Great new live venue. Awesome staff who know their drinks. Has an outdoor area with views of the…read morecity. I had a fun night of live music and interesting folks, recommend to all.

Cool "underground" venue. Came here to see a great DnB DJ, which I enjoyed very much. The drink…read moreprices are reasonable, typical club prices. There is a lot of room. There is NO COAT CHECK, which was annoying, but at least no one stole my coat. Nice staff.

Claddagh's in a nice Irish pub that's off the main road and out of the way, so you can enjoy an…read moreafternoon pint without the garrulous office types. It's as dark and calming as any Irish pub should be, about the colour of Guinness inside the bar. Or escape into the airy courtyard, enclosed with brushwork fence. This area looks better at night with it's dainty little fairy lights and minus the moving trucks in the background. The relaxed but respectful service is by far the bars best feature. The staff go beyond the standard salutations and engage in friendly conversation with customers, without interrogating them or becoming unprofessional. Platters coming out of the kitchen look enticing and are handled with skill by the waiters. A couple of days later, there wasn't a trace of the St. Patrick's Day carnage and the sunny courtyard only held the sound of an Irish fiddler. Fantastic.

New management, new lease on life. What used to be sticky, run down and lacking heart is back with…read morea new beat. Quiz nights, live sports, pub games, live music, good pub grub. What's not to love? Go find out.

Being from the states and working in Auckland it took several days to find a bar that has a…read morespeakeasy vibe and amazing drinks. The Pineapple Bar is the full package. These guys make the most amazing drinks you've ever had. The whiskey sour is the best I've ever had. Kieran and Dario manned the bar like a US Marine preparing for battle. Turning out drink and drink. If you want a great drink with top notch atmosphere, this is your place. I will make this my regular spot every time I'm in Auckland. I gave it two thumbs up and two feet up because I've drank a few too many:)

Honestly, seven or eight stars. I am an American visiting NZ. My buddy and I were in search of a…read morebar...you know, an actual bar. We went on a quest and our reward was Pineapple on Parnell. I'm wiping tears away as I type, sipping my cocktail. If you have a checklist that defines a proper bar, let this place check all of the boxes for you. The drinks are the absolute best you've ever had. Stop wasting time reading on Yelp and grab an Uber. Your evening is planned. Trust the bartenders (Kieran and Dario) to serve you the best cocktails of your lives. The atmosphere will speak for itself when you walk through the door. This is the exact place you're looking for.

This is my partner's fail-safe go-to-after-work pub. He loves it because it is exactly what K' Road…read moreis all about: unique, friendly and just the right amount of grimy. He says it's because it reminds him of the pubs in our hometown in the UK and I don't think he's wrong. I've only met up with him a few times in here but I too think it's a great little place. The staff are always really friendly, there's a great selection of beer (including their home brewed lager) at a reasonable price and there's always been ample seating during after work hours. They've also got a really varied selection of live music and events on every week so there's enough to keep you entertained (the pub quiz in particular is usually a winner). I've not eaten in here but the food on the menu always looks really intriguing. They've got a really wide selection of vegetarian and vegan food and things that are just a little out of the ordinary.

Stopped here for a quick hello with a friend who knows Simon. Very welcoming, friendly person he…read moreis. You can tell right away he cares for his customers and his bar. It was early in the day so definitively not ready for a full on session but a cold cider was perfect. The bar is massive with prime corner real estate! Plenty of seating at the bar, tables just behind along with benches running along the windows. If it were my local, I would be there on Sundays just to people watch and pass a few pints. There is also a chef in the kitchen, with a menu broadcast on chalkboard above the bar. Live music and other fun activities await weekly. Another plus to this bar is that there is a genuine Italian espresso machine. The brand escapes me, but it is one of only two in all of New Zealand! He said it makes a mean espresso and for someone who loves coffee this is an invitation to return.

