Hoppers – A Hoppy Ponsonby Bar

Hoppers ‘Hopped Beer and Peculular Garden’ is a laneway craft brew bar just off Ponsonby Road.

Opposite the boutique Silky Otter Cinema, Hoppers is a fine stop for beer lovers and quality pub grub. Cocktails and service were seriously inconsistent on our visit – but it wouldn’t stop me going back.

Visiting Hoppers

We were at Hoppers for a friend’s birthday one Saturday afternoon. Our group took up 2 long tables with bar leaners for a good 5 hours – so we had a nice long time to sample and review.

Lush houseplants competed with industrial concrete and brick walls, which were layered with eccentric paintings of animals in human clothes. I guess you needed a few more drinks to find them amusing, but overall there’s a nice atmosphere here.  

There were lots of bar staff, but they were inattentive. At a few visits to the bar, we stood for 5+ minutes without eye contact or hello. That led to people cutting in and being served while other punters (not just us), were left to eyeball each other and be forced – in that most un-kiwi way – to have to say something to get attention.

It was negroni week, and we partook in several – but mixes were seriously inconsistent: 3 separate orders of the same drink within 5 minutes left our group with 3 distinct drinks – some sent theirs back to get something closer to the original order.

That said, it’s not uncommon in Auckland! So while there were no bonus points available, it was a nice place to be with good food and drink – hence the solid 3.5 star rating.

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We enjoyed good food, wine and craft beers during our stay, including the aforementioned negronis. Hoppers uses the popular Untappd app to manage the display of their rotating kegs. You can check what’s on tap live before arriving.

Special mention to the Mezcal Negroni: tasty, but inaccurate. 4 of those ordered, each one with a different colour and taste.

After a few wines, sangria on tap was risked. Judged delicious, several more jugs were ordered – but watch the ice. Some jugs came with 2x the ice of others. 

All this needed to come with a healthy dose of food: a cheeseburger, fish sliders, chips and truffle fries polished off, and all delicious. I snagged a portion of a friend’s octopus, which didn’t stand up to my expectations.

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