Aubergine - Auckland

Good sized and selection of tastes to suit most. Good service and helpful staff. Lunch special has increased but imo is still good. Basic: $25 with drink, soup or bread. $35 plus a dessert. $40 with drink, soup or bread, different selection of mains.

We went here for a team dinner and we got a set menu to order from. I got the calamari for the starter and steak medium rare for my mains, dessert was cake with some chocolate sauce Calamari was nice, the salad that came with it was interesting. I wasn't sure what the sauce was but looked very plain Mains was nice and the steak was cooked nicely, the mushroom was on the cheap side so I didn't really see much off and so was the potatoes but overall for me was alright. Dessert was a little lacking for me, coming from a mother who bakes I feel the cake was a little too dry, yes the cream and the sauce helped it to be less dry but if the cake was a little less dry the sauce would've complimented the cake much nicer Overall I give this restaurant a 3/5 as they took the meals out pretty quickly (we had a big group of 22 :

Extremely overpriced food for the slop I got on my plate. I'm all for fine dinning and paying a little extra for an amazing dinning experience, but I was not amazed at all. I had just returned from my trip overseas and I was looking forward to a beautiful dinner with my other half so I could tell him all about my trip. We drove down to Takapuna and decided to have dinner at Aubergine as it looked like an amazing restaurant. I ordered a pasta that had waaaay tooo muuuch sauce! It was one of those things I wish I hadn't ordered. I wished I had kept walking past the restaurant and gone elsewhere with my money. If there hadn't been too much paste and sauce in my pasta it would've been delicious. Other than that the ambiance was great, real nice romantic setting and start to the evening.Plus I could not fault the wine.

For my mother's birthday lunch we dined at Aubergine. I got the cajun chicken salad, mainly because I was under pressure and still didn't know what I wanted when the waitress came around to take our orders. I regretted this once I saw how the salad lacked in meat with too much lettuce. Also my sisters chicken filo parcel sitting tantalisingly across the table looked absolutely delicious. My other family members dishes looked great however and they enjoyed theirs, I seem to of just drawn the short straw on this occasion. On a positive note, the chocolate fudge cake was DELICIOUS, the perfect combination of moist and rich with hot sauce to balance out the flavours on your pallet. Overall Aubergine seems like a great restaurant with a lovely atmosphere and friendly waitresses but I was all too disappointed with my salad.

This used to be one of our favourites but with recent menu changes things have really taken turn for the worse. The $20 lunch special is now $25 and most of the dishes have been changed, either completely replaced or just changed so they are nowhere near as nice as they used to be. Perhaps they have a new chef? The staff are still friendly and you can't complain too much at a $25 2 course lunch with a wine (or $35 with dessert), but for us we will be looking for a new lunch spot till their next menu change.