204 Quay Street,
Viaduct
Auckland,
1010

(09) 377 1200

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3 out of 5

If location is everything, then Degree Gastrobar has it all.

It's situated on the corner of the main drag in the Viaduct; the one where everyone walks into the basin, right next to up-in-the-air yacht KZ1.

Consequently, it's where many people start an evening's drinking; it's also easy for folks to meet their friends, given its corner-side outdoor seating.

The water views are possibly the best in the Viaduct, plus you get to look over yachts NZL 40 and 41 moored out front.

Step inside Degree and you're greeted with a multi-levelled, hanger-style bar that's slightly at odds with itself—it feels industrial and is quite dressed down.

But, against this is the 'gastro' part of its name, for which it earns a bank of dining tables with white tablecloths.

You can't help feeling that this should perhaps be kept upstairs, in what is in fact a private function room, to give the gourmands out there some privacy from the riff-raff like us.

It's a good enough dining experience at Degree Gastrobar to warrant this, with the house speciality being stonegrill dining (where your food arrives on a superheated slab of rock).

There's another thing that's not that well thought out here: later on, a dance floor comes to life, but it is situated in the area between the two bars and you have to squeeze through it to get from the lower- to the upper-bar—or, for that matter, to the toilets.

All said, Degree Gastrobar is a good-looking, interestingly designed place. It's not as showy as Soul or as messy as The Loaded Hog (both a mere stagger away), but combines some of the merits of both.