Overall disapointing… a very nice location by the waterfront, nice for a beer on a sunny afternoon but pretty chilly sitting there on a cooler atumn night as most of the seating is outdoor behind flimsy plastic screens.

I was very disapointed with my eye fillet steak, I ordered a 150gm steak, when it arrived it was very small, another diner at my table also ordered the same steak which was very noticeably larger. I cook a lot of steak at home and im sure the “150gm” steak I was served was more like 80gm. Felt ripped off and not smart to serve the same steak to two people on the same table vastly different in size.
I also ordered cheesy mash which was not nice at all, the cheese on top was just melted pale and rubbery, it should have been grilled on top to a nice golden brown. I think poor organisation in the kitchen was to blame, as it was the mash came out about 5min after the steak, if they had taken time to grill it propely it would have been even later.

Things got even worse at desert time. Still feeling hungry after my small steak we all ordered desert. After about 45min no desert and no waiter to come see us, we had to go inside and ask what was going on. We had been forgotten and were given a long boring explanation of the computer system going wrong…etc etc and they had run out of what we had ordered anyway. We were offered free desert to make up for it so we did have a couple and they were nice.

So not good service or food, quite expensive too and you hve to pay for parking outside up untill 10pm, so will not be returning to Marvel Grill.

Tasty meal, we had 3 courses and it was all fantastic. The service was excellent and the setting was great. Would definitely go back!

Was a little disappointed with my meal, steak was left to rest too long, med rare is fine but not served lukewarm.

We have just had a lovely meal with great service, our table of three decided to try a few of the tapa style dishes on offer and wow they were great with a wonderful array of different taste sensations, hubby had the “Marvel Grill” and must say everything was cooked to perfection from the lamb through to the steak and despite the fact we had most definitely not saved any room, we still went for dessert, the Brulee` is one of the best I have eaten, the wine list is extensive and the beer served cold and with a smile even the coffee was good. Will be going back.

We went here last night for a work dinner. The decor is very nice and the outlook onto the water in the sunny evening was lovely. The staff were great, well presented and very attentive. They could answer our questions about the menu and wines and help us choose our meals. The de-constructed menu (choose your meat, choose your sauces, choose your sides) was a fun novelty and allowed the table to order a range of sides to taste everything. I had the JohnDory main but the fish was dry and disappointing. The sides on the other hand were all amazing, the cheesy mash and onion rings being particularly amazing. Early in the evening I went to the bathroom and was appalled at the state of them, there were used paper towels all over the floor, one toilet had the remnants of sick all down the bowl, and the sink was full of hair and looked dirty. Later in the evening I went back and they were clean but I really never should have seen them in such a state.

Overall we had a great night with good food and will return. If they can get a couple of small things worked out then this would be a fantastic restaurant.

We had booked a table for 6 and were seated in the heated outside area. The only good thing I can say about this experience is that we had a waiter who seemed conscious of the short-comings of the place and was trying hard to make amends. 2 of us ordered the chicken liver pate as an entree and both left it as it was chalky, bland and seemingly store-bought. I asked the waiter how it was prepared and eventually a surly chef came to our table to list the “ingredients”. This was followed by the sirloin which I ordered rare. It came to the table indeed rare but also stone cold. When I told the waiter he apologised, took it back to the grill and returned with it piping hot and grey in the middle – clearly after the chef had microwaved it for a few minutes. Eventually, on the 3rd time of asking, I was brought a rare, hot steak and it was delicious – a pity as by then I was the only one eating! The accompanying chips were clearly modelled on the American variety, but far from light and crisp, these managed to be both brittle and soggy. Overall, this was an over-priced, themed experience that disappointed in so many ways. I just feel sorry for the young English waiter we had who had his work cut out glossing over what is a very flawed model.

Ambiance, great food, great service. What more can you want. Finally a restaurant that has the casual flair of LA, the ambiance of the great restaurants on the Wharf in San Francisco. The best part of the Marvel Grill North Shore and North Wharf is the food and the wine list. The best steaks in town and a selection of skillets, sauces and sides that means you can put together a banquet of great dishes to share with friends. The wine list is extensive and provides the opportunity to sample new and interesting wines that are reasonably priced as well. We go back again and again because it is good fun, time after time and it has easily become our favorite spot for either a special night out or just a quick dinner and glass of wine. Finally, that restaurant you will go back to again and again.

