After a long time to decide to go to the classics Auckland best Restaurants my boyfriend took me to Soul Bar for lunch and to celebrate my pre-bday! We sat at the terrace and looked to the menu we decide to start with the super famous salt pepper squid… then I choose a Seared free range chicken, triple mustard and medjool dates and my boyfrind a John Dory, pan-fried, with cauliflower purée and blood orange grenobloise. The service wasn’t the best they were inattentive since we arrive and after found a hair embedded in the fish dish we told the waiter to check it and she just said ‘sorry about that’ without do anything. At the end we were a little disappointed and just left the place. Is a nice place to go definitely but is not the best for sure, Ive expected a serious and professional service rather than just the sorry and whatever. Hope they put an eye in the new customers as well.

I am on a no carbs diet and was totally shocked that Soul Bar had NOTHING suitable on the menu that involved a salad with protein. The best bet was a Caesars salad (with a decadent dressing). When I asked if a small quantity of chicken could be added to it to meet my protein needs, the price shot up from $16 to$29! I did once consider this restaurant as one of my favourites. Not any more!

Just went to Soul yesterday for lunch, and was disappointed with the experience. The service was average … don’t think it was the waitresses fault, just don’t think they had enough staff on. My main was one of the pasta dishes and the butter was so overpowering that the crab and prawn were lost. Another person at our table had the same dish, and couldn’t finish it because it was just so rich and overwhelming. We were also keen to have dessert, but by the time the waitress came back around, we were totally over it. Location is big selling point however! Great to be in the atmosphere of the Viaduct.

With no booking late on a Thursday evening, the staff found a lovely table for us in a busy restaurant. While the music was really loud (with no one in the bar area), it was a Thursday we kind of expected it.

The meal was lovely! Pricey but lovely – 1 entree, 2 mains, 1 dessert and a bottle of wine was over $200.

The only disappointment was the wine list. It would have been great to see more local wines, not just Villa Maria and possibly an organic choice.

Difficult to rate as I have dined here many times with mixed results. Some meals have been fabulous but a set dinner for eighteen was a disaster when 18 racks of lamb arrived, not rare, but bloody and almost raw. We had a beautiful seafood platter to start but by the time the lamb arrived it was just past 9.30. As it was an Event dinner we did not have the time to send them all back and wait another 45 mins plus our guests would have been very embarrassed. All the plates went back with most of the lamb untouched. The kitchen couldn’t have failed to notice this, but nothing was said. On paying the bill that ran into the thousands we complained but received only an off hand apology. A previous dinner I organised for over 40 was superbly prepared with impeccable service. Very inconsistent which does not make it the first choice when you’re spending a lot of money or entertaining guests.

Perennial favorite….not cheap (so bah humbug to the reviewers complaining about the price, if you want cheap and cheerful, go elsewhere) but worth it…. service is top notch.

Preference is to sit outside, can be hard to get a table but if you can, people watching is a plus.

Rude, expensive, noisy and cold.. Just about sums this place up…
$59 for an entree when taken as a main when it is still entree size is just madness, the lamb shanks are bland and tasteless.. You get better service at MacDonalds where at least they are not trying to push you out the door.

Not an enjoyable lunch had here..

Good food but a bit pricey considering the serving size. I had the duck and my friend had the chicken which were both very good. Very good cocktails, would recommend the strawberry and basil. Over all good experience except for the service, I felt like they didn’t attend to us as much as we are young and once we started spending lots they then showed more attention

We were a little disappointed with our visit to Soul. The food was well prepared and the service acceptable, but when a restaurant is given 4.5 stars by Cuisine we expect some flair and innovation in the food and it just wasn’t there. We gave it 3 stars (which in my book says we would go back but not in a hurry).

We dined on a Friday night and the after work drinks crowd in the bar were somewhat noisy but it didn’t affect the restaurant too much. Two entree, two mains and a bottle of wine cost us $187.

Ok 3 stars might seem a bit harsh because the place is potentially far better than that. On the day I went for lunch the service was good but the food was average. Its nice to have good service, a bloody rarity in this village actually, but the food needs to be a bit better.

I look forward to going back and having a better experience.

If you are looking for high quality weekend brunch watching the boats, this is the place to go. We both ordered off the weekend menu and I had the soup and my partner had the Crayfish ravioli. Both were fantastic.

What was surprising is that the prices are no more expensive than a standard cafe. But view and wine selection by the glass is much better.

Great service.

Have eaten here several times, usually I take clients here who are from out out town. Always delivers excellent food. Great and attentive staff a well.

Not child friendly, but there are other places around the viaduct for that.

Five out of five.

If you are looking for somewhere that has fantastic food and great service but not in a formal setting, then Soul is the place to go.

It being our first time to Soul, we both immediately felt like regulars when greeted with a welcome smile by the charming host on the door. We didn’t have a booking (which seems advisable for such a popular restaurant) but he was more than accommodating to try and fit us in, so it only required having a quick cocktail in the bar and before we knew it we were sitting amongst the stunning hanging baskets on the deck overlooking the harbour.

