King BBQ Buffet (御膳坊烧烤自助) on King Street, Ōtāhuhu carries the cooking of BBQ King — 得记烧腊饭店 — into South Auckland. The BBQ King name introduces itself with a simple promise: delicious and authentic Chinese food. Behind that promise sits a classic Cantonese roast-meat kitchen, built around rice bowls crowned with lacquered siu mei, duck from the open flame oven, fresh seafood and braised specialties with real depth.
The anchors of the menu are the hallmarks of the house: 明炉烧鸭, roast duck prepared in the traditional open-flame oven; 烧腊饭, the roast meat rice that ranks as the most popular meal; 生猛海鲜, fresh and lively seafood; and 京都卤味, Kyoto-style braised specialties. Around them sit Cantonese standards (广东餐), a Sichuan corner (四川餐) for diners who like real heat, and a line-up of specialty snacks (特色小吃) made for grazing and sharing.
This Ōtāhuhu branch presents that repertoire in a barbecue-buffet format — the whole range of the kitchen laid out to be worked through rather than a single dish chosen and defended. Tables can be booked online through the BBQ King website, with space for party size and any special request, and the brand's testimonials page gathers what regulars have to say. For locals, it's a neighbourhood luxury; for everyone else, a reason to point the car towards King Street.
King BBQ Buffet (御膳坊烧烤自助) on King Street, Ōtāhuhu is the South Auckland expression of a name many Auckland Chinese-food lovers already know: BBQ King, or 得记烧腊饭店. The brand introduces itself with a disarmingly simple promise — delicious and authentic Chinese food — and the kitchen behind it is built on the foundations of a classic Cantonese roast-meat house: rice bowls crowned with lacquered roast meats, duck from the open flame oven, fresh seafood and braised specialties with real depth.
Where many Chinese restaurants ask you to choose one dish and commit, this branch is built for the opposite. A barbecue-buffet format (烧烤自助) invites grazing: roast meats first, then seafood, then braised plates and snacks, with the whole range of the kitchen there to be worked through. A good table usually divides its attention accordingly.
Every siu mei kitchen is judged by its roast rack, and BBQ King's calling card is 明炉烧鸭 — roast duck prepared in the traditional open-flame oven. It is the kind of cooking that has defined Cantonese roast houses for generations, and it anchors everything else on the menu.
The single most popular meal, though, is humbler and no less loved: 烧腊饭, the roast meat rice. A bowl of steamed rice under chopped roast meats is the dish regulars order without opening the menu, and it is listed front and centre as the most popular item the kitchen offers.
Around the roast meats, the menu opens out. 广东餐 covers the Cantonese canon — the gentle, balanced cooking that suits a long table of mixed appetites. 四川餐 answers for anyone who wants the food to fight back, bringing the chilli heat of Sichuan. And the seafood section, 生猛海鲜 — literally fresh and lively — keeps a proper Cantonese kitchen's promise that the sea is well represented.
Between the big dishes sit two quieter pleasures. 京都卤味, the Kyoto-style braised specialties, deliver deep savoury flavour from stock and patience — the kind of plates that taste even better halfway through a long meal. 特色小吃, the specialty snacks, are the small eats that keep hands busy while the mains settle.
None of this needs much explanation to anyone who grew up with this food, and it needs no translation to anyone who didn't: it is roast duck, rice, seafood and spice, cooked the traditional way and served without fuss. That clarity is a large part of the appeal — the menu says what it is, and the kitchen delivers it.
Planning to visit with a group? BBQ King takes bookings online: enter your name and email, pick a date and time, choose your party size, and add any special request before submitting. It is a small thing, but for a buffet-style meal it pays to arrive organised — a table set up in advance tends to eat better and linger longer.
The restaurant also keeps a testimonials page — Our Clients Say, 客户评价 — where diners' impressions are collected, a habit that suits a house that clearly trades on regulars coming back.
For Ōtāhuhu locals, King BBQ Buffet is a neighbourhood luxury: proper Chinese roast meats, Cantonese and Sichuan dishes, seafood and snacks, in a format that lets everyone at the table eat exactly what they came for. For everyone else, it is reason enough to point the car towards King Street. The promise written across the brand's own pages — delicious and authentic Chinese food — is the same one this branch makes at the door.