Soul is probably one of the Viaduct's top two; long established and setting the standard for the rest. What I love about it is its many guises. Late night shambolic cattle market, daytime yuppyville, ladies who lunch and so the list goes on. This place is many things to many people. I'm most fond of a long lunch with wine outside on the deck, making the most of the sheltered corner site. But I'm also partial to a spot of dinner here because all the food is sensational and they have a separate Vegetarian menu so clearly it's my kind of place. Hilariously, if it's a Friday or Saturday (or Thursdays too in Summer) you can linger over your dessert and digestifs and watch the place turn into something of a nightclub with a DJ doing their thing until the wee smalls. The entertainment of this cannot be undervalued as this is where you can see what the Real Housewives of Auckland City would look like (like they're going to make that show). And late at night and liquored up, there are some formidable sights to be seen. read more

Soul - Bars Near Me - Auckland, AUK

If you have the time to laze away a sunny winter's afternoon, then I recommend you head to Soul! Relaxed yet classy, Soul continues to offer great food and service. With 20 of my dearest friends (and if we weren't that close before, after a bonding experience at Soul we are now) I enjoyed a fab experience. We started with convivial pre-dinner drinks in the bar, before being ushered to our table on the sunny verandah. A special menu had been devised for us at a set price offering 4 options for both entree and main and 2 options for dessert. I ordered a divine crab ravioli for starters followed by pan fried snapper with skordalia. All faultless. And washed it down with a little Elephant Hill Chardonnay. And I was impressed by the waitstaff considering we all kept changing places during the course of the afternoon. Post lunch we retired to the 'bar' side of the verandah and imbibed in a few more cocktails. A bit of fun, sun, great food and wine with terrific company ... All very good for the 'soul' ... Pun intended. read more

Soul - Bars Near Me - Auckland, AUK

Wonderful dinner sitting out on the terrace overlooking the viaduct harbor . We had to leave by a certain time for a second seating but were quickly served drinks, octopus salad as a starter and shared a snapper for main. Efficient waitress and delicious food. read more

Soul - View from our table - Bars Near Me - Auckland, AUK

This place is pretty cool. Wife and I stopped in with raw oysters on her mind. She got those and I went with the prawn and sesame toast. We both thought that everything was overpriced by at least a little bit... but the food was tasty and we enjoyed live music with a local guy who played a range of genre and artists. We'd come back to this place. read more

Soul - Prawns and sesame toast - Bars Near Me - Auckland, AUK

Decided to end our NZ trip on a high note at this highly rated restaurant. I had my heart set on the whole flounder , but was quickly informed it was not available. My husband had the eye fillet and it was one of the best pieces of steak he'd eaten in all 2 weeks of AUS and NZ Every dish was just a little off of what the description read. Every dish seems to have to have a certain flair to make it stand out. The creme brûlée was a bit more like panna cotta and topped with rhubarb ice cream and granola and apple butter. Odd combos Appetizers were tasty, but the mozzarella tomato caprece was like none id ever seen. The mozzarella resembled a burrata paste. read more

Excellent location, great waitress, excellent food. I highly recommend. Make a reservation a couple days ahead if you can, although we were lucky. read more

Location is perfect, I can see harbor view from my table, service is excellent without doubt, professional and full of passion. You can't resist the great taste of lamb, fillet and all kinda Soul classic appetites. Dishes are awesome, house wine (red/white) all perfect. My colleagues and I had a great time, hopefully to come back again in our next business trip. read more

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Very slow service when it wasn't even that busy. Food was rather ordinary for the price. We ordered mozzarella toast, white bait fritters and the pork. Pork was ok but the fritters had a bitter after taste and literally just 3 omelettes. Took us more than 2.5hours to be served two courses! read more

Outstanding restaurant. OUTSTANDING service. And the food is out of this world. Be sure to try the squid and the lamb is to die for. We where just passing through for the night after a cruise. If you are looking for a restaurant with outstanding service and food. Then this place is a Must. read more

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Not only are they exceptionally accommodating, they have the best food in the harbor. The atmosphere is phenomenal and they have a terrific DJ that is there every night with wonderful background music. We had everything from Caesar salad to cucumber salad with feta to snapper to rack of lamb and it is all incredibly excellent. Great wine list and very knowledgeable people to help you find the right wine that you like. This is a plus 10 place to spend your evening!!! read more