Walking by we decided to drop in for a beer. The Peroni on tap was very nice so we decided to stay for a light meal. Steak sandwiches and cheeseburgers were ordered. Both meals were declared very nice with lovely cheesy influences in both meals. I would say pretty pricey at $24 each so this was a slight black mark. We would go again.

Following several great dining experiences at Marvel TAKAPUNA, I booked our company Christmas dinner at Marvel North Wharf for 17 people. The service was very average, one persons meal was completely forgotten. The small skillets we ordered were tasty enough but the quality of the main meals was very average. We were not offered desert and our request for the desert menu seemed like a great inconvenience to our waiter. Yes it was late but it was not our fault that we had waited so long for our earlier courses. Finally the bill was a mess, food from other tables had been put on our account. Granted the items had been reversed off but it made for a complicated account to try and check at the end of the night.

Disappointing for a team who has been treated to some great Auckland dining experiences in the past.

Don’t waste your money. Went there last night a party of 6 and they couldn’t cook one steak right. All steaks arrived at the table well done, even though rare and med rare had been requested.
I choose the steak sandwich without coleslaw and instead of the coleslaw I had requested a side the wedge of iceberg lettuce with shards of bacon.
The ‘sandwich’ was a burger bun, steak was well done I had asked for rare, it was so chewy.,no flavour. There was no spinach as per description of the dish instead it was on a couple of lettuce leaves. It arrived with coleslaw even though I had asked for it not to be. I then had to ask for my side which was a chunk of lettuce (as per my expectations ) however it had one rasher of bacon draped over the lettuce and not chopped and or torn as one would expect shards of bacon to be and 2 walnuts. The presentation of all meals were ‘thrown together ‘ no style whatsoever.
We paid the bill and left, and went to another restaurant for dessert and coffee didn’t want to waste any more money,
This is real shame as the setting and position of the restaurant is great ,we had a table by the water which that and the bottle of wine we selected were the only good things about this place.

Dreadful.

Apart from the setting and views which are nice the decor is very same same and out of a box and rather bland. What started as an expectation for a lovely long leisurely public holiday lunch soon turned rather sour. The staff in this place seem to think that it is run entirely for their pleasure. It took a full 50 minutes from arrival to actually get a drink in our hands and this from a booking of 16+ people and after we had stood at the bar for 5 minutes (twice) being ignored by the bar girl who was chatting up the kitchen staff. Obviously they are so awash with cash that they don’t really need the bar takings. I actually saw a waiter (who was in the middle of serving our table or guests) turn around and chat to a friend who had walked in. He then wandered off never to be seen again, never mind that we were once again thirsty and after a another small drink. They’re obviously not paid on commission these staff. The food. Well the entrees are, contrary to everything else thus far actually very good. There is where it stopped though. The Steak sandwich was so awash with blue cheese, not cooked to order and appalling that it was not worth finishing, it resembled nothing from the description on the menu. Our other dish was so soaked in butter that we could have resold part of it back to Fonterra and got a hefty return on the milk fat content!

All in all I say that you are not buying good food, you’re certainly not getting any service, and the purported sensory experience one would get more from licking the inside of a shoe box. Avoid until they acquire staff that understand the meaning of the word service and until they can produce a chef who knows a thing or two about food combinations not just something he’s read about in an in-flight magazine somewhere.

Alas, not the experience we were after at all, such a pity.

We dined at Marvel on a Friday night as we were entering the restaurant to check out the menu a couple were exiting and overheard us saying lets just see what it has to offer and they stopped us in our tracks and told us we just had to dine there (she clearly had had a few beverages) but we decided to take her word for it and we were glad we did
we were seated at a table which looked out over the harbour under a heater on a stormy windy rainy Friday night in Auckland it was nice and comfortable. We started the night with a bottle of savvy and a few tapas to begin the zucchini fritters were tasty as were the southern chicken wings with a tangy sauce. For our mains my friend and I both had the fish which was pleasant & our other friend had the lamb – i guess I am comparing my meal I had at the Grove recently too the dish I had at Marvel and it was great but hard to beat the Grove’s fish dish. Our waiter was lovely and very informative and also eager to please which is always great as in some restaurants in Auckland they can be few and far between. I would recommend checking it out especially if you have a large group as its a very spacious restaurant and you don’t feel as though you are being crammed in close to tables around you.
Food came out promptly also my only thing would be it is quite pricey and I wonder if this is as its in a prime tourist spot..

