What’s a Newmarket bar owner to do when a promised three-month interruption to their business takes twelve months (and counting…)? Especially when your prime outdoor seats now offer outdoor views of diggers, trucks and other assorted excavation paraphernalia.

It’s been a tough few months for the bars and restaurants bordering Newmarket’s Lumdsen Green. The promised three-month makeover is now into its second year, and coupled with the recession, that’s driven radical action by the owners of The Mustang Saloon & Grill. We covered The Mustang when it first opened a few years back, and it’s proven to be a reliable standby with good Mexican-influenced food, always-friendly service, and lots of big screens to watch the Warriors or the All Blacks. It’s always been a very large space too, but now The Mustang has downsized to half its original size to incorporate the newly opened Lumsden. In a slightly odd bit of architectural jiggery pokery, The Mustang is still operating just behind a sliding door in The Lumsden, but now it really is a bar of two halves.

While The Mustang celebrates a casual American-style ambience, The Lumsden is aiming for a more upmarket, cosmopolitan crowd. A few chandeliers and wooden floors combine with trendy brocade wallpaper, and there’s Beck on tap to encourage a different crew from the Speights-fuelled Mustang punters. The winelist is strong on well-known Kiwi labels like Oyster Bay and Mt Difficulty, and the bar snacks have an international flavour with offerings including Peking Duck pizza and Thai Beef salad. Country rock has been replaced by Kiwi dub, and outside bordering Lumsden Green are a couple of comfy, retro sofas.

What does still resemble The Mustang is the service at The Lumsden. Apparently they’ve only been open a couple of days when we swing by, and the welcome is warm and professional. The changes made to The Mustang were no doubt driven by sheer economics, but at least Newmarket can now lay claim to having another decent bar; maybe one to pop into after a hard day’s Christmas shopping on Newmarket’s retail strip.

Now if they could just finish the work on nearby Lumsden Green by the end of summer.
This year.

venue information venue map view auckland review user reviews (5) what's on