Hao Hao is a neighbourhood restaurant on Botany Road in Golflands, Auckland, led in the kitchen by Head Chef Seung Jun Oh. The team describes a simple formula behind the food: quality, consistent cooking that tastes great every single time, built on fresh ingredients. Rather than chasing trends, the focus is on getting the fundamentals right, plate after plate, for everyone who walks through the door.
The restaurant takes pride in sourcing fresh produce for its dishes — its own materials showcase ingredients like cucumbers, NZ beef and fresh bread — and the kitchen tries its best to measure and satisfy each customer's individual tastes. If there is a flavour you are after or a preference you would like considered, the team invites you to ask. They want every visit to offer new flavours you have not tried before.
The atmosphere is relaxed and unfussy: eat delicious food, grab a drink, and above all, take it easy. Hao Hao operates on a split shift — lunch from 11:30 AM to 3:00 PM and dinner service in the evening, closing at 9:00 PM on Sundays and Mondays and 10:00 PM Thursday through Saturday, with an afternoon break between 3:00 and 5:00 PM. The restaurant is closed on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and public holidays. Bookings can be made online through their Quandoo page, or by phone on +64 9 274 0084. The full menu is published on their website, and the team thanks its guests from the bottom of their hearts for their continued support.
Tucked into Unit I/301 Botany Road in Golflands, Auckland, Hao Hao is the kind of restaurant that keeps things refreshingly simple. There is no gimmick here and no hard sell — just a kitchen that cares about fresh ingredients, a team that wants your meal tailored to your tastes, and a dining room built around one idea: eat delicious food, grab a drink, and above all, relax.
At the head of the kitchen is Head Chef Seung Jun Oh. Under his lead, Hao Hao's stated approach is straightforward: provide quality, consistent food that tastes great every single time. Consistency is the hard part in any kitchen, and it is the thing this team puts front and centre — the same care applied to the first plate of lunch service as to the last table of the evening.
That consistency starts with ingredients. Hao Hao takes pride in the freshness of what goes into its dishes, and the restaurant's own materials highlight the building blocks of its cooking — fresh cucumbers, New Zealand beef, and fresh bread. Fresh inputs, careful measurement, and a willingness to adjust are the pillars of how the food here gets made.
One of the more distinctive things about Hao Hao is its open invitation to be heard. The team says it tries its best to measure and satisfy each customer's individual tastes, and it encourages guests to come and dine to experience new flavours they have not tried before. In practice, that means this is a place where it pays to talk to the people serving you — if you have a preference or something you would like adjusted, say so.
Hao Hao runs a split service, so it is worth knowing the rhythm of the day. Lunch runs from 11:30 AM to 3:00 PM, after which the kitchen takes an afternoon break from 3:00 to 5:00 PM before dinner service begins. Evening finish times vary through the week: on Sundays and Mondays the restaurant closes at 9:00 PM, while Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights run an hour later, until 10:00 PM.
Two scheduling notes will save you a wasted trip. First, the restaurant is closed on both Tuesdays and Wednesdays — plan your midweek visits around it. Second, Hao Hao closes on public holidays, so check the calendar before heading out on a long weekend. Every open day follows the same lunch-and-dinner split, with that 3:00 to 5:00 PM break in between, so late-afternoon diners should aim for either side of it.
Booking ahead is easy. Hao Hao takes reservations online through its Quandoo booking page, linked from the website, which is handy for locking in a dinner table on the later-trading Thursday-to-Saturday nights. If you would rather book by phone or have a question before you visit, the restaurant can be reached on +64 9 274 0084.
The full menu is published on Hao Hao's website, so it is worth a look before you arrive to get a sense of the range. Between the menu, the fresh-ingredient focus and the kitchen's openness to individual tastes, you can plan a meal that suits your table rather than working around one.
What comes through most in everything Hao Hao says about itself is gratitude. The team thanks its guests from the bottom of their hearts for their continued support — the words of a restaurant that sees itself as part of the neighbourhood rather than above it. For anyone in East Auckland looking for a relaxed dinner where fresh ingredients and consistent cooking do the talking, Botany Road in Golflands is a straightforward place to start. Come hungry, come with your preferences in mind, and let the kitchen do what it set out to do: serve food that tastes great, every single time.