Cleaver & Co.

This place is great for casual dining — lazy weekend afternoon lunch/​dinner. Food is delicious– we ordered calamari, a kilo of ribs and deep fried mac n Cheese. All of it was fab –service was a little slow at first — but once the realised we had been inadvertently ignored for the first ten minutes they were apologetic.
I really enjoyed it there.

My partner and I went to this restaurant last night (valentines day). We had a booking at 7p.m. We did get served straight away, for our drink and entrée orders. Our drinks arrived quite quickly and entrée followed not long after. That is where the good hospitality stopped…
Our mains did not turn up to the table till 8.15.We believe they had forgotten about us. My partner had the bock bock burger with fries and I had The Cleaver Special with chicken.
When his burger finally arrived the fries were cold… so was the burger. We sent it back only the fries must of been reheated. Then the salad arrived it was not what was described on the menu at all it was the worst salad I have ever had. Presentation was also unflattering. Everytime we go out for meals I always have a salad, this looked like ingredients chucked in a bowl with some chicken thrown on the side.
As I had worked the times out as we had a booking somewhere else after dinner. It should of been plenty of time for us to get a full meal, including dessert. But we were totally rushed for time as the main meals turned up so late. Quickly ate some of the main as we were so hungry… and then had to leave. This had spoiled our valentines day experience.
My partner went to pay the bill and explained, so the staff said they would take care of the bill. Unsure about going back to this restaurant again??? Your review helps others learn about great local businesses.
Please don’t review this business if you received a freebie for writing this review, or if you’re connected in any way to the owner or employees.

Love the whole Brickworks addition to New Lynn Mall, but Cleaver and Co did not impress all that much to be honest. However, having said that, the place was packed (mid week evening meal) and we were lucky to actually find a seat for two, cushioned towards the back with many other people crammed in close by.
Hubby and I both ordered the burgers which sounds great on paper, but did not taste all that great. The meat in mine was not cooked properly and the liquid from the meat and salad was in such excess that I ended up with a soup underneath — which I tried to save with loads of napkins to soak it all up — but to no avail. The ingredients, including the range of sauces/​condiments to choose from, were cheap quality and tasted that way too unfortunately.
Now having said all that, I will go back and try this place again, there is always a second chance!

We love this place! I went there twice in one week with two different groups of girlfriends and we all enjoyed ourselves.
We had the Bok Bok burger and the meat platter :)
Yay’s:
–Food:YUM. The Bok Bok is a pleasure and the meat platter had about 7 different things to try on it. It looks small when it arrives however we were so full by the end
–Décor: Clean, crisp & cool atmosphere throughout the whole place. The bathrooms have a great touch to it with the old farm sinks. There was a function upstairs so it was handy having different levels of nooks so parties upstairs wouldn’t be disturbed by diners downstairs
–Staff: friendly & well presented
Nay’s:
–Food: the meat platter needs a salad. There’s so much meat that you could easily swap the meatballs (which were our least favourite by far, not needed on the dish) for the nice slaw or a green salad. We ordered on the side
–Décor: bathrooms are upstairs which can be a bit annoying if you’re rushing or had too much to eat :)
–Staff: too many. We were asked about 5x by different people if we wanted drinks even though we had only been there for about 10mins.
Overall, a good experience & would go back for sure to try new things. The ribs are divine!

This place was so good i had to come back the next day! Had dinner with a gf last night and we absolutely annihilated our meals! Definitely recommend the calamari if you love seafood and a little spice. I got the salmon and i LOVED it. It also seems that your time there is also spent watching everyone else’s meals come out and seeing how delicious they look. I asked for a house red and was told they had pinot noir on TAP (every wine lovers dream). Took my family back the next day and got one of the platters that came with a jug of macs gold and kids meal all up only $ 83!!! 1 star less than 5 simply cause of the loud music (still loved at atmosphere though). I have officially become a regular!

Whose leg do you have to hump to get a drink round here? A shambles and it smells funny

Cleaver and co was a bit hit and miss for me… Maybe because I had high expectations from the14hour ribs that just didn’t quite show were all that time cooking improved the flavor.
I will say I was happy with the wine menu, lots of interesting choices, I ended up picking the Ned Rose– always consistently good, given this has more a hipster small batch beer brew kinda place.
The kids menu was good value at 13.50, (burger chips, drink and desert) and had different offerings on it, I could of done with the salt n pepper squid, but the kids choose the chicken burger. What I found weird the burger had no vegs: just a bun and chicken strips that were deemed «too spicy» and therefore not eaten. Sigh.
I had the ½kg of ribs and swapped the corn for some broccoli, again the ratio of vegs to meet was way off (would of been happy with a ¼kg rib option).The ribs themselves were dry and the bbq sauce was yum but just an average sauce you get everywhere. On the menu was maple butter but don’t think it was served, maybe it was on the corn???
Anywho the new brickworks area is lovley, designed to make the most of the summer sun, but simular to silva park im not sure how much use it will get in the winter.
And bonus the mall was open late so I got some Xmas shopping done.

