We went to Libertine for drinks and nibbles on a Wednesday night. Couldn’t be more impressed with the ambiance. Dim lighting, nice and open, good sized tables. I ordered the Libertine cocktail- a must have. The bartender, Mike, was friendly and gave us great service!

I was excited to see tacos on the menu so we ordered the chicken and the pork to sample them both. Sadly, they were not very good. The tortillas were COVERED in flour and made all of the tacos taste like it. With the juice from the meat and all the flour, it ended up tasting like a weird flour paste. Not good. We also had the chips and salsa (not bad) and the croquettes. The croquettes were not what we expected, but a hefty portion (for a sharing plate) and good value for your money.

I’ll definitely be taking friends there to grab a drink but probably will skip the food.

Went on a Sunday night at 9pm: impressed they still had kitchen staff there! We ordered the paella and the rotisserie chicken mains. The paella was an extremely generous portion with lots of seafood. The chicken was exquisitely cooked and combination of flavours was lovely. Service was understated but efficient. Great lighting. Would go again.

I went there in the first couple weeks of opening and I thought it was really good. The service was excellent and food was good enough to meet expectations. I went again last week just for drinks and found one of the bartenders really rude but another to be incredibly friendly. I would still recommend it as a nice funky place to go.

Could not speak more highly of the outstanding service we received at Libertine on Sat 16th March. My partner and I had our engagement party at Libertine with 55 guests, the venue had a great vibe, it was busy, but we were made to feel like V.I.P.’s . The food was fab, staff were very friendly and helpful,our guests loved the venue and we will definitely be back. So thank you to the bar staff for a great night and excellent communication with the GM for helping organise a fantastic night

This place looks fancy, beautiful setting and really lovely place. This is a great place for drinks. However, the service was ok. The food was over priced as well. We ordered the eye fillet which ended up being a small hunk of meat on the plate – with nothing else. Highly disappointed and won’t be going back for food. Drinks maybe – but not food. Service needs to pick up as well.

Having had good reports we decided to check Libertine out for ourselves. We were some of the only ones there, mind you it was a Monday. We found ourselves a nice sunny spot on the big deck and thoroughly enjoyed a range of the share plates and entrees – stand outs were the scallops, coleslaw, soft tacos – all chased down by a nice couple of bottles of Rose. We thoroughly enjoyed it for a casual shared dinner in the sun.

We were on a mission to find a bar with a nice sunny deck to enjoy a Saturday arvo drink and ended up at Libertine – mission accomplished! Gorgeous interior and really nice outdoor area – perfect for enjoying a drink in the sun and snacking on some sweet potato fries, which were delish! Unfortunately as per many of the other reviews, I wouldn’t bother eating a proper meal there – my calamari was overcooked, the crab too heavily battered and oily.

My first visit to Libertine was back in July for a drink with friends one rainy Monday evening. Our experience that night was great and after taking a look at the menu I was intrigued to return to eat.

I returned on the long weekend for a relaxed dinner with friends. My experience this time was not as impressive. It’s the small things really….I noticed Libertine seemed to have lost a bit of its shine – the gorgeous tree in the bar area was looking quite sad and is looking like it’s on its way out, the staff were very casually and sloppily dressed and the menus were well beyond their use by date with greasy marks and tatters on each of our menus. The bathrooms are very small and the soap on the handle idea is quite repulsive especially when the hand drier didn’t work that well. I am not a germaphobe but that was gross.

We ordered a couple of shared plates to start – all very yummy, Mains (steak, pork belly and chicken risotto) were also tasty. My dessert (beignets) came out raw in the centre so after trying for a few minutes to get someone’s attention, I managed to flag down a staff member who promptly took it away and a new dessert was prepared for me.

Will I return……hmmm …not sure…..will I recommend to others – probably not.

I went to Libertine for some drinks after work with some work collegues. We got a couple of rounds then decided to stay for something to eat, we put our name down on the list and had to wait for 35 minutes but we had a place at the bar so was that was OK.

We had a selection from the shared plates menu (Meatballs, Quesdailla and Mixed peppers) to start, which were all great, I particularly enjoyed the meatballs. I had a steak (aged rib eye with chimichurri) for a main which was cooked perfectly.

The fit out is very impressive and the staff were attentive. There was a reasonable wait between courses (it was very busy, all tables full) but we didn’t mind that much due to the waitress delivering beers regularly.

Libertine was a nice surprise in Victoria Park (haven’t been there for a while) and I’ll be back.

We had heard good things about Libertine, and on first impressions we weren’t disappointed. The decor is beautiful, easily one of the hippest new bars in Auckland. We liked the look, but it’s more style than substance. My pale ale was very refreshing, but my partner’s Waipara pinot noir was dull. We ordered three tapas, but while we waited I noticed my clean plate wasn’t so clean. It had something brown and crusty on it, so I immediately asked for a new plate. Our tapas were a letdown too, the spicy potato fries were a little too salty, the jerk chicken was so salty we had to complain to the waitress, and the prawn, which was easily the best dish, thankfully was fresh and tasty.
Libertine seems like a great spot for a few drinks on a Saturday night, but we certainly won’t be dining there again.

