Darling On Drake

Unclaimed

Impeccable ? Upmarket and stylish without being uncomfortable. Chic indoor dining and more relaxed outdoor nibbling under the Victoria park brickwork. The staff are attentive, warm and highly professional. The food is absolutely beautiful - elegant presentation while still hearty and unpretentious. Lovingly handled, quality ingredients balanced to perfection in texture, flavour and inventiveness. The dish that we couldn’t stop talking about was the potato scallops with vinegar powder and curry aioli - the kind of signature bite to keep you coming back again and again. I’m not a fan of the name - but this place is otherwise faultless.

Been to Darling twice for a sit down meal and numerous times for drinks now and it hits the mark every time. Cocktails are great but in all honesty, I wish patrons would give the menu more of a proper shot because they have some insanely talented chefs in the kitchen there who can cook some serious food. Favourites are the buffalo oysters, patty melt and steak. You also can’t skip out on the dessert - I would actually say that’s a highlight of Darling, particularly the s’mores number. Super attentive staff and an ambience that transports you out of Auckland. Definitely one of the best new spots our city has seen in a while!

Team drinks here today! Great patio, beautiful friendly staff, delicious cocktails and fantastic food! Oysters were amazing and honestly that was the best fried chicken I have ever had. Already a regular but I will be back! Aucklands hottest spot:) Jess, Hospitality Specialist Kakapo Business Sales

We had such an incredible dining experience at Darling. The staff were amazing and the food was simply outstanding. Try the pork and Paua sausage rolls, they were delicious. We had almost everything on the menu and the standouts are many and varied. BBQ asparagus, fried chicken, short rib and mozzarella, baked snapper, and the tomato with stracciatella was delicious. The caramelised apple crumble and sticky toffee pudding was a lovely way to finish off the day. The wine selection is fantastic as was the cocktail list. I’d highly recommend this place

Date night is rare, so when we get an opportunity we love to go out! We were greeted warmly when we arrived and were seated by the window which was closest to the outdoor bar area. The lighting was dimmed for the evening but the music was loud (which we didn’t mind, we were just happy to be out for date night!) **worth noting given our reservation was at 8pm on a Saturday night** We had the Housemade Focaccia, Short rib nuggets and Hennesey Fried Chicken to start. Would highly recommend the nuggets, lots of filling, they were so good. These dishes only come with 3 pieces so it was lovely to be asked if we would like to have 4. The focaccia bread was thick and delicious (we love bread so we got 4 pieces) We then had the Baked Snapper with warm tartare sauce, BBQ Lumina Lamb Rump and fries with Aioli sauce. The portions were great but would recommend getting plates to share. To end our night we had the Sticky toffee Ginger pudding with Vanilla ice cream, that was so good! They allocate 2 hours seating for dinner which allowed us to just relax and enjoy our evening. After our meal we thought we’d go and check out the outdoor balcony area where they had the DJ playing, it was pretty busy and the vibes were great. All in all, we had a lovely evening, service was attentive and the food was delicious. Total for the 2 of us with food, drinks and tip was $230. We left with full bellys and a wonderful experience. We will be back again.