 13 year old scampered to clear our table for us. (He was 13 because my wife asked him as he looked a little tired and flustered).

We placed an order for our drinks and then our food.

We ordered a mixed entree plate. The manager brought this out without a smile and placed it on the table. The four of us shared the plate and to be perfectly honest it was incredibly bland.
While waiting for our mains, young Tom came out and said that they were out of chicken. I was quite annoyed at this point and we all changed our orders to beef except for one. My friends’ wife opted for extra vegetables.

When our mains came out they messed up the order for extra vegetables and that was taken away and had to be remade.

My dish was appalling and had to be doused with sauce from my wife’s dish. My wife and I were not impressed with our meals and by this time I had lost my appetite. We ate what we could stomach and decided to try dessert.

We went to pay the bill and also pay for dessert and the manager looked at us and said “no we are not doing dessert today” he then made some effort to look to the side and then looked at us and said “we do not have plates”.
This was the last straw. I literally had to look at my wife in order to calm down without blowing up and telling the manager what I thought about him, his restaurant, the enslaved 13 year old, the terrible unpalatable food and also his pathetic excuses.

I’m sure if it was my restaurant and I was out of plates I would have asked a staff member to wash some plates up. It was clear that manager did not care about his restaurant nor did he want our business.

I would not recommend Tuk Tuk as a restaurant to dine at while at Russell. Avoid this place like the plague. I think the space that Tuk Tuk occupies would be better suited to a more professionally run restaurant like Hong Thai, Wang Thong, The Grass Hopper or Mai Thai. It’s a real pity that a beautiful place like Russell has an absolutely rubbish Thai restaurant like Tuk Tuk.

Rating out of 10:
Food – 1
Ambience – 1
Presentation – 1
Service – 0
Environment – 3