This venue was such an insane spot to see Hawthorne Heights! Awesome acoustics and lighting. Thank…read moreyou to the venue for hosting. As Colour Fades was a great opener.

I've said it about The Wine Cellar and I'll say it about Whammy too - this place treats bands (and…read moretheir respective door bitches) incredibly well. Booking a gig at Whammy (or The Wine Cellar) is done through Rohan, a professional sound tech who will make your band sound pretty gosh darn good. He'll do it for $100. Get 6-10 paying people through the door and you've broken even already. Accommodating about 150 people more than Wine Cellar and starting later in the evening, Whammy is the place to go if your band wants to be late and loud. Doorman Will is a massive boss as well - about as courteous as a man who deals with drunk idiots can be.

Whenever we're out in Ponsonby, we always end up going to PSC. I'm not even sure why, it's not…read moreparticularly great. In fact, it's always packed and a nightmare to get to the bathrooms, which are at the very back of the bar. It's saving grace is the music. It's largely hip hop and RnB but think old school classics as opposed to Chris Brown. For me, PSC is a late-night destination and I almost always order G&Ts so it's hard to comment on the drinks but the bartenders are speedy and friendly enough! It wouldn't say it's a must visit but if you're keen for a boogie and you're on P.Road, it's worth a look.

"PSC" as the locals call it is the closest thing to a "Grown n' Sexy" crowd as i have found in…read moreAuckland. Definitely not an 18+ crowd. The music was tho! If you love 90's RnB and Hip-Hop in a danceable, 2-step vibe, more so than fist-pump, table jumping manner. Auckland has so many beautiful and thick women and they were all here. But it's still more of a standing/talking/vibing bar-that-plays-music than a club-club. I would go back, especially to start off the night, but maybe not finish it...unless I was on a Bumble Date that I thought might be wifey. All in all, good fun. Standard drink prices around NZD $10/ea

I want to give The Wine Cellar a few props from the perspective of a door bitch at gigs. We are the…read morebitches who take your money - we put silly insignias on your wrist and hand you cheap EPs. Getting a gig together at The Wine Cellar is easy - the bar staff are really friendly people who don't seem to mind when the door bitch once again forgets a pen. Rohan who runs the technical side of the shows clearly loves making people sound good and takes his work seriously enough to do an excellent job of it. It's also massively cheap to rent the place - $100 for a PA and Rohan.

The wine cellar has two sides to it - music venue and bar. These are, logically enough, divided…read moreinto two rooms. The music side has a really nice feel to it, very intimate and casual, like you're sitting in on some friends jamming in their living room rather than a band performing on stage. The bar side is neat too, still very casual and boutique without being at all snooty. Wine Cellar has an association (business or family or both, I'm not sure) with the Purangi Winery in Coromandel, so they serve an interesting selection of liquors and wines from there. They also have their own ales on tap. Be warned though - of the two I've had I think one is quite nice and one is foul, and I can never remember which one is which.

The Powerstation is the perfect venue for gigs and concerts. Though plenty big enough to host…read morepopular bands and musicians, it is still small enough to maintain an intimate atmosphere and enable you to really connect with whoever it is you're seeing. Despite not being located in Auckland CBD, or being a high-priced venue, The Powerstation attracts all sorts of performers and musicians, including international heroes like Band of Horses, Rita Ora, MGMT and local favourites Six60 to name a few. I first went to The Powerstation as a young teenager for a dance-type party that was regularly held there, and even back then tickets sold out fast and the line to get inside went around the block. Nothing has changed - The Powerstation is still known for its great atmosphere, ample bar, good sound system and acoustics and fun dance floor. If you ever get the chance to see a live act perform at The Powerstation, don't hesitate - buy the ticket and have a great night!

