My partner and I went there for a meal recently. A bottle of wine, an entree to share, a couple of mains AND deserts.

We were 100% pleased with everything. The service was prompt and friendly. The atmosphere was warm and the food was delicious. Thumbs up on the decor as well!

I have just heard from a friend she is having her wedding here. I’m planning on getting married in January and this is definately top of my list as a venue.

I really enjoyed my visit here, the service was excellent, very attentive and helpful. We enjoyed some of the tapas in the bar area, all the food was really good, very tasty and the wine selection was great. Will definitely be back

Lovely atmosphere – humming and we could still hear the conversation easily in our lovely corner booth. Excellent service and heavenly tapas and amaretto creme brûlée. Would come back here in a flash.

We took our parents in law, visiting from London, to Verbena last weekend. We had been there before and always thought it was fine, but we have changed our opinion from “fine” to “fantastic” – do they have a new chef perhaps??

We were originally booked at The French Cafe for the Friday night but our daughter was unwell so we had to cancel and Verbena was our “Plan B” on the Saturday.

We came away feeling that it should have been our first choice all along – a few drinks in the cosy and welcoming bar, through to the restaurant where we had scallops and squid for entree – all perfectly cooked, the scallops were sweet and tender – then the mains were duck / lamb / beef – absolutely no complaints on any of it.

And the desserts were to die for … chocolate pudding was my personal favourite, closely followed by the apple and feijoa crumble with a cute pot of custard on the side.

The service was a little inexperienced, however so charming it didn’t matter at all.

My parents in law eat at some extremely good restaurants in London and they believe you could take Verbena and put it alongside a large proportion of these … thoroughly recommend the place!

This is one of my top five all-time favourite restaurants. Impeccable service, great atmosphere and mouth-watering menu.

As a vegetarian, I was well-catered for and had more selection than many restaurants.

I would highly reccommend this restaurant to anyone!

My wife and I have been visiting Verbena since it opened a few years ago. We have never been disappointed with the quality of food or the service. Stephen always meets us at the door and is such a friendly face to see each time as he shows us our table. Last night, we went to Verbena to celebrate Valentines Day and, as has always been the case, everything was wonderful. We were shown to our favorite table near the window to watch the sunset (which was the only bland thing of the evening!). The set menu may put some people off, but we found the choices to be excellent and much to our liking. My wife loved the Roasted Capsicum & Tomato Soup while I enjoyed the Pea & Ham Soup. Both were creamy and easy to consume. After that, my wife was delighted by the light taste of the Pan-fried Squid over Fricelli Pasta while I found the Pork Belly Terrine to be a surprisingly light tasty treat. For the 3rd course, my wife found the Fillet of Hapuku fish lightly spiced and easy to eat while I loved every slice of my Chargrilled Medallion of Beef Fillet. The only mistake I made was to order this tender steak too well cooked. It would have been even better had I ordered the steak medium rare instead of medium cooked. My mistake that I will not make again. Even cooked at medium, it was so easy to carve and eat and the Sweet Potato puree was a perfect compliment. For our dessert, we shared the Valentines Dessert Tasting Plater for Two. I won’t bother to list all that was on the platter – you’ll just have to try it for yourself! We slowly savored the dessert while my wife had a great coffee and I enjoyed their Earl Grey tea. We have visited many places in and around Auckland and we continue to call Verbena ‘Our Local’ – for good reason. We both highly recommend you giving it a try. It may not be on the ‘beaten path’ of Auckland’s usual night life, but it’s very much worth the effort to eat there.

Ok, we didn’t actually sit down and have a meal, but enjoyed some great tapas on the couches over a couple of glasses of very good wine. The decor is great and the food was very good, if a little on the expensive side.

My Fiance and I found Verbena Restaurant fantastic! In fact, we have been recommending it to all our friends. We are dying to go back – but want to save a little money up first so when we do go, there will be NO holding back!

My Fiance took me there as a surprise for our anniversary. He did the same as the guy below, and read up on reviews. I thought it was a little poky place with no character – I was very wrong.

