Golden Bridge is a traditional hole-in-the-wall Chinese takeaway with a dedicated following 25 years in the making, nestled in between the upmarket restaurants and cafés of Auckland’s Herne Bay.
Manager Simon Mok took over the running of the family restaurant from his father, Juming, eight years ago, but has been working at the establishment since he was a teenager. The secret to success, he claimed, was great service and tasty, reasonably priced food.
“Most of our customers know me and I know them, so they don’t even need to give me their order, I know what they want,” he said. Golden Bridge’s signature dish, and the most consistently popular over the years, is Chicken Chow Mein.
“Our Chicken Chow Mein is the dish people order the most even though I try to recommend different dishes, but most people are creatures of habit and they always go for their regular.”
Mok said that while Herne Bay has undergone major changes in the last 25 years, including becoming Auckland’s most expensive suburb for property values, Golden Bridge has not changed much at all. “Part of our charm and one of the reasons we are such an institution on Jervois Rd is because of our humble frontage. It’s the food that counts, not how we look from the outside, and we have a loyal bunch of regulars who order from us every week.”
One of the major changes Mok has noticed in the last two years is the increasing demand for home delivery and the move by his customers to online ordering.
“It means our customers now have the option to get their favourite dishes delivered directly to them – and ultimately it’s helped us grow the business and it continues to thrive. Being on the Menulog platform also enables us to gather customer feedback which allows us to make changes to balance the food we offer and to keep our prices competitive.”
Golden Bridge is a finalist in the People’s Choice Award for Menulog’s biannual Restaurant Awards. The inaugural People’s Choice Award, which will be announced in October alongside the national and local winners, allows all restaurants on the Menulog platform to be part of the awards regardless of size, location and the number of orders they do each week.
The People’s Choice Winner receives $5,000 and the runner-up $2,500.