Delicious food, huge wine list and attentive staff. Great place to have a leisurely lunch (rain or shine). Easy to find parking and a stroll along the Wynard Quarter is a bonus to work off that desert. Highly recommended.

A sophisticated menu does not make a sophisticated restaurant – the service was TERRIBLE. Our waiter was unfamiliar with the menu and behaved like he had never worked a day in hospitality. Staff were hesitant and unconfident to even take an empty glass? And when they eventually did, I wasn’t even asked if I would like another… To be honest, it really was quite shocking. The staff here need to be trained.
The food was incredibly average too which, due to the location, is quite a shame. My main meal was average and then I waited too long for the dessert (which was below average)
Overall, I was left disappointed. I would get friendlier service, a better evening and tastier food from The Hangar in west Auckland – and that’s saying something!

Ribeye fillet huge, iceberg blue cheese salad, wine, friends, relaxed afternoon, great location, attentive french waiter. Not expensive. Third visit getting better each time. location is magic. i will be back.

I went to this restaurant for a celebration dinner with my partner and had a fantastic time! The service was fantastic. Our waiter was attentive and looked after us well and the food was fabulous! Definately a place to go back to!

went to lunch here on the 2nd December 2011. Arrived just on 12 with only a few tables seated. Waited for too long at the reception to get anyone to notice that we would like at table. Once seated we were service quickly with drinks and our order taken but after that we were on or own. When mains finally arrived they were cold. The john dory was a cool and one vine tomato and sad salad greens does not make much of a lunch. and our sides did not arrive at the same time and had to be chased. But once chips arrived they were a disappointment, strangely coloured at soft. A disappointing experience and prefer Soul Bar for the same price. There was alot of staff but the service is terrible. Maybe someone needs to train the staff.

January 2012, another excellent meal, still up to standard in every way. Danish clients were very impressed with food and service.


My review of Marvel Grill is completely opposite to the previous comment below. This is the 3rd time we have been there since it opened this year. Last night we were a party of 7 and it was our turn to choose the restaurant. Our guests were so impressed with everything that night……. the french waiter, the mat re De’, food and the atmosphere. Even though it was a chilly night they were more than happy to relocate us to another part of the restaurant. All our mains were cooked to perfection (steak) and the extra sides were very nice. Some say prices are little high but that is what you pay in the viaduct, everybody knows that. Being a resident in the Viaduct we are well aware of the standard of the restaurants down there. Marvel Grill definitely gets the thumbs up from us again.

Arrived to join some friends running a little late (I thought). Didn’t realise that the service was so low here I had ample time!
My drink order didn’t show up until I had asked three times and given up on it.
The food, once it arrived, was fine but overall a very disappointing experience. Too many other choices around so don’t bother with this one.
Hopefully after it’s inevitable closure it gets replaced with a place which appreciates its customers.

Eight of us went here for lunch on the Saturday of the RWC final weekend. Probably the busy weekend was a test for any restaurant. The choice of clothing by the tall maitre d was a bit much…her Mum should have told her that short dresses, large girls and restaurant table cleaning duties don’t go together. Our young French waiter was good but seemed to lack support from any other staff. Service was pretty slow and some dishes came out in the wrong order or were unavailable or cold. Not a bad wine list but overall a bit pricey. Will be interesting to see if it survives after the RWC.

They take care of details and hosting.
I have the impression that the restaurant is managed by the owners.
The meat was AAA quality and the service was very good even thou the restaurant was full.
I enjoyed very much my visit to this lovely city for the beginning of the WRC, and certainly, our culinary experience was good in every restaurant during our 4 days stay, but in Marvel Grill it was outstanding!
Ah, last but no least, the wine selection is outstanding.

