Boracay Garden Restaurant, Auckland

Photo c/o RMO

Last year, I had the honor and privilege of interviewing Boracay Garden Restaurant owners, Stuart and Marj Bennett, in my radio show.  It was around May, right after Mother's Day, they've just finished a very busy week of catering to their growing clientele of Filipinos and Kiwis.

In the course of the interview, I found out that they're not newbies in running a restaurant business since they've had the opportunity to own a successful one in the Middle East.  However, they made the decision to come back to Stuart's birthplace, New Zealand, to raise their family.

At that time, I haven't been to their resto, so it was a bit of a challenge to conduct the interview without me seeing their place or tasting their food.  Although I haven't physically been there, I've heard good and bad reviews from other people, which piqued my curiosity to interview them on the radio.  It was gratifying to see this couple, who in their own humble way are paving the way for more people to appreciate and enjoy Filipino cuisine.

Recently, I had the wonderful opportunity to celebrate and savor some milestones in my family and we decided to make it a Filipino feast.  And of to the resto we went. It was a Saturday afternoon, right before dinner, and there was another private function on-going.  As usual, Stuart and Marge were there. These two are very hands-on owner/managers.  By dinner time, the place was packed mostly Pinoys (90%) with the rest coming from different ethnicity, obviously guests of their Filipino connection.

We had crispy pata, beef kare-kare, spring rolls, tinalo na manok, daing na bangus, mixed sizzling seafood, chopsuey, palabok, banana turon, sago't gulaman.  They also offer family/group package meals, dine-in or takeaway.  If you haven't been here yet, perhaps it's about time that you should try this resto within the Auckland CBD.  After a sumptuous meal, you can walk off those calories with a walkabout around the viaduct, which is just a few steps away.  It would be good too if you can spread the good news about this resto.