We went out to dinner a little while back with our friends, and we chose Father Ted’s Irish Pub in downtown Auckland. Whenever I walked by it was always full of people, which I take to be a good sign. Plus, we had a $40 gift certificate, so that sealed the deal!
At the time of this writing, prices ranged from $6 – $24.50 for appetizers, breakfast, a $10 lunch menu, sandwiches, salads, and “hearty meals”. Ordering is done at the bar, and they bring the food to your table. They have a good selection of drinks – I had hard cider and my husband had some Jameson whiskey.
The food is good. Definitely tastes like what I imagine authentic Irish pub food would taste like. I had a veggie melt for $14.50 which came with freshly made fries. My husband had a steak sandwich, also with fries, for $16.00. The portions were more than enough – I wasn’t able to finish all of my sandwich, so they happily wrapped it in foil for me and I took it home. I thought it was a bit pricey for a pub – $48.00 for 2 sandwiches, fries, and 2 drinks – but that’s unfortunately fairly standard for the downtown Auckland/CBD area.
The atmosphere is definitely not fancy and leans more towards the serviceable side than anything else. Our table was vacated moments before we sat down {it was the only one available}, and while a woman from the bar came to clear the dishes, we had to brush the debris to the side using the only clipboard menu we could find. It’s loud – music blasting over the loudspeaker, balloons popping, girls shrieking – but this is what you would expect of many pubs. I think that they have live music some nights, which sounds like it'd be fun.
Overall, I’d recommend this place for students and young adults, people who don’t mind yelling their dinner conversation over tasty food and good drinks. I don’t know if they do takeout, but if they did, we would definitely eat there again :-)