Sun World, Cnr Kyber Pass-York St Newmarket

Great food at a great price from the fast-paced Sun World kitchen. Picture / carolyn Robertson

Herald rating: * * *

One of the several phones needed to conduct modern life rang. "Hello," I said, because that always seems to be the right thing to say to a phone.

"Dick here," it said back. "I think we should honour the Year of the Dog."

"So do I. I had a helluva night and that's exactly what I need."

He was very restrained. "No, you idiot. The Year of the Dog, not the Hair of the Dog."

We met at the Sun World at the bottom of Khyber Pass. "Why?" I asked. "Because," answered my patient friend, "in her professional capacity, my good wife was assisting some people in search of information about immigration about where they liked to eat and they recommended it."

Have you been to the bottom of Khyber Pass lately? If not, it's about time you took the trip. Give your regards to Broadway, then stray into the byways of Mongolian, Greek, Vietnamese, Italian, Japanese, I don't know what-all else eateries.

Sun World is below a carpark. There is a bowling alley on top. Karaoke bars and pool clubs abound. Neighbourhoods like this are Auckland in 2006.

Dick had them open his Bordeaux, no corkage. "I thought we were doing Chinese," I protested, pouring tea. "If you can find a decent Bordeaux from China," he replied, "I'll be happy to join you."

We opened the menus. I think they were menus. They may have been the Beijing telephone book, or the fourth-form biology textbook: duck web, duck gizzard, duck other bits. Seafood bits where you wouldn't expect that seafood had bits.

From 160-plus options we settled on Numbers 5, 113, 2076 and 3095402: roast duck, roast pork, seared venison strips with vermicelli and greens. Love Chinese menus like this. None of that "Roast butterflied supreme of poussin with meadowsoft herb stuffing, pancetta, etuve of leeks and asparagus, and sour cream drawn from the third cow on the left" cobblers.

The platters came promptly, thanks to men in black polo-shirts and trousers, wired into headsets to accomplish a mission impossible: ensure two middle-aged Euro guys and 100 or so other patrons received a non-stop flurry of hot, tasty, remarkably well-priced meals.

It's good, plain food (which can get fancy if you take out a second mortgage and select a large, flailing lobster from a plastic tub, $83 a kilo). Perhaps we should have added one of many vegetable platters but we already had more than we could eat. The cats of Newmarket must have dined well that night.

Though the cats of Newmarket should eat well most nights. Just 24 hours earlier, Bridget and I caught up for an after-work cool-down at Penny Black (see our review from November, now a haunt) and gravitated around the block to the Asian foodhall under another carpark.

We had tom yum soup and a steaming dish of lemon chicken and rice, a glass of chardonnay each, $15 apiece. Is there a better deal in Father Hubbard's parish?

Kung hei fat choi. If you don't know what that means, ask one of our fellow Aucklanders. And make a New Year's resolution to have a Chinese meal this week - maybe one of those recipes that Madame Over The Page offered last week, or out. Somewhere like the bottom of Khyber Pass.

Phone: (09) 520 3218

Open: 7 days, 11am-10.30pm

Cuisine: Chinese

From the menu: Fish maw, Chinese mushroom, chicken-feet soup $8.50; Peking duck (two courses) $40; chicken, taro, coconut sauce casserole $18

Vegetarian: Yes, they do tofu and veges

Wine: Fully licensed, full bar

Bottom line: Eastern promise fulfilled