Always a tasty meal, a lively atmosphere and packed with people. The food is good and the staff are very friendly. Great for breakfast too!

Here almost every Monday for half price mussels. would give a 5/5…however the service is just too slow since the place is always packed on Mondays =(

Very nice atmosphere. Often coming here for a drink or just to relax with a friend’s company.
Chocolate mouse from desserts is really nice and wide range of fruit beers.
Nice and cool place to visit and come back!

Although have got an issue with bartender once, because have been charged for $2 extra. But he had excused and made a refund.

I am gutted that they stopped “happy hour” on Sat from 9-10pm. I usually enjoy having 2 or 3 beers during that time. Beer prices as they are at all the belgian establishments… Having happy hour on Sats would be awesome. Yes!!! They have introduced beer’o'clock on weekdays, but isn’t that a promotion of alcoholism. Drinking during the weekdays… $5 5pm.. $6 6pm… $7 7pm… … … …

I ponder…

At least Sat.. You get to relax.. Unwind.. And summer is coming along… As the sun sets.. You can hold on to that 250ml glass of belgian goodness ( my preference being hoegaarden) and watch the beauty of nature whilst enjoying the creation of man in the palm of your hand. Or hands ( if you bought more then 1 .. and are not a sharer… Not indeed )

The food is okkkk..

Been there for dinner twice.. Can can. Nothing to write home about.

Ordered the chicken dish 1 time. And the crepe dish another.

The chips are yum.. And the aioli…

The garlic bread has its good days and bad.. Always order the garlic bread when I’m there… Just a lil chaser with the beers..
Somedays it’s sublime, whilst others…….

So overall nice pub…

ps: Bring back Sat happy hour.. and add a new extension..

From now on.. De Fontein’s Sat Happy hour will go on for 2. That’s right… 2 whole hours.. So pop on down to your water hole by the beach between 8-10pm and have our fair maiden pour you a handle!

A 250ml handle, that is..

Nice place, friendly staff, great menu…but a bit pricey. Love their happy hour, but weird that it must be on ground level and one can’t go upstairs and enjoy that deal.

This is one of our consistent places to return to on a lazy cruisey afternoon.

This place is family friendly, and the service is also friendly.

The food is reliable, though not necessarily to the best standard.

I wish their kids’ menu contained more real cooked food. The only item the waitress recommended was the fish and chips – as they do their fish fresh. Nowadays toddler shares adult plate.

This location is quite splendid. A sit at the table, a walk on the beach, in the park, and return to the meal.

Verdict: a good place to spend some time.

We always enjoy meals here… especially the mussels.
The beer is devinely delicious, of course.

Today I chose something a bit different, as I wasn’t in the mood for mussels. The roast vege salad was good. I would have like it even more if the dish was hotter – the outer pieces of pumpkin were tasty, but felt just ‘warm’ to my mouth, rather than piping hot.

Aside from that, the service was really outstanding, frankly. The lovely staff member at the till was very concerned about the temperature of my meal (but I didn’t mention it until after I’d eaten the lot, as I was leaving – so my fault for that – she said they would’ve fixed it if I’d mentioned it to the waiter!)

As it was, our waiter was so helpful, joyful and lovely that I didn’t want to whinge or make a fuss. I did enjoy my meal regardless.

Anyhoo…. we sat in the sunny two-seaters overlooking Mission Bay, with the bi-fold doors edged open, just enough to feel like we were outside, although we were inside to keep warm on a crisp, breezy day.

Definitely going again. Excellent service, good food, delightful environment and marvellous beer as always. And I’ll know to go back to my favourite blue cheese mussels and beer next time.
PS: my partner really loved his terakihi battered fish & chips.

I haven’t been here this year, but my previous visits have been very enjoyable. I usually have a light lunch followed by a coffee. Good to pop in after a walk around Mission Bay environs http://walksinauckland…

I used to go to De Fontein for the glorious metre long sausage, which was a delicious meaty browny coloured thing. Now, its basically a long version of the hot dog things you get in a packet of 6 at the supermarket. You could argue that its a frankfurter and therefore European, but basically its a $27.50 hot dog.

