Arnel's Filipino Restaurant

We stopped by on Saint Valentine's Day without reservation, and they were phenomenal! The food was fantastic, the service very fast, friendly and accurate, could not recommended it more! We really enjoyed our starters, fabulous dumplings for me and very tasty spare ribs, fried calamari, hot wings for my not-so-adventurous hubby. The sizzling plate of seafood was to die for and super fresh, and the dessert was such a beauty to look at and a treat to eat! We (slowly) walked out very satisfied and remarkably impressed :)

Go with a group. TRY EVERYTHING. It's all good. Good? Heck, it's the best Filipino food I've found in NZ. Finding Arnel's in the same street as Chokdee is something of a miracle. That Nelson could have two absolutely outstanding, as-authentic-as-possible-given-the-problems-of-getting-ingredients Asian food places literally a stone's throw away from each other is not something I expected. The fact that it's Filipino is astonishing. I know of very, very few Filipino places, even in the NZ Filipino capital of East Auckland, and this place is better than any of them. Accessible for locals, fantastic for international food fans, tasty and with helpful service to help you learn the new dishes and flavours, this place deserves to be a success. Certainly, on the night we went, it was packed. As I said, take a group of friends and educate yourself on a new style of food. The Lechon Kawali is great. The Quadro combo gives you a chance to try some of their best entrees. The spicy squid is worth a trip. Hell, just order everything, you can't really go wrong.