Soul Bar & Bistro Menu

Soul Bar & Bistro holds the corner of Lower Hobson Street and Customs Street West on Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour, and it has been part of the waterfront since 2001, marking its 21st birthday in 2022. Its terrace, hung with flower baskets and facing the water, is among the best known outdoor spots in the city, with sunsets over the harbour, while the room inside is elegantly comfortable. The venue likes to describe itself as all things to all people, and the same address handles relaxed afternoon cocktails, business lunches and a romantic dinner for two before DJs arrive late in the week and the bar stays busy into the small hours.

Executive chef Gavin Doyle runs the kitchen, cooking with locally sourced, seasonal ingredients on a bistro menu that moves easily from a snack to a full dinner. Oysters are served natural with mignonette or beer battered with sriracha aioli, and Dusty Apron ciabatta arrives with truffle and ricotta butter. Starters have included a crayfish crumpet with miso butter, grapefruit and pea tendrils, West Coast whitebait fritters in lemon butter, trevally crudo with cashew nut milk and fermented chilli, and a salt and pepper squid with almond skordalia that has long been regarded as a must. Pasta might mean seafood paccheri with saffron and capers, duck and orange tortelli, or Skull Island prawn bucatini with ‘nduja, tomato and basil.

Larger plates lean on New Zealand produce. Market fish is served with ajo blanco, grapes and verjuice, tarakihi is beer battered and paired with salt and vinegar Red Rascal potatoes, Hawke’s Bay lamb rump comes with courgette barigoule, sheep’s labneh and marjoram chimichurri, and a Greenlea beef fillet sits on celeriac with truffle jus gras. A separate vegetarian menu marks its vegan dishes and offers the likes of pea risotto with torn burrata or steamed zucchini with bilbaína sauce. Dessert might be a floating island with vanilla bean crème anglaise and almond praline, a warm chocolate pudding with Frangelico, or a brûlée of white chocolate finished with strawberry ice cream and shortbread crumb, and once the à la carte kitchen closes, a bar snacks menu carries on until closing.

Behind the bar, the cocktails range from Dear Olivia, a long mix of vodka, grapefruit, marmalade, mint and ginger beer, to Sage & Bramble with tequila, mezcal and blackberry, the rum based SOUL Punch with falernum, and Cerulean, coloured with butterfly pea, while zero alcohol creations such as Rita Bonita bring kiwifruit, jalapeño and chilli salt. Local bottles dominate a broad wine list that covers pinot noir from Central Otago and Martinborough, Marlborough sauvignon blanc and Hawke’s Bay reds, with champagne reaching from Mumm to Dom Pérignon and Cristal. Fashion lunches with New Zealand designers and Melbourne Cup parties fill the events calendar, and a private room handles functions with its own portable bar.

Address: 18 Lower Hobson Street (corner of Customs Street West), Viaduct Harbour, Auckland 1010

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