Yes Libertine looks great, but if they want to survive in Auckland they will need to do something about their food and service. The waiting staff (despite being reasonably pleasant) were badly presented, and were unprofessional in their approach to service. All I can say about our meals of Chicken & Risotto and the Suckling Pig is “RSA”. Honestly – both meals were as exciting as the Sunday night roast at the local Rassa. Which at the Rassa is ok, but not at a restaurant that wants to charge me $30 for a main. The sauces tasted like packet gravy, the risotto was watery, the artichokes were straight out of a bottle, the pig was cold, even the chips were bad (if that is possible!) they were doused with so much salt and seasoning they were inedible. Sorry guys but you need to get your act together and dish up something fresh and exciting to match the beautiful surrounds.

I’d had a terrible day at work and my partner took me here to cheer things up….. we’d walked past it and it looked fab and it’s just down the road so why not? My terrible day got worse.

The decor is great, funky and modern. The service was brilliant. But that’s all.

Starters were overpriced and not very tasty. For main I ordered a rare steak with no sauce. Now at $34 I was expecting something pretty good. But no. It came out cold. Plus it had been cut in half. I sent it back and got sent out a medium steak with sauce again cut in half. What sort of chef cuts open the steak and sends it out? All the juices are lost and it begins to dry out!! You’d have thought that if they DID cut it open then they’d see that they’d overdone it…. but no!

My partner had the rotisserie option (goat shoulder). It was also cold though he ate it as he doesn’t like to send stuff back….

It really looks like they are inexperienced kitchen staff who have no idea how to cook! Most non-professional cooks can do a steak properly in their own kitchen.

The only redeeming factor was the service – very good. The whole place is overpriced which makes it seem like the inflated prices are paying for location and decor rather than food. I would not go back and I would not recommend it to anyone I liked. Disappointing.

Had my 40th birthday dinner last night, Saturday, with 25 people. Started with drinks in bar at 7pm moved to seated dining area around side of kitchen (more private and slightly quieter).
Great atmosphere, attentive staff and our hostess was freekin excellent!
We had a mixture of shared platters and mains – crab, chicken and calamari were awesome, meatballs were nice, prawn tasteless and soggy. Feedback from mains were very good, steaks, pork belly, rolled beef and fish. Food started coming out within 20mins to everyone.
I definitely recommend the venue for atmosphere, drinks and dining, but must say the friendly, energetic and efficient hostess took it from a good evening to a great evening!
Thanks
Nev

Libertine is exactly what a restaurant should look like. Cool decor, exposed ceiling/brick wall open plan, dark candlelit ambiance. We had great service (it was Monday and was almost empty so I would assume any review stating otherwise went on a weekend) and the wine list was great. The menu LOOKED great. I ordered the roast duck and my partner, the pork belly. You would think both would come searing hot with crispy skin. But both came lukewarm and soggy. The pork belly was chewy and overcooked. The duck was okay but not worth $32. The food is not good value for money – and it’s not very good, full stop.

Last night we went to Libertine with dinner plans and left disappointed after a night of poor service, mediocre food and preferential treatment of other customers because they were joined by an Auckland “celebrity” chef.

We waited for a table for over an hour which didn’t bother us at all as we didn’t prebook on a Saturday night. However a few drinks later we were obviously quite hungry. We ordered several tapas style dishes between the 7 of us, all of which would’ve been fairly quick to prepare.
Oh how we were wrong.
Over the next hour that we had to wait for our food, we watched our table neighbours arrive 20min after us and they got their oysters and entrees served 15min after they arrived. We were still waiting and although the waitress approached us several times so we could order more drinks, no food was seen on our table. She tried to be friendly but failed all night to refill our water glasses until we asked for it.
2 1/2hours after we arrived at Libertine we were starving and decided to complain to a different waiter who was busy with several other waiters prancing around the celebrity guest. Finally we quickly got our food after we mention we were well aware that the table besides us received preferential treatment. On top of that they also managed to forget a dish and we had to remind them. The food was very average, nothing I couldn’t whisked up in my kitchen at home.
We were offered a free round of drinks for our waiting time – after we already had spend the last 2 1/2 hours solely drinking, this was the last thing we wanted and they brought us drinks we didn’t even want.

We left rather unsatisfied, some of us still hungry. I still can’t shake the feeling that they left us waiting to spend more money on drinks. And although we understand the excitement and added pressure of having a celerity who is a chef dining there last night, I recommend not to disappointed 7 potentialMore returning customers. Will I be returning? Only to have a drink at their bar and enjoy the atmosphere, but certainly not for dinner.