Many nights of my youth were mis-spent here and I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was…read morewhen I heard a few years back that they were running 80s Nights on Fridays. That never quite seemed to pass and I was never too sure how it would quite work anyway. Now the Powerstation is back doing gigs but sadly I'm older and the mosh-pit has lost its appeal. In fact, I recently got my Band of Horses tickets refunded when they moved the venue from the Town Hall to here. I probably would have kept them if they'd given me a discount but when you pay what you do for concerts, the venue matters. The Powerstation is a totally fine setting for medium sized standing room only gigs, particularly when full. If the crowd is a bit sparse then the whole feeling can be a bit sad. It particularly suits loud grunty bands but perhaps that is just my personal history skewing my view. On the plus side it's intimate and oldies like me can still find a few seats upstairs if you're lucky. It's a big black space where bands play, and it has a mezzanine floor and two bars - there's not much more to say.

I have heaps of memories of Studio, most of the fuzzy, but some clear enough to base my review on…read more I personally think Studio is a great music venue for medium to large size gigs in Auckland, and they always attract some of the best, Netsky, Dub FX, numerous house and trance gigs that filled a gap left when the St James was closed. The big main room has a great sound to it in my opinion, and for those times when you're lucky enough to snaffle a VIP ticket, the upstairs room's a wicked place to watch over all the revelry like a Greek god... On K road... So not quite the same. Still, great venue!

The Studio is situated on Auckland's K Road, which makes it very central and easy to get to…read more It is small in size but this is a silver lining because it makes for great, intimate gigs. I saw Ellie Goulding there in October last year, and it was such a nice change from the now common place arena shows. And yes, Ellie was awesome, and I had no complaints with the sound quality. So if your fav band announces a show at The Studio, I suggest you get there with bells on (or Dr Martins / your concert going shoe of choice).

Quiz night on Tuesdays is the perfect excuse to try out the Horse and Trap. Rigsy is a hoot on the…read moremike. And the bar food is well above average. Pizzas, burgers and salads mingle with steaks and pies on the menu and sit even better upon the tongue. Nothing original, but it's all done well. Just what one hopes for at a local. All that's left to achieve is that elusive 1st place...

The Horse & Trap's tagline is that they are a "stable of social relaxing". When we visited on a…read morebusy Friday evening, this was certainly the case. It was pretty packed, with after-work suits, girls pre-loading for town, and an intriguing mix of middle-aged suburbanites. The 100 year old building that the bar is housed in has a lovely feel to it; spread across 3 floors with plenty of private function rooms and outdoor areas, this venue can hold a crowd. As a Monteith's bar, your tap selection also includes their range of ciders which makes for a refreshing summer tipple. We were planning to just grab a drink or two, but looked over the menu & decided to stay. 1 of the 2 man-sized appetites I was dining with had a hankering for a burger, and the Horse & Trap Burger was calling his name. Served with pepper relish, battered onion rings & fries for $20, this was a man-sized burger. It even had the Kiwi touch with large slices of beetroot adorning the filling. The pattie appeared to be homemade, which is a big thumbs up for a busy pub kitchen. The chips were well cooked & seasoned, onion rings crispy & the relish was tasty. The only minor complaint was that the burger had been zealously seasoned - a touch too much cumin & coriander overpowered the other flavours. Otherwise the burger craving was well sated, and the request for extra aioli was happily met. Our other dishes included the Pulled Pork Quesadilla with black beans, cheese, guacamole & salsa ($18). Again this was heartily-sized for a quesadilla. The filling was tasty, but the guacamole was more like pureed avocado as you can see from the photo. It was a little too smooth & runny to qualify as guacamole. The last dish of the 3 was the Open Steak Sandwich with caramelised onion, gravy & fries ($19). Often times you'll get served a rubbery minute steak or flaccid schnitzel in a steak sandwich, so I was pleasantly surprised to have a decent cut of steak, cooked medium-rare. The gravy & onions complemented it very well; all-in-all, pretty damn good pub grub. It's not the cheapest night out at the pub, but the food shouldn't disappoint. Maybe that's why the mostly middle-aged clientele are proud to call this their local.