Awesome service, fabulous food and excellent location....this is the best place in Auckland by far. Try the beef or local fish - you won't be disappointed. The staff are friendly, drinks tasty and desert was a sweet way to end our meal! read more

Super cute place!! Came here based on Yelp reviews and was not disappointed. The cocktails are fresh, the food is refreshing & the sun deck is perfect weather and comfort. I didn't give 5 stars because the waiter took a long time to order my drink order. I was a solo diner and had to flag him down by waving to get him to pay attention. But once he did, he was very accommodating. I ordered the snapper and the Take Me With You drink, both were lovely. I would come back & dine here again!!! And they do offer Wifi read more

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My wife and I came here on the second night of our honeymoon. We had great food and wine and the service was exceptional. The ambiance outside among the flowers accentuated the experience. read more

Amazing! The food, the atmosphere, the vibe, the location, the menus, and our waitress, Holly. Just WOW! And I don't say these things light heartedly. My husband and I are gray hairs, and we have been fine dining for years all over the world. This is as good as it gets. If you go, please ask for Holly's station. She was simply amazing and is a true asset to the restaurant. In fact, I'm going to stop by and talk for manager. Tell him/her to give her a raise. read more

This is definitely not a place to go on a student budget - but it was my parents' shout for dinner this night!! Wow. Blown away. Absolutely delicious and the perfect spot to sit near the water on a stunning Auckland summers night. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their meals. And order dessert!!! They are works of art!!! read more

Soul - Grilled snapper with toasted almond and buttermilk skordalia and sweet corn succotash - Bars Near Me - Auckland, AUK

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Soul is one of those places where the outlook/ambience is meant to complement the food. ... And once upon a time, it did. I remember a beautiful lunch out on the deck in early 2008 where everything, including the service was superb. Now... well.... it's a bit meh. Don't get me wrong, it's still lovely, the deck is still gorgeous with those beautiful white flowers hanging from above (and occasionally getting into your food/on the table, but they're so pretty it's totally fine) but everything else is TIRED. The waiters are tired, they can't be assed. They deal with fussy tourists and business people all day long. They can't even be bothered giving you the specials in our case. Thankfully someone else came along to tell us that there were in fact specials that day. How you can get that wrong, I'm not quite sure. I had a caesar salad to start. It was fine, but it's just a caesar and I think I make a better one at home. I also don't leave large chunks of eggshell in the salad either (well, I probs do, but it's only me and AW so I don't care). I followed this up with the savannah eye fillet - overcooked, which is a shame. I also took issue with the egg/feta ravioli. Because I haven't had this before, I feel like I can't be all "that SO wasn't right"... but it didn't taste right... I've seen it cooked before on lots of cooking shows, and I know it's quite difficult to get the egg still runny inside (which it was), but... the pasta was SO thick it was almost like chewing glue. It wasn't nice and I wouldn't repeat the experience. So you're probably wondering why I gave this place three stars because I seem to be quite displeased with my meal so far, right? I'll tell you. The dessert. It was amazing. I got the chocolate steamed pudding with salted caramel ice cream and salted caramel pieces, plus honeycomb sprinkled on top. But the best part was that the ice cream came in another cake-style piece separate to the pudding. So there wasn't this big piece of ice cream plonked on top, even though that would've been delicious, it was a separate cake for me to enjoy! The pudding was oozing chocolate sauce everywhere... it was really a beautiful sight, I wish I'd taken a photo. Now, a drawback to Soul is that it's in tourist-ville. But I decided to have fun with that, and I'm pretty sure I photobombed many photos heading back to different parts of the world. However, if you were looking for something intimate, I'd head elsewhere. You're perched up top there, and it's a gorgeous looking restaurant - what else are the tourists going to do? read more

The best oyster I've ever had was the Bluff oyster here with a tasty vinegar. And then my kale salad with lamb skewer was delightful! Many flavors in the dressing and a great crunch from nuts and sprouts. Steak also good, but be sure to order medium rare. Fries are advertised as "skinny" but really need to be skinnier to warrant that moniker. Super friendly service. A highlight of Auckland! read more

