Ponsonby Food Court

The sun is back! Yay. Glorious.

Ponsonby Food Court

106 Ponsonby Road

(Right next to Ponsonby Pool Hall).

LaLa, B3 and I took a Link bus to Ponsonby for a quick dinner at the Ponsonby Food Court last Thursday night. Surprisingly, it was my first visit. I say surprisingly since I've heard good things about the PFC in the past, but I guess I've never really taken the opportunity to venture out (typically if I'm in Ponsonby, I order a lamb pita from Fatimas near Rocket Kitchen). LaLa had major wraps on PFC as well, so we decided to take the opportunity. Food courts are pretty handy when you're with a group of people, and everyone is wanting something different to eat.

PFC felt a bit different in comparision to other food courts I've been to. Better environment, pretty clean. The one thing that I immediately took notice of upon entering the food court, was the diversity of food cuisines that you can choose from. You can choose from Laos, Chinese, Indian, Malaysian, Mexican, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Turkish, and Italian. They also have a separate vendor, where you can purchase a wide variety of drinks (both non-alcoholic and alcoholic).

LaLa and B3 both chose Italian, while I decided to try out the Mexican place. As a general thought, I have to say that I'm rather disappointed about the lack of Mexican eateries/restaurants in Auckland. I really like Mexican food, and I think it's a shame that there aren't many places to go, let alone good ones. If you do know a good Mexican restaurant, please let me know! (But please don't say The Mexican Cafe. Please).

My chicken quesadillas!

LaLa's spaghetti with meatballs

B3's chicken and mushroom fettuccine

(Sorry for the crappy photos. Yes, they're crappy. I get it).

I ordered chicken quesadillas with avocado, sour cream, and salsa ($11). LaLa ordered spaghetti with meatballs and B3 ordered chicken fettuccine with mushrooms (both pasta dishes were $14.50). For each different vendor, there may be different ways in which you can collect your food from the vendor you ordered from. Some are standard, like the the numbered cards that you would traditionally be given at a cafe. But at the Mexican vendor, I was given a pager. Once my dish was ready to be served, my pager started buzzing to let me know that I could collect my meal. Awesome.

While the quesadillas were cooked inside and the filling was tasty, the tortillas holding the filling together (obviously) were missing a bit of colour and were still a bit soft (an imbalance of textures really...a quesadilla should have tortillas that are nice and toasty). The salsa, avocado and sour cream were good in conjunction with the quesadillas, but not enough of each were provided on the plate. Overall, not too shabby. Minor improvements needed, but a sufficient meal for $11.

I tried a little bit of B3 and LaLa's dishes. Both pasta dishes were huuuuge. I actually preferred B3's dish to my own, mostly due to the mushrooms (have I told you how much I love them?). It was tasty. I rarely eat creamy pastas anymore at home (its either pesto & lamb or good ole' bolognaise), so I guess the tastiness multiplied as a result of such resistance. LaLa's dish was a bit average. Meatballs had good flavour, but were dry. Not enough sauce.

Overall verdict - For a food court, the food is pretty decent. Would like to try some of the other cuisines some other time for future reference.

Next blog: Tanuki's Cave with The Young & The Restless and RoadRunner. Might also write about my recent trip to Movenpick in Mission Bay with friends (the sun is finally here, yay!)