Chikos Restaurant & Cafe on Lincoln Road in Henderson, Auckland, serves infused Asian cuisine layered with Pacific Rim flavours. The menu travels from karaage, satay chicken and croqueta-katsu appetizers through entrées like sisig sushi, Famous Calamari and hot ladle seafood chowder, to Filipino-hearted mains such as Chikos Style Kare Kare, Famous Crispy Pata pork knuckle, Bicolandia pork belly and Signature BBQ Pork Ribs — with sirloin steak, lamb rendang, laksa salmon and vegetarian cigar enchiladas rounding out the list. Dessert is treated as part of the plan: the Tasting Desserts plate is made to pair with the cafe's coffee and organic tea selection.
Hours are worth planning around: Monday and Tuesday are dinner only, Wednesday is fully closed, and Thursday through Sunday runs a split service with lunch from 11am to 3pm and dinner from 5pm to 9pm. Takeaway operates on a call-and-collect basis with last orders at 8:30pm, and gift vouchers can be purchased at the restaurant. Menus carry allergen codes for gluten, dairy, nuts, peanuts, soy, eggs and vegetarian dishes, and guests with dietary requirements are encouraged to speak with senior front of house staff.
On Lincoln Road in Henderson, West Auckland, Chikos Restaurant & Cafe runs its kitchen on a single, confident idea: infused Asian cuisine lifted with Pacific Rim flavours. It operates as both restaurant and cafe — relaxed enough for a long weekend lunch, polished enough for a Friday night dinner — and the menu reads like a map of the Philippines and its neighbours, crossed with Auckland's seafood-forward palate. The team shares the dishes on Instagram at @chikos_restaurant, and the site's gallery keeps a running record of the Pacific Rim-flavoured plates that have come out of the kitchen.
The menu is organised into appetizers, entrées, mains, sides and desserts, with separate takeout and drink lists for those ordering to go. Between them, Chikos covers nearly every kind of outing: a mid-week dinner, a lingering weekend lunch, a celebratory main-and-dessert sitting, or a call-and-collect on the way home. The through-line is the same whatever the format — generous plates built on Southeast Asian foundations and finished with a distinctly Pacific accent.
The starters set the fusion tone. Croqueta-katsu pairs pork mince and potato with a cheese-and-chives sphere in panko crumb and black garlic mayo; a toasted adobo bun is filled with pulled pork and cheese/sweet chili mayo; karaage delivers soy-ginger crispy chicken thigh with togarashi aioli; and satay chicken arrives as a lemongrass skewer over coconut sticky rice lemang with spiced peanut sauce. A vegetarian tempura-maruya — fritter bites of tropical root vegetable and peanut — covers the meat-free nibbling.
The entrée list goes deeper still: seared yellowfin tuna tataki with wasabi soy crema; sisig sushi layered with seared tuna, soy truffle salmon and baked pulled snapper salad; the Famous Calamari, arrow squid rings with salsa verde and aosa garlic chili mayo; hot ladle seafood chowder crowned with a crispy prawn roll; ox tongue in annatto fermented koji glaze; and vegetarian plates of chickpea falafel with eggplant and grilled halloumi.
Where Chikos shows its soul is the mains. Chikos Style Kare Kare braises beef shin in a rich annatto garlic peanut gravy with Asian vegetables and fragrant rice. The Famous Crispy Pata is Filipino pork knuckle served with fennel apple and radish atchara, coconut shrimp paste and a tray of sauces and dips. Bicolandia gently reduces pork belly in coconut chili shrimp umami, and Signature BBQ Pork Ribs come lacquered in rock sugar and hoisin with daikon apple pickle.
Around that Filipino core the kitchen roams widely: 200-gram sirloin steak and chips with nametake-mushroom duxelles; lamb shank calderita with chorizo and du-day lentils; lamb rendang over lemang goreng; wagyu beef and prawn quesadillas; laksa salmon with sanuki udon and a crispy donut; panfried red snapper; and monkfish and chips in sabzi batter. The takeout list stretches further with Thai-spiced beef massaman, king salmon lemonada and red snapper buro, while cigar enchiladas — baked rolls of mixed beans with melted cheese and verde pesto — anchor the vegetarian mains.
Dessert is treated as part of the plan rather than an afterthought: the menu points every table towards the Tasting Desserts, made to sit alongside the cafe's coffee and organic tea selection. The takeaway list adds halo-halo, Valrhona chocolate mousse, Sweet Dulcey, a passion fruit, coconut and cheese dessert, and assorted macarons.
Hours reward a second look. Monday and Tuesday are dinner only, 5pm to 9pm; Wednesday the kitchen rests entirely; and Thursday through Sunday runs a split service with lunch from 11am to 3pm and dinner from 5pm to 9pm. Reservations can be made by phone on (09) 972-9847 or booked online through the website.
Takeaway runs on a call-and-collect basis: phone your order through, park, and collect from the Lincoln Road address, with last orders at 8:30pm on trading days. Gift vouchers are sold at the restaurant, an events page lists upcoming happenings, and the menus carry codes for gluten, dairy, nuts, peanuts, soy, eggs and vegetarian dishes — with guests asked to raise any allergy or dietary requirement with senior front of house staff. All prices are GST inclusive, with a small surcharge applied to credit card payments.
For Henderson locals, the appeal is the combination: Filipino classics handled with restaurant polish, a menu that keeps moving between Japan, Thailand and the wider Pacific, and a dessert course worth planning around. Whether it's a plate of crispy pata with friends, kare kare on a cool evening, or a box of macarons collected on the way home, Chikos keeps its range wide and its welcome steady.