Seriously slow service (and more than half of the order was incorrect) but can’t beat the views and the ambience on a sunny day from the top deck of De Fontein. They don’t allow reservations so its a matter of waiting for a table once you arrive. Great Belgian beer (when it’s not sold out!) but the food service is very slow slllloooooww! At least it gives you lots of time to enjoy the views and the beer..3 hours

After a great night here with delicious food and fantastic service, my partner and I decided to bring a few friends along to our next meal.

We arrived and the place was chokka – the floor manager said it would be about a half hour/40min wait so we were invited to spend time downstairs with a drink before a table was free.

One hour later and no one had come to see us and our later-arriving friend was ignored at the bar when she went to order a drink. We asked when our table might be free and were told five minutes. 15 minutes later and we had a table.

20 minutes after that, someone came to take our order (food and drinks). The restaurant by then was half full so we asked what the wait time on food would be. We were told a little longer than the usual wait time of 15mins but no more than half an hour.

Despite requesting it, no water was brought to the table although at least the beers turned up.

50 mins later and our food arrived. WHAT a disappointment. All dishes (meat loaf, steak, two pots of mussels, ribs and fries) were cold (not luke warm, cold).

The medium steak was rare.

The $32 800gm ribs (which we were told were massive and would be very filling) consisted of just 8 ribs – one of which had no meat on it.

It seemed like we had been waiting 50 mins for our food to cool down – not be cooked.

When asked how our meals were, we did mention the disappointment about lack of suitable service and long wait times (nearly 2.5hours from arrival until the food came) that were also much longer than we had been told they would be, and then the subsequent cold, unsatisfactory dishes. We got a rather nonpluss “sorry about that”.

Helpful, friendly staff, even though we weren’t spending much – only in for beers.

I was sitting on the open-air deck with a couple of colleagues for a business meeting, enjoying a beer and the views . . . but was getting sizzled in the sun. Popped in and asked if they had any sunblock – and staff were very friendly and instantly produced some sunscreen for me to use.

I loved the mussel pot I tried at the Ponsonby Belgian beercafe, so am keen to come again on a day when I have more time and enjoy some here too!

This is on our boycott list. The staff are rude and arrogant – enough to put you off for good. Luckily for us there’s The Ponsonby Belgian Beer Cafe!

If this is what the “Belgian Experience” is like, then they can keep it.

We came for lunch on Thursday 19 August.

We ordered the Lobster Bisque mussel pot, mixed platter grilled mussels, spicy pork ribs, the steak meal and a child’s fish and chips.

The grilled mussel platter was at best “bland” at worst bloody horrible, small bits of chewy, tasteless rubber.

The “spicy” pork ribs tasted of nothing – even with the addition of salt and pepper it was difficult to determine whether or not they had flavor. And believe me, this was ordered by my grand-daughter who loves ribs but doesn’t like things too spicy, so for her to complain that they tasted of nothing…..hmmmm say no more

The mussel pot was very disappointing – the mussels were once again tasteless and unappetizing with no mussel flavor coming thru at all.

For $140 I certainly expected a hell of a lot more than we got. I have had better food at Valentines (now that must be telling you something)

We have had several visits to your cafe bar and have found the staff exceptional with the service outstanding. The food is amazing so a BIG UPS to your chef and kitchen crew. We highly recommend this to our family and friends also we often recommend this restaurant bar to our local and international guests who visit with us. Well done team

Went here with some friends on a wintery thursday night, It was really nice. The service was friendly and prompt. We mussels are a must. The live music was really good too. Nice beer, good food and frienly service..what more do you need?

Very good experience. Four of us had the metre long sausage, which was delicious, try and beat finishing it in 7minutes. Our waiter was extremely helpful and the whole night was a complete success, would definitely go back.

One of the Better Belgain bars in Auckland. Staff are mostly friendly. Food is generally good. The mussel pot is definately the way to go as it is great value for money, some of the other meals are smallish in size. Service can be slow at times, but can be understood because it is quite a busy place.