Soul - Kale salad with lamb skewer - Bars Near Me - Auckland, AUK

Soul was exceptional but busy (as expected with a trendy restaurant on the viaduct) I went for lunch with my family and service was on par with what you expect at a high end place, although busy and loud (so loud it was difficult to hear our waitress, keep in mind she was wearing a mask). The tables were quite close, and the staff seemed rushed, although they seemed to have taken their time with our food (which is fine) i witnessed two members of staff almost trip as they were moving so fast, kudos to them though for working so hard to provide wonderful service for the most part, there was the occasional staffer who acted like they were the greatest thing since the rose water crème brûlée i had. Anyways all and all wonderful food, a bit stingy on the ciabatta, there was enough truffle butter for at least a loaf of it! and they gave us only four slices! and definitely wonderful service, definitely made up for the $47 crayfish and caviar pasta i had...PS: when it says caviar they mean salmon caviar, not sturgeon, oh well till next time! read more

Soul - rose water crème brûlée - Bars Near Me - Auckland, AUK

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We didn't book and walked in on a busy Saturday night. They were nice enough to set us up with a table. Ordered the corn and crab ravioli, the flavor was delicious however the big let down was there were bits of crab shell in it.... :( read more

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The food was very good but they lose stars because of the misleading menu. We came solely because the menu said they offered Te Matuku oysters. Only after we sat down they said they only had one of the 3 oysters listed on the menu and of course it wasn't what we wanted. A sign with oysters of the day would've been forthcoming. The Te Kouma oysters they had were just meh. The seafood chowder was very good and the cauliflower gratin, salt and pepper squid (starter size), and broccolini were all very good. Plenty of food for two. If you're coming for oysters, be sure to ask first if they really have what's printed on the menu! read more

Spectacular dinner by recommendation. View was stunning into bay. Menu diverse. I ordered the crab ravioli entree size and squid entree size. Large succulent skid lightly battered and seasoned as a pepper and salt entree. Husband had red snapper and loved it. Coffee options were fabulous at end of meal. Service impeccable read more

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Been few times in this restaurant and always have good time. First the location is of course good right ub the viaduct in front of the marina, the service is efficient and also nice and you have a long long menu that you can choose from. My favorite the glazed lamb or the scotch fillet simply delicious. It is a bit pricey but I will say worst the food. A definitely worth place before heading out or for a lovely date. read more

I was vacationing in NZ and Soul was highly recommend. The food was amazing and they had a ton of vegetarian options (yay)! The staff was so friendly and the place had a great atmosphere. read more

Its hard not to like this place, the service is 10/10 the menu is amazing, they even have vegan options. It is an amazing place to eat on the viaduct, great views, great location and overall just a great atmosphere, it is proper fine dining :) read more

Oh my goodness. This is just my absolute favourite. I had the most enjoyable meal of my life at Soul and I can't wait to return. Soul is the first restaurant I've been to and ordered things I'd never tried or thought I'd enjoy. I got white bait fritters and eye fillet, which at the time was way out of my comfort zone. Anything that can watch you while you're eating it (Whitebait) or bleed after having been cooked (Fillet) terrified me, but I ordered them anyway and was so delighted by how much I enjoyed them. Everything was so flavourful and I was very happy to see an abundance of sauce on the plate. The service was also wonderful - my water and wine were topped up many times but I never once noticed it happening, which is a sure sign of a skilful wait staff. My dining experience was flawless and I'm always looking for opportunities to visit again. read more

If you are wandering around this area aimlessly looking for a place to eat dinner, look no further! This place is awesome! The oysters: delicious. Even though I'm not an oyster fan as a rule, I enjoyed them. Also, they brought out fresh horseradish to grate over the raw oysters in front of you, like how lesser restaurants will grate the fresh ground black pepper or Parmesan over your food in front of you (here's looking at you, Olive Garden). I had never seen real fresh horseradish before, so that was almost an automatic 5 stars right there. We also got one of their toasts (crawfish), also very tasty, a bomb kale salad, and a fish called hapuku. Paid an extra $12 for black truffle shaved over the hapuku. Worth it! Then....wait for it...the best part of all was dessert. Ginger creme brûlée. Yep, you saw that right. The best thing I've had in my mouth in months. Like Christmas in my mouth in the middle of August. Loved it! Also, interestingly, this is the first place in NZ we went where they brought the check to the table and there was actually a tip line on it! (Service was great so tipping was our pleasure.) read more