Our waitress Vicky was a treat. Professional and fun to chat to throughout the night. Always attentive and made some great recommendations. My wife had the hapuku whilst i opted for the crispy pork belly. Both dishes were cooked to perfection and went down nicely with a bottle of Craggy Range Chardonnay. As the night was going down a treat we decided to indulge with the hot chocolate pudding for dessert. Devine!

I cannot fault Soul in any way. It was lively, fun and the service was outstanding. We will definitely be going back!

This would have been nice had we not been seated next to a laughing hyena. However, service was excellent and the food was mostly great. Their baba ghanoush was not very egglplanty but the snapper goujons and spinach pie were excellent.

Soul is brilliant, great harbour-side location and fresh, imaginative food. I came here as part of a large group (15) and our meals all came out at the same time with nice ‘rests’ between each course. The seafood is particularly well done. We had a lovely Irish waiter and the staff overall were welcoming and friendly. I’ll be going back for certain.

After reading all the good reviews and hearing about all their awards, I thought Soul would be a great place to treat Mum for Mother’s Day. We were seated on the terrace/outdoor area which was quite cramped and crowded. Being Mother’s Day, we had expected this and so weren’t too put off by it, however we were surprised to see that apart from the terrace, the rest of the restaurant was quite empty.

The Maitre d’ who seated us was unsmiling and a bit cold, and asked us if we would like still, sparkling or tap water. We asked for tap, but this took over 20 minutes to arrive. This proved typical throughout the day, with service being very slow throughout the meal. This was quite surprising since, as I mentioned earlier, the restaurant was not actually that full.

The meals were insubstantial with underwhelming flavours. My ravioli was mainly pasta with very little filling. Furthermore, the filling was cold while the pasta was hot. Definitely not worth what we paid for them. The only redeeming feature was the dessert, which was brilliant.

For a more detailed review, please see Man Eating Pasta on http://maneatingpasta….

We came here for dinner one night for a special occasion. I must admit, i definitely chose the right place. We reserved in advance as it seemed like a very popular place. It was easy enough to get a table, and even easier to change our reservation time as I was running a bit late. Awesome maitre’d!

The ambience of the venue is unique. Bussiness people, couples and families give the restaurant its vibrance, which we really liked. Our waiter was initially slightly unprofessional but service picked up really fast.

We had the Cloudy Bay oysters, which went down really well with our wine (The Ned Pinot Gris) as an entree. Mains came almost immediately afterwards. I had the “Over the moon” goats curd gnocchi, and my partner had the snapper. The gnocchi was slightly small, but well presented and tasted good. The snapper was amazing, from what I was told. What impressed us the most was the spontaneity of service in such a crowded place. It definitely made the night more enjoyable. Our table was cleared immediatley after our mains and the dessert menus came quick. We settled on the cheese cake which was rich and tasty as well as the platter of sorbets which we found very amusing. It was presented in a palette looking dish with 8 flavours which we played “guess the flavour”. At least 6 of those 8 flavours were really nice. We finished with coffees and left very happy and satisfied.

I feel the price was appropriate for the food, location and service, and it was all very worth wile. Definitely reccomend it to anyone.

I had an outstanding lunch in the sunshine at Soul Bar, with a relaxing environment, great food & extremely excellent wait-staff.
Uber-attentive waiters/waitress topped up my water-glass whenever it got low, I was greeted warmly, and had my napkin laid out on my lap for me.
I was greeted by a very knowledgeable and friendly young woman who recommended the perfectly cooked, succulent squid entree – because I had limited time. It arrived freshly cooked, literally within 3 minutes of me ordering – accompanied by the crisp rocket & parmesan side-salad I ordered.
Georgeous setting – view of boats & harbour bridge. Sunshine washing in over all the corporate lunch diners, on the open-sided deck – which is sheltered outside under a glass awning/ceiling.
With Fat Freddy’s Drop playing in the background . . . the perfect lunch experience.

When the 8 of us arrived at soul we had a pleasant welcome by the doorman.Inside not as friendly, the bar was full and the music was loud(not a place for a romantic meal for 2!!) The waitress was lovely,she kept our wine and water topped up all night.Our seafood mains were very good,cooked well and seasoned perfectly!I had the chicken which was not good, the peas were.. just that “peas”The flavour with them i couldnt make out,i could have done better at home. The duck meal was small and flavours together..a little unusual.Our desserts were very nice,(it took 35 mins for them to come out after mains!)and the coffee great.Overall the comments from the table were average(apart from the seafood meals,which were devine)The waitress did a great job,also the seafood chef!

We were a group of 12 diners who were looking forward to a great meal. After all they charge top dollar for their meals so you would expect top meals. I had an entree of seafood chowder which was lovely. However our mains came out almost as soon as the entrees were finished leaving no time to sit relax and digest the entrees, I got the feeling they wanted to get home early. I had the tuna which was over seasoned and overcooked, it was dry and all I could taste was the salt very disappointing, two people opposite me had the same experience with their tuna. Someone else ordered the chicken which was swimming in a large pool of mushy peas. My husbands meal of Hapuka was a little better. The deserts were also disappointing. The restaurant itself was far too hot and at one point we all started to feel a little ill from the heat it was difficult to enjoy a meal in such a hot environment and we were all relieved to get outside and breathe some air. I won’t be going back.