Stopped in for lunch while in Hahei. The outdoor seating is very nice and there were not many…read morepeople there yet so we had our choice of tables. There are nice flowers and greenery surrounding the outdoor seating. You go in to order at the bar. We ordered a beer tasting flight, a margarita, and the Margherita Pizza. The margarita was fine (I never really had a great one while in New Zealand), but it was cool and refreshing. The pizza was nice and light, good for a small lunch. The staff were very friendly and helpful. Don't forget a tshirt or hoodie on the way out!

Loved their cocktails and ambience! The staff was super funny (read witty with sarcasm) and we had…read morea great time enjoying a cool beverage on a hot summer day after hiking to Cathedral Cove.

The Cock & Bull is a feel-good place located just beneath the Cinemas in Botany Town Centre. The…read morewooden walls are lined with traditional English decor and you're welcomed with a roaring fire during the colder nights. The staff are a friendly bunch, but don't always bring your food on time. You have to order at the bar, so don't go waiting for service. The food itself is traditionally English too, with your plain, but satisfying fish n chips, beef burger or calamari delicacies. Mainly you go there to enjoy a certain atmosphere ,which changes depending on whether it's a family afternoon or a rowdy weeknight. A pleasant place to dine if you feel like a good, old fashioned pub meal sometimes coupled with live music too!

The Cock & Bull in Botany Downs definitely attracts some very different age groups. On a Friday…read morenight you'll find it full of twenty-somethings attempting to jam out to the live band of the week, but on a Saturday night it may be full of older men have a nice old chinwag during the game. In saying this, its hard to say what the Cock & Bull's target market is, but nevertheless, they seem to be accommodating for a wide age range- and thats a good thing. I've always enjoyed the service at Cock & Bull. Always welcoming, quick and cheerful, and you know your drink is in good hands. Their food is very well done- I tend to lean towards their salads, but they do great wedges, nachos and fries with aioli. Their aptly named Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Aston Villa pizzas are well priced and taste even better! Cock & Bull is a long-standing establishment in Botany Downs and really fits the gastropub mould. If you're looking for somewhere that does its job right in the Botany area, go no further than the Cock & Bull.

Basalt is in a great location and looks from the outside, and indeed, from the inside like it'd be…read morea nice hangout. It has all the elements that go to make up a nice local watering hole: plenty of seating indoors and out, a decent menu, lots of sun (weather dependent), but sadly, whenever I've visited I've found both the food and drink incredibly over-priced, and the food especially really average. It's disappointing because I really want to like Basalt, it has a lot about it that appeals to me, but each time I try it I remember why I shouldn't come back again.

I ordered the Sirloin Steak with Chunky Chips and Mushroom sauce and it was very tasty…read more Steak cooked the way i wanted complemented with the mushroom sauce made this dish delicious. Service was excellent highly recommended.

The Prospect of Howick has stood proudly on the corner of Howick's main drag Picton Street for many…read moremany years, and during this time has endured a number of different guises. For years, the corner bar was called Mainstreet, and would be the place young people would flock to on a Thursday or Friday night to have their butts unceremoniously grabbed while they danced to Justin Timberlake's first solo album awkwardly remixed. Thankfully this place has classed up a bit over the past few years and created the much nicer GBS - a restaurant and bar with an awesome outdoor area, much like the popular Mac's and Monteith's branded bars that are so popular nowadays. Having grown up in Howick but no longer living there, heading to GBS can be a bit of hike, but it's also a bit of a special trip, particularly when we have friends that are back over from Melbourne or London or... no, those are the only places people from Howick move. The beer is cheap, the ashtrays are plentiful and the braziers burn hot and bright in winter. The barkeeps also tend to leave us rowdy idiots alone to reminisce about (and sometimes relive) our younger days.

Staff were friendly but mucked up 2 out of 5 orders on a Sunday night when they weren't busy at all.read more

Now this is a proper British style pub. Instead of the usually boring beers that every pub has,…read morethis place has a great selection of boutique beers on tap; I think that's probably one of the best things about this pub. Well the food is pretty decent as well. They serve hearty dishes of traditional English cuisine, complete with mushy peas and everything. I had the bangers and mash from here and it was pretty tasty. Coupled with a smooth, creamy beer and I was a happy man. This pub is also located right next to the water; a pretty great location. And the prices are quite cheap. However, the staff weren't all that attentive; one seemed to be doing all of the work and serving customers while the two other girls were just chatting, meanwhile the line at the bar increased.

Great local pub with mix of regulars and people stopping by. Has garden bar area, inside lounge…read morealso with fire which would be good in the winter. Nice selection of beers, food was excellent and great kids menu quality which makes a nice change for pub food.

The prospect is a Howick institution, pub standing since the 70s the restaurant has rebranded…read moreseveral times since I've been in the neighborhood. We planned to have a quick drink one very busy Saturday night on the way home... But ended up dining at "The Good Home" we placed ourselves outside in the courtyard as we didn't want to eat at the bar but the restaurant was full. The garden is named something else yet again (the bosun's bar) but all three areas have little distinction and the service and menus go across all three. The menu is a very simple affair with standard pub dining. He settled on roast chicken which came out with a mount of mash and stuffing, perfectly cooked generous portion. I decided on pizza which was really disappointing, the cheese had begun to separate and the pepperoni was more luncheon than salami. I asked for basil in addition to the toppings and there was three leaves to show for it. The base was thin but not crispy, and the edges (pizza bones) hard and tasteless, left discarded in a pile on the edge of my plate. We decided we needed more veges in our diet and ordered a side of veges... Which arrived salted yet bland a tad over cooked (almost mushy) and half cold by the time it hit the table. The service was spotty as wait staff wasn't really tending to the outdoor area. Our order was taken promptly, the cutlery arrived about 10mins later, and the food seemed to take forever, according to my grumbly tummy. After the meal We sat with our done plates for over 20mins. We are both terrible sweet tooth's and the conversation was good. And wanted to see the dessert options... And perhaps another drink or two.... But I was cold and shivering even with two of the complimentary light polar fleece blankets wrapped around me. There are big gas heaters but we couldn't wave anyone down to turn one on. So the service cut short the night and we continued on at home.