I love American flavours. ESP BBQ flavours and these guys are as close as it gets to achieving that and more! Plus — creating a space that is still ‘Kiwi’ and ‘Westie’ not to mention relaxing and fitting for any time of the day.
My Pick of the menu: 1Kg of Ribs. Why not pay the extra $ 10 and get and 500g? Great side accompany this dish and in my mind is their signature dish ALTHOUGH. The platters are amazing also.
Ask for: Extra sauce.
Downers: It would be hard to cater for large groups with kids and apart from the small outdoor area, there isn’t much natural light coming but that might what the owners were after?
You forget you’re sitting in New Lynn too!
All round — A great place to eat with quite reasonable prices.

Okay, I must say…
THIS PLACE IS AMAZING!
things I always think is important is
1. Food
2. Host
3. Atmosphere
4. Sauce
FOOD: I loved the platter of meat we had ! I have to say the chicken wings were a bit too salty for my taste and the I truly believe that they have room for improvement for that
But other than that the platter was to die for !! We had meatball, shrimp, sausage, this really nice tender meat that I have no idea what it’s called, Mac and cheese (in cube and deep fried form). Their meat is seriously worth driving the long distance from the shore !! And once you’ve eaten there your hair will smell of smoke, and remind you of all the good and tasty meat you just had ! Hahaha
Host: the lady who served us was amazing !! These guys just opened 3 weeks ago but seriously they are doing one heck of a job !! They were kind, considerate and looking after you the best to their ability !! That’s what I call service. And may I say choice of song not too bad !!
Atmosphere: is amazing !! Made me feel like being at one of the Bbq joints in California. And man the whole place reminds me of a smoker which isn’t bad !! Just makes you more hungry afterwards
Overall all and all this place is a must go at least once in 2 months to get your fill for BBQ, their meat has been smoked for 10−14days soooooo the ribs, the meat were so soft
Way to go guys you really deserve 4.5÷5 but I can’t do a ½ :)

Went to the new BBQ style «meatery» for an early dinner and was not dissapointed. Wonderful setting, great food and on to it wait staff, Cleaver and Co. was everything I hoped it would be. The macaroni and cheese balls were delicious and they had a great selection of staters, mains, salads and beverages to keep everyone happy.
I also especially liked the small touches in the décor, like the knife/​clever handles for the beer taps, and the whole place felt light and roomy, but with the cozy wood feel you want out of a restaurant of this style.
My only critique is the chicken breast in my burger was a tad dry and the helping of chips with my main was a little on the small side, but otherwise a solid ⁴⁄₅. There were no complaints from anyone else at my table.
Will defiantly be returning (I MUST try the dessert!). Awesome addition to the growing West Auckland restaurant scene.

A couple of weeks ago, my partner and I went to check out the grand opening of Brickworks in Lynnmall. It’s a newly renovated section of Lynnmall which has been sorely needed. We did a walking tour of all the restaurants and though I’m cautiously optimistic it is great to see some decent date-​night potentials on offer in New Lynn. In the end, we opted to check out Cleaver & Co as it seemed to have a good energy about it and American inspired barbeque is quite the sizzlling trend (excuse the pun!) on the Auckland scene at the moment. There was quite a selection of starters, bbq mains, salads, hearty burgers/​sandwiches, and signature sides. It was a bit overwhelming because we wanted to try so many things. Then we found a bbq platter option that we could even add on a pitcher of beer (lion red or macs gold) for $ 20. The platter was a great choice as it came with Texas meatballs, chicken wings, St. Louis style ribs, pulled pork sliders, grilled shrimp and mac n’cheese bites. Although it was more than enough food, out of curiosity I had to try the slaw as well as no self-​respecting bbq place doesn’t have a good slaw to boot.
The coleslaw was quite nice and had a modern take. The meatballs were OK but nothing life-​changing, the chicken wings were of ACE as were the sliders and the mac n’ cheese bites. The shrimp was a bit overdone but I think that could be chalked up to first night blunders. The ribs that I was so looking forward to were very overdone and actually burnt. There was plenty of staff to flag down to which we advised the state of our ribs. Instantly a manager came tableside and advised that they were still working out a few kinks with their smoker and made great efforts to compensate us with some especially delicious beef brisket. A+ customer service. Also, the have Little Creatures Pale Ale on Tap and the beer taps are butcher knives.
All in all, I have high hopes they they can work out their kinks and become a staple not only in Brickworks, but as a part of the New Lynn eating scene as a whole.