Having dined at the North Shore restaurant previously, and thoroughly enjoyed it we were excited to learn that Marvel Grill had opened up this side of the bridge. We had booked a table for dinner, and had confirmed our booking ourselves 2 days before the date.
When we arrived, our booking wasn’t written down anywhere, and they didn’t have a table ready for us, so we waited for around 30 mins for a table. There were copious amounts of staff, but not many of them seemed to be doing anything other than congregating at the bar.
The saving grace was the food. We recognized a couple of the chefs from the North Shore restaurant so this is a credit to them. The entrees were lovely. The fish and steaks were perfectly cooked, but we had to wait a long time for our sides (I suspect the waiter had forgotten them). We weren’t offered more drinks after our first round, and our empty glasses sat on the table until one of our party asked for them to be removed and more drinks ordered. At this point, we were informed that our table ‘wasn’t in their section and that they would ask our waiter to come sort us out’. This never happened. We also had to ask several times for water for the table.
We felt very sorry for the family at the table next to us who were similarly ignored and sat with their finished meals in front of them for over 15 mins.
After our meals were finally cleared, we were not offered dessert or coffee. So we decided to go elsewhere. Our bill was a mess. No point in complaining, we just paid and left.
I hope that the North Wharf team can lift their game before the RWC descends on them. We will certainly dine at the North Shore establishment again, but will be giving the city a very wide berth indeed.

After hearing some varied reviews on this restaurant, a friend and I decided to give it a go on Tuesday for dinner. We made a reservation over the phone and when we arrived, we were promptly escorted to our table and offered drinks. The wine list was extraordinary with double the choice of food no so complaints there!

The food was divine! I had the snapper with braised beans and snow peas and my friend had salmon with the wilted spinach. Both were cooked to perfection and were absolutely melt-in-your-mouth delicious.

When we decided to order dessert, we were informed that most of them were unavailable and offered alternatives. We had warm brownie and Kapiti ice cream and the tarte tartin. Both were good but we were a little disappointed not to be able to order the lava chocolate pudding or New York Cheesecake.

We had a lovely waiter who stuck with us the entire evening but he seemed to be serving most of the restaurant. There were definitely enough staff on the floor, but most seemed to be reasonably new and not able to move fast enough or even have a process down properly. Unfortunately that meant our waiter spent the entire time apologizing for delays. Also interestingly enough, all the wait staff are attractive males, which is not necessarily a bad thing!

Our only issue with paying the bill is that we had an entree added but this was quickly removed and we were sent on our way.

In conclusion, I would not hesitate to go back for the wine and food, but the service and kitchen preparation needs some work. To have desserts sold out on a Tuesday night is very strange indeed. We will be back again, probably mid-week and in a few weeks time when things have (hopefully) settled down.

Totally agree with previous review. NZ chips surely can’t be too hard to make. They were clearly made hours before and reheated. Horrid! I was there last night and introduced to the owner who was non-plussed at my suggestions. We originally got turned away as we had no booking. The place never filled. We perched at the bar and fortunately struck the bar manager ‘Carlos’ who couldn’t have been more helpful. The star I have given is for him. Won’t be back unfortunately.

Keen to try out the eatery’s in the new Wynyard precinct, we chose to dine at Marvel last Wednesday 28 August. This was without doubt our worst dining experience for several years! Apparently staff were still being trained, we were advised this accounted for the delay and confusion in seating us. A dozen + people must have walked away from the door with no attention being paid to them at all. Our meal, when it eventually arrived wasn’t too bad, my husband enjoyed his grill, the portabello mushrooms very overdone, and my hapuka could have been better. Our bill belonged to another table, they couldn’t find ours, I had to tell them what we had and it still was rung up incorrectly! The maitre de assured me that “we are under control” – I am sorry darling, neither you, your owner/manager or your front of house staff were under control! Oh, and the bar waitress who wiped her nose on the back of her hand, then on the back of her pants, then proceeded to pick up a glass to wipe it down – what! The tired fish display in the ice cabinet was the sorriest example of chilled fish, not exactly sure why I ordered the hapaku on reflection. Guys, your location is tops, you have a few days to get it sorted before the RWC. We will return, we trust it will not be a foolish decision. Cath & Brian

A friend and I had lunch here yesterday, and will not be revisiting. We had the steak sandwich and the cheese burger. The sandwich was unremarkable and had nothing to raise it beyond bland. The burger was the most expensive (at $24) and yet the poorest excuse for a burger that I have encountered. It was dry mouth glug with the smallest thought of cheese and no redeeming features. The fries were mangy, dry and tasteless and the coleslaw was pointless. My candystripe local takeaways does a far superior burger for under $5, with amazing fries – afterall how hard is it to put out nice fries? Although a pleasant spot I felt it was a poor deal, and felt embarrassed for the RWC tourists who will be dealt the same.