101 Clyde Road,
Browns Bay
Auckland,


(09) 479 6931

add to my map

4 out of 5 stars

I’ve spent many a summer’s day at Brown’s Beach but up until last week, when we celebrated a friend’s birthday at the Saint Bar, had never sampled the night life.

The Saint Bar is on the main Esplanade, and backs on to the beach-front through its popular restaurant, Flax. The restaurant was busier than the bar earlier on in the evening, but by 10.00pm the bar was packed including a lot of diners who had made the easy transition to the dark side.

The Saint’s interior is modern with dark walls and dark wooden furnishings, a bar on one side of the room and tables on the other. There’s nothing out of the ordinary other than a book case filled with hard-covered literature – definitely not a conducive setting for some light reading at this time of night. This is nicely balanced with a well-placed LCD screen at the back of the bar so no one has any worries about missing the sport.

Even though you're in the Bays, the bar prices are definitely still inner city with Budvar priced at $6 and Monteiths Radler, $6.50.

The music was a bit of a mixed bag with everything from Crowded House to Liam Finn, something for the diverse crowd of punters whose ages spanned more than a couple of decades.

With my friends birthday bash in full swing I couldn’t help but think this was the perfect place to enjoy some chilled bubbles and some delicious bar food. Just enough room to cater for a few biggish groups, and not so loud we couldn’t catch-up on the latest gossip. It was a fun and relaxed atmosphere that was easy for the city slickers to fit in with the Saint’s big crowd of regulars.

Simple yet trendy with a decent wine list, good crowd of people and friendly, professional staff - I can easily see why this North Shore friend was reluctant to organize anything in the city.