Food was amazing but service was shocking! Worst I think I have ever had. Went to get drinks at the…read morebar initially and was told to be seated and they would come to us, Ten minutes later had to get. up and go to the bar. Young Maori girl took the order of someone who. sat down after us and was clearing tables when we were obviously waiting to have our order taken. Every time we needed something had to get up and ask. This girl and another staff member chatting with each other when there were empty drinks on table and I we had our plates removed with empty drinks on the table and no one asking if we wanted another - whoever owns this place lost a fortune in sales this night. Finally approached this girl about her behaviour and she sneered at me rather than apologise! 5 minutes later she was chatting with her friend again!!! Wouldn't go back.

I brought my boyfriend here for a casual birthday dinner. He wanted pub food, so we chose Flying…read moreMoa because he could get some classic NZ fish and chips, and there was even a vegan option for me. Win-win! The ambiance of this place is really cute. The lighting is really nice. The service was okay, not great but not bad either. It was rather unremarkable. When we first arrived, there were a ton of guys there watching the UFC fight - if you're into UFC, this appears to be the place to go. We started with drinks, I ordered a prosecco and the bf got a beer. The beers didn't have prices on them, but we were still surprised when we got the bill and the beer was $15 - almost as much as my dinner. I'm not sure if that's normal or if I'm still getting adjusted to New Zealand prices, but when my boyfriend asked the kiwis at work, they said it's definitely not normal. I ordered the vegan buddha bowl (was really excited to see a vegan option on the menu at a pub that isn't chips) and my boyfriend ordered the fish and chips he was so excited about. The food came out pretty quickly. Mine was fresh but lacked flavor - it became obvious really quickly that the chef who invented this dish is not vegan nor do they know any vegans. Vegan food is more than just vegetables without dressing ;) Nonetheless, I did enjoy the mashed sweet potato in the middle and I was very happy to be able to eat something healthy at a pub! My boyfriend was very happy with his fish and chips and it came out looking perfect. All in all, the Flying Moa is a standard pub. I do hear that they have a good trivia night which I would be interested to try out, and their drinks list looks enticing - I wouldn't mind trying some of those jam jars and cocktails.

The food is great. But the vibe is unfortunately terrible. We asked the owner himself twice if he…read morecould put some music on and he literally flatly ignored us. We went on Sunday lunch time to celebrate St Paddy's day. Understandably they had nothing on for the day but they had cricket on and even when the game was done he bluntly ignored our request. Unfortunately won't easily be going back there.

This is a local Irish bar spot for the people of Howick. That doesn't mean it is all that though…read more The staff aren't really known for their knowledge of the menu and details. Which makes for a lot of "I will just check that for you" (if even that). And the food is definitely overpriced and not up to par in terms of quality. Disappointing in that sense. Other than that it can be a nice place to be, to enjoy a few drinks (hard to mess that up) and enjoy the live bands and music that are often making an appearance. Also every Monday and Tuesday they have lunch specials, and on Wednesday they have dinner specials and a quiz night, which are always fun. So in terms of entertainment it is all go, in terms of service and food it is a bit average.

Doolan Brothers have recently taken over all of the old Cock and Bull franchises, and I'm glad they…read morehave. The renovations and facelift have done wonders for this local pub, and the changes are positive. The decor is still traditional pub style, but not so dark and dank as before, reds and dark woods prevail. The food has taken a bit of a jump up, although the Sunday roasts with Yorkshire puddings were a little bit of a letdown, as the puddings were a bit bland, but the portions were healthy and it wasn't expensive, so fair standard for pub fare. On our second visit, we weren't quite as impressed though, after ordering a steak medium rare, it arrived pretty much well done, but then that seems to be pretty standard at all restaurants around town, you have to ask for rare to get it medium! But overall, a great little local pub to enjoy a beer in the sun and some good old pub grub.

No ambience, extremely average food very classic pub style and it's really huge and almost always…read moreempty unless there's a pub quiz or important sports event on. Outside courtyard good for smokers but it looks out onto a really bleak overgrown creek in Lynfield I don't rate it. It's trying too hard to be homely and quintessential.

First of all, we created a booking for the Bridgehouse restaurant a day before we planned on eating…read morethere. It was for my friend's 18th birthday. The rest if us are 17 years old. We turned up, in our best attire, ready to have a wonderful EATING experience, we were looking foward to the food, not planning on getting any drinks. We were turned away at the door because most of us were underage, and were rushed of the premises. Never once did they mention that we weren't allowed to eat there if we were underage, wasting our time and energy. Clarifying that we only wanted to experience the restaurant part of the place, never the bar We found much more welcoming service at Warkworth Hotel. Maiya is the best waitress there ever is in the world.

Fab food, excellent service, nice ambiance when the fire is going; and good sized portions with…read moreveggies with most dishes and decent sized dessert with cream and icecream - delish! Highly recommend!