Having been in the hospitality industry myself, I can be quite picky. The waiting staff were attentive, polite and knowledgeable. Available when we needed something but able to slip into the background when we wanted privacy.

We started with wine, we followed the advice of the waitress, white for me and red for my fiance. We were brought a starter of Ciabata and a dip made from oil and Pomegranate syrup. Then on to the entrees – it was difficult to choose as there were many I would have liked to try but was limited to the size of my stomach! We shared a Warm Lamb Salad ($15), which disappeared in less than 5 minutes!

Mains time – I LOVE duck and order it whenever we go out. I can’t even remember what the duck breast came with but the meal was very well presented and the duck was cooked to perfection! My Fiance had the steak something – which was cooked to his liking and we even had enough to feed each other some of our meals

We ended our meal on a glass of port, we like to try new things and my fiance hadn’t had port before. This was another recommendation of the waitress.

The night cost about $115 for both of us. Overall a wonderful and romantic night.

After reading all reviews that I could find online for Verbena Restaurant I was confident that my wife and my night out without the kids promised to be memorable. In fact having lived in the area for 18 years I longed for a local gem hidden away from the usual restaurant hot spots that I could be proud to go to for a special time. After reading how the chef was head chef at a couple of the leading hotels I expected my taste buds to be seduced by exotic fare that I could not expect to find on any common menu.
I expected a menu priced higher than most of this I was not disappointed.
Going out usually means ordering something that you are confident that you are sure you will like and yet being enticed into ordering an item that is bold, The description has to include ingredients described with a poets pen pushing the boundaries of what is correct.
There simply wasn’t anything on the entree menus except the sweet corn and paddle crab soup that created any enthusiasm. But at $15 I simply did not have the nerve to try it. Had it been around $10 I am sure I would have taken the plunge.
The menu at Verbena is rather small and really only has one item for each major meat group.
We settled on a Char grilled eye fillet beef steak, Figuring that being the most expensive main course at $31.50 the chef should have been able to exercise all his talents.
There were side dishes listed on the menu and so I asked the pleasant waitress if accompanying vegetable would require an additional side to create a full meal. She said the vegetables with the steak would be enough. I would not agree. I would recommend the chef bulk up the portion with vegetables. Women may choose to leave a few but men would consume them for sure.
The portion of steak was of a good size and cooked to our liking Med and Med/Rare for me.
There just wasn’t anything out of the ordinary with the dish and left a sense of boredom at its completion.
Needing a pick me up we ordered Star anise Crème Brulee for me. A Vanilla Banana Crepe for my wife.
In all my years of dining out with my wife who would eagerly call the desert her #1 reason for dining out, I have never seen her leave the bulk of her desert as she did tonight. So that in itself is a massive black mark.
For me I wanted to experience something different throwing caution to the wind. The heavy sambuca flavour on my pathetically small bowl of desert was not at all pleasant. The three white chocolate coconut balls on the side were the only redeeming feature both deserts $12 and neither would induce a smile.
Ok then the coffee now despite McCafe being able to eclipse most cafe and Restaurants for flavour and overall coffee competency Verbena managed to brew a good cup of coffee. Although my wife’s Latte was a little deep with froth, My Mochaccino did not scald my lips like I have come to expect at most places.
We dined at 7pm and whilst sitting by the window I could only think how nice it would be if the blackness of the courtyard outside with its boarder of trees. Would have been illuminated by hundreds of fairy lights enveloping the trees like we see at Xmas and or up lights creating a visual effect in the trees.
Despite reading a bad comment about a staff member’s attitude I found the service to be one of the high points.
We booked via an online booking service that despite email and SMS confirmation or reservation was not on hand when we arrived lucky for us they were not full. I was later informed an Indian person who they could not understand had tried to make the booking for us. I am not sure if this is true.
All in all a disappointment having found so many fantastic places over the years.
If you live locally sorry to say that a trip out of the area will give you a much better experience than Verbena. Probably cheaper but at least with a increased sense of fulfillment