We dined at Libertine on a Saturday evening and while we were prepared to wait the estimated one hour for a table, luck was on our side and we were shown to a table only 5 minutes after ordering a drink at the bar after a late cancellation.

Libertine has a good atmosphere, every table in the restaurant was full and the bar was at capacity, the dj ensured good music that doesn’t dominate and a good bar area that has great potential for summer with outdoor seating.

That is where the positives end.

Past the maitre d’, the staff were fairly rude, had no knowledge of the wine list and stumbled through the specials. First the rolled beef was on the menu, then it was off, and then it was back on.

We ordered tapas for a shared entree including jerk chicken (dry and tasteless), soft shell crab (deep fried and oozing oil), prime rib meatballs (overcooked), chipotle prawn summer rolls (no sign of chipotle flavouring) and calamari (the best of our selection not withstanding the overcooked chorizo). Not a great start.

It was only when I noticed a table next to us putting in two complaints about how long their mains were taking that I noticed we had been seated for over 2 hours ourselves. Another table picked up the theme and were complaining about the wait for their entrees.

Our mains ticked the boxes rather than being anything stand-out. Pork belly was good rather than great accompanied by a very basic apple and slaw salad. It was filling but there was no x-factor, no flair or imagination. We ordered two sides, including hand-cut fries and minted cucumber salad, the latter of which was very clumsily executed. Overall the sentiment was satisfied without being ‘wowed’.

Our waiter, true to form, delivered us our dessert menus, rolled his eyes when I told him 15 minutes later we hadn’t looked at them yet and lucky for us we had decided to pass on dessert as 10 minutes later, without a word Morethey were whipped out from in front of us.

Overall, once an extra glass of wine that had been added in error was removed from our bill, with tapas, two bottles of wine, four mains and two sides our bill came to $400. Would I recommend it to you? Not as a dining destination. At that price point you can do much better in Auckland.

Went into Libertine last week with my flatmates with the intention of a casual drink for the evening, the bartender was lovely – very attentive and made an awesome ‘My oh my ty’, anyways we ended up moving up to the seated restauarant section and stayed for dinner. The sharing plates were nice I particularly liked the Civiche and the prawn rolls. Our waitress was great and totally engaged with our preferences to figure out our mains, which were very tasty and we all really enjoyed them. We finished with the Chocolate Fondant which was gorgeous =)

All in all we had great night at a beautiful location that started as drinks but ended in dinner, Libertine totally delivered and we will be back for another flat outing!!

Libertine has a fabulous location, building, and fit out. Unfortunately the food is ordinary the service mediocre bordering on aggressive, and be careful you don’t get shoved in a far corner away from civilization. Our meals were served barely warm and lacking flavour. Disappointing as we were expecting good things.

I’ve been to Libertine a couple of times recently and just love it! The vic park area is really starting to have some good offerings and Libertine is the best in my oppinion. I love the fab old building which has been restored really well and each time we have been have tasted another plate of the delicious food- the calamari is particularly good. But it is the staff here that I think make the place, in such a big space it must be hard to keep everyone happy and leave customers feeling cared for but some how they do it. Long live Libertine, ill certainly be coming back for more!

I am already a fan of the other Pack bars and their funky concepts. Libertine’s décor did not disappoint, I liked the fact that it is giving an old building a new life. Oh and I love the tree! We easily grabbed a table and had a few plates to share; the soft shell crab is delicious!! The service was excellent and the staff that served us at the bar and at our table were polite, friendly and attentive.
We had a great experience and I am sure we will visit again soon.

I went to Libertine on Saturday afternoon to check it out. I had heard lots of good things but wanted to see for myself. Met up with some friends for an afternoon session and had a blast. The patio will certainly be my local this summer. Funky interior, decent service and great food, with a Latin/Caribbean twist. I’ll be back very soon, thats for sure!

Libertine is the newest operation developed by the innovative force Pack & Company. Pack are making Auckland a better place, one heritage building at a time. However they don’t stop at the fitout. Each new operation ‘tells a story’ from the floor finishes to the cutlery…to the food. The food, very good and delivered in a timely manner. Drinks were also enjoyed, served in quality stemware.

I was at first surprised the staff were not in uniform but then reminded myself this concept encompasses Libertinism. You know…free, unrestrained. I like it. In a way I think us Kiwi folk need to make efforts to ‘conform’ to this nonconformist tude…?

I believe the staff at Libertine are strongly on board with what Pack have created at 37 Drake St and are playing out their roles well. Perhaps an additional staff member on meet and greet might help us shy ones feel a little less on display upon arrival.

We went there the second night it opened. Thought the fit out was stunning. The character of the original building has been maintained and the gorgeous decor just enhances this. we only tried the tapas menu, but the food we did have was delicious. The Rotisserie menu looks very interesting …. We’ll be back!!