Dirty Dining Diary: Day 4 - Yummy Takeaway

Hot and spicy chicken with peanuts and stir-fry beans with eggplant.Photo / Nicky Park

Last month Central Auckland's dirtiest eating establishments were named.

Food grades in the former Auckland City region show 10 restaurants and cafes have received E grades, with 29 given a D grade.

The New Zealand Herald online asked readers if they were influenced by the food grading system. Nearly 13,500 readers responded and just over half said they used the rating to make a call about whether to dine there. Or not.

But to the every day diner, how do these places really stack up?

A few brave members of the online team have decided to put their bellies on the line and review all 29 of the D listers, revealing one a day for the month of September. D grade eateries are reviewed twice a year, according to Auckland City Council. While they are subject to change, our list is correct as of the last week of August, 2013. If the grade is changed at the time of publication this will be made clear in the review.

So join us on our journey eating through the D list. Check in at lunch each day, read our review, and let us know in the poll if you have - or would - eat at the outlet.

Yummy Takeaway, 920 New North Rd, Mt Albert

We ordered: Hot and spicy chicken with peanuts ($12) and stir-fry beans with eggplant ($14). Both dishes were very oily, but the veggies were okay. The chicken dish lacked flavour and some pieces of meat didn't seem right to eat.

The vibe was: Not nice. Pigeons flapped around at our feet as we wobbled on our chairs watching the kitchen staff gobble up their favourite lunch time foods.

The décor looked: Like a mishmash of broken old tables and chairs thrown together.

The service was: Forced. We had to interrupt the staff meal time to place our order.

We left feeling: Not very nice about what we'd just put in our bellies.

We could see their D grade: Not at all, so we asked them if they had one. They said no, they didn't have one.

The most D-grade thing about it: The whole place felt pretty D grade, but mostly the pigeons scratching beneath our feet.

We'd go back: Not a chance.

- www.nzherald.co.nz