Absolutely amazing fish, fresh cocktails and excellent service. My wife had a red snapper, and I had a flounder. Now, I had flounders from California to South Carolina, but this was hands down the most delicious plate I had. The red snapper was amazing as well. We had parfait for dessert, and a couple of cocktails from the bar. Everything was exceptional, including attentive service. read more

While in Auckland, we stumbled across Soul in the Viaduct area. Blindly, we walked in for lunch, simply because they had spicy tuna tartare on their menu. We were not led astray. The food at Soul was divine and the service was phenomenal. We split the tuna tartare, tostada, pumpkin-filled pasta, scallop risotto, sashimi salad, and side of brussels sprouts between 5 people. It was more than enough food and no one dish was better than the other. The location is beautiful, located in the Viaduct right next to the water. Even though it is winter, we sat outside in a heated patio. I would say out of the 9 or so meals I ate out in New Zealand, Soul was my favorite food. Additionally, it was not too touristy making it an appealing place for both visitors and locals alike. read more

I had the pan fried snapper on a green salad with vinaigrette dressing....So delish!!

AMAZING FOOD!!!!! Make a dinner reservation early because this place fills up! It seems to always be backed. The food is great and their wine list is pretty great too. Great spot for date night or to take guests when they are in town. It is right on the water. read more

Super dinner. Great location at the harbor. Classy ambience. Really friendly and genuine Kiwi help from the hostess, much appreciated by us as visitors from Oregon. Our server was friendly, entertaining, and professional. Unlike most mid- to high-end restaurants, Soul pays attention to the vegetables that come with the fish. A great experience. Highly recommended. read more

Is it worth the price? I think it almost is. I'm unsure why really but it does have a bit of Soul. You feel at ease here more than the other big names. Staff are great, food it brilliant - just be prepared to pay for it. I'd say special occasion place. Cocktails are delicious. See what you think. Maybe just go for a drink and a nibble if it sounds too costly. You can do that you know. read more

Why didn't I discover this place sooner during my time in Auckland? I was skeptical of a place in a seemingly tourist-y part of town, but Soul did not disappoint once I suspended skepticism and visited for a meal with friends. The service and food were fabulous as was the location overlooking the marina. We watched the sun set and moon rise from our table on a perfect late summer evening. The lamb was excellent and the drinks fabulous. The bar tender even accommodated my special order Martini perfectly. That's the mark of a good place - great food, great drinks, great atmosphere and excellent service and wonderful people! read more

We were at soul having lunch the other day and saw their front house manager yelling at customers and his staffs. It was a nightmare and ruined our experience to NZ. read more

Took us in for dinner without reservation for 6 people. Food service was great. Got brassicas salad and lamb skewers was plenty of food and one of best salads I've had. Lamb very tender read more

Outstanding food with a nice New Zealand wine selection as well. The beef was exceptional as was the wine.

Everything is a winner here. And that's my pure unbiased opinion. My fave is the Agnolotti pasta dish which I almost always order...it.is.to.die.for. The tuna tatare is also pretty fantastic. I mean, there are moans of food delight each time we eat at Soul. The cocktails...well, it goes without saying. read more

Go. Here. That is all. Cripes this place does it good. I had the pork belly schnitzel (kimchee puree! Who thinks of that?!? This place!) and oysters. Wow, wow and wow. read more

Had dinner here with 3 others on a girls night out. If you're here for dinner, be sure to be around during sunset. Totally stunning. Beautiful atmosphere awesome wait staff, friendly barmen and the food, OMG the food! We ordered mains and dessert and both were faultless. Left with a button undone on the pants but no problem, just a few steps away we could dance away all that dinner. read more

One of the best meals I've ever had. We ordered the tuna, risotto and scampi and all of it was delicious. Great location right on the harbor. I would highly recommend this restaurant. read more